Philips DVD Players - DVP 3166 & DVP 5490 | User comment & Review
February 1st, 2008
(6 votes, average: 4 out of 5)Thanks to Pradeep for this comment posted in our earlier article “Philips DVD Players - DVP 3126,5986,3146,3166,5150 | Prices - India” on Jan 15 2008.
Over to Pradeep:
When I was in Kerala during the last week of December 2007, i decided to purchase a DVD player for my parents. We already have a Sony TV there and no other Hi-Fi component Deck / Music systems or home theater setup.
I was sampling the market there (Ernakulam / Kottayam). Please note that I did not go into any fancy showrooms. Just plain multi-brand dealers, ‘cos they seem to have better[more affordable 
] pricing !!
The most commonly displayed DVD players were from LG/Samsung/Philips/Sony among others.
I am not a fan of LG or Samsung. And was specifically looking for Sony or otherwise Philips. The DVD player that I was looking for need not have HDMI or in-built Amplifier, but i did want DivX Certified and an USB port.
Having a USB port is so useful. Just pop-in any USB storage device (mp3 players, flash drives, etc.) and you can browse through the folders to view photos, play mp3s and other audio(if supported) and mainly play Hi quality DivX-encoded content.
Sony does have a model (the model number escapes me now!), but is apparently not yet available in India.
Then I had to switch to a Philips make. There are 2 models here which provide USB (3166 and 5490). The 5490 also has HDMI and Ultra-DivX (Menus,Extra, etc.) and was available for INR 4,290. Since the DVD player was meant only for my parents and to use it along with the Sony TV(no HDMI), I decided to go in with the 3166 model. The price mentioned on the box is INR 4,490, the dealer (QRS -Kottayam) was giving it at INR 3,300. that seemed to be a reasonable price and so purchased it.
I then immediately tested it with all sorts of formats, and so far it has played everything I threw at it.
After coming back to Chennai, i was discussing this with my colleague and he informed me that he enquired on the same model, few weeks before me in either Viveks or S.S. Annamalai Enterprises (in Chennai), and they were selling it for around INR 2.800 !!!
Hot his model Philips DVp 3166 from Adishwars, Marathahalli for Rs. 3600/- around 3 months back. Great model. Plays every thing. Excellent.
@ Anonymous
thank you for the feedback on Bangalore prices. Please consider joining the forums.
Can this player play vcd (mpeg1/2) DVD and DivX files from a ubs pen drive?
@Divya,
That’s a wonderful question. I was compelled to comment saying YES it dies. But then I don’t know for sure. I think most of us take it for granted that it will.The formats it supports from the thumb drive and limitations should be looked into.
(For instance I remember that my first DVD player refused to play movies unless they were in the root directory. If we used sub-folders, it would not recognize it, let aloneplay it.)
@ Divya
Most DVD players with USB slot can play files like:
.mp3
.jpg
.dat (MPEG1)
.avi (XVID or DIVX encoded - if the player supports them)
.wav
But when it comes to DVD (MPEG2) - the native files are having extension such as .vob, I dont think having these files alone on your USB drive will be suffice for the DVD player to play them.
I am not 100% sure about this, but if you have a player, do give it a try. For one thing, VOB files from authentic DVDs are extremely large!
Thanks to this page, I bought the philips 3166 player today for Rs. 3000/- in delhi.
I’d checked the specs beforehand, and it plays all divx movies. The USB slot also works great, but I’ve not yet tested it with my portable USB-powered HDD.
Divya:
It can play any media on a USB stick, when you switch to USB mode, the screen shows a folder type interface which you can use to select and play the supported file types.
I also brought one yesterday for 2890/- in hyderabd. Itz great, light weight, simple..
The folder browser should have a better interface. Just think of a 80GB USB HDD plugged in and u have only one option option to scroll using up arrow and down arrow..
@ Varun
We are really glad that Aavaas is helping you make choices for your home. And we are also pleased to see increased number of comments from you all….
Please consider joining the forums…It is going to be awesome in the coming days !
@ Sanmukh
Valid point about the user interface….Do send in some pics of the unit if possible. and, consider joining the forums
email us at contact(at)aavaas.com
Hi,Thank you all for your comments I bought this player today and it works really well .I would have loved for this to play FLV and Real Player (RM) files but I guess that you can’t have your cake and eat it too :O) .
@ Divya
where did you buy this player from Divya and for how much?
FLV is an unusual format used primarily for streaming video on sites like youtube. RM files are again a closed format system. Only DivX has a system to certify players which can decode their format and play them back on a TV. And it really is a good one.
I have bought Philips 3166 at 2990 Rs in Bangalore.
Does it support creative home theater system that usually goes with pcs?
Hello Naveen
If the player has separate outputs (total of 6 : front left, front right, rear left, rear right, center and subwoofer ) AND, your creative home theatre also has these many inputs, then YES, you can connect the two and make it work.
If you use SBI credit card, you can buy this DVD for INR 2900
Thnx Vivek/Kader.
WHat is the best Home theatre for this DVD (philips 3166)? This DVD player does not have an AMP.
