I picked up my Philips 5965 a couple of weeks ago from HN in Bendigo for $188. So far I have been pretty happy with it - in fact it keeps surprising me with the things it can do.

I have hooked it up via HDMI to my Pana 60A 50" plasma. Audio by coax to my Yamaha receiver. (there is no optical out unfortunately which is probably the biggest negative, there is no DTS support either) However, the audio quality is still quite good, whether via HDMI thru the plasma's audio out to the receiver or directly by coax. A great pity that DTS support and optical audio couldn't have been included - even the cheapest players have that much. Dolby 5.1 seems to work from the coax connection even though I have HDMI connected as well, I say seems to because although 5.1 is selected, the PCM symbol displays on the receiver. This is probably the issue to be addressed in a firmware update as discussed in another thread.

When looking for this player I had a couple of musts in mind, firstly Divx playback and secondly HDMI with some upscaling ability. This player delivers well on these criteria. Another feature I wanted was USB input, this has proven to be a bit of a bonus. I had an old 20Gb hard drive left over from a PC upgrade - also have an external enclosure which normally houses my data backup 120Gb drive. I decided to reformat the 20Gb drive to FAT32 format (NTFS format won't work via USB port on the Philips) and dumped some downloaded avi files on it - behold they worked fine! This is despite the manual which says "USB port can supports (sic) the playback of JPEG/MP3/WMA files" Not all files will play, it is a bit picky with codecs but most normal Divx and Xvid downloads work well. JPG pictures display beautifully as well.

PQ from DVD playback is excellent. I have set output to 720p since it is the nearest to my screen's native res. Picture is noticeably better than from my old Samsung player where the screen does the upscaling. The slot-loading feature has worked ok so far, haven't had a problem - touch wood!

In summary, this is a good reasonably priced stop-gap player before Blu-Ray and HD DVD hit the scene. It doubles as a competent media player as well - either thru its USB port or data DVDs with pretty good file compatibility. Audio format support doesn't mirror video however which will turn away many who would otherwise have snapped them up.

Ron

After a few more weeks, there's been some more to report on this player. Some of you may have seen a review of several HDMI DVD players in the "Connect" lift out of the News corp daily last week. In that article the writer mentioned that a firmware update available from Philips addresses the lack of DTS support. I rang them after reading that and duly received a CD in the mail. After running the upgrade I now have DTS via the coax output - Huzzah. Problem is that I now have no HDMI output! (<edit> see next post - now fixed!) Just a black screen.
I had some jerky playback on component too but fiddling with menus (e.g. switching progressive off and on again) seem to have fixed that. I did a bit of searching but so far haven't found any reports of loss of HDMI output after upgrading firmware. If anyone has any ideas...

Ron

Halleluiah!
I now have 720P output via HDMI and DTS sound via co-ax! I had to connect both component and HDMI at the same time which gave me access to the HDMI menus. I then selected 720P and changed back to HDMI input on the plasma from AV2 component - after a few secs up it came.
I can only surmise that the default screenmode on the HDMI output after the firmware upgrade was below what the Pana would display (480P?)

Concert for George is playing now beautifully upscaled and in fine DTS audio. This player officially rocks for around $165 or so on the street, it's a real bargain after you sort it out.

Ron

<edit> PS, I thoroughly recommend Selby Acoustics on ebay, I had a 1.5 metre HDMI cable delivered in less than 24 hours for less than $30. Can't fault it either.

Hey Ron,

I've just bought a 5965 and I'm wondering if it is capable of playing 720p resolution DivX files. I know it upscales standard def videos to 720p but what about hi def files? I tried to play a 720p divx file but it showed a "Usupported video resolution" message but I still don't have a HDMI connection so I don't know if it's related to the lack of HDMI. Have you tried playing Hi Def divX videos on this player?

Thanks a lot,

Felipe

SO it can support with USB external hard disk without problem? As for the specs , it says "The USB port does not support the connection of other USB devices except USB flash drive or USB memory card readers.
".

Checking out HD Divx files is next on my agenda, though I wouldn't hold out too much hope, the chipset in this player is not likely to support high res files. It does do Divx Ultra but that is not necessarily HD, just adds menus a la DVD menus. I will try some out tonight however. If you can post a link to a good reasonably short demo in 720p that would be appreciated.

Ron


Yep as stated in an earlier post - the external HDD has to be formatted FAT32, then it works like a charm.

