Philips 5990 quick review/impressions.

[lizzoqops]

Ok, I did some tests (a lot of them, actually) but I'm not sure how helpful they will be.

Qpel is supported. GMC with 1 warp point is supported. With 3 warp points, an error came up "not supported" but it continued to play the file. It was one file, and continuously added warp points, so I don't know if that was why it kept playing. Further testing may be needed there. Custom matrix worked. Multiple B frames with and without packed bitstream worked.

WMV9 files played fine, even with high bitrates.

Sub files that worked: .srt, .ssa, .idx/.sub, .sub (micro dvd subs), .smi all worked, including avi/divx containers with multiple subs in all these formats.

Ogm containers worked as long as there was only one audio track, mkv did not. Couldn't get subs to work with ogm, either.

Divx containers: chapters worked, menus didn't. I wasn't sure how to test this with multiple files, so I may have done that wrong.

[gll99]

I checked the Canadian online sites of BestBuy, Futureshop and Wallmart and they don't have it. The first 2 don't adevrtise any Philips at all and Wallmart has one upconverting Philips but it's an older unspecified 1080i model. I wonder if we can get the 5990/5992 at a B&M store in Canada.

[gll99]

I saw it on the USA site but when I checked the Philips Canadian site they don't even list it. Guess I'll have to plan a short trip to northern NY some time soon if I want one.

How much are taxes in NY state? That has to be added to the base price since we then have to pay our own federal and provincial taxes plus duties on top of that too when we re-enter the country.

[MadCad]

Tax in NYS depends on the county...Erie is 8.75%. I live in Canada and work in the US (US citizen married to a Canadian) Take products across often...depends on customs agent, but for a $60 item you may not have to pay duty. If so it will be 13%. (Around $8 duty)

This player is definitely worth it.

[ytsejam]

I have a XviD movie file that has the audio encoded as Ogg Vorbis. I have never been able to play the file with sound until the 5990. It plays perfectly. However, when I try to play .ogg file, the player does not even recognize the file. I even tried renaming it the .ogg to .mp3 to see if it would play and it does not. Seems the chip can decode ogg, but the firmware cannot see an .ogg file.

[KillerQ]

Anyone figure out a way to have the HDMI audio enabled to the TV and also have coax/digital out to the receiver at the same time? You need to disable one before the other will enable... That way I can watch a dvd through the tv speakers OR through the receiver without having to change settings around everytime.

Will ANY newer HDMI player allow this?

Thanks,

Matt!

[jagabo]

Anyone figure out a way to have the HDMI audio enabled to the TV and also have coax/digital out to the receiver at the same time? Will ANY newer HDMI player allow this?

I don't think any HDMI player will allow this. HDCP rules require that the multichannel audio stream not appear unecrypted anywhere when it is used. You might find one that downsamples to 2.0 PCM. My HDTV has an optical audio output. Whenever it receives a 5.1 AC3 signal via HDMI it outputs 2.0 PCM.

[KillerQ]

Anyone figure out a way to have the HDMI audio enabled to the TV and also have coax/digital out to the receiver at the same time? Will ANY newer HDMI player allow this?

I don't think any HDMI player will allow this. HDCP rules require that the multichannel audio stream not appear unecrypted anywhere when it is used. You might find one that downsamples to 2.0 PCM. My HDTV has an optical audio output. Whenever it receives a 5.1 AC3 signal via HDMI it outputs 2.0 PCM.

Yea, I have a brand new, top of the line Samsung, and it states right in the manual that HDMI audio that is passed through the tv, and sent out via optical out will be downmixed to 2 channels.

I would even be happy with the l/r composite cables and THEIR audio, but that is blocked as well....

Oh well.

Thanks,

Matt!

[jagabo]

Yea, I have a brand new, top of the line Samsung, and it states right in the manual that HDMI audio that is passed through the tv, and sent out via optical out will be downmixed to 2 channels.

And in a few years that will be gone as well. Analog outputs too. HDMI/HDCP is not our friend.

[MJA]

I bought the 5990 from wal-mart few days ago.I can finally connect my WD Pasport 250 with no issues at all.

[agidol]

Does DVP5990 or DVP5992 play high resolution DviX files also? My DVP5960 can't seem to play high resolution DviX - it gives me "video resolution not supported" error message.

