[SkyWalker]

The DVD Player in my Yamaha system is showing signs of age : its finding difficult to read DVDs (initially). I am looking to replace it with a decent DVD Player. Here's my requirements:

• HD Upscale and HDMI Output
• Region free (or ability to set it via remote)
• Ability to play DVDs in "not so pristine" condition
• optical or coax audio o/p for the component system

I do not need any fancy features like DivX/JPGs/mp3s/browsing etc - for all those i connect my laptop to the TV.

Current Setup
TV: (The ubiquitous) PV8
HT: Yamaha Component System + Yamaha Speakers
Console : Wii

Any suggestions? Something in the 3-4k range would be great to have.

thanks for your time.

[SkyWalker]

picked up Philips 3996 after seeing razor4077's message. Quite happy with it. Good HDMI upscale, colors look nice, and has aux out to my amp.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

picked up Philips 3996 after seeing razor4077's message. Quite happy with it. Good HDMI upscale, colors look nice, and has aux out to my amp.

Can you tell me from where you bought this from and for how much. I searched a few shops in Indiranagar, but none of them had this model readily available. Got quotes of 3900 - 4500.

Thanks,
- Jag

PS: Please PM me the price if you dont want to post here.

[vasudeva]

Can the experts here suggest how do I watch closed captions on a DVD player hooked to a TV. This is because some movies have no english subtitles but have closed captions. These closed captions can be viewed on a PC but not on a DVD player hooked on to a TV. My DVD+TV setup is Pioneer DVD+Pioneer Plasma. Have searched a lot but have not found anything useful.

[drvhplyevraftr]

I also bought Philips 3996 after reading several reviews/recommendations here and at several other sites. I bought it for 3700 at ezone hyderabad. It plays all the Xvid, DivX files that I had downloaded/got from my friends. Also it was able to read the songs/movies collection (about 120 GB data) from my Transcend 160 GB HD in a few
secs. I havent tried the upscaling feature but the player is promising in all other aspects that I have tested and very much recommended.

[SkyWalker]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Can you tell me from where you bought this from and for how much. I searched a few shops in Indiranagar, but none of them had this model readily available. Got quotes of 3900 - 4500.

Thanks,
- Jag

PS: Please PM me the price if you dont want to post here.

Sorry for the delay, didn't check this thread for sometime. Always a good idea to PM if you need some priority info .

I checked in Viveks and another one(forgot the name) close to KFC. Vivek's had it in stock but price was high, the one next to KFC didn't have it in stock but was mentioning 3700. I finally picked it up in modern world (domlur) for 3700. Exchanged my old DVD Player for 700 and made a final deal of 3000/-. I believe the cheapest price quoted was what razor4077 got it for 3200 in Kolkotta.

@drvhplyevraftr: i have tried the upscaling and it works brilliantly. I see dramatic difference between this and my five year old (then high end) Yamaha model which used the component o/p.

[drvhplyevraftr]

@skywalker: I have an old sony HDTV which does not have HDMI input, hence not able to test the upscaling feature as the HDMI cable needs to be connected between the TV and the player for the player to upscale.

Offtopic: I see on the net that there seems to be a HDMI to component cable which can be used to connect a player to older non HDMI input HDTVs. Anyone has any idea where I can buy this in India (esp. Hyderabad)?. Thank you.

[nishantgandhi]

Originally Posted by drvhplyevraftr

I also bought Philips 3996 after reading several reviews/recommendations here and at several other sites. I bought it for 3700 at ezone hyderabad. It plays all the Xvid, DivX files that I had downloaded/got from my friends. Also it was able to read the songs/movies collection (about 120 GB data) from my Transcend 160 GB HD in a few
secs. I havent tried the upscaling feature but the player is promising in all other aspects that I have tested and very much recommended.

Just to clarify - what all file formats does it read from an external HDD? I have mostly avi, divx and a few mkvs.

Also, what all connections are possible? HDMI, S Video, VGA, Component audio/video, Aux etc?

[SkyWalker]

@nishant:
video o/p: HDMI, component and standard video only
audio o/p: coax, and 5.1

its very limited in terms of connectivity options, but since you have HDMI & coax you got all you need mostly.

@drvhplyevraftr: i am not sure if an HDMI-to-component would improve it in anyway, because component is anyway limited to 480p or 576p.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

I checked in Viveks and another one(forgot the name) close to KFC. Vivek's had it in stock but price was high, the one next to KFC didn't have it in stock but was mentioning 3700. I finally picked it up in modern world (domlur) for 3700. Exchanged my old DVD Player for 700 and made a final deal of 3000/-. I believe the cheapest price quoted was what razor4077 got it for 3200 in Kolkotta.

You got a nice deal. How come we didn't bump onto each other on sat? Even I went to Viveks, Pai (the one close to KFC), EZone, Girias etc. Didn't go towards domlur side.

[drvhplyevraftr]

@skywalker - from what I read from the net, a HDMI to component cable from the player to the HDTV should be enough to send the 1080p or 1080i signals to the TV and the TV should be able to display in that 1080p or 1080i resolution. If I dont use
the HDMI to HDMI cable, it is ofcourse not digital signals but analog but they are
1080p/1080i neverthless. There might be some loss in quality due to the analog
signals. However transfer via component cables does not necessarily mean they are
restricted to 480p or 576p.

Infact I read that there used to hacks available for some oppo DVD players which would enable upscaling (1080p or 1080i) via the regular component output itself.

A HDMI to HDMI being digital would help in copyright protection it seems (not sure of the details though), however the same does not apply for HDMI to component, hence transfer and recevial of HD signals via HDMI has become mandatory and a rule (not sure if it is applicable in India).

[SkyWalker]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

You got a nice deal. How come we didn't bump onto each other on sat? Even I went to Viveks, Pai (the one close to KFC), EZone, Girias etc. Didn't go towards domlur side.

well, you never know. Mebbe we bumped into each other but didnt know each other

Originally Posted by drvhplyevraftr

There might be some loss in quality due to the analog signals. However transfer via component cables does not necessarily mean they are restricted to 480p or 576p.

Infact I read that there used to hacks available for some oppo DVD players which would enable upscaling (1080p or 1080i) via the regular component output itself.

cool! that's nice to know.

[kaushik_s]

Hey guys, when I checked the Philips 3996 and 5996, I was told that the harddisk has to be FAT32 format. The player can't read NTFS format drives. Is it true? Please do let me know as I'm planning to get one such player.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

Hey guys, when I checked the Philips 3996 and 5996, I was told that the harddisk has to be FAT32 format. The player can't read NTFS format drives. Is it true? Please do let me know as I'm planning to get one such player.

Considering that you'd be playing from a pen drive and not directly from your PC hdd, do you think it is that much of a concern? From what I have heard, these players take a hell lot of time to load anything from a large disk. So, you are better off using a 2-4 Gb pen drive.

That said, even I have no idea whether these players support NTFS or not.

- Jag

[kaushik_s]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Considering that you'd be playing from a pen drive and not directly from your PC hdd, do you think it is that much of a concern? From what I have heard, these players take a hell lot of time to load anything from a large disk. So, you are better off using a 2-4 Gb pen drive.

That said, even I have no idea whether these players support NTFS or not.

- Jag

I don't want to keep on writing on a pen drive from my hard drive and instead would prefer to read the drive directly. The guy at the shop told me that he is using it with a 1TB drive and the he is not facing any delay kind of problem. But he told me that the drive has to be FAT32 formatted. So to verify this I wanted to know from the people who have this player if it;s the case. This definitely would save me from buying a media player like WD or something.