Ron

If you do not mind me asking, what made you go for this player over the Pioneer DV-696AV-S

Pioneer DV-696AV-S

Also you mentioned that you have set it to upscale to 720p....with your Panasonic can it not go to 1080i?

It was mainly down to price difference at the time. The Philips had the features I needed and I thought with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray machines due soon, this would be a low cost stop gap versatile unit.

On the second point - I haven't yet tried 1080i output because I figured that since the native res of the Pana is 1366x768, 1080i would be downscaled by the panel anyway. I will try it out though and compare.

Ron

Thanks for that, I really look forward to it as I am getting the same screen as you :-)

Tried downloaded 720p divx file and - sorry "resolution not supported" message showed even though I was sending a 720p signal from the player via HDMI. The audio did play though curiously.

I also tried changing to 1080i output when playing a DVD and could not really tell the difference from 720p as I expected. I don't have a proper test pattern DVD to fully assess any differences - another item on the shopping list. But LOTR The Two Towers didn't reveal anything - although when I cut back to 480p the jaggies etc. became very apparent! I think I'll be sticking with 720p, PQ is very nice indeed.

Ron

Thanks for the tests you carried out....now I just need to decide on the player, philips or Pioneer.......both look like excellent buys

Thank you for your reply....

Now on the theoretical part of the discussion, do you have any reasons to believe it's a chipset issue that causes HD resolutions not to be supported? I'm asking that just to decide if a keep the hope of a next firmware release fixing that.

I'm confused because I can't see why a 1080i capable DVD won't play a 720p file but at the same time I can't see why Philips would choose not to support it if it was simply a matter of firmware...

Regards,

Felipe

Good point Felipe. I have sent an email via the Philips support site asking about this issue. If any other owners did the same - the more the merrier: http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/..._SU_AU_CONSUMER
Ron

The reason may well be that DivX HD ( there are SOME players licenced for this standard) requires more compute power to decode. DivX is a version of MPEG4 which gives high quality video with small space requirements; the flipside of this is that it requires a lot more processor power to decode the 1280x720 image than the 720x576 (DivX) video or 720x576 MPEG2 (DVD) video.

Upscaling (especially on cheap players) can be a very easy processor exercise if done is its basic form.

In relation to another question posed above, DivX is a video standard, it does not specify the Audio method to be used. Commonly people use MP3, but more are now using AC3 encoding; you need to ensure your chosen player supports playback of these codecs for when playing back DivX or MP4 files.

M.

Anyone here tried the Pioneer Player?

This is a quote from an email I received regarding HD divx playback:

"Hello Ron:

This model does not support HD Divx. There is no software available.

We apologise for the inconvenience.

Kind Regards,


Technology Care Centre
Philips Consumer Electronics, Sydney, Australia
Level 2, 65 Epping Road,
NORTH RYDE NSW 2113
Ph: 1300 363 391"

Oh well. I can still watch HD downloads via my PC.

Ron.

Anyone try the karaoke function? I use my PC mic, it fit perfectly to the DVD player but no voice. Do I need a proper mic?

When I on the unit, it always try to load disc. Is this normal?

Hello guys,

I am planning to buy this dvd player but I have some doubts in my mind so please clear my doubts.

Here are my questions :-

1. I want to connect 5965k to my TV via hdmi for video only and connect it directly to amplifier via dvd player's coaxial out for audio only. Will this work ?

2. Will I get dts output after applying the firmware update ?

Does this mean I can download videos onto my Blueeye 40 gig portable HDD and play them via the philips DVD player?
Cheersl


If I buy a NEW 5965,will I still have to do the software upgrade,or is it included already?
Cheers

As long as your portable 40gig player is formatted as a FAT32 device, (not NTFS), it should show up when connected via USB to the 5965. The videos should work if they are normal "home theatre" .avi files.

Bit of an unknown whether or not new stock will have the upgraded firmware. I'll check when I get home which version it is and how to check. I'll then post back here. (I am @work) If you need the firmware, PM me and I can email the .bin file, just a matter of burning it to CD and putting in the player.

To Anirudh, yes you can connect the sound via co-ax after the firmware upgrade and it should work even when video is going via HDMI. DTS selection works too!

Ron

Further to my earlier post today - to check your firmware version, press setup on the remote, then key in 1379 - the version no. will be displayed. The latest available is version 93.06.37.34 which you can get from the philips website: http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/..._75_fur_eng.pdf
Instructions for installing are there too.

