Preliminiary assessment of a Philips DVP9000

Sigismund

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2003
Messages
5,535
Reaction score
101
Points
1,021
Location
London
It's alive... I mean arrived :cool:

First of all I disconnected my Panny DVDS97, plugged in the new Philly, connected my AE700 with the Panny's HDMi lead - no lead with the 9000 :( pressed the eject button and popped in DVE. This immediately showed that the player doesn't appear to pass a blacker than black signal - the left hand bar is not visible. Hmmm.

I set up contrast and colour, ejected DVE and replaced it with Star Wars II: A.O.T.C. Very nice! :) Subjectively, the image appears very similar to that using the Panny.

Now, when I used the True Life function of the Philips 963 the image suffered from jaggies if I set it to anything above +1. The True Life function on the 9000 doesn't have the same problem - it really makes a difference to the image, giving it a much more 3D look, without causing any immediately apparent artifacts.

One scene I use to check for macroblocking is the group meeting in AOTC - I think it's chapter 4. The red walls show up macroblocking quite clearly on the Panny. I didn't notice any MB using the 9000, so it does seem to be better in that respect - at least when combined to my AE700.

The menu system is certainly better than the one used in the 963 - at least the movie continues as the setup menu is accessed. For some reason Black Level - I can't remember exactly what it's called - cannot be chosen?

DCDi is set to on as a default, unlike the 963.

As I tinkered with things it soon became clear that the unit isn't free of a few little bugs. For instance, if I chose the Sharpness setting, which comes up as a sliding adjustment, and set it to 2, then moved the slider back to the zero setting and pushed left one more time... the DVD ejected! There is no eject button on the remote. Speaking of the remote, I really like it and it's much better than the 963's, and my initial feeling is that it's pretty much on a par with the Panny's remote, but in a much sleeker body - very much like the DVD player itself.

To sum up my initial reaction - subjectively, image quality is excellent, although I suspect that when it is put through its paces with my soon to be delivered HQV test disc, it will be beaten by the Panasonic DVDS97.

Audio wise it's a no contest - this thing is awesome in comparison.

All in all - so far - I'm very happy. I should say that I believe a DVD player really shows how good an image it can put out not by playing a DVD that has been blessed with an excellent transfer, but rather one that is poor to mediocre. For instance, the Region 3 release of The Bodyguard. When I viewed this on the 963 it looked truly awful - soft and with high levels of video noise. If I was reviewing the DVD I'd have given it a 3 or 4 for picture. Placing it in the Panny completely changed things. Gone was the noise, and now the image looked reasonably sharp! Easily a 6 or 7 out of ten! It's pretty much the same when using the HDMi out on the Philips. It's still clear that the image isn't the best ever, but it no longer looks like poo!

All in all I'm happy. I now feel like I have a DVD player that satisfies me both image and audio wise. The Panasonic has excellent image combined with mediocre sound. I'd rate the Philips DVD9000 as perhaps not quite as good in the picture department as the Panny, but head and shoulders above it as far as audio is concerned.

I have my fingers crossed that Philips will come up with a firmware update to iron out the few bugs. :smashin:

EDIT: Some less enthusiastic thoughts...

I cannot seem to adjust contrast, colour or brightness using the DVD player's settings. Also, horizontal pans seem jerky... at least on DVE - I haven't had a chance to check this whilst watching a movie.

There are a number of things that are beginning to bug me a little too much, but hopefully I'll come to terms with the machine before too long. I've got my fingers strenuously crossed that this particular unit isn't faulty...
 
Great info thanks :smashin:
When you say Pannys audio aint as good is that with movies or only when playing music CDs.
 
Thanks :)

Perhaps I should have made that a bit clearer. I find the Panny OK for movies, but it sounds very average to me. The Limit DVD900SE, Philips 963 and 9000 all sound much better; much more dynamic with more separation and a little more detailed.

I find the Panasonic pretty pants with CDs, although to be fair I haven't played any DVD Audio discs on it - actually, I have; the Elvis 30 No. 1s. From memory it was OK, but again, not up to the Limit's abilities. Which reminds me, I'll have to try out the SACD disc that came with my Sony DVD player on the new Philips - I'm also looking to get the War Of The Worlds SACD, so will let report back. :)

For me the new Philips is a solid allrounder, that I suspect will be a little "found out" when some serious tests are performed on the video side of things. Subjectively speaking, I think it's superb :clap:
 
Looks kind of funky to... :smashin:

Can I ask where from and how much please...?
 
