Excellent Features at a great price

Several years ago we purchased a home theatre system made by Yamaha. It had a separate CD/DVD player that recently started malfunctioning after it started to heat up. So, we decided to purchase a new DVD player for the system especially since the old unit could not play MP3 and newer formats of compressed video (i.e., VCD, DiVX, etc).

I had already purchased a Philips DVD recorder and was pleased with the quality of that unit, so I looked at Philips for DVD players. I happened on the DVP5990 at Wal-Mart which was on sale for $59.00 (no longer available at Wal-Mart). The price was right and it contained features not available on other brands that were on display in the store. I decided that if I didn’t like it I would return it and look for something else.

EXTERIOR APPEARANCE/CONNECTIONS
The unit is a sleek, high-gloss black which should appeal to any user and go with most contemporary systems. The front panel has the basic on/off/standby button, eject, play, stop, and USB connector. The blue display is large enough to be read easily from several feet and is not too bright to be annoying in a dark room.

The rear connections are the standard ones. There is an HDMI out, analog video out, digital video out, analog audio and digital (coaxial) out. Unfortunately, there is no optical digital connection for audio – my guess is that this may have driven the cost up.

The remote uses 2-AAA batteries (included) and fits comfortably in the hand. The controls are very intuitive as I was able to figure out all of the features and menus without having to consult the owner’s manual.

SETUP
Setup was a snap. I couldn’t use the HDMI connection since I have already used both ports on my Samsung TV. Instead, I used the digital video connections and the analog audio (will be buying a coaxial cable shortly for the audio). The initial setup menus were easy to understand and I was up and running in no time.

PERFORMANCE/PICTURE
The player reads a wide variety of video formats and is very forgiving with different brands of media. I attempted reading DVDs burned on Office Depot branded DVD-R with no problems. Our previous player would not read that brand of media. So far, it has read everything I have thrown at it without a hitch.

This player (as with most newer models) has upconversion of DVDs to 1080i/p. The result is a surprisingly clear picture on large-format televisions. We don’t own a Blu-Ray player, but I was able to view a sample movie at the local Blockbuster Video. That picture is almost identical to the High Definition picture that we see with our DirecTV HD channels. Though the upconversion is nowhere near HD, but the picture is surprisingly crisp.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES
I mentioned that there is a USB port on the front of the player. This port provides some really cool features. First of all, you can plug in any FAT32 formatted USB flash drive. If there are pictures or video on the drive, they will be visible on the menu. The root menu will pop up on your television with any folders and/or files that have been found on the drive. Clicking on a picture folder will start a slideshow of the pictures on your TV. If you select a video file, it will also play at full screen. This is really a nice feature bypassing the step of having to burn a CD for viewing.

But, the fun doesn’t stop there… There is also a “create MP3” feature with this player. You can select numerous tracks from audio CDs and the player will convert and create MP3 files and folders which are then transferred to the flash drive. I was amazed to find this feature on a player that costs less than $60.00!

If I were to find any fault with this player, I would only say that there is no frame-by-frame feature when viewing a video. Since I have never used this feature before, I can’t say that I would really miss it. The other complaint is the lack of optical audio out. In the end, this player is packed with features that you won’t find on other players in the same price range. We have had a Philips CD Recorder for over a year and it has performed perfectly. I find that the design is intuitive and rarely requires a user’s manual. The website is chock-full of information and includes any firmware updates available for download (which is a great plus).

One would be hard-pressed to find a DVD player for the same money with as many features and with such a great design. I highly recommend this player for any home needing a DVD player.

SPECIFICATIONS

* 1080p video output gives you an HDTV-compliant picture with roughly twice the resolution of progressive-scan DVD players
* Plays DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, VCD/SVCD, MP3, WMA, DivX, DivX Ultra, JPEG, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 formats
* DivX and DivX Ultra playback integrates features such as subtitles, multiple audio languages, multiple tracks and menus into 1 convenient file format
* High-definition JPEG playback shows images in up to 2.0MP resolution on your flat TV, allowing you to view your digital pictures in their true resolution
* USB Direct plays photos and music from USB flash drives for slideshows
* Dolby Digital decoding for cinematic sound quality
* HDMI output provides an uncompressed all-digital audio/video link for the highest-quality connection and supports copy-protected HD broadcast content
* 108MHz/12-bit video digital-to-analog (D/A) conversion; 192kHz/24-bit audio digital-to-analog (D/A) conversion
* Video upsampling technology decreases distortion for improved picture quality of standard DVDs
* Outputs: coaxial digital audio, composite video, stereo audio, component video and HDMI
* Parental controls and child lock prevent your child from being exposed to undesirable material
* Trilingual on-screen display allows you to choose from English, French and Spanish
* Includes remote with 2 AAA batteries