Philips 5990 quick review/impressions.

[TBoneit]

I Picked one up today at Best Buy for $59.99. The Box stated USB 2.0. Verified as it plays stutter free MPGs that caused the 5982 to stutter. WMV playback as stated on the box seems to be working for the test WMVs I threw at it. Divx Ultra Certified. New remote with more buttons including eject, angle Volume (no effect?) CH + - (No effect), Mute (No effect). Time to read the manual.
The New remote is not as wide and is longer and more rounded than the old style remote. The Old remote also works. The region free Hack for the 5982 also seems to be working with the model too. From here: https://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks?dvdplayer=philips+5982&hits=50

Region code hack posted by muffin, April 21 2007:
press Setup
select Preference
Press 1,3,8,9,3,1
Press up/down key to select "0"

Overall about the same size as the 5982, Better remote, Plays WMVs. Plays high bitrate through the USB2 port.

Two biggest improvements WMV support and USB2. And only $60. I'm parking my 5982 as a spare.

Edit: The WMV support is not 100%. I copied a bunch of WMVs to a USB device and most of the newer ones worked for me and some of the older ones but not all.

[Squash]

Thanks for the tip, TBoneit. Based on your findings with the USB speed, I picked up a 5990 at Walmart today for $58. I'm very happy with it so far. Here's a little more info in case anybody's thinking about buying one.

USB2 works great. First thing I tried was an xvid movie I still had on my flash drive that I'd tried to watch last night and ended up having to watch it from a DVD-R because there were too many bitrate spikes choking the playback. Smooth as silk on the 5990. I fast-forwarded (at 32x) through 10 minutes of it a couple of times to test the speed. First time I did it, it took 5 seconds; second time, 8 seconds. (This was from a fast flash drive. I'd recommend the Readyboost models.) Makes the lack of a resume function on USB not so much of a big deal as it was on the older Philips models, which were slow as molasses when fast-forwarding in USB (on my old 5960 I use a hacked firmware that allows resuming and goto on USB to get around that problem).

I ripped a DVD, ran vob2mpg on it and tried copying it to my USB drive but of course it wouldn't work due to file-system limitations (the mpeg was over 4 gigs), so I just converted one VOB to mpg and it played great from the USB. I then copied the whole DVD rip to the USB drive and loaded up the VIDEO_TS.vob and it played through the opening menu and scene selections, then played the movie. Chapters can be navigated with the number pad. This was from an 8GB thumb drive. I haven't hooked up a large external drive to it and don't plan to do so in the near future.

The manual says "The USB jack does not support the connection of other USB devices except to a flash drive". So I imagine that if someone wanted to, they could probably hook up an external drive subject to the same power requirements that the older Philips USB models had.

File name length on USB appears to be limited to 14 characters (that's all that showed up from a file I gave a very long name to).

I noticed a setup menu option to turn off the automatic power-down. I tried it and so far no shut-off after about 40 minutes (I think the 5960 would turn off after 15). I've seen several people complain about that "feature" on the older models.

No problems with packed-bitstream consecutive b-vop files. Custom quant matrices play fine.

The manual says that for divx subs it supports .srt, .smi, .sub, .ssa, and .txt. idx/sub pairs also work, though on the movie I tried them on, I couldn't turn them back off once they had been turned on. No problems with .srt; haven't tried the other formats.

Tried 2 WMVs on it so far. Both played fine. The manual says it only supports "main profile" WMVs, not "advanced profile" nor DRM-ed WMVs. Ordinarily I don't have much use for WMV but I have some rare footage I could only find in that format so it was nice to watch them without conversion.

Thanks again for the info. Looks like a good cheap divx player. My 5960 is probably headed for the closet once I get a little more experience with the 5990.

Edit: Vobsubs (idx/sub pairs referred to above) appear to be working fine now. I tried the same file the next day to see if I could find a fix and this time I was able to turn the subs off without incident. I suspect there was a problem in the sub file structure (I've noticed a couple of other odd things about it). I tried a couple more movies with vobsubs and had no problems. Just wanted to clear that up.