So which one would you recommend? Budget for the HT is Rs 5k.
Naveen
You have two options:
a) Go for a branded home theatre amplifier including PC based
or
b) Go for a local assembled home theatre amplifier
I request you to join the forum and start a thread there.
In our home, we have home theatre amplifier from Philips called “LX 700″. But such products do not seem to be very popular these days. Mostly we have the DVD players and amplifiers together.
It actually makes sense to have them separate as you can upgrade your DVD player alone without spending a lot of money.
Hi ,
When i played MP3 files the player not able to jump to the next folder after finish playing one ..
@ Prashant
Which model do you have and what does the product manual say?
Does DVD 3166 supports “Analog & digital audio outputs”?
i saw on corporate philips website. As per it, it does not but DVD 3146 does.
Any Idea?
http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/en/in/consumer/cc/_categoryid_DVD_AND_HOME_THEATER_CA_IN_CONSUMER/#;filterStates=%5BFK_PLAYER%3Btrue%5D%5BFK_HOME_THEATER%3Btrue%5D%5BFK_HIGH_DEFINITION_HOME_THEA%3Bfalse%5D%5BFK_USB_DVD_HOME_THEATER%3Bfalse%5D%5BFK_HDMI_DVD_HOME_THEATER%3Bfalse%5D%5BFK_PORTABLE_DVD_PLAYERS_REC%3Bfalse%5D%5BFK_ANALOG_DVD_HOME_THEATER%3Bfalse%5D%5Bid1%3BDVP3166%2F94%5D%5Bid2%3BDVP3146%2F94%5D%5Bcompare%3Btrue%5D
hi amit
it is strange that the lesser price model (without usb) has both analog and digital audio outputs but the other one doesnt….
you should check it out in a showroom just to be sure.
I have an issue here…my DVD palyer is not able to recognize my usb pen drive and displays “device not supported” when connected.
I have tried formating the drive with FAT32 but that did not help. Any help here?
I have an issue here…my DVD palyer is not able to recognize my usb pen drive and displays “device not supported” when connected.
I have tried formating the drive with FAT32 but that did not help. can someone help me with this
@Naresh,
Have you tried other pen drives ? If you have tested other pen drives and they do not work as well, then maybe you need to get your player to the service centre.
But then if the others are detected, then there are two possibilities,
1) your pen drive has some problem. I don’t know. I am not an expert at this, but then something like bad sectors perhaps ?
2) Virus. Even formatting your pen drive does not remove certain viruses. When these drives are inserted they may not enumerate as drives at all. Try using a good antivirus and cleaning your pen drive. Or format it through linux. Virus written for Windows will not work under Linux and are much easier to kill.
Thanks Karthik.
yes Other pen drives do work. I will try to scan the drive…do we have any other suggestion here?
try formatig the drive with FAT (not FAT32).
i bought one philips DvD at 2005. modelno.DVD VIDEO 622. Now it is not workng. So I need the DVD service center in chennai.
THANKING YOU.
here they are:
1. M/s Clarity Electronic Services
53/19, Madurai Veeran Street,
Kalaivanar Nagar, Padi, ,
Chennai, Tamilnadu, 600050
044/26541570
2. M/s Clarity Electronics Services
C-43 , 2nd Avenue
Anna Nagar, ,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600040
044 - 26210404 / 26190506
3. M/s Electrocare
Old no 16, New No 70
Suderban apartment Basements, 1st Avenue, Ashok Nagar,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600083
044 -24747059 / 24747061
4. M/s Global Electronics
New No. 28, Old No 39,
Shanmugam Road, West Tambaram,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600045
044 -22263702 / 22263703
5. M/s Madras Electronics
84, Linghi Chetty St.
Parrys, , ,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600001
044 -25262124 / 25261214
6. M/s PHS Electronics
Palace Regency
Shop No. F4, First Floor, Door NO. 80-93, Opp. Abhirami Theater, Purasawalkam High-Road, Kellys,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600010
044 - 26614843 / 26614899
7. M/s Sayee Vision
13,2nd Main Road,
Kasturibai Nagar, Adayar,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600020
044 -24413550/24404443
where are you from Latha?
I want to buy philips 3166 model. they are giving 1 BG Transedent pendirive free with it and asking 4000.00 Rs.
Is it worthful ? just give ur adivise guyz.
I gave 2900 without pen drive in blore.
Thanks and Regards,
Naveen Gurjar
@Akarsh,
A 1GB pen drive costs something like 400 rupees these days. If you can get the player for anything less than 3600 rupees, don’t buy it where they are giving you the pen drive.
can anybody tell me if this has an audio input lik aux or somethin? can i play me tv audio in d speakers attached to the dvd player? basically, does it have an audio input?
Wish to inform to all those DVD player purchasers/seekers, that fresh @ (An ) is offering DVD player (Model# DVP 3166)at an unbeliveable price of Rs.2699/- & this offer has just started yesterday & will last for only one weeks of time.
I wrote this message hoping it could be of some use for all those DVD purchasers from Andhra Pradesh