Problems with USB supporting DVD players

After using my Philips DVP3888 for over a year, here are some of the experiences of the same. I feel most other similarly modelled players will also have such issues, but do post if there are changes. Most of these are half-baked laymen experience, so do NOT expect any technical stuff (unless typed in by accident)

1. It supports DivX, Xvid (i havent tried all variants in that though).
2. Any video with resolution higher than 720p (width) does not show video although audio plays
3. MP4 files are considered as mp3 files and no video is displayed
4. Any movie which is bigger than 1.2Gb plays plays only till that time when the file size reaches 1.2Gb... that is, if the movie length is say, 90 minutes, and the file size is 1.3Gb, then the movie stops playsing approximately around the 75 minute mark. I had to split the files into smaller sized chunks (I use FormatFactory for this)

5. If your pen drive becomes too fragmented, then for video files, I have seen two cases
--> 5.1 The audio lags the video (or)
--> 5.2 The audio and video slows down pretty badly that a female voice will sound like a male

The same video worked fine after I defragmented the pen drive.

6. Photo loading is pretty slow
7. To load a photo fast, I had to press the next photo button. In this case, the current photo loads up fast (i dont know how it works, but yes, it works).. but soon the next photo starts to fill in top-down.
8. In my player, if mp3 files are present in the pen drive, then the first folder it encounters start to play the moment the drive is loaded.
9. I think it supports usb HUB based devices also. Cos, I once used a multi-card reader and used a CF card to view photos and videos and it worked.

Revolution 2020: A relaxing read

Revolution 2020 by Chetan Bhagat

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A nice simple read; Chetan Bhagat style. Nothing special, still offers a decent story trying to prod into the moral and ethics of the society we operate in (India).



View all my reviews

Kuruvi - A first feel of the music

Happy New Year : Sunidhi Chauhan,Yogi B, Dr Burn

What starts out as an ECR Resort Pub Song, quickly takes a U turn to Triplicane and stays there for most of the time. The "pick up" in the middle of the song might suit the flow of the movie, but does not seem to fit in the flow of the song. Sunidhi Chauhan has given a powerful performance to boost the song in its "urban-koothu" culture.

Dandaana Dama : Sangeeth Althpur

Obviously the introduction song for the hero, with a very good "build-up" piece. Sangeeth's voice fits perfectly with Vijay's personality. The lyrics does not seem to give anything new, or atleast does not give the feel of a newly written "build-up" song. Cudnt expect anything other than expecting Vijay to do some (obviously good) dancing and lots of "hero-image-stints" like the resting stork pose or something similar.

Thaen Thaen: Sung by Udit and Shreya Goshal

A typical Vidyasagar peppy melody. A nice arabic styled beat to go with the flowing voices of Udit and Shreya. Udit's awful pronunciation of the language does not deter the song from its melody and style.

Palaandhu Palaanadhu : Vidhyasagar, S Rajalakshmi

Lots of punjabi thump, with a touch of arabic pop finishes here and a bit too much of voice-slazing (which goes to the point of irritation). This song was pretty irritating the first time, but the pain subsided from the next time.

Theme Music : Praveen Mani,Dr Burn,Renina,Suvi

Part 2 of Ghilli's "Kabbadi" Theme Music. The first half of the song is more of a rock song while the second half quite majestically transforms to madras' local rhythm style

Mozha Mozhannu : KK , Anuradha Sriram

From rumours, I heard that this will be an item song with Malavika.  In that case, the starting lyrics fits the bill perfectly. Although the song's theme words gives an "uneasy" feel, the other lyrics does not make you squirm. A gana song, vidyasagar style.

Thaen thaen is for car stereos, Mozha mozhannu is for midnight masalas, and the rest for all FM channels and music channels.

Article on Banyan (or is it?)

(with no hatred to the author or the paper...)

Writing an article for a newspaper needs real good skills, as it needs to reach to a varied audience. Something should have happened to the author or the folks at Indian Express while approving this article, a "cover story" article with the title "Six months in the shade". It seemed to tell about the author's life/learning when she was at Banyan.

