Philips DVP5960 and USB

[mcali786]

Hit the zoom button, part of the top and bottom cut off on the picture and have the screen filled. Or don't zoom and see all of the video. I prefer to see all of the video myself.

Hi, i tried doing that but then you miss some parts of picture.

The only reason why im asking if because in my old dvd player (non hdmi), the letter box bars were reasonable size, but since i hooked up phillips, and change from 480p to 1080i, they seem to double up

Is that how the picture usually looks in 1080i HDMI video? maybe because im watching it on a 27' TV?

[TBoneit]

Nothing to do with the connection. It has to be that you are watching a wide(r) screen movie they come in different heights. 16:9 is only one Ar for widescreen.

[cameronj]

Hit the zoom button, part of the top and bottom cut off on the picture and have the screen filled. Or don't zoom and see all of the video. I prefer to see all of the video myself.

Hi, i tried doing that but then you miss some parts of picture.

The only reason why im asking if because in my old dvd player (non hdmi), the letter box bars were reasonable size, but since i hooked up phillips, and change from 480p to 1080i, they seem to double up

Is that how the picture usually looks in 1080i HDMI video? maybe because im watching it on a 27' TV?

Heh, so you're saying you want to get rid of the letterboxing, but not cut off any of the width...

I'd say you need to buy a differently shaped TV!

[sg1102]

Hi,

Just bought a WD 120GB portable. I tried to connect to the DVP5960 but nothing happens. I also tried swissknife. Still nothing. I read someplace that WD 120GB works with this player.
It doesnt even show an unsupported notification.

Is it because I had upgraded the firmware? (available on Philips site) or is it something else?

Any help will be appretiated. Thanks.

[jjodon]

I have a Philips DVDR-3400/37 and a Fantom Drives 200 GB external USB drive. Can't seem to get the drive to work with the DVDR. The drive is formatted FAT32. My 1 GB thumb drive works well and my DVDR firmware is current (I beleieve).

Any ideas?

[spoony]

Found a lot of useful info here for when I chose my external hard drive for the DVP5960.
Because of this I've had no problems and just wanted to share info on the hard drive.

Used a Packard Bell Share & Save 3500 (250GB) its pre-formatted to FAT32 and has its own power source. I chucked a couple of files on it to check and they all work fine no need to do anything to make it compatible.

Hooray!

[htp367]

Hi everyone,

I am a newbie here. I just bought the DVP5960 DVD player two weeks ago. I had the same problem (as many of you stated in this thread) when I tried to plug my Western Digital Passport Portable Drive into this DVD player. The HD was not recognized. This HD is 160 Gb capacity and has no external power supply. From what I've read in this thread so far, many of you have successfully got it to work. The keys are:

- to use the Swissknife to format it to FAT32 and make it primary partition.
- to power up the HD using an external power supply.

But, my concern is that how can i know what file system format (NTFS or FAT32) comes shipping with my HD?Is there a way to verify this? And regarding to the external power supply device, how can i know which one is suitable with my HD? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

htp367

[spoony]

Western Digital Passport drives are pre-formatted to FAT32 so you should not have any issues with this unless you reformatted it since purchase.

As regards power source I am not sure you will be able to get enough power to this drive to run it although you sometimes get an extra cable with such drives for when computers run limited bus power.

[htp367]

Western Digital Passport drives are pre-formatted to FAT32 so you should not have any issues with this unless you reformatted it since purchase.

As regards power source I am not sure you will be able to get enough power to this drive to run it although you sometimes get an extra cable with such drives for when computers run limited bus power.

Hi spoony,

Thank you for your reply. You are right, my HD is formatted to FAT32. I still can not connect the HD with my DVD. When I connect the HD with the DVD, the LED on the HD is not stable but it is like it is blinking and the HD is clicking instead of spinning up. So, I guess this is because of the power issue. I really disappoint. I am thinking about returing this HD anh buy another one. Have a good day.

htp367

[psitech]

Anyone have a theory as to why xvid movies stutter a bit when playing from an optical disk, but is perfectly smooth if played from my usb flash drive?

The stutter/choppiness when playing an xvid from a cd/dvd is very slight and can be barely noticed. It is somewhat annoying considering it's smooth as silk when playing from the usb.

Is there a setting change that I need to make or any other kind of fix?

[jagabo]

Anyone have a theory as to why xvid movies stutter a bit when playing from an optical disk, but is perfectly smooth if played from my usb flash drive?

Try remultiplexing the file.

[tikigod19]

does anyone know of a 4GB usb key that will work with this player? preferably available in the UK
thanks

[jagabo]

List of USB keys that work with the 5960 and other info:

http://www.phunkyfish.com/article/4/philips-dvp-596012

[tikigod19]

thanks a lot

[Pariah69]

If you're willing to spend, then, Yes, You Probably Can.

