My DVP3040 quit on me. Froze during an Xvid movie and stopped working with DivX/Xvid, only plays regular DVDs now ... tried to clean the inside & reflash firmware, but all I can get out of it is a few seconds of playback and then it freezes again ... so I guess its short life is over

So I decided to get a new player but this time with USB playback support to avoid all the hassle of "no disk" and skipping I used to get from time to time on the 3040.

I haven't used other than Phillips, so I am not sure if I should be looking at other brands or should stick with the DVP5982!

All I care about is a reliable DivX/Xvid player, and GOOD quality ... I don't want it dying after 8 month of light use like the DVP3040. And I think the USB playback support is a good thing to have because it seems those optical drives will quit working sooner or later (it seems sooner ). By the way this will be hooked to a regular old CRT TV, so I don't care much about all the HD features.

So should I go with the DVP5982 or something else???
Any suggestions are more than welcome ... thanx

No one has an opinion on this!!!

If someone happens to answer my post, is the previous DVP5960 better?

I can't give you any personal experience with the Philips DVP5982 but I do have an RCA DRC285 and find it to work well. It has DivX Ultra playback and will also play WMV video and .ogg audio files. Additionally, it will rip an audio CD directly to an MP3 player through its USB port (i.e. no computer required). Video playback through the 2.0 USB port is smooth with no hiccups. It seems none of these DVD players with USB ports will power a 2.5" hard drive so be prepared to use a power adapter. Unfortunately many 2.5" enclosures don't even have an independent power connection or come with an AC power adapter. Whatever you plug into the USB port has to be formatted in a FAT file system or the player won't read it. This is a requirement of all the DVD players with USB ports that I have seen for sale. The unit can also play video and audio files from a USB flash drive with no problems.

The RCA DRC285 can be found at Sears and K-Mart and the last time I checked K-Mart was selling it for $50 even. That is a $20-$30 savings over the Philips unit. Overall, I have found the picture and sound quality of the DRC285 to be quite good. It shares the same chipset as the DVP5982 so I imagine the playback capability between them is close or identical. The DRC285 does have optical and coaxial audio outputs and an S-Video output. The Philips only has a coaxial audio output and no S-Video if that matters to you. Both have component and HDMI outputs and will upscale to 1080p output through the HDMI connection only.

For me the addition of S-Video and optical audio outputs steered me toward the DRC285 over the DVP5982. The fact it was $20 less didn't hurt either.

Damn i wish i would have seen this before i took my friends advice thanks Big-T. I have the DVP5982 and really wish it had s-video and optical audio.

How good is the DVP5982, any problems with it so far other than the lack of outputs?

I was looking at the customer reviews on Amazon for the RCA, and there seems to be quite a few (3 of 5) discontent with the quality and saying that their's died pretty quickly (newegg reviews are better), Phillips' reviews seem better in general.
Although I would really like to have the s-video port, but if that comes at the price of lower quality, then I'd rather not! But on paper the RCA does indeed seem like a better choice.

Currently both seem to be available at ~ $60 ... so price isn't a factor

I still cannot make up my mind

Thanx for the replies

Well i have had mine for one month and threw everything i can at it but due to the no s-video etc.....i don't use it for my main DVD player with my HT.

Edit:
I'm going to go get a RCA soon and try it out.

I have an RCA DRC257N plays most everything has, DivX, card reader, HDMI and S-Video out even TV Guardian, works great.

CCR do you use it with a HT? Actually i need DTS so the RCA DRC285 might not help me then?

If you can live without an optical audio output and a $100 price tag then I think the Pioneer DV-400-K might meet your needs. It does have an S-Video output and DTS capability. The build quality is likely much better than the Philips or RCA units too. Here's a link:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882117193

Have used it with HT(Dolby) but right now hooked up in my work room with 4 DVD recorders and 2 DVD Players.

How do hard drive media players compare to DVD players when it comes to DivX.
HDD players like Media Gate and Mvix.

If all my DivX/Xvid playback will be from stuff I have on my PC and will just transfer to a DVD media player thru DVD or USB flash drive, isn't it a better idea to just get an HDD media player that I can connect to my PC every once in a while and update it with all my media?

I just think that those HDD players might be more reliable and live a bit longer.

I would like to know the video and sound quality of the HDD players too. IMO, it is the way to go for playing DivX or AVI files. Plus, a 500gb or 1tb drive will hold a lot of movies and your whole music collection.