I am looking for a DVD recorder that would have all the features of Philips 5990 in terms of playback (it plays almost any format) including video playback from USB devices.

After searching, I found these two:
Panasonic DMR-EA38VK
Phillips 3576

Some websites say that they can not play video from USB devices. Can anyone confirm this? I do not need to record from USB to DVD, I just want to be able to play avi videos.

Any other suggestions?

I'm almost positive the EA-38 (manual (http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/DMREA38V-MUL.PDF)) only plays JPEGs from the USB port.

At the risk of repeating myself, I will once more say that if you want a relly good player, and a recorder, get separate components. Very few recorders make great players. You will be happier with separate units.

A USB connection would be digital and the MPPA will not allow DVD copying via a digital output. Of course that hasn't stopped people from doing it internal drives on computers.

This DVD recorder has USB and SD card slots and does play .avi & divx files very nicely....

:)