Hi all. Great site, maybe too good! So much information! :eek:

My first post here so please go easy, lol.

I'm looking to get my GF a DVD player for Christmas. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. The Oppo Digital reviews here read nice but they are way more than I want to spend for her viewing habits. She has an older 35 or 42 inch CRT TV. Just standard definition, 4:3.

I was starting to lean toward the Philips DVP5990 because I like the idea of being able to throw an .avi file on a USB thumb drive to watch at her house but it looks like there may be some issues with those reading through the long thread.

Is this player worth getting or is there something else in the ~50 to 55 dollar price range that I should look at? I'd like to have the USB connection, .avi, .mpeg, and maybe DivX playback. It most likely won't see much use but I'd like it last a couple years anyway.

Thanks much!! :D

just curious, but what would the usb connection be for?

Hi all. Great site, maybe too good! So much information! :eek:

My first post here so please go easy, lol.

I'm looking to get my GF a DVD player for Christmas. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. The Oppo Digital reviews here read nice but they are way more than I want to spend for her viewing habits. She has an older 35 or 42 inch CRT TV. Just standard definition, 4:3.

I was starting to lean toward the Philips DVP5990 because I like the idea of being able to throw an .avi file on a USB thumb drive to watch at her house but it looks like there may be some issues with those reading through the long thread.

Is this player worth getting or is there something else in the ~50 to 55 dollar price range that I should look at? I'd like to have the USB connection, .avi, .mpeg, and maybe DivX playback. It most likely won't see much use but I'd like it last a couple years anyway.

Thanks much!! :D

Try the search criteria here: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

Checking USB + divx + MPEG/DVD gives this: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers?DVDname=&Submit=Search&Search=Search&divx=1&dvdmpegiso=1&dvdportable=&dvdchanger=&dvdtv=&usb=1&chipset=&orderby=Name&hits=50

-Bill

just curious, but what would the usb connection be for?

Didn't he explain it clearly in his question?

-Bill

Thanks much for the link. :) Even more to read, LOL!!:D I never would have suspected there was so much involved in buying a DVD player. This is as much work as picking computer hardware!! :eek:

What would be helpfull is to know what display you GF is using.

She has an SD 42 inch CRT?

Hi guys. Yep, an oldish bigger CRT TV. I'm guessing at the size as I've never measured it. :o I just have a 27" tube TV and hers is bigger by quite a bit. I guess I'd have to say it's 35 inches or bigger.


Edit to add: I'm still kind of leaning toward the Philips DVP5990 at Walmart 'cuz it's $57.88 but the issues with it going pink (from the big looooong thread on it) kind of scare me.

Don't worry about going "pink" issue. Probably specific to certain TV. You'll be happy with Phillips 5990. You can always return it to Wallyworld if you don't like it. You have 30D MBG from Wallyworld and 1 year MFG. Be aware that without HDMI connectivity, you can't upconvert (unless you have Oppo 970hd that's been hacked with downloadable firmware--or other rare players)

Thanks! HDMI and upconverting aren't even in the equation right now. Heck, did they even make a tube with HDMI inputs??

Thanks! HDMI and upconverting aren't even in the equation right now. Heck, did they even make a tube with HDMI inputs??

Oh, yeah.

-Bill

Oh, yeah.

-Bill

Huh. I never would have thunk it! Can you tell I'm not a big audio/video kinda guy? :p

Anyway, I picked up the DVP5990 at Walmart tonight. What sucks is that they were out of component cables. :eek: Now I gotta get those yet!! :( I'll probably be the one to hook it up but still. Gotta have cable. :rolleyes:

Huh. I never would have thunk it! Can you tell I'm not a big audio/video kinda guy? :p

Anyway, I picked up the DVP5990 at Walmart tonight. What sucks is that they were out of component cables. :eek: Now I gotta get those yet!! :( I'll probably be the one to hook it up but still. Gotta have cable. :rolleyes:
Forget about component cables. It's going to get hooked up to a non-HD CRT TV. S-Video is fine. The CRT TV probably doesn't have component cable inputs anyway.

You can use any 3 RCA cables that's the same quality for Y (Green), Pb/Cb (Blue), and Pr/Cr (Red). Don't use the Red/White (audio) and Yellow (video) cable found in a lot of VCR boxes as they have different quality between the video and audio cables.

With component, best you can get is 480p out of the Phillips 5990. It's still better than 480i of Svideo or the worst is composite (single yellow RCA, 480i). I have some extinct players (Zenith DVB318, Neuneo HD108, LiteON LVD2001, Bravo D1, and Samsung HD941) which will upconvert to 1080i via component. Other players that'll do 1080i via component would include Momitsu v888 (880), Yamakawa 375, Bravo D2, LG DVB418/531/511/7832, Zensonic Z500, Avel Linkplayer, Buffalo Linktheater, Kingwell, Helios (Neuneo), HTPC with component adapter for certain video cards, and other rare players.

Oops. My bad. I said component cables and I meant the RCA red/white/yellow cable. I doubt the TV has S-Video or (like hdmi4ever said) component hookups. :o I guess I was getting tired. My 2001 Curtis Mathes TV doesn't have S-Video and I'm guessing her TV is from about the same time era. Sorry about that. I just have to get the regular RCA cables (composite?).

Oops. My bad. I said component cables and I meant the RCA red/white/yellow cable. I doubt the TV has S-Video or (like hdmi4ever said) component hookups. :o I guess I was getting tired. My 2001 Curtis Mathes TV doesn't have S-Video and I'm guessing her TV is from about the same time era. Sorry about that. I just have to get the regular RCA cables (composite?).
I used to have a CRT TV bought in 1999 that had S-Video. Most large TVs made in the late 1990s should have it. So if you're going for that you'd get a red/white RCA pair and a standalone S-Video. Or you could just go for the red/white/yellow triplet to be safe. The composite cable is just the yellow cable in that group, not the set of three.

There is quite a difference in picture quality between S-Video and regular RCA cables (composite?)' and I'd bet a 42" set would have something better than composite inputs. Perhaps you can get the S-Video and the composite cables somewhere you can return the unused ones after xmas; that way you could give her the better picture if her set can handle it.

Good ideas guys. Thanks! I picked up a three wire set (red/white/yellow) on my way to work today and I'm pretty sure I have a S-Video cable that came with my NEC monitor around. That should cover all the bases, yes? ;)

You can use any 3 RCA cables that's the same quality for Y (Green), Pb/Cb (Blue), and Pr/Cr (Red). Don't use the Red/White (audio) and Yellow (video) cable found in a lot of VCR boxes as they have different quality between the video and audio cables.

With component, best you can get is 480p out of the Phillips 5990. It's still better than 480i of Svideo or the worst is composite (single yellow RCA, 480i).

Just to update... I got to hook up the player tonight and mess around with it a little. It's hooked up with the composite cables that came with it. Yes, they were in the box. Her TV does not have HDMI but it does have component (1 set), composite (1 set) and S-Video (2!).

Forget about component cables. It's going to get hooked up to a non-HD CRT TV. S-Video is fine. The CRT TV probably doesn't have component cable inputs anyway.

I'm glad I didn't buy a S-Video cable though. The player I got only has HDMI, composite and component outputs on it. No S-Video. Oh well. The picture via composite is still WAY better than her "normal" cable TV.