Customer Reviews

Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player

5 star:		(447)
4 star:		(210)
3 star:		(91)
2 star:		(68)
1 star:		(224)

 

 

First of all, let me say that this unit is very well worth the money. As "just a dvd player" I give it FIVE over FIVE points (or ten/ten if you wish).

The unit comes locked for Region 1 DVDs, but can be easily unlocked (just google for the asnwer) to make it region-free. I have tested my unit purchased on amazon.com and unlocked with Region 1, region 2 dvds purchased from Britain, and region 4 DVDs purchased in South America. It just works.

The unit's COMPONENT-VIDEO output is superb, even if you use an CRT TV. I recommend you get a quality component video cable and use that instead of the "composite video" output.

When playing MPG and AVI files, the component video output shows pixelation and artifacts on low-quality or low-resolution avi/divx/mpg files, but when playing back the same files and switching the tv to component video, these problems go away!.
Component video, it should be noted, is superior to "s-video" (which just separates color information from luminance), as each basic color (Red-Green-Blue) travels on a separate shielded cable.

Now, the "extras" besides basic DVD playback

1. DIVX and XVID are supported. But some .avi files will play back with NO SOUND if the original file was encoded with a "codec" (compression algorithm) that is not supported by this unit. Just because a file plays back ok on your PC with "Windows Media Player" it doesn't mean it will playback in this unit.

2. DVD-R media *IS* supported. You might need, however, to update the firmware (it's available for download from the philips.com web site. You have to download a .iso image, burn the data to a cd-r, press a key combination on the remote and then insert the cd-r disc).

Now the problems:

1. Even while DivX is supported, mpeg4/divx files compressed with the Divx Pro software using the "QPEL" (advanced motion optimization and prediction) will NOT PLAY on the unit. The unit will display an ugly "QPEL CODEC NOT SUPPORTED" message and stop there. There's no way to play back QPEL encoded files on this unit (it would require a much faster processor inside).

2. ZOOM LEVELS ARE INCONSISTENT. On DVD movies, zoom levels featured are 1.5x, 2x, 3x, 4x. However when you are playing back ".avi" (mpeg4/divx) files, you will find that often the only zoom levels available are "normal" (no zoom) and "2x", and that's it!. There is no 1.5x zoom level when paying back mpg and divx files! So forget about watching that wide-screen (4:3 format) movie in full screen by switching to 1.5x zoom mode. If it's a DVD movie you can. But if it's a DivX/MPEG4 movie you can't!.

3. A-B loop doesn't work most of the time on DivX/AVI files. Sometimes, when it does work, after you selct an a-b loop, you turn the feature off by pressing the a-b key once again, and when you want to create another a-b loop, the feature no longer works! (unless you press STOP and PLAY the file once again). VERY annoying.

4. PHILIPS doesn't seem very interested in updating the firmware. The last update is dated May 2004, and there has been no update since then, even while the number of bugs is high (see above).

However, even after all this, I think that for ~$70 dollars or less including Amazon.com's free ground shipping, you can't go wrong with this unit, as DVD playback is superb, and the ability to play most (but not all!) .mpg / .avi (DivX/MPEG4/Xvid) video files is just a nice extra to have in there as a "bonus".

Burning .avi and mpg files to DVD recordable media also works.

This review is for Philips DVP642 DVD Player. It is the same as DVP642/37 DVD Player. It is also the same as DVP642/37 Code Free DVD Player, or Region Free, or whatever else you want to call it. Philips has ONLY ONE DVP642 model, but it may come with different firmware versions, depending on when and where the player was purchased. It doesn't matter though. I repeat, it is the SAME player. So there is absolutely no need to pay extra dollars for something you can easily do yourself. This review highlights some of the features of this DVD player, as well as provides instructions on how to make it Region Free (pay special attention to Format Support section). So, read on...

