Philips DVP5960 DVD Player with HDMI, Upconversion, DivX and USB
Written: Dec 26 '06 (Updated Dec 09 '07)
Product Rating:
Sound:
Ease of Use:
Picture Quality:
Durability:
Pros: Price, connectivity, HDMI and upconversion, features, PAL/NTSC, computer video playback, USB
Cons: LCD and remote could be better there are better choices for straight DVD playback
The Bottom Line: If you need to play PAL discs on an NTSC TV, play computer files (including MP3, WMA, MPEG and AVI) and DivX, or play media files from a USB...
dkozin's Full Review: Philips DVP5960/37 DVD Player
I have been using the Philips DVP642 DVD player and it excelled at playing DivX, PAL, AVI and MPEG. But the remote control was horrible and the picture quality while playing store-bought DVDs was not the best. So I got the new and improved version - Philips DVP5960 that was supposed to improve the standard DVD playback and give me a decent remote as well as a front USB port. Not to mention DVD up-conversion with an HDMI port.
Features
The player can play DivX, Xvid and JPEG files, MPEG1, VCD, SVCD, MPEG2, MP3, WMA. You do not need to create a VCD disc structure, just copy the MPEG/AVI files to a CD-R/W or DVD-R/W or DVD+R/W disc and insert it into this player and it will play them. Pretty mach all formats are supported short of DVD-Audio or SACD.
The player can play PAL and NTSC discs on a PAL or NTSC TV. It can even convert PAL to NTSC and vice versa. Nice. The progressive scan and the upconversion to 720p or 1080i are also nice features.
Connectivity
The player has only a coaxial digital audio out (no optical). There is also an analog stereo audio out, a composite video out and a component video out, but no S-Video. There is also an HDMI out. Pretty much all you need (well, some people might prefer an optical audio out over coaxial; but I personally do not care). All outs are well-marked and arranged well.
The front panel has a USB jack which you can connect USB drives with media files to and play those files from the drive.
Operation
This DVD player is medium-sized and is not too lightweight. There are not many buttons on the front panel. The display is bright, but is still pretty small in terms of the amount of information it fits. For comparison, the Panasonic displays feature several colors, clear separation of digit groups and more real estate.
The DVP5960 is more intuitive to use than the DVP642. Its remote is much better than the remote control of the DVP642, which had rows and rows of poorly-marked buttons with some buttons having several uses. Although still not as good as my Panasonic DVD remotes (which I could use my eyes closed), this remote is usable.
The onscreen displays are not as informative or well-designed as the ones of Panasonic, but are better than the DVP642 ones. The player can convert PAL to NTSC rather well. I noticed no jerky movement and the image quality was pretty good. I used the component video connection.
The image quality overall was very good (better than the DVP642, but still not as good as most Panasonic DVD players) and the sound was good as well (using coaxial digital connection to my receiver). The player played my MPEG and AVI computer files flawlessly. There is a short delay before the playback of the each file, but it was pretty short.
The files can be burned on a CD-R/W or DVD disc of any format (+/- R/W) just as a regular data CD with no VCD structure needed. You can even record AVI and MPG files onto a DVD-R/W or DVD+R/W and the player will play them. Pretty nice for pirated material and you-know-what-else.
Overall, I like the fact that it plays PAL on an NTSC TV and plays computer-friendly videos. A great player for people who need to play European DVDs or downloaded videos was improved upon and is now a better choice for ones who also want to play regular DVDs.
The USB port in front accepts flash memory drives that are formatted with FAT32 and plays material from them as well. I have not experimented with this feature much yet.
Likes
Low price is a nice thing. Connectivity options, features, PAL playback and conversion to NTSC, computer video file playback. Decent build quality, very good video and sound. HDMI and upconversion, USB port.
Dislikes
Cheap LCD display, remote still could be better, image quality playing DVDs, although improved, still not as good as Panasonic.
Bottom Line
If you need to play PAL discs on an NTSC TV, play computer files (including MP3, WMA, MPEG and AVI) and DivX, or play media files from a USB drive, the DVP5960 is a good choice. And the HDMI port and upconversion at this price are also impressive. But if you just want a DVD player with excellent picture quality and ease of use, you might want to consider the Panasonic DVD-S52 for similar price.
HDMI upconversion to 720p, 576p, and 1080i, front USB port for digital photos and music, DivX playback, DVD, DVD±R/RW, VCD, DivX, CD, MP3-CD, CD-R/...More at eCOST.com
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