[MJA]

you mean Dvix HD ? no

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

[agidol]

No, not HD. Just maximum resolution it can play. My DVP5960 can't play anything thats 800X400 or something'

[jagabo]

I don't know for sure but I haven't seen any indication that the 599x players can handle anything over 720x480 at 29.97 fps or 720x576 at 25 fps.

[interex]

I had the 5982 but I sold it to my friend and went and picked up the 5990 at Walmart yesterday, it still turns off after the 15 minutes no matter what I change it too and my flash drive that worked on my 82 won't work on the 90. Now I didn't really have a flash drive I was just using a usb card reader with a few 8 gig SD cards and it worked fine on the 82 and thats why I am so surprised it won't work on this one.

Has anyone else had trouble with the sleep setting?

The two reasons I upgraded were for the much faster usb and to get rid of that rediculous 15 minute power off, drives me CRAZY...

[MJA]

I own both,and I have no issue with 15 min power off issue.did you try to update the firmware ?

[Squash]

interex,

You don't control the auto-shutdown with the "Sleep" setting. Look 3 lines below "Sleep" and you'll see "Auto Standby". Just move the cursor to the right of that, hilite "Off", then press OK.

I've left my 5990 unattended for hours and it hasn't shut off (just goes into screen-saver mode).

As for your other problem, I haven't used a card-reader with it.

[OldAmateur]

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."

Just got a 5992 at Costco in Waltham MA - $39.99. It is black. The best news: it plays Xvid from my Toshiba 250GB USB bus-powered hard drive with no problems. (The Toshiba is as delivered, formatted FAT32.)

[cheapnellie]

Quick note. My 5992 firmware out the box was 37.08.51.25, which is identical to the old 5990 firmware. But on philips website it didn't have the "latest" firmware for the 5992, so i went ahead and tried flashing the 5992 with firmware 37.08.51.27 of the 5990. And guess what? The 5992 took it! These 2 players are practically the same! I'd would be real curious to know what the real differences are. Because I can't imagine 2 pieces of equipment running the same firmware are all that different underneath.

[OldAmateur]

Quick note. My 5992 firmware out the box was 37.08.51.25, which is identical to the old 5990 firmware. But on philips website it didn't have the "latest" firmware for the 5992, so i went ahead and tried flashing the 5992 with firmware 37.08.51.27 of the 5990. And guess what? The 5992 took it! These 2 players are practically the same! I'd would be real curious to know what the real differences are. Because I can't imagine 2 pieces of equipment running the same firmware are all that different underneath.

The 5990 and the 5992 also share a User's Manual. My guess: they are the same machine except for the exterior trim.

[joeteck]

I just picked up the 5990 yesterday. I did not do any of the hacks yet. I can't seem to be able to format my externals to FAT32. Only option is NTFS.

None the less, I noticed that you guys convert your files the long way. or a different way than myself.

I have a quick and painless way, that works almost every time, and if not, I use another program to fix it.

Here is what I do.

I run the lastest version of AnyDVD.

Then I run DVDShrink 3.2. and reauthor and only grab the title. No menus for me.

Once they have been ripped and shrunk to fit on a 4.7 gig DVD, I run Lathe ver 1.5.

This converts it to Divx. Done.

If AnyDVD can do it, I then use DVDFab HD Decrypter 4 and that does the trick. However Its not shrunk, but it is ripped. :P . Sometimes I rerun DVD shrink if I want to make it a DVD.

This is my full proof way to make Divx files fast. My ripping PC is an AMD 4600+ with 2gig of RAM. Dedicated just to do this. Each DVD takes aprox 15min to RIP to the hard drive, then another 40 mins to convert to Divx. I have two DVD burners so I do two at a time. Thankfully Lathe does batch runs, so you can select a boat load of VOB files to convert.

Enjoy.

[RabidDog]

Thats Moonshine pardner!

This is my full proof way to make Divx files fast

why not anydvd -> lathe (whatever that is!) shrinking simply lose's quality to an unacceptable degree AND adds extra time to the process.

GBTT>TOPIC.. This device is marginally better than a 5982 as it gives out more bus power, is that it? Not worth upgrading probably from 5982.. oh dear when will these things read and understand ntfs or failing that ext2 or ext3 or reiser/fs (whisper.. even HFS) Come on give us Full file names...

Is there a version of this, that is a Dvd recorder along with the playing functions? ( I could justify that )

[joeteck]

Thats Moonshine pardner!

This is my full proof way to make Divx files fast

why not anydvd -> lathe (whatever that is!) shrinking simply lose's quality to an unacceptable degree AND adds extra time to the process.