Let me just start by saying that if this DVD player was anything over $100, even $80, then I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. But it's definitely worth $50 that I spent on it. I bought it on sale at CompUSA. I believe Walmart is the cheapest place now, where you can buy it for just under $60. But back to this player. After using it for over 2 months, and having it compare to my other three DVD players (Sampo, Cyberhome, and Oppo), I have come up with a short list of Pros and Cons. So, without further ado, I give you Philips DVP642:

PROS:
Format Support - This alone probably worth all the "stars". It supports virtually all formats, including Divx. And it DOES support DVD-R's as well, although it's not documented anywhere. MP3's, Picture JPEG's, original DVD's, burned DVD's with AVI's, MPEG's, etc. - I have tried it all, and it handled everything without any problems. Add the NTSC/PAL conversion capabilities to that (simple "7 8 9 OK 0" remote control hack with an open tray will make it "region free"), and you've got yourself one hell of a DVD player. "You have it, we play it" is the slogan of this player, and it is, indeed, true.

Design - I like the nice and sleek design of this DVD player. It's thin, and the nice matte silver color nicely compliments my Sony Wega TV that I connected it to.

Price - Just as I mentioned before, I bought this player for $50. I think it's well worth it, especially if you have a lot of "homemade" DVD's.

CONS:
Picture Quality - One word to describe it - Average... at best. My 5 year old Sampo produces a better picture using S-Video, and without Progressive Scan. Cyberhome is better too, when using component connection. I'm not even going to mention Oppo.

Support - One of the worst I have ever had to deal with. First of all, Philips website has very minimum information about this player, and not a word about firmware updates. I've tried to contact them by phone, but only wasted my time pressing buttons and holding for "available representative". I finally decided to send them an e-mail, but have yet to get a response back after two weeks of waiting period.

Summary:
If picture quality is what you are mostly looking for in your DVD player then this one is not for you (if you own or planning on buying an HDTV with DVI or HDMI inputs, then I strongly suggest you check out OPPO). On the other side, if you are not too picky about picture output, but do care about various format support, and don't want to spend too much money, then this player certainly makes a good choice.

This is not the best DVD player ever for picture quality etc, but it is Region Free. It will play PAL discs to my NTSC TV. I got it as a Christmas Present and I immediately ordered Blake's 7 from Amazon.co.uk and it plays just fine. You can tell that it had been opened and adjusted, but it was put neatly back into the box and I have not had any problems with it. It also plays all my other Region 1 disks as well (including Region Code Enhanced disks) so if you aren't too particualar about the quality (which is not terrible) you could probably just use this player for all you DVD playing. For me it will do to play my non-region one discs, but I'll keep my Sony for Region 1 stuff. I am very pleased with this product.

I recently purchased the Philips DVP642 DVD player and I am quite pleased with it. I have a lot of files in .avi format, and it takes me several hours to encode them in DVD, SVCD, or VCD format to play on a DVD player. Now, with this player, I can just put my .avi files onto CD-Rs, pop them in the DVD player let the machine do the rest.

The quality that AVI, DIVX, and MPEG-4 are displayed in is amazing. The files play much better than they do on my home computer. This is thanks to a "smart" technology that the player uses to enhance compressed video. Many scenes will appear in almost DVD quality.

Many users have complained about the sloppy interface. I tend to disagree. Although other DVD players offer far better interfaces, this one holds up quite well. It will not distract from the overall experience you will have with this product. The remote control feels more like a television remote, though.

This unit is not perfect. It doesn't play Nero Digital MPEG-4s. There isn't any sound on non-VOB structured MPEG-2 files, nor is there any sound when miniDVDs are played (but who uses those anyways). However, a simple file conversion program will solve most of these problems allowing you to keep up to 2 hours of very good quality video on one CD. No DVD players are perfect and the bottom line is for $70 this unit is a steal. If you have a lot of video files laying around on your cpu and a cd burner, this player is a must buy.

Just tried out this Phillips player with DVDs ordered in France and from Hong-Kong. Works great, good picture and no problems. Can't understand why reviewer Susanne Heidt of Los Angeles said she had problems -- in spite of what the manual says, this player works fine on other Region/Code DVDs.

I bought this player about 6 months ago for our bedroom as a backup player to the Sony in the den. We have played less than 10 DVD's on it and it is now dead. When I put a DVD in, it comes back with the "No Disc" message. I have tried numerous DVD's and they all give the same message. It will play CD's. I did some research on the internet and it seems this is a fairly common problem. I also read somewhere that you could bump it while loading and it would play. I tried that and got it to work once so I am guessing something is just out of line.