Look at infrant's ReadyNAS units -- RAIDs with every conceivable interface and file service. We have one at the office, it works great. I'm 90% sure you could hook it up to your 5960 via USB and have it on your ethernet at the same time. Question is: will the 5960 recognize it? Don't know.
(www.infrant.com)

After further investigation, I've found many drive enclosures for <$100 which have both RJ45 ethernet connections so that they can serve as a NAS and usb ports so that they can serve as a conventional usb drive. However, none seem to have the ability to do both simultaneously. I'm not saying that it can't happen, but I'm pretty skeptical. When an enclosure acts as a NAS, an onboard cpu (and Linux, probably) acts as a file server through which all read/write control is handled. In other words, the enclosure is in control. PCs/devices which want to read/write data send their requests to the enclosure which actually controls the drive. OTOH, when an enclosure acts as a usb drive, then the pc/device which is reading/writing through the usb port is in control of the drive. I question whether the hardware specs would permit both to happen simultaneously. But it would ROCK if it could work. The idea of my pc being able to write to the drive over my home network while a 5960 plays from it would be sweet.

As a follow-up to this post and others like it, I purchased a ~$50 HD enclosure with NAS, GalaxyMetalGear 3507 LR:
http://www.galaxymetalgear.com/Products/3507.html
I enclosed a Maxtor 250 GB HD and had no problems seeing and playing the content in Windows, and also from the 5960.... nice... because many external USB drives do NOT work with the 5960 (e.g. Seagate Free Agent).

Good marks for common-sense controls on the enclosure, including AC power, Fan Speed control (off/low/high) and an on/off switch. Poor documentation, but what do you expect for 50 bucks.

The NAS functions work great, and do what you need it to do (SMB & FTP, http admin, works fine)... as long as no USB cable is attached. I can confirm that only one at a time (NAS or USB) works with the 5960. In other words, if USB is attached and ON, NAS won't work. If both NAS and USB are attached and ON, only USB works. BUT, if both are attached, simply power down the 5960, and you can upload files to the drive via the NAS. So for me anyway, the lack of simultaneous access is not an issue.

Transfer speed over my wired network was no problem. I was getting at least 35 Mbps for FTP transfers... pretty typical for LAN. Full-length Xvid movies transfer in just a few minutes.

Anyway, just wanted to share my experience if others are looking for a cheap way to enable the 5960 as a quasi-network-device. The main drawback is lack of long filename support over USB, hopefully future firmware updates will fix this.

Cheers

[MaadArizona]

Hey guys,

Just got through reading this whole thread. I've had a DVP5960 for awhile now and love it, but have decided to go ahead and get an external HD to hook up to this baby. Anyway I've narrowed it down to 500 GB models:


LaCie External 500GB / 7200 RPM / 8 MB Cache / 1 year warranty / $150
I believe somebody in this thread had this exact same model and said it worked great right out of the box?
http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/product.aspx?omid=122&ref=pricegrabber&utm_source=Pric...ku=LAHD500GUSB

Seagate FreeAgent ST305004FDA1E1-RK 500GB / 7200 RPM / 8 MB Cache / 5 year warranty / $142
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Agent-Desktop-External-ST305004FDA1E1-RK/dp/B000ND75C0/r...874774-2803047

So obviously the Seagate is the better deal, slightly cheaper and a 5 year warranty (not sure about you guys but my hard drives almost always die within a year or two). Anybody have any experience with the Seagate drive that would indicate it won't work with the DVP5960? If not, I think I'll go ahead and risk it by ordering the Seagate...if it doesn't work I can take advantage of Amazon's liberal return policy.

[Pariah69]

Hey guys,

Just got through reading this whole thread. I've had a DVP5960 for awhile now and love it, but have decided to go ahead and get an external HD to hook up to this baby. Anyway I've narrowed it down to 500 GB models:


LaCie External 500GB / 7200 RPM / 8 MB Cache / 1 year warranty / $150
I believe somebody in this thread had this exact same model and said it worked great right out of the box?
http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/product.aspx?omid=122&ref=pricegrabber&utm_source=Pric...ku=LAHD500GUSB

Seagate FreeAgent ST305004FDA1E1-RK 500GB / 7200 RPM / 8 MB Cache / 5 year warranty / $142
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Agent-Desktop-External-ST305004FDA1E1-RK/dp/B000ND75C0/r...874774-2803047

So obviously the Seagate is the better deal, slightly cheaper and a 5 year warranty (not sure about you guys but my hard drives almost always die within a year or two). Anybody have any experience with the Seagate drive that would indicate it won't work with the DVP5960? If not, I think I'll go ahead and risk it by ordering the Seagate...if it doesn't work I can take advantage of Amazon's liberal return policy.

I can tell you that I tried that exact same Seagate model with the 5960 with no luck... Device not recognized. So I wouldn't bother with it if I were you. Can't speak for the LaCie model.

You may want to consider HD enclosures, such as the NAS model I mentioned earlier, or some really cheap ones other posters have successfully used.