Link to the article

The passage talked about the author buying dresses, taking autos and lots of stuff which were related to the title like Uninterrupted power supply and the Electricity board of India, before actually entering to the subject at hand. At the end of the passage, I was wondering if I was confused or frustrated or drained down of energy. To top it all, the whole gist of positive words about banyan were highlighted in a boxed area and that is about all you can muster about Banyan from that passage. The flow of the paragraphs were getting stuck like peak hour Bangalore traffic. The passage, overall, tasted like drinking a special portion of hot lime milk.

FIR - Chennai 600 028 - Movie Songs

I am a big fan of Yuvan Shanker Raja. Mainly because of his success although he is not as proficient in the techicalities of western music as his father or his brother. He has come to define the taste and the style of the current generation of youth and music.

A total youth force has come into the team of Chennai 600028. And Yuvan Shanker Raja has done it again here. He has lived upto his reputation of ringing in peppy numbers. With generously interspersed rap-style interludes, most of the song are bound to reach the Nxt-Gen.

Am taking the order of songs listed in the movie's website.

Ulle Vaa - A Hip-hop beat, a rap kick-off and yuvan's voice. Do you need anything more to give a dance song? Instead of musical interludes, a Yogi-B style tamil rap fills the song.


Un Parvaimele - Sung by Vijay Yesudas. Its a bit hard to term this song as a melody, what with the rhythm section making the otherwise melodious tune a funky one. Vijay Yesudas' voice loses its distinctiveness in this song, mainly because of the pitch of the song (pitch compared to vijay's default voice scale). Another good song.

Yaaro (love) - SPB , Chitra. The voice pair which once ruled the tamil industry with innumerable hits come together for this melody tune, again with a peppy beat, though not as peppy as the previous song.

Vazhkaiye yosingada - Ranjith, Tippu, Premji Amaran, Haricharan, Karthik. A fun song with again a peppy rhythm with the harmonium (or is it an accordion) piece the highlight. I guess this to be a song sung by friends.

Oh Oh Ennamo - Sung by anushka, the only song without peppy rhythm. This comes in the category of "vaseegara", "Onra Renda" type of songs. Anushka's voice kneads the lyrics nicely to give the desired "hot" effect. I dont know if this will reach the tamil mass as "vaseegara" or "onra renda" due to its westernized feel. Definitely NOT a "family" song ;-)

Natpukulle - YSR. A full blown YSR song. Lyrics, orchestration and sung by YSR. A typical music director song. A pure melody and like a jingle, the song closes before it ends.

Here, I have to tell; all the songs composed and sung by music directors are ALWAYS a super hit. And most of these songs almost always rely on guitars to enhance the beauty of the song. Here are some of the examples.
ARR - Mustafa in Kadhal Desam, Vellai Pookal in Kannathil Muthamittal, New York in Sillunu Oru Kadhal, etc etc
YSR - Oru Naalil in Pudhupettai, Yeno Kangal in Kalvanyn Kadhali, Kannai vittu in Pattiyal, Yen Kannodu in Arinthum Ariyamalum, etc, etc.
Jassie Gift - Lajjavathiye in 4 students
Baradwaj - Roja Kootam in Roja Kootam

Vazhkaiye yosingada (remix) - As of the original was a melody, this had to be done. Nowadays, remix songs are being done for the sake of remixing. With a heavier rhythm and more synth sound to fill the background, there is nothing more special to update on this song other than being a pub song.

Yaaro (friendship) - This version of the song fares far better than the SPB, chitra starrer, with a more pumpy rhythm and a good tune. Till I see the movie, am going to maintain that YSR just lost interest to compose a new tune for the movie and stuck to the other tune. Atleast he used his own compositions rather than using the xerox machine.


Saroja Saman Nikalo - THE audience song. Its "adra adra adra adra" right from the start. A nice mix of raw tamil rhythm and heavy rock instrumentation. I dont whats with the voice of Shanker Mahadevan, but it just blends into the song and adds to the tempo nicely.

In all, a definite success among youth anywhere. Hats off to YSR.

Joe