Philips DVP5982 1080p Upscaling DVD Player

To go along with my HDTV, I decided that I needed to upgrade my DVD player. While my Insignia DVD Recorder/VCR didn't look awful, it certainly didn't look good. And while the quality of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are definitely impressive, the on-going format war combined with the cost made those players inviable options.

Enter the market of upconverting DVD players. These players, which take your standard 480i DVDs and scale them to high-definition resolutions are as common as regular DVD players these days. Places like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, are full of them. I've actually owned two of them.

I started with the highly-touted Sony DVP-NS75H which is truly a great machine. It has a great design and a super picture quality. Sadly, it only upconverted to 720p or 1080i, not 1080p as my set is capable of. While I'd like to think that I'm not a total videophile, I noticed some of the ghosting and artifacts that interlaced video can expose when put on a big...Read more

I purchased this DVD player so that I could play DVDs from other regions. When I put my first non-US DVD in the player, it wouldn't play which was fairly frustrating. However, after finding instructions to set the player to Region 0 (which plays everything) the problem was fixed. The DVD player itself produces a high quality picture, is easy to operate, reasonably priced, and as an added bonus is great looking. My one issue is with the DVD drawer, it appears the new thing in DVD players is to make the drawer as slim as possible, which makes it hard to get the DVD in the tray right the first few times. It's something that takes a little getting used to, but once you do, it's not an issue so I didn't take points off on my rating. I would recommended this product if you're looking for a DVD that can play more than one region.
Below are the instructions posted by another Amazon reviewer for setting the DVD to Region 0.
Power Up the unit with NO Disc in the tray...Read more

I have been a happy user of Philips DVD players for some time, having at owned several models. Yes, I have had minor cosmetic issues in the past with the overly small and lightweight remotes, and the not-so-great on screen menu layouts and design, but overall they have delivered a quality image. I recently bought two Sony Bravia HDTVs and decided to go with this upconverting Philips model until I see how the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray war plays out. I have been astonished by the fidelity and quality of the image of regular DVDs played through this unit! Although my Bravia's only support 1080i (and not 1080p) I am still amazed by the detail this unit seems to tweak out of SD DVDs. Also, the footprint of this unit is tiny and matches the base of my Bravias in color and size, so it's a perfect design fit. I have not an issue with the on-screen menus. They are far better than previous Philips models. Also, the remote is the new-style design (where it looks like an actual product designer and not an...Read more