Family Guy said:
Looks kind of funky to... :smashin:

Can I ask where from and how much please...?

It does look good and is remarkably heavy! The only real area where I think the 963 outperforms the new kid on the block is the DVD loading tray. The 963's was silky smooth and virtually silent - when I didn't fancy watching a movie I just opened and closed the tray for a little enjoyment. ;)

I bought it from Pixmania. I did a Google search and found a link that gave a 7% discount. A further search gave another discount by using a voucher. On top of that a rather nice young lady immediately offered me free postage when the DVD player wasn't sent out on time, so all in I paid a couple of quid over £200.00. I'm pretty happy with that.
 
@Mark Haywood have you tried the hack yet and what did Google search for this 7% thing. Got any nice pics of this looker then :lease:

Regards Tulloch
 
Mark,
have you tried holding down the stop button on the remote? I think it may function as an eject button if pressed for a few seconds.
 
tulloch2003 said:
@Mark Haywood have you tried the hack yet and what did Google search for this 7% thing. Got any nice pics of this looker then :lease:

Regards Tulloch

It's playing my DVDs fine ;)

I did a search for "Pixmania discount voucher" - there were a couple of sites that gave you a code to get the 7%, but there was one that linked to Pixmania so you got the discount as long as you spent over £200.00. That was the same search that gave up the £10.00 off (or whatever it was) voucher ;)

Ged said:
Mark,
have you tried holding down the stop button on the remote? I think it may function as an eject button if pressed for a few seconds.

Cheers for that, I'll try it later :smashin:
 
I'll try and take some shots tomorrow and my Panny may very well be up for sale... but I really want to do some more comparisons first. :)

The lights can be dimmed, but cannot be turned off ;)

The holding down the stop button works!
 
@Mark Haywood. Ok bummer what you think of the Pioneer DV 575A for pic and sound then :confused:

Regards Tulloch
 
tulloch2003 said:
@Mark Haywood. Ok bummer what you think of the Pioneer DV 575A for pic and sound then :confused:

Regards Tulloch

Sorry mate, but needs must ;)

As for the Pioneer - I would say it depends on what display you're using. I had one connected to a Panasonic AE300 and I didn't think it was all that - my Yamakawa 365 gave a better image.

In my experience you can't go far wrong with the rating of DVD players by Home Theater Secrets, at least as far as image quality goes. I am immensly impressed with the image using HDMi out on the Panny DVDS97 to my AE700. Secrets also rate the Oppo Digital player highly, as long as you can take advantage of HDMi.

Personally, I've had me fill of Philips DVD players ;)
 
So - must be time for a marks out of 10 for the Phillips and a comparison score for the S97 then...;)

Tulloch - you never know, you may end up with an S97 after all now i've had my stitches out...;)
 
@ Family Guy Hope so got a Tosh LCD coming Monday :D got nothing to test it with now bummer :( What did you have done. I had a pin put in once **** life for 3 months :thumbsdow , the morphine was good though :smashin:

Regards Tulloch
 
Don't put too much creedence on the HQV 'test disc', you will be much better off with an 'independent' one ;)
 
Nic Rhodes said:
Don't put too much creedence on the HQV 'test disc', you will be much better off with an 'independent' one ;)

Oh well, more dosh down the drain, then! Actaully, the main reason for me going for the HQV was in the hope that it would be a good way of becomming aquainted with the form of the tests. I supose most, if not all, of these tests, or the equivalent, can be found on Avia or DVE both of which I have. It's just that they can be a bit of a pain to navigate when everything's new - although the amount of times I've used the contrast/brightness/sharpness/colour settings on both these discs makes me wonder now why I ever thought the menu system was daunting!

Anyway, thanks for the heads up - I'm still looking forward to the HQV disc and even more testing!

Cheers,

Mark
 
You will learn stuff from it but it is a disc designed to show off a certain chip :)
 
Nic Rhodes said:
You will learn stuff from it but it is a disc designed to show off a certain chip :)

Nic
Whats best for setting up your display then?
I've used the test screen with my hk 22 but is something like dve or avia a "must have"?

Geoff
 
is it true u cant change the colour/contrast on the player.

anyome know how it would compare to the oppo
 
Mark

Just one question.... Since buying the Philips, have you been able to just sit down and enjoy it or are you still going through the detailed review stage? If you have been able to just watch a film, did you forget it was a Philips 9000S and just manage to appreciate the film?

Darren
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom