Give the magic: HP dv5t
One constant to note throughout the tests is that the 576p mode always looked significantly worse than any other resolution and had an unwatchable amount of judder on the TVs we tested. This was evident in actual movies we watched as well as in test patterns, and we suggest using 1080i, 720p, or 480p instead. We found 1080i looked best with the Dell W3706MC, for example, but your mileage will vary depending on your television. In general, we recommend you set the Philips's output to the resolution that most closely matches your HDTV's native resolution.
We observed an annoying shift issue that seems to affect some upscaling HDMI players. We first noticed this on the Sony DVP-NS70H, and it consists of a small black bar, either on the top or the bottom of the screen, when we watched in 720p or 1080i mode. It appeared on numerous fixed-pixel HDTVs in our lab. On the Philips DVP5960/37, we noticed it on the bottom, and although it was only a few pixels high, it still shouldn't be there. If you're the kind of person that really gets irked when the picture doesn't completely fill the screen, you may want to think twice about this player, but we'd bet most people wouldn't even notice.
The Philips DVP5960/37 also successfully rendered the opening sequence to Star Trek: Insurrection, proving it has 2:3 pull-down processing. The boats' hulls had smooth curved lines, as did the railing on the bridge, but we felt that they didn't look quite as good as those from some other HDMI upscaling players we've reviewed, such as the DVP-NS70H. The DVP5960/37 also displayed some chroma bug issues when we went through the Windows Test Annex, with combing visible in the red along the edge of the moving fish. This isn't a major problem, since it should only be apparent on poorly authored DVDs. The chroma bug was present with every resolution except 576p; we still recommend avoiding that resolution, however.
We also tested the front-panel USB port with a 1GB thumbdrive and a variety of MP3, JPEG, and DivX files. While the rudimentary file browser displays only the first few characters of filenames and shows a mere four files/folders at once, it functions perfectly well. The MP3 player includes a shuffle mode, and ID3 artist, title, and genre information appear onscreen but not on the front-panel display. And while the unit can certainly display HD-resolution JPEG photos via its HDMI output--we tested it with a few large (2,576x1,932) shots from a 5-mexapixel camera, and they looked great on an HDTV--it's not much use for a slide show. That's because each image takes about 20 seconds to be revealed, slowly drawing on the screen from the top down. Reducing the resolution didn't improve the situation. Finally, the Philips handled DivX movie playback from the thumbdrive well, acting exactly as if the file originated from a disc.
Overall, the Philips DVP5960/37 is a decent performer that passed most of our tests with aplomb, and its image quality should satisfy most viewers. Its feature set, especially the front-panel USB port for quick multimedia access, caters to multimedia buffs. Given its low price, this slick Philips DVP5960/37 is one of the best values we've seen among HDMI-equipped players.
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