i have a philips 5996 and a pioneer BDP-51FD. For dvd upscaling playback, the Pioneer is better..but not alot. I find the philips 5996 really good for a RM360 player. And as a bonus it plays SACD too

got it from A&L puchong.

I just went to lowyat Desa to browse for DVD player. Spoke to a lovely lady staff there who took her time explaining to me. I ask bout Philips 5996 and Pioneer 410. Both same price RM360 and both comes with free HDMI cable. But she recommend Pioneer over Philips due to

1. Pioneer generally better build quality
2. Pioneer gives 3 years warranty (valid if the warranty card is sent out within January 2009) while Philips only 1 year warranty
3. Pioneer front panel has lots of buttons to access the menu and playback options while Philips front panel is very bare (in case the controller is lost or the controller malfunction, the Pioneer still can be controlled with the buttons at the front panel compare to the Philips)

Tested playing DVD, but just to confirm the DVD player is in working condition. Tested with the USB drive. I put .mp4, .avi, .dat, .mpg files in the thumb drive. The only file that can be played is .avi files (i tried with a movie and one episode of series in avi format). Hmmm... other format not supported. Still not yet try with .avi files of anime. Hope it works. I hope I made the right choice picking DV 410 over the Philips 5996 to pair with Panasonic TH-42PV80HM.

i just tried to play 720p divx (converted from .mkv) on the DV-410.. guess what, the player does not recognize the file at all.. so I googled and found out that the player only supports divx with resolution of 576 (PAL) or 480 (NTSC). i haven't tried WMV so don't know whether it can support or not..

but even the .avi file has lower res than 480, the picture is good and a lot better than astro LOL.. but i expected more on dvd playbacks.. not satisfactory.. would love to try tosh's xde-500 and compare with dv-410 if got the chance. i hope this is the last dvd player i will ever buy (later upgrade to BD player).

Hey guys,

Since you all are into HDMI dvd player, may I know what are your current dvd collection, Original or Ahem?

There are few types of the latter or so called superbit dvd. They are ripped from BD and PQ wise is comparable to original but better than D9.

BD ripped ahem dvd also have few types, one is with similar BD box packing, one with just cover paper and also another with thick cover paper. They are sold at around RM13. Which one do you think yields the best picture??

mikapoh,
if you are refering to the original superbit dvds, they are not rips from BD. just dvd remastered for higher bitrate. this is the best pic quality for a dvd. but superbit dvds are now discontinued.

for ahem BDs, there are two types. one is cheaper with paperbox packing (like you mentioned) and the other one is supposedly ripped from BD and converted to DVD9. this one has hard plastic casing with hologram sticker. being sold at RM18. this one is a proper rip but I do not know if there is any difference from this compared to the regular DVD copy. regardless the resolution in DVD is still 720x480 right? theoritically the BD rip to DVD9 should have better quality but in the end the resolution is still the same, but maybe different bitrates?

i think i'll skip this BD rips and go straight to upgrade to real BD when the player prices have come down

as long as it's still a dvd, it can only go up to 720p
so actually it's not BD la, just ripped from BD

if u wanna play downloaded files like divs, realplayer u shd buy a dedicated multimedia player instead..

i own the ori dvd9 lotr series, watching with 32S400A but i can found it really worse than thr BD ripped DVD9 movie.
The mosaic effect is quite serious, but when i play the BD ripped version dark knight,i can see much improvement PQ.
And it cost me RM100 to buy the complete series of ahem BD ripped BBC "The earth of planet" documentary film and enjoy with the good and clear picture!

i bought the dvd player to play dvds as the main purpose.. just wanted to try out the extra functions available on the player. i can just use my pc to play other unsuported formats

usually DVD with USB DIVX function has quite limited video file playback codecs which limit their ability to play various video files..

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Added on January 15, 2009, 11:51 pmI too have quite a few superbit ori dvds, but yes, I feel those HD converted to DVD9 looks way better.. somehow...

as for Planet earth? why pay 100? download the 720p version and convert them your self to DVD9s..!

This post has been edited by ar188: Jan 15 2009, 11:51 PM

In my hometown, there are 3 types. First is thick paperbox D9 copied from Original DVD. Second is one cover paper D9 ripped from BD, and third is with blue plastic casing. The 2nd and last are the same quality, only one with plastic casing.

For PQ, I do agreed that some of these BD ripped D9 yield clearer picture compare to original dvd which cost much expensive! Therefore, most of my collection are these D9. Someone can comment further why is it better PQ than original, maybe like overfloe said, bitrates superiority?

As for SQ, have you guys noticed, the DTS Surround format in ahem D9 do not always generate better sound, although most of the time it is. For example, recently I bought Hell Boy II, normally I will choose DTS format, but during the movie, I switched to Dolby 5.1 and immediately, the sound becomes louder with clearer surround. I have experienced in some other movies of my collection. So, everytime when I watch a D9, I will make it a habit to do comparison between the 2 surround formats first before finishing the entire movie and later finds that I am not getting the best sound format out of the disc.

i think those dvds do not contain real DTS sound, hence the poor audio quality.

Some of the movies do not come with ori DTS sound
those Jack Sparrows only doing reencoding to create DTS tracks from the ori source
that's why sometimes u find that the DTS is worse than DD

Hi Guys,

Just only spend rm 10 plus, the quality for me acceptable liao~~! if compare with original you need to spend rm 80 plus maybe more than that depends the movie title.

You know at china, BD ripped to D9, just selling rmb 15, the packing hard plastic bag, the PQ acceptable.

" Ahem " BD jsut selling rmb 38, the packing look like Origina product.

yes notice them, thos DTS not so shiok but slightly louder,

with so many audio converters with integrated DVD rippers/burners around, maybe they just use the DD track and convert to DTS (with slight boost the sound level)...

So, ar188, do you always set to DD 5.1 when watching BD ripped D9? Or switch to DTS surround?


How do I get the real DTS surround format? By buying the Original dvd?

yes..original dvd..

i tried with original dvd, the PQ and SQ sound worst than my blu cover plastic D9

ur ori region? region 3 sumtimes not good quality and dont tell me ur ori is Speedy version... want good quality try region 1..

This post has been edited by fevercrash: Jan 17 2009, 10:27 AM