I picked up a Philips DVP5140 DVD player the other day at Costco for only $49, and it is great! The advantage of this player is that it can play .avi movies directly. So, to watch all the Japanese dramas we have, we can just pop in a DVD+R and peruse the files. Before, I’d have to hook up my laptop to the TV with the sVideo cable. That was kind of a hassle, and something that Mariko didn’t know how to do. It was actually the switching of the monitor signal, fooling with the extended desktop, and controlling the mouse pointer on the tv screen that made it tricky.

Other benefits of the new Philips is that it can automatically read .srt (subtitle) files as long as they have the same name as the movie file. So, you got your avi’s, your .srt’s, and you are ready to go! Also, the player can be made region-free in just a few seconds by adding in a code. The only lame thing about the player is that the video output does not include sVideo, but there are component outs as well as standard RCA. Not a big deal for us at all, though!