I received my Philips DVP5982 1080p Upscaling DVD Player today and it works great! I did not experience any of the problems reported by some reviewers. It could be that the latest software has fixed the problems they experienced, or their unit was damaged in shipping or mishandled. The unit is fragile and must be handled with care. It is a slim design so nothing should be put on top of the unit, and free air circulation should be allowed around the unit for cooling. Also the tray is thin and must not be stressed, and the DVD or CD must be placed carefully in the shallow indentation. Philips could have made the unit big and heavy and strong, but the slim design looks great and doesn't take up too much vertical space. It sits on top of your cable or satellite box and is almost invisible.

The firmware version was 37.07.56.22 so I did not have to update it since the firmware update available from the Philips website is 37.07.32.43.

I enabled HDMI on my SONY 46" 1080p HDTV and connected the Philips DVD Player to it with a HDMI cable. I changed the region code on the player from 1 (US) to 0 (All Regions). I had recently purchased Celine Dion's Live in Las Vegas (2007) DVD but could not play it on any DVD player because it was made in the UK and is recorded in PAL (European) format instead of NTSC (US) format. It worked on my laptop, but who wants to watch a concert on a laptop. I was about to return the DVD, but upon researching on the internet, decided to buy this DVD player. The Celine Dion DVD worked beautifully and we watched the concert once again on the big screen TV. The DVD Player upscaled the DVD to 1080p. I have also ordered Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series DVD with David Attenborough to watch on this upscaling DVD Player since I am not yet ready to buy a BlueRay Player or a PlayStation 3. There is very little difference between 1080p up-conversion and the real thing. Plus your entire library of old DVDs and downloaded movies can be up-converted, as well as rented DVDs. Also your camera pictures are displayed in full 1080p resolution (2 megapixels).