Anyway, I called Philips over the weekend and after going through their standard troubleshooting script, they informed me it was out of warranty but could be exchanged for a fee. As I discovered, the warranty is only 90 days free replacement. From 91 days to a year, there is an exchange program for a fee. I guess I should have known the warranty was only 90 days but I never even looked at the warranty. In my experience, if electronics work out of the box, they don't fail in 90 days. I now realize that is true for quality electronics but not Philips electronics. I asked how much the fee was and the lady said the fee was not listed on her sheet. She gave me a claim number and told me to call back on Monday. I called on Monday and went thru a similar experience. This time the lady put me on hold to call the RMA department to get the fee. After three attempts (the line was busy), I asked to be transferred to a supervisor. The supervisor came on the line and I explained the situation to him and asked for consideration on the warranty. He said there was no flexibility or exceptions with the warranty. I expressed my dissatisfaction with the product and lack of consideration. I then asked to speak to someone higher up in management. He flatly refused to provide me with any other contact information. He said it was his department's job to "give the bad news to the customer" and not to pass them on up the chain. He then asked if I was interested in paying the fee or not. I asked him how much it was. He said they had still not gotten in touch with the RMA department because the line was still busy. He seemed oblivious to the significance of a long wait for someone in RMA. He told me he would try to get in touch with them by at least tomorrow. Obviously they are having more product problems than they can effectively handle.

From the other reviews on here, apparently this is a pretty good player when it works. I wouldn't know since I only played a few DVD's with it. My advice is to avoid any products from Philips, especially this one. With their short warranty and lousy customer service, it's obviously a gamble doing business with them. Electronics should last years, not days.

PS..Almost forgot. When I was talking to the Philips customer care representative, he asked me where I bought it. I told him Amazon. He then went on to tell me that when you buy Philips products online from places like Amazon and Overstock that you are buying refurbished units. I told him it was advertised as new and that I knew Amazon would not misrepresent the product. Amazon had also shipped it to me within 2 months of the manufactured date so I didn't believe him. He just repeated his statement. I called Amazon after getting off the phone with Philips. The Amazon customer care rep was very friendly, professional and assured me the product they shipped was new and she did not know why Philips would be saying that. I also must add what a contrast in customer care experiences between Amazon and Philips in the span of 10 minutes.

Apart from not being able to play DVD's after a few months, this player is great. I'd give it five stars if I could've gotten some info other than "send us money and we'll send you another player" from the manufacturer. Philips customer service being no help, I looked around until I found this on another forum, and it worked great for me:

chrish434
Date Posted: May/21/2005 5:59 PM

I realize this may belong more in the deal discussion, but I decided to put it here because I know more people read this forum. And for those having the "No Disc" error, this may be considered a hot deal for them. After owning this DVD player for about four months, I started getting the "No Disc" error and it would not read any desks. It would play CDs, but no DVDs. Because it was past the 90 day warranty and it was going to cost $40 to get a replacement from Philips, I decided against repairing the unit. After searching on the Internet, I found a lot of other people were having the same problem. On one of the Yahoo forums, someone mentioned they opened their unit up and could wiggle the black, red and white wires that are to the right of the drive and get their unit to play. I opened the case on mine and wiggled the wires and noticed the part (not sure what it does....guessing it's the laser assembly) behind the disc would move in and out under the disc as I wiggled the wires. As I was wiggling the wires, they came unplugged from underneath the drive. Since I was not pulling on the wires when I was wiggling them, I suspected that the plug-in under the drive was loose from the factory. I removed the four screws holding the drive in place and was able to reach underneath and plug them back in. I put everything back together, and I have not had the problem since. I have tested it with probably 20 DVDs and all of them read where before all of them were giving the "No Disc" error. I have no idea if this is the problem with all of the units giving the error but I am guessing mine is not the only one so hopefully this info will help some of you.

As a college sophomore, I like to enjoy watching my shows and movies with my suitemates. However, as most of our videos are in DivX or similar formats, we were stuck watching them on the computer.

