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.