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Does it support and plays ok files with packed bitstream?
It depends. There are xvid files with PB that plays without any problems. Packed Bitstream is just not-fully supported.
Uhmmm... seems DV-585 have same problem, and I don't know why... or why a modded firmware is not able to fix this and bypass these nasty but very few real bytes N-VOPS. Most DVD players "supporting" packed bitstream really do it up to 2-3 multiple bframe with PB, but I found people and various forums commeting about PB for previous Pioneer DVD-Players working with some files, and not with some others, but no real reason or data. Quite confusing!
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If you buy it with Spanish OSD you may be sure it would support Spanish special characters, and CP1252.
Not so rure

, I know many players and tried also some ones, than even having multiple OSD (more likely worldwide brand names like Pionner, Philips, LG) and enough rom (flash) and ram, does not support it :-(
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I do not know if Philips is better or not. Dv-380 is a good player, depending what you are expecting from it. If you do not need 5.1 decoder built-in player, dv-380 is a very good player.
If you thing to buy dv-393 and have a question it worths it's money, I would say that if you buy dv-380, for 100% you get at least the same player but better

Better, because "cheaper" and better, because "you can upgrade it with Gufiak's modded Firmware, that is far far more user-friendly that original Pioneer's.
I do not beliwe that if you buy dv-393 you can not upgrade it with Gufiaks mod. But as I carefully follow that subject on internet, no one still knows, if it was possible.
Thanks for your suggestion. Worth to consider; maybe we should also consider that DVD-393-S are now replacing other players, will become the "low-entry" Pioneer player, and maybe "Gufiak" or some other can release a modded firmware not so far in time, specially, as you comment, if really the chipset and the engine (and probably most core code) is shared.
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And tell me what does rely "Divx Ultra" mean? Does anyone here knows, exactly? Isn't just marketing tool? Thay say that 696 supports DivX 6. But in fact 380 supports it too. All those players got the same MTK chipset that is a little bit too slow to support HDDivX. So what DivXUltra exactly means? For sure this is not GMC and Qpel support!
Well, I can live without DivX6,
really, I would prefer live without DivX6 (it's not for DV-383 anyway, only for DV-696), but big players like Pionner and others often forget about updates, and simply release new products continuosly, so it's supposed new products released to market have some fixes from previous, new hardware and core, and more options (supposed and possible, not true).
As for GMC and Qpel

, I read about it being supported in DV-585 series, up to level 3. Wrong?
What "DivX Ultra" mean? Well, 1) Pay money and royalties 2) Show the logo to sell better 3) What really should mean.. most players actually can only work, if doing, with the main stream (audio, video, subtitles) of the whole DivX6 specs, so these new players certified Ultra, must deal and support this. Really useful or need? NO . Specially when they are unable and not interested to fix years-old, easy, continuos uses, and real-life features like like show correctly chars and subtitles, show clear menus, show full file names and contents, and many other stuff people ask, only found most times in modded firmware.
Regards.