GBTT>TOPIC.. This device is marginally better than a 5982 as it gives out more bus power, is that it? Not worth upgrading probably from 5982.. oh dear when will these things read and understand ntfs or failing that ext2 or ext3 or reiser/fs (whisper.. even HFS) Come on give us Full file names...

Is there a version of this, that is a Dvd recorder along with the playing functions? ( I could justify that )

Well it all depends on what you're using the files for. I make them around 700MB each. So I can put them on my Zen W or Burn them to DVD. I've tried 700MB files vs 900 vs 2 gig files and really was not worth the extra size for the little difference I saw. So with a file size of 700MB I get the best of both worlds. Play them on a small screen and they look great, and also look good on my 64" Pioneer. Lathe is an awesome program and should not be brushed off as a bad program. You should look into it. It will save you time.

[RabidDog]

Errrr.. Full Proof---> MoonShine -----> Hic ..Burp.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_proof
My other point .. why not just grab the main title off the disc, uncompressed? No need to use shrink at all. I'm surprised you dont notice any diff between a 700mb file and a 2gb file. I would consider 700mb as generally too compressed, but also 2gb is too bloated. You probably wont notice defects on a small screen but the biggie should show up artefacts mercilessly. Obviously the file size should be dictated by the length of the film and how compressible it is rather than sticking to rigid limits.
Maybe lathe is not as good as other compressors eg autogk or fairuse2.0.. I cant possibly know as I cant try it! link please? Generally with most encoders you can have a quick encode or you can have a quality encode but not both, its all to do with the motion estimation.

[Horsepower]

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..

I need some clarification on this. I have 372 root directory folders, 208 sub folders with 5,300 mp3's in them. Will this player see and play all of my MP3's? Thanks.

[coyote2]

the 5990 is my new favorite DivX player. I've been using a 3140, because all the other models I tried turned themselves off after a few minutes (and thus lost their place in DivX movies). thankfully the 5990 has a Setting to "Disable Standby"!

so now I can enjoy all the features introduced since the 3140:
.sub in addition to .srt
200ms delay of audio to match video ("Lip Synch")
HDMI output

and these I haven't tested:
DivX dual audio support
rip mp3 from CD up to 192kbps to thumbdrive in USB2.0 port

I got it to provide my new 1080p LCD with 1080p upconversion. the picture looks significantly better than on my other 3 DVD and DivX players.

the remote is almost average. which makes it vastly better than the 3140 remote. and it has an Eject button.

I got it on sale at bestbuy.com for $53.99. and because it took over a minute when I picked it up I got a $10 gift card.

[coyote2]

p.s.
there is one thing I prefer about the 3140. on the 5990, the best aspect ratio I can get on a movie is to fill my 16:9 screen. but movies are wider than 16:9, so a proper aspect ratio would leave the black bars on the top and bottom.

with the 3140, one could choose "Original" to preserve the aspect ratio of the DivX file. (since "Original" often leaves black bars on all sides of the movie, I'd have preferred to use the 3140's "Fit [to screen] Width". but unfortunately that didn't work (it instead filled the 16:9 screen like the 5990 does).)

so now I get better picture quality, but the height of the picture is stretched for movies. while not noticeable, I'd prefer the proper aspect ratio.

[Tercero]

Does the DTS 5.1 finally work?. It's supposed to be supported by the 5982, but I've never got it to work. I wonder if it's worth the upgrade (I like the idea of playing WMV without going through the hassle of converting them to AVI)...and is this available in Canada yet?

Tercero

[thesuarus1]

is this available in Canada yet?

Tercero

Just bought the 5990 today at Bestbuy in Kingston, $69:99....

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0926INGFS10100854&logon=&langid=EN

They have lots in stock.

[kbehel]

Regarding the file limits for an external USB drive:

It does apear that it is 648 files per directory. I didn't do an exhaustive test, but my partition had more than 2000 files on it in different directories and subdirectories and I didn't have a problem as long as they were only mp3 and videos.

For some as yet unexplained reason, when I put a bunch of JPG files on the hard drive in a separate directory tree, I was not able to see all of my mp3 and videos that were in different directory trees. Some I could see, some I couldn't. I got the impression that I was not able to see any files that were more than 3 levels down the directory tree.

so if you have any similar problems, experiment with the directory tree or remove the jpg files.

kevin