I have an old Sony progessive scan player thats finally starting to go bad on me...so i thought I would turn to the experts here for a reccomendation on a good budget HDMI upconverting player. There are only 2 things I'm looking for...

1. I have an old Samsung 4674 DLP and the zoom modes built into the tv are crap, so i need a player that has good zoom modes (my current Sony doesn't have any)

2. I'm an employee at Best Buy, so if you know of any good players that they carry I would prefer to buy one of those so i can take advantage of the emp discount.

From what I've been reading, the best 2 players BB carries currently (not including HD-DVD and Blu-ray) are the Sony DVP-NS75H, i think thats the right model, and the Samsung HD860. I'm trying to stay away from the Magnolia products i.e Denon and Pioneer Elite cause they are a bit out of my price range.

I was originally leaning toward the Sony, but it appears that player doesn't have good if any zoom modes, just magnifying the screen. I have heard some players will actually have various zoom modes for watching various screen formats on HDTVs, so thats the type of zoom mode I am looking for.

I'm not looking at spending a whole lot of money on this, as I plan on buying either a blu-ray or HD-DVD player once the prices drop and the format war is over.

Any reccomendations?

Hello. I've got the Sony and just bought it refurb at ecost for cheap. They also have it refurb on the Sony site for cheap, too. I'm quite impressed with the player especially for what you pay for it. There are several adjustments you can make and I have it connected to an el-chealpo Astar 32" LCD with HDMI input and the picture, after a little adjustment, is fantastic. I would highly recommend trying out this player, even if the zoom mode does not do exactly what you want. The picture is impressive and for the prices they are charging for the refurbs (90 day factory warranty), it's a steal!!

JMHO.

The Oppo 970-hd refurbs are the real bargain, and the sony's can't even come close..

I gotta tell you, I tried out a Denon 557, Panasonic S52, and the ultra-cheap Philips 3960, and believe it or not, I'm keeping the Philips. I am replacing a Samsung 741, also an upconverting DVD player, but one with a few annoying playback habits. For $45 at Walmart, I'm not sure you can do a whole lot better. The more players I tried out, the less I thought they were making a difference. I use a Panasonic ae700u projector, so I feel as though differences in picture quality are probably easier for me to see than someone on a 42" plasma, and I really didn't feel as though I was losing anything by going with the Philips. The Panasonic had some issues with DVD-R discs, and the Denon looked flat out terrible, just washed out and unimpressive. Factor in Divx playback, and I really don't see how you can go wrong. Some have pointed out the lack of S-Video, but is that really why you bought this player? I can sort of see how the lack of an optical digital out might be a slight problem for some, but considering you can use a $2.00 video cable with no discernable sound quality issue, seems more like a blessing than a curse.

You skeptics out there ought to try one out. You can keep it for 90 days and return it for 100% of your money back if it doesn't grow on you.

Agree.
Philips owns the low end of the market, IMHO.
Philips players are known for their universal compatibility (esp. great DivX playback), bargain prices and very good for the price picture.
I liked the first Philips I got so much that decided to buy 2 more (one for each TV)
So now I have three in my posession - two DVP5140's + a DVP5960 (upconverting).
Total cost: $150 (for all three purchased new). :)
The DVP3960, mentioned in the previous post is identical to the DVP5960 only without the USB.

Regarding the slight cropping of the picture when upscaling to 720p or 1080i, is there a firmware fix for that? I suppose it doesn't really matter that much, particularly if you are watching something which is letter boxed more than 16:9, but it is a funny little quirk. Does the picture actually get cropped at the bottom, or is the image just compressed a little bit overall?

Steve,

Does the Philips 3960 upconvert over component?

Not that I can see. The menu for selecting various resolutions does not appear unless the HDMI connection is active. When it is unplugged, there is no way to change resolutions as far as I can tell.

Not that I can see. The menu for selecting various resolutions does not appear unless the HDMI connection is active. When it is unplugged, there is no way to change resolutions as far as I can tell.
Thanks. Also, is this a region-free player or do you have to hack it?

All of my DVDs are Region 1, so I'm not sure. I would think that you would have to hack it, seeing as how there are various hacks for the 5960, which is basically the same machine with a USB connection.

Thanks. Also, is this a region-free player or do you have to hack it?
Most definately you'd have to hack it, but it's a simple and harmless process.
I don't have access to the DVP3960, but chances are that it would be succeptable to the same 10 second hack that works so well with its close cousins (DVP5140, DVP5960). I've hacked all of my Philips players. This hack works!
I wonder if Stevechan could try it on his DVP3960 and report back.
Here is the hack:

1. Turn on the unit
2. Open the loading tray
3. Press the "Setup" button on the remote
4. Navigate to the "Preferences" page using the right arrow key
5. Enter 138931
6. You will now see the current region code displayed
7. Use the Up/Down arrow keys to select the region required or "0" for all regions
8. Press the "Setup" button on the remote
9. Press "OK" on the remote

Edit: this hack has been tested on the Philips DVP5140, DVP5960 and DVP3960 (thanks stevechan).

ok so a couple things...

which of these players are available at Best Buy, i know the Oppo's aren't so thats out.

