Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player

Excellent device, works well and as I had expected. A few problems on USB startup but that appears to be more a part of my learning curve than anything wrong with the device. All in all, an excellent product at an affordable price.

(***UPDATE: A year later and it is still working. Other reviewers state that this is not the case for them, and I'm sorry that is so. It really is a great little DVD player.) I had a DVD player that wouldn't play burned DVDs, nor would it play mp3s, so I bought this after reading the rave reviews. This unit works so well (and fast!) that I want to buy one for each member of my family. No other unit works as well as this one for under $100. >>>> Something other than what all the other reviewers are saying: - Plays my Verbatim DVD-R 8x, Memorex CD-R 52x, Maxell CD-R 40x discs, Princo, TYuden and a no-name brand DVD-R (all white with a small white star at spindle.) Note: The discs I have were burned on Sony DRU-530A and DRU-810 burners with MANY hours on them. - Remote must be pointed AT the unit in order for it to "see it." Pro: keeps interference with other Philips unit to a minimum. Con: you have to point it at the unit, so if you are used to the really sensitive / receptive remotes this might bug you. - Loads DVDs and CDs quite fast (compared to my JVC, Toshiba and no-name brand.) - It would be nice of Philips to have a screen saver for when you play mp3s. Menu may burn into TV / monitor if you don't turn off the TV. - They did, however, design the "Philips DVD" idle screen (for when the mp3s are not playing) so that it doesn't burn into your TV / monitor. - Being a single disc unit, this thing goes from "OFF" to playing a DVD in under 20 seconds. Nice for those of us that have carousel DVD/CD players, which take years to turn on and open. - (other than having to point the remote virtually AT the unit) the response time for the command is pretty fast. I didn't notice any lag time. - Buttons (on the unit and the remote) feel sturdy and should last the life of the player. - Thankfully, the front panel doesn't light up like a Christmas tree - a player for those of us that don't care to read by the glow of a bunch of unnecessary lights and indicators on the unit, but would rather just have it play the disc. - Great diagrams / drawings in the manual. Anyone could hook it up according to the pictures and easy to follow instructions. - mp3s load in a respectable amount of time. Not lightening quick, but doesn't take all day either. It's just right. - Comes with one remote, two batteries, one set of RCA cables, and is packed in a non-Styrofoam box. The box is built to be shipped, and is a better design than others I have come across. What I'm saying is, the box has some room designed into it for getting crushed during shipping; whereas the Styrofoam-type boxes usually just transfer the damage to the unit. In short: good shipping box for those worried about a piece of electronics getting shipped. - The instructions are in English, French and Spanish

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.

Great player! I’ve had no problems with my PAL code DVDs. Please note to read the instructions. If you simply hit setup and choose PAL code on the setup screen it will not work! Ensure the DVD tray is open. There is a passcode that must be entered on the initial Philips opening screen. You should see a different setup screen listing six regions. For the PAL code I used region two and my movies worked.

I have never purchased a more disappointing item than this. The sale page claims that this item is multi format, and works out of the box, which is NOT true. When I inserted a region 2 disk, it came up as unsupported. I didn’t mind when the instructions said I needed to manually select the region, but when I tried to do so I couldn’t even get in to the settings to start. You need a password, which isn’t supplied, so you are finished before you start. You have to summon a YouTube video to show you how to change the region, but you don’t have a password, so you’re finished before you start. When you contact Phillips for support, they aren’t available, “Sorry, come back later “. I want to get help NOW, not just later. This whole transaction was a waste of my time and money.

Muito bom Pouco caro mais boa qualidade

This plays movies adequately. How much can you say about a very basic DVD player? It is nice and small like I wanted it to be, and it was inexpensive.

Hasta ahorita ha reproducido todos los DVD

Excellent product. Functions good. I played a few audio cds and it plays them excellent.

Produto excelente chegou no prazo e funciona perfeitamente manual todo em inglês, ainda bem que minha irmã é professora de ligua inglesa e ficou legal recomendo.