[jagabo]

Thanks for those reports. It sounds like a much improved player.

14 character filenames over USB? That makes it likely someone will come out with a hack for even longer names.

[lizzoqops]

I also want to say thanks for the review. My 5140 died last week, and I almost replaced it with another 5140. I'm really glad to find this player. It plays everything the 5140 played, plus the addition of the usb.

So far I've played vcd, svcd, divx with xsubs muxed in, xvid with idx/sub (both English and 2 Chinese subs worked), dvds with multiple avi files, and Region 1, 2, 3 and 0 dvds. No problems yet.

Plus it's a lot better looking, I like the remote, and you can power up the player by pushing the "open" button on the player itself (a feature I really missed when switching from a 642 to 5140). Definitely a great buy.

[TBoneit]

It actually has a power button to the left of the tray too.





Note the Gspot above. It played the audio OK, FF & FRev didn't work though. Possibly because it also said Unsupported Video Codec. However it did open the file with the MP4 extension.

[rich3327]

Will it resume play with divx files, or can you at least skip to a specific time in the file?

It looks like the manual says you can skip to a specific time. That's one big downfall of the 5982 (my 5960 can resume play a divx file and skip to a specific time, hacked of course).

[lizzoqops]

Yes, I know it has a power button : ) But on the 5140 you have to power it up, then wait awhile, then open it. This one you can just hit "open" and it does both.

I'm not seeing any way to skip to a specific time on a divx file. Anybody know how to do that?

Srt sub display is still that crappy grayish color, very small. Yay for srt2bmp and other programs like that.

[rich3327]

This is what the manual says (Page 27):
Searching by time
This option allows you to skip to a
specifi c point in the current disc.

A Move to { TT Time / CH Time / Disc
Time / Track Time } in the display menu
and press the right arrow

B Use the numeric keypad 0-9 to enter
the time where playback should start (eg.
0:34:27).
Playback skips to the selected time.

[lizzoqops]

Yeah, that's supposed to be for dvds/vcds/svcds, though. It doesn't come up when playing divx. At least, not the divx I have (avi file with xsubs muxed in).

I just tried it with an svcd. It let me get to that menu, but I can't enter any numbers. I'll have to play with it some more.

ETA: I shut the player off, turned it back on, and the svcd I had in the player resumed from where I stopped watching. So that's something new for me : )

[TBoneit]

Will it resume play with divx files, or can you at least skip to a specific time in the file?

It looks like the manual says you can skip to a specific time. That's one big downfall of the 5982 (my 5960 can resume play a divx file and skip to a specific time, hacked of course).

I would only expect those to work with VCD, SVCD or DVD and to not work with AVIs or WMVs.

[rich3327]

Darn; it's not that difficult to do. I don't know why someone can hack their firmware to add such a simple thing on, but they can't seem to do it at the time of release (or ever).

Thanks for checking for me.

[MadCad]

I picked the 5990 up at worst buy for 58.71 tax included using the 10% coupon. I thought I would try connecting my old WD 40GB Passport HD thru USB w/o using the Hdrive power cord & it worked!! Watched multiple movies from the hardrive just powered thru USB. It worked great, FF , chaptered & everything w/o hang up. I will try my 120GB passport later. This really cuts back on my DVD burning.

[Dim-Ize]

I picked one up yesterday at Wal-Mart for $55. While I was there, I checked their USB drives. They had a USB 2.0 250 GB, 2.5" drive mis-priced for $89.00. I picked it up, obviously.

I formatted the drive when I got home with Fat32 using CompuAppps SwissKnife. It won't read NTFS.

I did the region hack listed above.

This thing read right off the USB 250 GB drive, getting its power from the DVD player. It played everything I had put there so far (about 80 GB worth of stuff in various formats, DVD, VOB, XVID, DivX, WMA.

$150 for the level of convenience is pretty sweet, IMHO. I still want Popcorn Hour for the HD in living room. But, this is awesome for what it does.

