Following lines may be interesting for those, who are considering to get a new DVD player. I've just bought new Yamaha DVD-S557 player... but let's go back in time first.
My first "brand" DVD with DivX support was Sony DVP-NS765P. Very good player: solid finish and good video playback. But of limited use for me, because no DivX subtitle (srt) are supported. Ok, I didn't ask in store, but I've assumed that srt is supported by default -won't happen to me again. Player also doesn't play Xvid directly -FourCC must be changed first (anoying). After searching for (any) firmware with no success, I sold it and bought...
Xoro HSD415 which became quite popular at that time in eastern part of Europe. Mostly because it can play (almost) everything, supports srt subtitles and it's cheap. For "no brand" and low price, it's quite solid made. Almost forgot: firmware is up to date and can be downladed from Xoro's web site (if needed at all). Compliments. Well, playback (video) quality isn't the best (compared to Sony), what I've expected. So that didn't bother me too much. The problem is playback video aspect ratio: image on TV screen is always a bit squeezed verticaly (so you see ellipse instead of circle). This is easy noticeable when viewing "Universal Pictures" logo (rotating earth). You can change ratio by changing from LetterBox to PanScan (and 16:9), but that doesn't bring visible changes. Ok, it's time to move to some "brand" DVD/DivX player again...
Samsung HD850: great design, acceptable price, HDMI support, DivX/Xvid with srt. It's mine. Let's see. DVD video/audio playback is (as expected) very good. Then I've loaded a "DivX test" CD. Good picture (and circle is circle again). Subtitles are working, but some blank spaces between words are added with no reason. In manual there's a notice, that player can be upgraded (firmware) from Samsung's web site. Wasted time: no firmware there (and elsewhere). I've checked my CD (for errors) in Xoro again and subtitles are correct. Then I've put the CD in HSD850 again. Loading... loading... nothing found! The same CD, that previously played, is now for some unknown reason useless. I don't have nerves for such things. I like the player, but it must be returned. No more surprises, so I took my "Test" CD into the store. Nice person there understood the issue. Now I've decided to exchange Samsung for...
Yamaha DVD-S557, which is a bit more expensive -but it's Yamaha after all. The salesman flashed new player (in front of my eyes) for east-european srt support (he said).
This player has very good playback quality, solid build, quite fast access and silent. Hum.. it shows only short filenames in media content -I can live with that, though. But anyway... no, there's no firmware on Yamaha's site. Then I've discovered "itepe" firmware for Yamaha and I downloaded his latest version (it's unofficial of course) and upgraded the player. What a differences! I didn't test all new options yet (too exciting for writing this), but here are some goodies:
-SACD support (haven't checked yet if really works -but options are visible),
-different subtitle fonts (nice feature),
-long filename support (that's what I was looking for),
-DivX Qpel support! (no GMC for now),
Even without all this I would be happy with this player, but now... Many thanks to "itepe".
The future will tell how happy I really am

Wish you all the best,
Bogdan
PS: Excuse my english -I'm still learning.