The Philips DVP642 changed all that. Initially, I placed an order with Amazon.com, but after waiting 4 days and as it was still not in stock, I switched over to Circuitcity.com.

The unit arrived 2 days later. So far, I have tested DivX, Xvid, and SVCD formats on DVD+R amd CD-R disks and have been very pleased with the results. However, some versions of Xvid encoded media files have problems. For example, my Family Guy DVD Ripped Xvid back up copies would play for 8-30 seconds, then skip to the next track. This drove me nuts.

Secondly, while I did not find the remote to be too cheap as others have complained, I also would have appreciated a better layout and a stronger signal to the DVD player.

I have tried the all-region "hack" [7,8,9 ok 0] to of no avail. However, the [5,6,9 ok] worked fine. This may be due to a difference in firmware versions. I also don't know why the "hack" is needed, as the Philips DVP642 is advertised to a be a region-free player in the first place. I have not had any problems so far with regional dvds [regions 1 and 3 tested].

Overall, the Philips DVP642 is an excellent player for the budget-minded consumer who enjoys a sleek, compact, and extremely compatible player. For the price, the DVP642 has few faults and the constant firmware updates are a welcome addition to ensure the extended life of the product.

Update 9/06/04:

Noticed that the DVP642 crops video files. I never noticed it before since everything I played was widescreen, but when I began playing my anime full screen TV shows, I noticed that the top and bottom sections were cut off [ie no subs!]. I will search the forums for a solution [there must be one] and hopefully update soon.

Update 9/16/04 - Player not good for Anime fans.

Small change of heart: a big thumbs down to the automatic cropping feature of the Philips DVP642. While most people may not notice this--it becomes very apparent to those who are anime fans. If the show is not in widescreen format, subtitles are cut off by the DVP642. Unless Philips releases a firmware update that will fix this issue or unless anime fansubbers start placing subtitles higher, this is a pretty big deal for people who buy this unit to play their anime fansubbed shows.

Philips has been hiding their firmware update page, I know at least I had a really hard time finding it. For your convenience, here it is:
http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/d/dvp642_17/

Update 9/25/04:

Regarding the skipping issue I experienced with my Family Guy Xvid encoded back-ups I noted above, I had the same experience with DivX 5.11 encoded files. I am not sure if it is a problem with my burner or if the DVP642 just acts screwy when there are over 30 files per disc.

Yesterday, my suitemate watched the movie Old School which was encoded in Xvid and there were no problems at all. To my credit, I had also burned those Family Guy episodes three times as well. I will try burning the Family Guy episodes on regular CD-R instead of cramming them all on DVD+R and see if it makes any difference. If it does make a difference, that kinda sucks since it means I have to walk ALL ten feet over to the DVD player and open the disc tray to switch discs every 4 episodes ;-).

Let's get this right out of the way: the whole schpiel about multi-region or region free/worldwide DVD players being "finnicky", "overpriced", "prone to failure", "impractical due to the inavailability of imports to watch in the first place" and "needing to be sent all the way to Malaysia to be repaired" is a myth perpetuated by Best Buy supervisors who have been indoctrinated to do one thing: Sell DVD players that only play the DVDs they sell in their stores. It's a bogus myth, and this player is proof.

I'm a cult film buff and not a geekanoid tech nerd so pardon me if I pass over a technical evaluation of the deck: It plays any DVD made anywhere on the planet regardless of region code, converts PAL to NTSC and vice-versa, has S-Video and component output capacity, *LOVES* DVD-R media (even PAL DVD-R), and you can bring it home for a reasonable enough price to have some coinage left over to buy some Region 2 PAL releases to go with it. Like, stuff not available in the US. Get it?

If you love movies, take your viewing needs seriously and resent having the media companies decide what you can & cannot watch, then you need a multi-region player. Period. This is a good one to start with: I concede that we are only watching our stuff on a standard 4:3 analog TV set without a DTS or surround setup (though both are supported) and just use it to watch movies. Not sure what else one would need a DVD player to do, though I will admit a certain amount of chagrin at the maximum 8x FFWD advance speed. Even my $30 K-Mark Apex deck has 16x but if you get hung up on how fast you can skip through your movies I would recommend getting a life or something.