EDIT:
There is a new firmware for DVP5990/37 at Phillips. It further enhances USB communication between the devices. I haven't had any trouble, but I updated it anyways. Everythign is working fine. The manual states that it can only read up to a maximum of 300 folders and 648 files on the USB drive. I am loading this thing up and will test that statistic by doing a chkdsk <drive>: and look at the counters. I'm at about 200 foldes and 370 files so far.

One thing I haven't figured out yet - is how to make the drive display alph descending. Right now, it is backwards for my taste and I don't see how to change this. Foldersort, a freeware app, apparently solves this - but the links are broken.

[Sputnikc]

EDIT:
There is a new firmware for DVP5990/37 at Phillips. It further enhances USB communication between the devices. I haven't had any trouble, but I updated it anyways. Everythign is working fine. The manual states that it can only read up to a maximum of 300 folders and 648 files on the USB drive. I am loading this thing up and will test that statistic by doing a chkdsk <drive>: and look at the counters. I'm at about 200 foldes and 370 files so far.

One thing I haven't figured out yet - is how to make the drive display alph descending. Right now, it is backwards for my taste and I don't see how to change this. Foldersort, a freeware app, apparently solves this - but the links are broken.

I'm looking to buy one of those philips DVP5990 dvd players too, but i wonder if it will support enough mp3 files on external hdd, if they state it will only support 648 files (or is that files/directory)
I have 2 external 2.5" harddrives that i would connect (1 for mp3, 1 for divx)

And this is the main use i will use it for.

Thx in advance

[Dim-Ize]

Sputnikc -

I'm just going off of what the manual states on page 34, which is: "The unit can only support up to a maximum of 300 folders and 648 files." I haven't reached this number yet, so I cannot confirm. My gut tells me that the manual is probably right about this one. Presently, I have 60 folders and 427 files as reported by chkdsk through a command prompt.

IMHO, I doubt it will serve well as an MP3 media center as the primary feature.

Have you looked at Popcorn Hour? That may better suit your needs for that feature, plus you could simly stream everything (except HD - and that's about to change too).

Or, for just MP3 - how about the Logitech Squeezebox or something simillar?

[Sputnikc]

I'm ordering it anyway, the dvp5990, if it's impossible to play from hdd, then i'll just put them on dvd
It's nog that big a thing.
I will maybe post my findings about the mp3 from hdd later on when i have the player connected.

[tuna9720]

how do you guys burn the xvid files.. I have this 5990 and burned them on my mac os with using toast, but it says it says profile not supported.. Can anyone post some tips about burning?

[jagabo]

So the 5990 saw the file but when you tried to play it the player gave the error message? That means there's something about the file that it didn't like. Maybe the resolution was too high (over 720x576)? What are the properties of the video? If it didn't like the disc at all use ISO data format, a single session, and close the disc.

[tuna9720]

that is exactly what happened. this thing sees the file but it says profile not supported.. i also checked the resolution it is 624*272.. i have no clue about the iso data format , i am on macintosh is that something to do with?

[jagabo]

I don't have the 5990 but rather the older 5960. I don't ever recall it saying "profile not supported". Your frame size is fine. Check the frame rate (make sure it's not over 29.97 fps) and make sure it doesn't have multiple warp point GMC. I don't know how you would do this on a Mac. On a Windows PC you can use GSpot. Is it just one particular file that's giving you problems? Have you tried other Xvid files? Maybe it doesn't like the audio?

[tuna9720]

thanks for reply jagabo. how do i check the frame rate and how do i find out whether it has multiple warp points or not?

I burned same file as a data dvd one more time. My dvd contains 24 movies and what i realized is there was one very short (like 10 seconds) of wmv file , and it played that one when it finished , it says the same profile not supported thing for the rest..

I will try to figure out tonight , if i cant i will give up and return this tomorrow.. i am all tired to get this to work..

And i am pretty sure it is not machine's fault since many people use it flawless, i think i am missing something..

