Philips DVP5900/37 DVD Player with Divx
The Good and the Bad: Fair Warning
The DVP 5900 is definitely an upgrade to the older DVP 642, by virtue of the HDMI interface and through it the ability to upscale DVDs to 720p and 1080i. But as HDMI and upscaling is this model's big selling point, it is also its biggest stumbling block. According to Philips Customer Support, it is possible to use the HDMI interface and the coaxial digital audio out in conjunction. I was unable to make this work.     Because HDMI carries the digital audio as well as the video, any HDMI-equipped device must be engineered to allow digital audio to use another output. The use of the coaxial digital audio output is essential for anyone wanting to connect the DVP 5900 to a home theater system and get true surround sound. Unless the TV has a digital audio pass-through which could carry the signal to an A/V receiver (and my $2K Sharp Aquos does not), it is not possible to get the digital audio to the A/V receiver in conjunction with HDMI. Audio is passed through, but the A/V receiver detects it as PCM, not digital.     If this matters to you and you don't care about upscaling the video, save $50 and get the DVP 642 while you still can, and use component video cables and a coaxial digital audio cable. That's what I resorted to with the DVP 5900, and was lucky to have a use for the $50 HDMI cable.     Philips really dropped the ball on this one, not to mention lied to me when I called them. Anything to make that sale.    *** EDIT ***  I will give Philips credit for updating their firmware. The 2.26 update fixed the problems I had with the coax audio out. Call it a 3.5 stars review, since the customer service still blows.