After nearly five years, my sleek, slot-loading Philips DVP5100k DVD player died. It just stopped reading discs one day. It was a sad day because the player was so customizable. You can even flash it with modified firmware that adds many features (you may have to run the site thru a translator).

But it was also a happy day because I get to buy new gear ;-) One thing's certain, it would have to be a Philips branded player since it served me so well. Ok, I hear good things about upscaling tech. The chips in these new players are said to approach near-HD quality so I have to have that feature. It must also have HDMI and USB2.0 connectivity. Oh and I hope it also has the EQ settings of my old player and can play DivX and Xvid without problems.

So I went looking for a good replacement. Some of the usual top names are on display but I wanted my Philips. Finally, I found a good candidate: the Philips DVP3360k. It has all the features I wanted and was within my budget so I went and bought it. (Note: to my Filipino countrymen, if you're buying from Abenson's check the online price first. I encountered a branch that had significantly higher prices than quoted in their website. After I mentioned it they promptly reduced the price - very suspicious. Beware and be smart)

So how does it perform? ...Very Good! Let me elaborate...

• HDMI output - gives better colors (cleaner) on my Panny 42PV80H plasma (I should do a review of that TV too)
• Upscaling - not night and day difference but it's there. It really does appear sharper to my eyes.
• USB2.0 - very quick reading of a flash drive. Haven't tried an external hard drive yet. This port will keep the player useful even after it's main drive has failed.
  
• DivX/Xvid - Works good but doesn't decode GMC (I think the majority doesn't) and sometimes chokes on high bitrate Packed Bitstreams. Overall, very compatible and DivX Ultra Certified.
• Options - has everything my old player had except "Virtual Surround" -no biggie. It also has this added feature of ripping an Audio CD straight to the flash drive!
  
• Noise - it has this soft cat-like noise while it's reading but again no biggie :-)
  
• Plays it all - it has a very tolerant DVD drive like my old player. It reads and plays almost anything I put in it. Scratched discs, DVD+R, DVD-R, CDR, MP3 discs, etc, even cheap and thin-foiled Jack Sparrow edition discs work fine :-)
• Flashable - the unit also has upgradable firmware but at the moment I am not aware of any custom firmware for it.
• Screenfit - this feature auto crops the black borders when the movie and TV has different aspect ratios. Works good but unfortunately it's for DVDs only. AVI files like DivX/Xvid are limited to the regular zoom modes which crops a lot from the picture (minimum is 2x zoom). Not a big thing for me since I like to see the whole frame and seldom crop them. Besides, my TV also has cropping options (but with more blurry results).
• Karaoke - we don't use this function but it's there if you need it.
  

Things I'd change: Make the sound EQ settings accessible to DivX/Xvid. At the moment, you need to have an MP3's disc loaded to change the EQ, this is because the DivX/Xvid files use the "Audio" EQ setting, not the "Movie" EQ setting. It's a small problem because you just have to set it up once. Also, I'd like to have a small door for the usb port or at least a rubber plug. These are minor and not deal breakers.

So... should you buy it? - If you're on the market for a replacement DVD player and have no plans yet to move to Blu-ray, it's a good choice. Of course there are better DVD players having sharper upscaling but they cost 2-3 times the price of this player and I don't know if they're this tolerant with disc quality. The Philips DVP3360K is a good buy and I hope it lasts at least as long as it's predecessor.


Also read this... there is an interesting comment about the chip in the unit from B.Pritchard