Ron

If you wish to use a hard disk bigger than 32Gb as a media player attached to the 5965 via USB, see this post regarding getting it formatted to FAT32 and thereby usable on this player:
http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?s=&...st&p=530316
Thanks to FlashGordon for the tip.

Ron

I got mine on Monday and it had the latest firmware...so no worries there

And making it region free is an absolute doddle.

FG


My Player is an absolute dream for the money....and has played all DivX Files I have thrown at it on any disk and USB drive....once I made the USB drives FAT32 of course....

However i do have one gripe.

It seems to only want to show truncated or Max 8 character filenames....

At least double the 8 would be great.....32 characters even better!

Is there a firmware available for the player to increase the filenames of the DivX files, etc. that are shown in the Disk/USB Listing?

I thought we had gotten past DOS style file naming...but obviously not.

Any ideas...thoughts....input?

Pioneer have done it for some of their players so I have read in one of the groups in this forum.

FG

sounds like something we as users need to be lobbying Philips for. We should each send them an email asking for these features in a forthcoming firmware:
1. Support for NTFS formatted USB drives
2. Support for longer file-names
3. Support for HD Divx and Mpeg4 files
...anything else?

Ron

A quick question on this player, does it support resuming playback from X number of discs? ie. If you've had a disc in the machine will it remember where you were playing from next time you insert it?

...uuhh, nope. Not as far as I can tell. I tested with the Cars movie, but it merely went back to the start when it was ejected and reloaded. No menu option would seem to turn on any resume function either.

Ron

It doesn't seem to have a disk memory that I can see....just begins at the beginning with each disk.

I suppose to have everything in a machine of that cost is impossible...always going to be something missing....such as the play memory or no optical audio connection, etc.

Or it has everything but doesn't work....!

At least this works very very well with what it has for its price tag.

FG

no it does not, neither does my philips 5900. I queried philips on this and they say its been removed from their product lineup and will not be added back in.



Very annoyed but not enough reason to take it back :/

I'm afraid that's a deal breaker for me, I can't get one that doesn't have resume, as my current old Pioneer does, and the wife uses the feature a LOT... so it looks like it's the Sony DVPNS76H for $200 is for me... it's got 40 disc resume... will do me fine

final question from :ph34r:
what does everyone here recommend i should get until hd-dvd and/or bluray go mainstream

i've narrowed the list down to
-Sony DVPNS76H for $200
-or philips dvp 8965k for around $200
-or the pioneer DV-696AV-S for $250

Because its short term...at low cost I would definitely go the the Philips 5965 player - which you should get for less than $150 by the way.

Why? because I am doing the same thing....except I will probably get the Pioneer down the track at my leisure or a HD Player when the King of DVD is decided and prices come down quite a bit.

Also because I can safely say the Philips is worth every cent.

FG

Well, that's really a personal decision, as they all have plusses and minuses..

* The Sony (What I'll be getting) - Has had pretty much nothing but positive reviews from owners for image quality, has the resume feature for discs which I need, and is at the edge of my $200 limit.

* The Philips comes in even cheaper than the Sony, has USB connection and seems to do a good job also. However it is limited by not having resume for discs, and also to only 8 characters for divx files (I can't remember the last divx file I had with only 8 characters)

* The Pioneer - I didn't read up as much about this as it was over the $200 limit I had, but I think you're paying for quality here... you get both hi-res audio formats (SACD and DVD Audio)... not sure what you get with the others, but I don't think both.

so true spoco

i ended up getting the philips for $150 from HN
the resume disc doesnt really bother me so thats no problem
the length of the 8 characters for divx files will get annoying but ill deal with it

guys

I am getting DVP5965K/94. Is this the right version ?

The "/94" on the end of your model no. refers to the country/countries it is meant to be sold in. The /75 suffix is the Australia/NZ version, Not sure which country the /94 is, it doesn't appear on a search at Philips support: http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/...cy=&dct=FUR
If you are happy to use a non-aust. region coded player seeing that is is a simple thing to turn of region coding anyway, then go for it.

Ron

I have just bought this unit as well...and love it! However, when trying to get the karaoke working (for the kids, I must stress), I am facing the same problem as 88egg. I am using a 'proper' mic. I have also followed pg 31 of the manual, so the karaoke function is turned 'on' and volume has been adjusted.

Has anyone got the karaoke function working on this model? Is it a setting that I've missed?

Thanks...chaddy

I'm that writer. Since then I've made a discovery about the Philips DVP 5965K that makes it a no go player. It has to do with its HDMI output, which actually reduces picture quality. See my article 'HDMI hobbled by poor DVD specification'. This player is mentioned towards the bottom.

I would suggest that you spend a little more and purchase a Pioneer or a Panasonic that allows you to set the de-interlacing mode manually.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings.

My Philips was always going to be a short term player required urgently to play DivX files as i could not get hold of a Pioneer 696 for love nor money....and the Philips plays DivX well using component!

My real player is a Denon...until the HD wars are sorted and a bit cheaper....

Cheers

FG

Ah, I see from your .sig that you have a DVD-1920. I recently looked at the new entry level Denon model and found something strange. Its 'auto' de-interlacing mode also works by reading the (incorrect) progressive/interlaced flag on the DVD, and so sets itself incorrectly. But it has an override in the setup menu, which the manual describes so:

'AUTO1: Automatically selects the best image output (AUTO2 OR VIDEO) based on the information of data stream.

'AUTO2: A combination of the top and bottom fields is output as one-frame image.

'VIDEO: Either of top or bottom field is output for one-frame image.'

[sic]

So Auto2 is supposed to weave, while Video bobs. But Auto2 was doing nothing of the sort, giving identical, poor, results as Auto1.

Then I tried the Video setting. This cleaned up the image, restored the detail, eliminated the jaggies and moire. Double check: I put on a PAL DVD which I know has interlaced sections and in Video mode, heavy combing was apparent.

So, strangely, this player has seemingly got the wrong processing circuits attached to the labels. If you are watching a film-sourced PAL DVD, you should switch the player to Video mode. If you are watching a video-sourced PAL DVD, you should switch it to Auto1 or Auto2.

I wonder, have you experimented with this on your 1920? Do the settings work the way they claim in your model?

Given the information you have released, do you see any downside to this unit using HDMI for non-DVD-Video sources (eg DivX)?

I have mine hooked up to a Pana 50px600a, the panel tells me it's using a 1080i signal, I've used the upscale function to check 480p and 720p also but so far I've seen the best picture from 1080i on the files I've tried.

As it is DivX files I assume there are no Flag related concerns with this format, just the HDMI "handshakes" to have things work as advertised (hopefully).

I have a Pana DMR unit that I can use for real DVD-Video streams (again at 1080i over HDMI) so won't need to worry about bad DVD-Video sources...

Thanks!

If I connect a external hard disk to 5965k dvd player, will it require power from outside source or power from dvd player usb input would be enuf.

Will the USB plug on the dvd player get loose if I plug in n out any usb pen drive in a long run.

plz reply.

Generally 2.5 inch HDD's require two USB sockets, one for power and one for power / data.

3.5 inch HDD's always come with an external power supply.

WRT constant use, you'll probably wear out the player before you wear out the USB socket, but if you are really concerned about it, you could leave a short M-F extension lead plugged into the player and plug your pen-drive into that.......

Austen.

My sincere apologies for not getting back about this sooner.....been too busy dealing with the Strong thread.....

Nope, not experimented with the 1920....as it plays 'normal' movies beautifully....but really makes a mess of avi/divx movies by surrounding the "movie/show" with big black bands....although the content is very clear.

Hence my getting - for the immediate future - the Philips, untill I can find and get a suitable player that is good enough to replace the fantastic Denon and the Phillips.

Cheers

FG

I got the 5965K from the Good Guys today for $120...
Good price?? Probably?

How to interpret Philips 5965 version numbers? I am not sure whether the firmware I have is latest or not. The one on the website has differrant version numbers.

Which version number do you have? The latest on the website is 93.06.37.34
If yours is numerically lower, then you'll need the upgrade. To check your firmware version, press setup on the remote, then key in 1379 - the version no. will be displayed.

Ron

That sounds like a great price. What was the sticker price, and did you have to do much haggling?

I am assuming the USB input allows you to play downloaded video files without the need to burn them to DVD,and simply delete them when no longer needed,thus saving a lot of blank DVD.s?
Cheers

Yes, in my case I just use a pen drive, for short clips or boring people with the holiday snapshots. The Philips picks it up straight away and displays a directory/file tree.
However not all USB devices are supported. For example my elderly Sandisk card reader that came with my equally elderly Kodak produces the "unsupported device" message, but it loves any stick drive and my Ministry of Sound MP3 player.

Yep do some more reading, you can connect FAT32 partitioned hard drives to this USB slot also.
There are also hacks to get around the Windows 32gb limitation of FAT32 also.
I use a 300GB drive with no problems (other than the lack of long file name support).

Cheers