 Better than I expected |
| Review Date: August 29, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Zachary Cole, Rockland, ME |
| I decided to buy a new DVD player when my old XBOX refused to play one of my discs. Thought about Blu-Ray, but the price and lousy user ratings turned me off. For folks like me, who have an HDTV and not a lot of dough, this is a solid option. It makes about a minute to hook up (buy a HDMI cable first!)The picture quality is great, especially with you fiddle with the settings via the menu. As others have mentioned, the remote is kinda cheap, but it works and that downside shouldn't stop anyone from buying this player. |
Great PAL/NTSC Upconverting Player
|
| Review Date: March 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: SB Leo, |
Pro's: Can play both NTSC & PAL DVD's. Region-free can be set by setting the region to 0 in the Preferences menu (see Others below). Excellent pictures from regular DVD's via (1080p upconverted) HDMI. Can be connected to both old and new TV's with composite, component, HDMI ports + stereo analog and coaxial digital audio. Menu has lots of options to set HDMI video/audio and digital & analog video/audio. Firmware is upgradable and can be downloaded from Philips.
Con's: The remote control is the only con I've found so far. It looks cheap and it really is cheap. You must sit directly straight in front of the player to control the player and it takes quite some time for the player to respond after a key on the remote is pressed. I didn't have a chance to test with a universal remote control, which might work better.
Others: I've only had the DVP3980/37 for a few days so I can't tell about its reliability. But from most of the reviews I read online, there were not many complaints about its reliability. Just open the disc tray, press Setup then go to the Preferences menu and enter 138931 on the remote control to magically have access to the Region setting. I'd like to thank Amazon.com for the lowest price I could find and the excellent shipping. With BD players can now be had for around 200 bucks, I don't want to spend more than $50 for a non-BD player and this fits the bill perfectly. BTW, I used a $3 HDMI cable, not a $50 one from some big name company to connect the player to my LCD TV. |
Great player, especially if you favor 720p hdtvs
|
| Review Date: May 24, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Lennon2600, |
I've used this DVD upconverting player on 720p and 1080p televisions, and I can tell you it's an impressive machine.
If you can excuse the austere menu design and the delay with which the player acknowledges user inputs (via the remote) to fast-forward or rewind at varying speeds, you'll be happy with it.
The picture is fantastic. It is true that newer DVD release tend to deliver better results. I tried to play a DVD purchased perhaps 5-6 years ago, and it didn't look very good, but for anything more recent, it will look very good. You can choose between various resolution levels, but after fiddling with them, I found that the Auto setting generally knew what to do. Not once have I had to override the player's automatic decisions.
Please note that I have only used this player with HDMI (as well as component audio).
Also, I found that a 1080p picture on a 1080p capable display was less crisp than a 720p picture on a 720p display, but I imagine that was to be expected. More important was my unfortunate encounter with the occasional stutter of playback via the 1080p setting. This was very occasional, though, maybe once for 2-3 seconds in a three-hour film. I don't know the cause of this issue.
Altogether, it is a good player for the money. |
So far great! For what that is worth.
|
| Review Date: February 9, 2009 |
| Reviewer: GBrag, Longmont, CO |
This Phillips machine works extremely well. It has some very nice features like auto shut down that takes you back to where it shut down when you turn it back on. It gives you a choice to start over if you would like. Nice stop, reverse and slow motion. Variable speed play also works well. Plus, it has decent menus.
There is one thing that is not right. The menu says to push a button on the control for a particular action but no such button exists. Probably had a different remote being shipped with it at some time.
The tray seems to be a bit flimsy and care should be taken in working with it.
It is really too early to tell about quality etc. with these things. I have had 3 in my household die in the last three years. All electronic, not mechanical, so, no, it is not from abuse. I am a EE and looked into seeing if there were simple fixes, but all of the failures were in the high density electronics or drive electronics, not power supplies nor connections. I checked solder joints as well, but without schematics this is a no hope repair, much more expensive than just buying a new unit. So, basically, they all are really just throw-aways. |
A Great Up-Conversion DVD Player that Converts PAL into NTSC
|
| Review Date: December 30, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Daniel Vincent, Louisville, KY USA |
I was looking to replace my DVD player with one that would also play my DVDs from the UK. I read some reviews and picked this player up for around $40 at my local super store. I have had this player for 6 months now. I have to say this is a wonderful player that has the same functions as players that cost many times this. I have had no issues with the player at all.
I was very pleased to see that with a setting change (see below), the player is able to play DVDs from any region (region free). It also converts PAL format to NTSC with amazing results. I can watch all my DVDs from the US and the UK with no issues. The upconversion of DVDs to high definition looks great on my 1080p 42" LCD television. The DVD player even supports DivX playback. I am very happy with this player for such a reasonable price.
To make player region free....
1. Open the DVD tray. - The splash screen displays.
2. Press 'Setup' on the remote control. - A menu pops onto the screen.
3. Scroll to 'Preference Page' using the left and right arrow keys to move along the top of the screen.
4. Enter the following number sequence: 1 3 8 9 3 1. - A menu will appear with the current region code displayed in the center of the screen.
5. Use the 'up' and 'down' arrow keys to select 0 for a region-free player or select a specific region from the Basic List of DVD Region Codes below.
6. Press 'OK'.
7. Press 'Setup'. |
Best buy for " ", Lowest Price + Free shipping. Get Now! |
No video reviews found for this product.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.