[jagabo]

If all your files came from the same source (for example, a TV series that was converted by one person) the same settings may have been used with every file. So whatever is wrong with one may be the same thing that's wrong with the others. If different people converted each file this would be unlikely.

The fact that the WMV file plays from the disc implies that the player isn't having a problem reading the disc. So you probably don't have a file system issue (ISO vs UDF, Joliet extensions, etc).

Don't think that exchanging the player for another brand will eliminate your problem. There aren't many set-top DVD players that can handle Divx/Xvid videos better than the Philips players. Certainly not in their price range. I don't believe there are any standalone players that can handle Xvid's three warp point GMC.

I don't use a Mac so I can't tell you which programs will report all the details of your files. I was just reading something at another site and someone mentioned a program called "Media Info Mac". That should be able to report most of the details of your video files.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13993871#post13993871

[lizzoqops]

Tuna:

There is a certain way these files have to be burned with Toast. I haven't done this in a while, but you might search for how it has to be done, or ask on the Mac forum. I remember helping a friend with it and there were a lot of things in Toast that had to be set a certain way (not the default settings). Hope this helps.

[blackrain2008]

I haven't bought a divx player in a while (since around 2003). Just quickly searching through the forum, this one seems to have some great reviews.

Does this one have the mediatek 1389xx chipset to support most of the old unsupported codecs/formats like QPEL, GMC, b-frames issues, etc

I have yet to see anyone confirm this

[Sputnikc]

Mine just arrived today..
I'm pretty pleased by the mp3 from hdd use i want to use it mainly for.. :

it seems like its only restricted to hold 648 files for each of the 300 folders.
I've put 700 mp3 files in the root dir and that only shows 648files, but i also put in all of my mp3 folders on the disc and i can see all files in all folders + subfolders.I can also access them so far. All this on a 100gb external 2.5" hdd without power needed extern.
The only funtcion i failed to find is the shuffle playback for mp3/music playback

I'm very pleased so far..

[jagabo]

Thanks for the files/folders clarification, Sputnikc.

[blackrain2008]

Someone at AVS forum just posted the following:

"I just got off the phone with Philips support. They're saying the dvp5990 & 5992 are exactly the same in features except for color. The 5990 is black & the 5992 is silver."

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1021947&page=2

[lizzoqops]

I tried to find info on the chipset before I bought it, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I just assumed it was mediatek chip, but I'm not good enough to crack it open to find out. The 5140 (with mediatek) supported qpel, but had minimal gmc support. I haven't run into any problem files yet. I really don't even know where to find those kinds of files anymore, most people encode with basic standalone compliance in mind.

[jagabo]

Divx Test CD: http://divxtest.surdvd.com/sommaire.php3?lang=en

[Squash]

blackrain2008,

I'm pretty sure the 5990 uses a Mediatek chip, specifically the MT1389S. Hej456 thinks this is the case, and he's been writing firmware mods for Mediatek-based players for quite a while:

http://hej456.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=770

This would explain why the 5990 can playback wmv files:

http://www.mediatek.com/News/Downloads/2007/0326MT1389S-DVD-Player.pdf

Also, the region-free hack begins with the numbers 1,3,8 and 9, as TBoneit reported in the top post. Coincidence? I think not!

A guy over on avsforum popped his 5990 open but was unable to verify the make of the chip (apparently it was obscured by a heat-sink).

Files with QPEL play back fine. The last time I had problems with them was with the old ESS-chipset based Philips DVP 642.

3-warp point GMC is still a problem on the 5990. It will display a warning saying "Video GMC not supported" but will continue to play the file OK until it hits a spot where the encoder invoked the 3rd warp point, then freeze and skip for awhile. I've done quick recodes on these types of files using Divx through Vdubmod. On a Q6600 it takes about 6 to 8 minutes to do a 22-minute anime episode (that's about the only thing I see these days that still occasionally uses 3-warp GMC).

No playback problems with 1-warp point GMC like Divx uses.