Philips DVP5996K & HD Videos

[kouras]

Hello, Im a bit confused. I have a dvd player DVP5996K with HDMI slot and a Philips 32" PFL 7623D TV.

Now, I connected the player with TV via HDMI cable and it still wont play videos of 1280x720 resolution ? Am I missing something? It says : "video resolution is not supported". Why do we need the HDMI slot then if it doesnt support anything higher than 720 px x 400 px?

P.S: The video Im trying to play is either .wmv or .avi format via USB slot. Maybe its the USB? If I burn it on a DVD disc as data disc, will it be any different?

thanks

[usually_quiet]

A DVD player can't play HD content on a DVD or via a USB connection. They can only handle SD material. The best they can do is upconvert SD content to make it look like HD. The HDMI cable is for upconverted SD video.

[yoda313]

I think you are confusing UPCONVERTING dvd players with High Def machines.

Most if not all settop dvd players don't support high def video of any type (even high def divx - though I understand their may be a select few).

In order to view high def video you need to either stick to BLURAY specifically or get a device that can playback high def compressed files specifically.

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What the hdmi is for on standard definition dvd players is to UPCONVERT the resolution to approximate high definition. It does not actually play high definition video.

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The most versatile device for high definition files in a console format would be the Playstation 3. The xbox 360 does do some in mp4 format but is not as flexible as the ps3.

Also there are a wide variety of harddrive video players that will connect to your tv and play video files off of a harddrive. There are ones that even have hdmi connections. Western Digital has recently come out with such a device. There are also numerous models available online that do this.

[kouras]

Oh, thanks for replies guys.

So, in other words, the player expands the image to TV's resolution, but cannot actually play hi-def videos? Thats a shame.

Its funny, that Divx codec says 720p profile (on supported dvd players), when theres none? Or is there a player that would play hi-def .wmv/.avi files?

[yoda313]

@kouras - correct.

As I said there may be some regular dvd players that will play high def divx. However they are not the norm. You would have to carefully check the specifications to be absolutely sure.

And even then there may be a 2gig file limit depending on the manufacturer (that may be an old standard that is no longer in effect).

But as I said you could get an external device that plays high def files off a harddrive. (though the older ones would be fat32 only with a 4gb indiviual file limit). The western digital hd media player allows ntfs drives and no file limit.
There is an extensive thread on the device on this forum.

EDIT - by the way welcome to the forum!

EDIT 2 - Here is the link on the western digital device I mentioned:

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic358929.html

It is a rather long discussion but has many real world samples of what it can and can't do. There are similar devices available online.

[kouras]

yoda313, thanks for your help) Its much quicker than getting a reply from a philips support...:P

I will check the external device then.

[yoda313]

@kouras - no kidding! But you might be able to get them on online chat support. I was just on with at&t chat (on a Sunday no less!) for dsl speed and pricing questions.

As mentioned earlier that is not the only type of external device that is available. That is just one type. You can browse the net for other similar devices.

[kouras]

Coming back for the ext USB device question

Would this one suit my needs?

SEAGATE 500Gb ST305004:

http://nalchik.mvideo.ru/products/419646.html

Although, Im not sure how would I play a video file, I mean there is no HDMI slot, is there? Also, would I have to install Windows on it to play a video ?

[jman98]

This device is an external disk drive. It is very different from the Western Digital device that yoda313 is talking about. There are no video connections with this disk drive. It is only a disk drive.

[kouras]

I see, so I have to look for the different one with video port? I will check now, thanks.