It plays any DVD right out of the box, no need to "crack" or modify anything, supports a bunch of other media formats, and has yet to do anything hostile like throw a brick at me or try and cheat at checkers. It plays all of the DVDs in my library just as well as the deck I paid $350 for in 2003, and having one will instantly quadruple the number of DVDs you can watch.

Why settle on the crap movies they sell at Best Buy? Once you watch your first Japan made Region 2 NTSC format DVD of an ultra-obscure Spaghetti Western you will wonder why you waited on getting yourself set up to make up your own mind about what you watch, and why you let yourself get suckered into thinking that DVDs made in Germany were like, weird or something. This DVD player is liberation and I would recommend it to anyone who loves watching movies. The End.

:-)

First, I got this from Target for about $50, I think.
Second, I have some older Chinese video-cd's that I was hoping to watch, well... That's not really working. It says it supports the format, but I find that they cannot be viewed, or are so if-fy in their playback (skip chapters, TRIPLE background sounds and LOWERS voice volume, completely unreadable sometimes).

Now, the hard part. I just learned this includes only a 3-MONTH warranty from Philips. Mine just failed to power on this week, and I tried everything: using other outlet, resetting my breaker for the outlet, using different surge protector, replacing fuse, etc. The "power" light blinks rapidly, but won't power on.

I called Philips as per their website instructions. They offer a 'technical services' support call for the cost of $15 for this out-of-warranty product. No thanks.

They also offer an out-of-warranty replacement at a "reduced cost" of $40 plus tax plus shipping and a delivery of 10-15 days once received. This is only available within one year of purchase. Hmmmm.

So, I read them my serial number and told them the manufacture date was October 2004 (printed RIGHT ABOVE THE SERIAL NUMBER on the back of the unit. They said their "entitlement" department claims my item was manufactured in 2002. Even if it was manufactured in 10/04, if I don't find the receipt (which I have somewhere) they will NOT authorize this replacement because it's over one year old. I tried to tell the service agent the likelihood of my purchasing this player within 72 hours of its manufacturing (today is 11/4/05) was IMPROBABLE (at best), she wouldn't concede.

Now, their claim that it was mfr'd in 2002, I want to know why the date is printed as "October 2004" on my product. I do not like how this is shaping up, with wrong information on their products. I ask to speak with a supervisor. She says, we don't have one available. I say I don't believe her. She says call back and someone else can help. I ask why can someone else help do what you can't? She says I need to call back.

Obviously, Philips is trying to evade service issues. It amazes me how companies do not want to be accountable for their own products and qualities. The few instances I have had of great service support (responsive, effective, courteous) make me a loyal customer (examples: Amazon.com, GlobalScape CuteFTP program, Callaway Golf).

I would consider a slightly more "mid-priced" dvd player, around $80 to give the best in performance-value. I imagine I'll be buying one in that category soon.

Oh yeah, the remote has at least one MAJOR flaw, IMHO. The skip chapter buttons are between the play and fast forward buttons. So, oftentimes, I would 'chapter ahead' when I wanted fast fwd. Really annoying to find that point again by > back chapter, then > fast fwd. The buttons are NOT backlit, and someone with thicker fingers could really stumble where I already find navigating uncomfortable.

Most of the remote buttons are such a similar size/shape you can't differentiate them by feel. You can easily hit 'chapter fwd' when you mean to hit either 'pause' (below) or 'fast fwd' (above). You really have to know what button you're pressing. I've hit menu instead of search rewind too.

The good news is the 'resume play' features works nicely. And the 'zoom' is really cool for seeing things like detail in animation (color/texture) and background info (I can zoom my old design office at Bryant Park while watching Breakfast at Tiffany's).

I wanted an inexpensive dvd player that would play all formats. What I have now is an opinion that I should have spent $20 more for a better player with a longer warranty. Adding the $50-ish for this player; now, an $80 will be costing me a total of $130 and that's NOT a good value. If you're still planning to get this, good luck. Cheers.