Sounds like the Philips is the way to go, how is the zoom feature on that player? Does it actually have different formats or does it just magnify 2x 4x and so on?

So the Sony, which is the most expensive one we carry at BB, is not reccomended?

FYI, I followed the directions, and was able to set the region code to 0 as instructed. Don't have any non-region 1 DVDs to test it out, but pretty certain that it works the same on this model.

FYI, I followed the directions, and was able to set the region code to 0 as instructed. Don't have any non-region 1 DVDs to test it out, but pretty certain that it works the same on this model.
Great, thanks. :)

The Oppo 970-hd refurbs are the real bargain, and the sony's can't even come close..

Where do you find Refurbs?

which of these players are available at Best Buy, i know the Oppo's aren't so thats out.
So the Sony, which is the most expensive one we carry at BB, is not reccomended?
According to the BB's website, none of the Philips models discussed here are available. The brick&mortar stores might have a different selection.
Do you care about DivX? Cause Sony players don't support that.
Besides I thought you were looking for a budget player? :confused:

Hard to imagine finding a lower priced upconverting player than the Philips 3960 at Walmart for $45.

Where do you find Refurbs?

You have to call Oppo and ask. I expect availability varies day to day.

-Bill

The Oppo refurbished prices (shipping not included):

OPPO DV-981HD - $183
OPPO DV-970HD - $119
OPPO OPDV-971H - $160

Not what I call "budget".

You have to call Oppo and ask. I expect availability varies day to day.

-Bill


Thanks!

The Oppo refurbished prices (shipping not included):

OPPO DV-981HD - $183
OPPO DV-970HD - $119
OPPO OPDV-971H - $160

Not what I call "budget".

Depends on the definition of budget. I'd call $119 pretty budget. the 418 for $80 shipped is also budget. When you get down to a $45 unit, it might soon turn into a "you get what you pay for" unit ;-) At that price point, you just can't build longevity into the player. But 2 years is a long time for a player these days.

jeff

I would venture to say that the difference in cost from one unit to the other probably has less to do with predicted reliability than you might think. Take the $45 Philips player. I suspect that the drive mechanism is pretty much identical throughout their line. Moreover, I bet that it is the same drive mechanism that is used in players many multiples more expensive. In this day and age, cheap doesn't necessarily mean crappy, it just means that the per unit cost of the sum total of components is so low that Philips, their distributor, and Walmart can still make a couple of bucks on a $45 DVD player. Like all other electronics, if you use the heck out of the unit for the first few days and it survives, it's likely to survive for a long time. The best thing about buying it from Walmart is that you have a 90 day return policy, at which point most "infant mortality" issues should be moot.

In this day and age, cheap doesn't necessarily mean crappy, it just means that the per unit cost of the sum total of components is so low that Philips, their distributor, and Walmart can still make a couple of bucks on a $45 DVD player. Like all other electronics, if you use the heck out of the unit for the first few days and it survives, it's likely to survive for a long time.
+1

Hard to imagine finding a lower priced upconverting player than the Philips 3960 at Walmart for $45.

yup... just got one yesterday... nice unit for the price... I found the remote to be a tad 'sticky'... need to often push buttons several times. My MAJOR gripe, is the unit stretchs all 4x3 format movies to wide when using the upconversion... to watch a fullscreen dvd w/o distortion, requires that you turn the upconversion OFF... this sucks big-time, & I am returning the unit. The 5960 does this also.

See more details at my thread on this; which I recently posted in this forum...."Upconversion players force 4x3 to widescreen"

I was told the higher-priced Denon players have a vertical-letterboxing feature... but so many nice units under $100... I just can't see spending twice the price for something that should be a BASIC feature... who wants to watch a classic [4x3] movie stretched out & distorted..??

One thing about classic 4:3 movies is that the picture quality isn't all that great to begin with in many cases, which makes the upconverting "feature" more or less a non-issue. Did you really see a sigificant improvement in the picture quality when you upconverted the signal? If the answer is no, then the 4:3 stretching problem goes away as well.

Like all other electronics, if you use the heck out of the unit for the first few days and it survives, it's likely to survive for a long time. The best thing about buying it from Walmart is that you have a 90 day return policy, at which point most "infant mortality" issues should be moot.

I totally agree that if it works past the first couple of months, that'll it'll be good for "awhile". These days though awhile is about 2 years, in my experience. Furthermore the current players are not worth repairing when they break (if you can find someone willing to work on them) since the cost of the repair is typically at least as much as a new comparable player.