[DeadnBrkn84]

Hi all,

I'm totally new here and I just wanted to post my experience. I've have great luck with this player so far and got an external HDD working on it. It's a Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB (formatted with swissknife) put into a Kingwin TL-35CS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121185 Enclosure. It's works great and have not noticed any stuttering at all as of yet.

I do have a question though. Has anyone figured out the problem with the titles? It's limited to 8 characters as we know but then it really butchers every title after the first screen full. Has anyone got any sort of fix for the title problem? Thanks so much.

[rkdeza]

Hey guys,

Just got through reading this whole thread. I've had a DVP5960 for awhile now and love it, but have decided to go ahead and get an external HD to hook up to this baby. Anyway I've narrowed it down to 500 GB models:


LaCie External 500GB / 7200 RPM / 8 MB Cache / 1 year warranty / $150
I believe somebody in this thread had this exact same model and said it worked great right out of the box?
http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/product.aspx?omid=122&ref=pricegrabber&utm_source=Pric...ku=LAHD500GUSB

Seagate FreeAgent ST305004FDA1E1-RK 500GB / 7200 RPM / 8 MB Cache / 5 year warranty / $142
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Agent-Desktop-External-ST305004FDA1E1-RK/dp/B000ND75C0/r...874774-2803047

So obviously the Seagate is the better deal, slightly cheaper and a 5 year warranty (not sure about you guys but my hard drives almost always die within a year or two). Anybody have any experience with the Seagate drive that would indicate it won't work with the DVP5960? If not, I think I'll go ahead and risk it by ordering the Seagate...if it doesn't work I can take advantage of Amazon's liberal return policy.

hey, I can vouch for the lacie 500gb drive. It works perfectly. I put all my mpeg4 movies I collected for about 5 years on there and I backed up my laptop on it too. Lacie comes formatted with FAT32 from the factory so it works out of the box with dvp5960.

[RabidDog]

Shouldn't you really go for something like the Hitachi cinemastar line, as opposed to the deskstar line.. these are supposed to be more suitable for streaming movie playback. This is just a general comment on their intended purpose NOT their suitability for use with the 5960. I'm still waiting for the 5982(?) or maybe just a media PC. Only cash will Tell. Maybe by then Hi-def will be the std...

[somevelvet]

Dudes I think I killed my player

I just installed the latest firmware update hoping it might solve some wonkiness issues (folder depth etc etc) on my DVP5960/37.

Since then, though, the player seems to be sending no video signal to the TV. I can tell the player is... playing... because I can see the time-counter move. But I get a "Not supported mode" message on my TV (which is a Samsung 32" HDTV LCD btw).

Help! Is there anything I can do?

What was I thinking?!

[somevelvet]

Incidentally this is the same whether I'm going through component or HDMI.

[jagabo]

I seem to recall the unit defaults to composite and s-video out only. Hook up to one of those and re-enable HDMI.

[somevelvet]

Yes! Just tried that and it worked a charm. Folders and stuff are still a little weird but thank god, I can watch the Apprentice UK again tonight in peace. Thanks!

[jagabo]

You're welcome.

[drbeamer]

hi - i managed to get a 160GB hdd connected to the dvd player; thanks to this forum!

does anyone know how to "shuffle" play the files on the hdd?

thanks again.

[TBoneit]

Never tried it but have you tried the repeat function? Button on the bottom row of the remote. One of the options is shuffle.

[drbeamer]

Never tried it but have you tried the repeat function? Button on the bottom row of the remote. One of the options is shuffle.

there is no "shuffle" option for me. there is repeat, one, all, folder. that's it

[psitech]

I asked this once before but I'll ask again. Anybody have any idea why I get jerky playback of xvid files only when playing from a cd or dvd? It does this on every xvid file I've ever put in the thing. I've tried different types of disks and this didn't help. Xvid files play perfectly smooth from my 1gb usb drive.

It's almost like it's stuck at a certain fps when playing from an optical disk. It's somewhere around 24fps (just guessing).

Anybody have any ideas? One person mentioned re-multiplexing the files, but these are not files I've encoded. These are random xvid files and I've tried hundreds at this point.

My player is a /37

[Goofproof]

Just for info, I bought 5, DVP5960, all work great, I've been using external usb drives on them with varying success, got a 80 and a couple of 160 gb to work.

I have found the perfect answer, My Book, Essential edition 320 gb, USB 2.0, Model WDG1U3200N, Got it from Sam's Club, $120, works right out of the box, I filled it up with over 300gb of DIVX.

It's really cool, it turns on and off automatically when you start the player. The unit runs quieter and cooler that any of my no fan enclosures. The hard drive speed seems to match better, I get less problems on scenes with a lot of action.

I have found that not only does the hard drive need to match the player, but the circuit in the exclosure has to match. I'm going to get three more of these puppies, out of the same litter, just to make sure they are the same.