Sub 100 dollar dvd player Philips 5990 favored?

[db123]

I've been doing a couple hours research on standalone players and there's a lot of options. Basically I just need it to play multiple formats (divx, mpg, etc), good image, and a usb connection for external HD would be cool.

Philips 5990 keeps popping up on google searches (led me here), the model is older, is it still on of the popular units under 100.00? thanks

[victoriabears]

i think options for these players are limited so either go for a cheap wal mart type, or the philips or to this site"-

and pay top dollar for

https://www.samstores.com/Store.asp?CtgID=283

http://www.dvdoverseas.com/store/index.html?loadfile=catalog86_0.html

has a pioneer for $69 !!!
something that may or may not last longer. I believe the pioneer models which have been made region free are currently preferred.


Giving all modern dvd players a lot of ventilation helps.

[db123]

Hi, thanks for the links. I'm curious if anyone has a suggestion on a "specific" model other than the 5990, before I pull the trigger and buy one. thanks

[victoriabears]

you pays your money and takes your chances, I use a 5990 on a 46 inch sony bravia tv and love it, others have said they fail early, I have had mine for over a year

[samijubal]

I have a Pioneer and a Philips, the Pioneer is far better.

[jagabo]

I have a Pioneer and a Philips, the Pioneer is far better.

In what ways?

[victoriabears]

I would guess by build quality if nothing else.

[jman98]

you pays your money and takes your chances, I use a 5990 on a 46 inch sony bravia tv and love it, others have said they fail early, I have had mine for over a year

Philips models have a poor reputation for longevity. Some of it may be a bit of luck as I've had a Philips DVP-642 for about 4 years now and it still works fine. Others have reported the DVP-642 dying within a month or two of purchase. However, I've found that many people put their DVD players in places with poor ventilation and that can shorten the life of it. Philips models are all thin and need a lot of open space to air cool. The more open the space is around your player and the better you use it, the longer it will likely last. I've known of people who put DVD players on pause for hours instead of turning them off, and that doesn't help.

[samijubal]

I have a Pioneer and a Philips, the Pioneer is far better.

In what ways?

To start with and most important, picture quality. I can't think of anything the Pioneer doesn't do better. Faster power on and disc load times, far better menus, remote and sensor work without the remote having to be pointed right at the player, the remote itself, the Philips remotes are a joke, on screen displays, the list goes on. The Pioneers are made by Pioneer, the Philips are Funai junk, nuff said.

[cal_tony]

I have a Pioneer and a Philips, the Pioneer is far better.

I have 3 of the 5990s and am satisfied with their performance but not overwhelmed. I'm looking for something
else so I was wondering if the Pioneer will also read hard disks with multiple partitions like the 5990 does.


Tony

[jagabo]

Which Pioneer player? Can it be made region free easily? Does it have long filename support?

[handyguy]

I have a couple of Philips (5990). Both tend to freeze if they get to a part of a file that they don't want to play. Also both drop SUB subtitles sometimes & you have to push the sub button again. They aren't even the same model. A third model did the same exact things. But I would still buy a 5990 again.

[MJA]

the walmart near my house doesn't carry the 5990 anymore.they carry a cheaper philips model with no USB + a samsung model with USB

here is a link to the Pioneer DV-420V-K

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-DV-420V-K-Multi-Format-Upscaling-Player/dp/B00264GMOG/re...2944573&sr=8-2

[victoriabears]

the amazon one does not say ntsc/pal whereas this does:-

https://www.samstores.com/details.asp?ProdID=14157

and its only $89 !, look elsewhere region free dealers are charging $200

[samijubal]

Which Pioneer player? Can it be made region free easily? Does it have long filename support?

DV410, yes it's region free with firmware from Pioneer FAQ. I don't know about file names. If that's DIVX I don't do that. The firmware on Pioneer FAQ adds a lot that the factory firmware doesn't have. If the long file names weren't there before they probably would be after the firmware update.

[samijubal]

I have a Pioneer and a Philips, the Pioneer is far better.

I have 3 of the 5990s and am satisfied with their performance but not overwhelmed. I'm looking for something
else so I was wondering if the Pioneer will also read hard disks with multiple partitions like the 5990 does.


Tony

The answer should be here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1038674

I've never used the USB input.

[jagabo]

The 5990 certainly isn't the perfect player. It has many quirks. It's response is sluggish. From power off it takes 7 seconds from the time you press the eject button until the drawer opens. Audio takes a few seconds to restart when you ff or rw. If feels cheap. There are only three buttons on the front panel (eject, play/pause, stop) -- not enough to navigate. The remote has improved a lot from earlier Philips models -- it's now only mediocre whereas earlier Philips remotes were crap. It doesn't obey PAR/DAR flags when playing bare MPG and VOB files (there's no problem with regular movie DVDs). I wouldn't buy it solely as a DVD player. You can certainly do better, at the same price point, even cheaper.

On the other hand its divx/xvid support is very good. There are only a few files it won't play (Xvid 3 warp point GMC is a problem, it won't play anything over 720 pixels wide or over 576 pixels tall). I've played Divx/Xvid files with bitrate as high as 20,000 kbps from the USB 2.0 port. It obeys PAR/DAR flags in Divx/Xvid files. Factory firmware only shows 14 character file names but there are mod firmwares which show a lot more (35'ish). It's easily made region free with just a few button presses on the remote. If you need to set it to any particular region, that's easily done too. It converts PAL to NTSC pretty well. I don't have any problems with picture quality with upscaling to 1080p over HDMI for my 1080p HDTV. And it's only about US$60. I think it's the best deal in a Divx/DVD player.

