does anyone have experience with the other model, the DVP5960? it has USB direct feature, however, does that mean you can just plug your external HD in there and directly watch your DivX from your HD? There really isn't too much discussion about the USB direct feature, ppl say that it displays picture, and plays mp3 and wma fine, but mentioned nothing else. If anyone has any experience with that particular model it'd be great. Thanks

#1,

I have the 5962, so it must be very similar (facia color difference, maybe?)

I love it..

Pros: It upscales to 1080i and handles every DIVX file I throw at it. Its silent, slim and looks good in my media tower. I plays most files from a USB flash drive. Rumor has it that a FAT32 formatted hard drive could be plugged in semi-permanently, but I know I wouldnt want to scroll through dozens of files that way - its just not responsive enough.

Cons: It has a slow "power on" time (5-7 secs, then another 5-7 before it reads the DVD/USB stick. The remote is fair, but lacks an eject button (hold "Stop" for 5 secs to open drive). You are limited to 8 characters for file names, so it would be painful to use with a hard drive filled with files of similar names. (ie..StarTre~1 is all you see of the title, so its hard to tell series/episodes apart if you have many that start w/ the same characters)

Hope it helps...

thank you very much, it's very helpful

#1, I have the 5960, it works as you've described. I've even loaded up a flash drive with a DivX encoded episode of a TV series and it worked flawlessly. The only thing you have to watch out for is I think the drive has to be FAT32.

I think progressive output is only available thru the component outputs. In my case my tv only had one set of component inputs and these were occupied by the cable box.. so that sucked.

is this a multi region player? if not can it be hacked so that it can be?

#6...

No...Yes.

Avsforums.com should have the details.