Philips DVP5960 and USB

[passblayer]

Hi all,

I just bought this DVD player last week specifically for the USB functionality. Initially, I was able to play video files off of my USB thumb drive, but not off my external hard drive. Thanks to this thread, I was able to determine that my issue was a partition formatted as NTFS and created as a logical partition. Changing it to a FAT32 primary partition solved my problem of the DVD player not recognizing my external 60GB drive. Now, I can play most video files from both drives (thumb and external HD), but it seems there are some problematic files.

The problem is there is no sound when initially playing the video clip on the DVD player. For instance, check out this file: http://www.passblayer.com/testfile.avi . When I play it, I see the video and no sound for the first minute, and then the video pauses and the sound starts playing, and then for the last few seconds, the video and the sound play together in sync. The problematic video files are all a subset of my .avi files, but I am not sure what the difference is between my working .avi files and my non-working .avi files.

Any help?

Thanks!

[passblayer]

I'm starting to think this has nothing to do with the USB connector being flakey, but rather has something to do with the Audio encoding on my video files. It seems to video files that don't work have the audio encoded as mp3 at 48000kHz bit the files that do work have the audio encoded as mp3 at 44100kHz. Think the DVP5960 has issues with that audio encoding?

Hi all,

I just bought this DVD player last week specifically for the USB functionality. Initially, I was able to play video files off of my USB thumb drive, but not off my external hard drive. Thanks to this thread, I was able to determine that my issue was a partition formatted as NTFS and created as a logical partition. Changing it to a FAT32 primary partition solved my problem of the DVD player not recognizing my external 60GB drive. Now, I can play most video files from both drives (thumb and external HD), but it seems there are some problematic files.

The problem is there is no sound when initially playing the video clip on the DVD player. For instance, check out this file: http://www.passblayer.com/testfile.avi . When I play it, I see the video and no sound for the first minute, and then the video pauses and the sound starts playing, and then for the last few seconds, the video and the sound play together in sync. The problematic video files are all a subset of my .avi files, but I am not sure what the difference is between my working .avi files and my non-working .avi files.

Any help?

Thanks!

[jagabo]

The problem is there is no sound when initially playing the video clip on the DVD player. For instance, check out this file: http://www.passblayer.com/testfile.avi . When I play it, I see the video and no sound for the first minute, and then the video pauses and the sound starts playing, and then for the last few seconds, the video and the sound play together in sync.

The audio and video are not interleaved within that file. In other words, all the video comes first, then at the end of the file you have all the audio. Restream the file with normal interleaving and it will probably play properly.

[amontoth]

Player reports "Device Not Supported" when i plug in a usb card reader with a 16MB CF.

I wondered if my wifes Nikon camera usb output will work...

[passblayer]

The problem is there is no sound when initially playing the video clip on the DVD player. For instance, check out this file: http://www.passblayer.com/testfile.avi . When I play it, I see the video and no sound for the first minute, and then the video pauses and the sound starts playing, and then for the last few seconds, the video and the sound play together in sync.

The audio and video are not interleaved within that file. In other words, all the video comes first, then at the end of the file you have all the audio. Restream the file with normal interleaving and it will probably play properly.

Thanks for the help, but ReStream doesn't seem to like my testfile. It can't read any of the attributes (resolution, aspect ratio, framerate, etc.) of the file. If I set those values manually, ReStream just writes out the same file as the source file regardless of the options I choose.

Anyway, I guess this is off-topic, so I will see if I can find help in another thread or start a new one.

Thanks!
PassBlayer

[jagabo]

Thanks for the help, but ReStream doesn't seem to like my testfile.

Sorry, I didn't realize that videohelp.com would convert my "re stream" into a link. That program is for MPEG files. You want to use something like VirtualDub:

1) File -> Open Video File
2) Video -> Direct Stream Copy
3) File -> Save as AVI

[robbynaish]

Tested


HD 250 Lacie Porsche: perfect
Pen Peak 1GB: perfect
Pean Peak 2gb 120x (new): no
Lettore di memory card, in particolare l'Hama 19 in 1: perfect

ciao

Alessandro

[needmorstuff]

4gb verbatim sotre n go u3 = plays

but with episode 301 of lost that was 900x450 I re-encoded to 700x400 as that is about the max this player supports... when kate meets that big bad guy at the beach it stuttrers like mad it appears that as there is lots of movement on the screen (loads of trees blowing in the wind) that there is a lot of info that either the chipset or the usb port can't handle. Either way I am looking for a new player. divx less than 700x400 is rubbish on my 42" plasma - in reality i want divx hd...

[EmptyG]

The only bummer here is that it's USB 1.1 not 2.0.

Any way around that? Can they create a firmware upgrade to increase the speed to 2.0? Sorry, a bit of a USB noob here

[TBoneit]

no, usb 2 hardware is different.

[videoslicker]

I bought this player the other week and it came stock w/ firmware ver. 37.06.47.18 which is more recent than the one available on Philips.com (V.37.06.42.29). I am experiencing video stuttering with divx/xvid playback via external USB HD. Can this be corrected?

[robbynaish]

I bought this player the other week and it came stock w/ firmware ver. 37.06.47.18 which is more recent than the one available on Philips.com (V.37.06.42.29). I am experiencing video stuttering with divx/xvid playback. Can this be corrected?

Hi

if u have time do all the Divx test 2.0 and then compare your result with the previouse FW Version 12.06.36.24 Here to see the improvements

ciao

Alessandro

[browse]

I have been using DVP 5960 for a whle. Its really good to plat using external HD.
However, MP4 vidoes are not playing with this DVD player. Is there are thing that nned to be done toplay MP4 video files using DVP 5960?

Thanks
Broad

[andybray]

Just got one of these, partly for the USB capability but immediately found, like others, variable results.

I had no problems reading a USB flash memory stick but it was only a small capacity one and no real use. I've ordered a 1Gb and 2Gb device so I will try those out when they arrive.

I also had a Plextor 40Gb 2.5 inch external drive and so thought I'd try that. But of course it was NTFS format and so I did a convert to FAT32 using Partition Magic. But when I tried the drive (using external power supply as without it it just said "Device not supported") it would read it but reported only a couple of directories and one AVI even though there were probably 12 directories and 10 AVIs. The AVI wouldn't play and the directories appeared empty.

So, I then followed the suggestion that not all FAT32 formats seem to work the same. So I used Swissknife to create a new partition. The things started to go wrong. Swissknife would crash on one PC and on the other it recognised the drive but not the existing partition. So I created a new FAT32 partition. Big mistake as the drive would now crash XP as soon as I plugged it in. Looking at it from PartitionMagic (standalone boot) showed that I now had two partitions on my Plextor. The original one was hidden plus the new one I'd created. I managed to delete them both and then plugged the drive back into an XP system and then used Swissknife to create a new partition on the empty drive.

Bunged a couple of AVIs on it and it seemed to work fine.

Also, as someone had suggested iPods - I tried my iRiver 20Gb MP3 player and this worked perfectly - and it didn't need any external power. So, the 5960 can power hard disk MP3 players if not conventional external disk drives. This will probabloy be really useful as the need for external power for an external hard disk is a pain.

So, it seems that either the Partition Magic FAT32 format didn't work with the 5960 or it didn't like a NTFS partition that had been converted to FAT32. Haven't yet actually tested out to see if I get stuttering off the USB disk - which I don't get playing off a DVD.

Andy

[srilas]

I have a strange problem with my player (or the external drives). I am using a Maxtor 200GB with one player and Cavalry Storage 250GB drive with another. Beyond 2-3 layers of sub-directories, I am unable to see the contents on both the players/drives. Both the drives are formatted to FAT32 using SwissKnife. This problem started (or I noticed) recently.
I have the updated firmware to the latest version on both the machines. What could I be doing wrong? Please help.

[andybray]

I did also try out a 30Gb 2.5 inch drive contained in a Safecom USB enclosure. This is a fairly common budget enclosure in the UK. But it does not have a way of applying external power (no DC socket on the enclosure). On one laptop it wasn't recognised (plus I got a message saying the device had exceeded the power limits of the laptop USB port). On a new laptop it worked fine.

But on the 5960 it failed to be connected. You could hear the drive spinning up and down presumably for lack of power.

Andy

[robbynaish]

I have a strange problem with my player (or the external drives). I am using a Maxtor 200GB with one player and Cavalry Storage 250GB drive with another. Beyond 2-3 layers of sub-directories, I am unable to see the contents on both the players/drives. Both the drives are formatted to FAT32 using SwissKnife. This problem started (or I noticed) recently.
I have the updated firmware to the latest version on both the machines. What could I be doing wrong? Please help.

Hi,

i just discovered it few days before: maximum dir lawyer is 3

cu

Alex

[andybray]

Given that we know that hard disk MP3 players work, has anyone found a 2.5 inch external USB drive or a 2.5inch USB enclosure that works without external power (excluding using an MP3 player for this purpose)?

Andy

[TBoneit]

That won't happen. The port just doesn't provide enough power to spin up a 2.5" drive.

The reason the MP3 players work is they have their own power for the drive and they use a even smaller size drive that needs less power so they can have decent battery life. An IPOD might even get enough power to work from the port or at least extend the battery life.

[andybray]

Good point. Forgot those things have batteries in

[kv5]

That won't happen. The port just doesn't provide enough power to spin up a 2.5" drive.

The reason the MP3 players work is they have their own power for the drive and they use a even smaller size drive that needs less power so they can have decent battery life. An IPOD might even get enough power to work from the port or at least extend the battery life.

My Philips 5960 powers my FREECOM 120GIG external drive with no problems...

[TBoneit]

You are lucky, I even tried a external 2.5" drive that will power off of anything and it wouldn't work.

[kiab115]

I've had this player about 2 weeks now, I've had success with thumbdrives and now with a WD1200 120 gig enclosed in the cheapest usb enclsure compusa had, 39.99. My question is, would it be possible to to setup my external as a network or a shared drive on a pc and have the dvd read it thru a hub or something, since the dvd doesn't write a cache or anything I don't see a a sharing issue. Ideally I'd like to be able to have my rss setup torrent automatically download shows to the harddrive the the dvd reads from and also be able to let other pc's in the house watch the shows via network router.

Here's my current setup:
Philips dvp-5960
WD 1200
Sony Vaio
all are in the entertainment center, the vaio is connected to my router by cat5 and downloads the torrents, then I switch a cable to attach the WD1200 to the vaio to transfer videos and the switch the cables back to watch on the philips. So my idea is if I could attach the drive to a hub or directly to the vaio then connect the philips to a hub or to the viao with a usb A-A or something then i could automatically download and watch without having to switch cables and other pc's could access the videos thru the router.

Any ideas????????

btw this is by far the largest thread on the internet I've found on this device, lots of good info. I just don't know if we've scratched the surface with the possibilites.

[Goofproof]

I have (4) of these DVP5960's. Love them, "Poor Man's Home Theater".

Flash Drive that work on mine:

BELKIN 128 MB

LEXTAR JUMPDRIVE 2.0 PRO 256 MB

LEXTAR JumpDrive Mercury 1 GB

VERBATIM U3 4 GB, Works, but had to remove the U3 software & system, the u3 launchpad can be permanently removed.
go to u3.com and check support tab.


----------------------------------------------------------------
Flash Drives That DON'T WORK:

CORSAIR FLASH VOYAGER 2 GB

-----------------------------------------------------------------
I also have 3 Argosy USB External Enclosures that work with it, one with a 6.4 GB, a 80 GB, and a 160 GB Hard Drive, I also have two bigger drives that don't work.

If anyone has success getting these last two to work, let me know. I reformatted the Corsair, and it Toasted it, Their support has a program to revive it, worked great, but still a no go on the 5960. Jim

[synchro505]

How cools is this?? A DVD player for under $100USD that has a USB port and plays several formats of video files from external hard drives, memory cards and iPods! I think we might almost be living in the future! I will have to get one of these Phillips DVP5960 machines (for the sake of science and experimentation of course). 8)

[waver123]

I just got my dvp5960 this week and pretty happy about it. However I've a slight issue with my thumb drive. I'd a corsair 66x and 133x sd used in a thumb drive, if I formatted the drive as fat32 and plug it into the player, there's a long delay from the time I select the file to when the file is actually played (almost 30 seconds long). However, if I format both of them as fat partition, the file plays in 2-4 seconds. I've read some msgs that it's prefer to format the usb drives as fat32 partition, and I'm wondering if anyone has seen this delay issue.

PS. they are both 2gig sd and both had the same delay, also I was trying to play divx videos.

[jagabo]

Fat32 uses smaller clusters than fat16. If you put lots of small files on a fat16 drive you can end up wasting a lot of space. But since you'll only be using a few large files the difference isn't worth worrying about.

[aoz]

any limitation on file size of MPEG-2?

I had burned a bunch of home movies, old VHS, etc, to DVD, as MPEG files.

Some of them play back OK; some do not.

Recent trial, a 3.99 gig file played ok, but a 4.37 gig file did not.

Any feedback appreciated.
Nick

[jagabo]

The FAT file system doesn't support files over 4 GB.

[aoz]

re: FAT system -
is that the only system that the DVD player recognizes, even though larger files can be burnt onto a DVD as a Data DVD?

I can live with that, if that is the case; I just have to make sure I split MPEG's for future projects, to be under 4 gig

Reply appreciated
Nick