[V Bot]

I will never buy another Philips or Magnavox product. Junk. Trust me...Philips Vs Pioneer, shouldn't even be an argument.

[jagabo]

I will never buy another Philips or Magnavox product. Junk. Trust me...Philips Vs Pioneer, shouldn't even be an argument.

So, what's your story?

[handyguy]

the walmart near my house doesn't carry the 5990 anymore.they carry a cheaper philips model with no USB + a samsung model with USB

You can buy it online.

[MJA]

I will never buy another Philips or Magnavox product. Junk. Trust me...Philips Vs Pioneer, shouldn't even be an argument.

So, what's your story?

a previous owner of the famous dvp-642 model

[cal_tony]

I have a Pioneer and a Philips, the Pioneer is far better.

I have 3 of the 5990s and am satisfied with their performance but not overwhelmed. I'm looking for something
else so I was wondering if the Pioneer will also read hard disks with multiple partitions like the 5990 does.


Tony

The answer should be here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1038674

I've never used the USB input.

Well, after wasting a half hour reading all the posts on the above listed site, I still don't have an answer to my initial question. In fact, reading the posts gave me many more questions. Seems like the Pioneer people never use their device with a hard disk to watch movies and I'm still not sure if the Pioneer even has a 2.0 hookup.
Since I was looking for something specific (playing vobs on a hard disk using the USB port), yesterday I did order one of the WD devices so I should have it later in the week.

Regardless of what others say about the 5990 and about Philips in general, I have yet to find any other player at any price that will reliably play vob files from a hard disk using the USB port. The OPPO's supposedly will but I have not tried one. However, I have tried playing vobs with my PS3 USB port, but as others have noticed, you may or may not get audio and the PS3 does not access multiple partitions on a disk. After much trial and error I was able to find a work around to the audio loss but it was just not worth the trouble.

I already have three 5990s and if they are as unreliable as mentioned above, I guess I aught to buy another just in case. I bought my last one online from J&R. It was a refurbished unit and plays just as well as the other 2. It was only $39.

Tony

[victoriabears]

law of diminishing returns, will the pioneer be twice as good and/or last twice as long at the Philips. the point about ventilation is made again and again, and I can only conclude that's why my Philips players have not failed, I look after my stuff.

I also wonder about power irregularity, less well made equipment and I acknowledge the Philips is amongst that, may fail if power is erratic?

[samijubal]

Longevity aside, the Funais are just lousy players. I'll never wear mine out because I never use it. They are the worst player I've ever used. I don't use the USB so maybe they are good for that but as a normal DVD player they just suck.

[jagabo]

the Funais are just lousy players

Which Philips DVD player do you have? What output do you use? To what kind of TV? What's wrong with the video quality?

[victoriabears]

its interesting how I think the Philips is as good, $ for $ as the oppo 981 H, yet others think its a lousy picture.

It just goes to show the value judgement that is needed when you make your own decision, a Philips bought and tried for a week or so and returned if not liked is the way i would go, but then I have seen good reviews of the Pioneer 420 and that has a usb, its getting one from where you could return it if you wanted, its mainly an on line purchase region free and ntsc/pal

[jagabo]

I didn't see a region free hack for the Pioneer 420 anywhere. That rules it out for me.

[victoriabears]

well here is the story from canada, the cheapest I can find the pioneer region free , ntsc/pal is $170, at:-

http://www.110220volts.ca/DV-500-k.html

haven;t looked but if I wanted one I could get a philips for $80, see what I mean about law of diminsishing returns.

Now to help my American friends the philips is available at:-

http://www.ecost.com/Detail/DVD+Players+and+Recorders/Philips/DVP5990F7/43887191.aspx?...avid=155438248

I suspect the Pioneer can play ntsc/pal out of the box but the disc would have to be region free, and its the trick of making the player region free you pay for:-

and the pioneer region ffree , ntsc/pal is at ;-

http://www.110220volts.com/DV-500-k.html and its only $90 with free shipping and a free cable,

now why is it so much more in Canuck land !

or the 420, but not free shipping:-

http://www.110220volts.com/DV-420.html

see all the hard work I do for you guys,,the 420 must be a import as it has euro scart but there are tons of USA dealers that sell region free stuff , been around for years

http://cgi.ebay.ca/PIONEER-DV-120K-MULTI-REGION-FREE-DVD-PLAYER-USB-INPUT_W0QQitemZ360...d=p3286.c0.m14

does not upconvert but your tv probably does that and its free ups shipping to the USA !!!!!

look !!

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/641710-REG/Toshiba_SD_890KR_SD_890KR_Multi_Region_DVD.html

with the ever so sought after usb input

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-PIONEER-HDMI-1080p-DV-420V-K-Region-Free-DVD-Player_W0QQitemZ4...d=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pioneer-DVIX-Region-Code-Zone-Free-Pal-NTSC-DVD-Player_W0QQitemZ17...d=p3286.c0.m14

and it has usb

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pioneer-DV-420-DVD-Player-CODE-FREE-DV420-MULTIZONE-NEW_W0QQitemZ1...d=p3286.c0.m14

and even:-

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=pioneer+dvd&pn=2&N=0

they have the latest Pioneer multi system 250GB dvd recorder from Pioneer the 650H at $275.00 its a demo model but I understand that B&H are good guys, do bear in mind that these pioneer multi system dvd RECORDERS are switchable ntsc/pal they will not convert, but they work with an input from a satellite or cable box, not as a tuner.

so even the USA folks who have been searching for that elusive dvd recorder with a HD can order one now.

wonderful thing, this new fangled internet search engine