Philips DVP642 DivX
Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Tap into multimedia fun with Philips' broad-format, high-style, and ultra-slim DVP642 DVD player. The DVP642 is not only a high-end progressive-scan DVD player equipped to offer scintillating images on high-definition and HD-ready TVs, it's a tech-savvy player that spins your MP3- and JPEG-encoded recordable CDs (as well as Kodak's and Fuji's variants of the same) and CDs loaded with MPEG-4 and DivX video (3.11, 4.x, and 5.x files), perfect for viewing Internet-sourced content in your home theater. Want more? The player also converts Region 1/All Region PAL-formatted discs (the video standard in Europe) for viewing on standard NTSC televisions (and vice-versa, if only for video CDs).
Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the DVP642 stands ready to deliver the full potential of your DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.
Playback options include five-disc resume, which lets you pick up where you left off on your five most recently viewed DVDs (not applicable for MP3 or JPEG CDs), disc-lock parental controls, and picture zoom for magnification of select images
The player will play JPEG images one by one automatically, letting you zoom in, rotate, or flip the picture vertically or horizontally. For MP3 playback, the player offers track time display, album and track selection, and repeat (disc/album/track). The DivX media format is MPEG-4 based video compression that lets you save large files like films, movie trailers, and music videos on recordable media.
Philips' 4x video upsampling offers smoother images even when viewing interlaced (nonprogressive) signals through the player's component-video, S-video, or standard composite-video outputs. SmartPicture provides optimum picture settings for color, brightness, saturation, contrast, sharpness, etc., to enhance your overall viewing experience at all times.
The player will play JPEG images one by one automatically, letting you zoom in, rotate, or flip the picture vertically or horizontally. For MP3 playback, the player offers track time display, album and track selection, and repeat (disc/album/track). The DivX media format is MPEG-4 based video compression that lets you save large files like films, movie trailers, and music videos on recordable media.
A set of left/right analog-audio outputs channel audio to Dolby Pro Logic receivers and stereo televisions. Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround-sound signals can be routed through the player's digital-audio outputs (one each of RCA coaxial and Toslink optical) for direct connection to a full-featured audio/video receiver.
What's in the Box
DVD-Video player, remote control with batteries, a user's manual, and an analog audio/composite-video interconnect.
Product Description
Philips DVD Player, 3.2 Progressive Scan, Plays DVD, DVD-R, DVD+RW, Mpeg4, DIVX4
Philips DVP642 DivX
Test Report
Philips DVP642 DivX
An excellent DVD player, April 25, 2005 Reviewer: T. Hardin "timothy2003" (San Antonio, TX United States) -
I previously owned a Panasonic DVD that broke after four years of use. I wanted a replacement player and wanted some of the updated features. These are the features that I wanted:
- progressive scan
- mp3 player
- mulitiple formats(CD, DVD, etc.)
- digital audio
I do not currently own a progressive scan television and I am using a Sony Wega television, I use the component video for the picture and the picture is excellent for the casual movie viewings.
I wanted to be able to play my music from one disc. I have a small collection of mp3 songs that I put on a DVD-RW and play on occasion. One minor "feature" that I don't like is the player will display only three places for the track numbers. So if I use a disc with 1000 tracks, yes that's a lot of songs, then the first number is displayed as letters for songs over 999.
This player plays many of the common formats, there are some "nice to have" feature, I wanted CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD and DVD-RW.
The last feature I wanted was digital audio for an ONKYO HT-R510 receiver. The sound reproduction is great for entry level systems. The player supports digital but not Dolby Digital EX.
The installation for this player was easy. I had never used digital audio or component video on my system so I had to buy separate cables. The component cables were required some force to insert and I thought that it may damage the equipment, but it seemed okay. The digital audio was simple, just plug it in, though I had to make some configuration changes on the receiver.
The player has an on screen menu for navigating and selecting tracks on an audio disc. I created my mp3 DVD on the computer. All of the songs are organized into directories corresponding to each album. However, keep the names short or create directory names where you will know what the album is based on the first few words because the names will be truncated if you navigate the disc through the menu.
Overall the player is a great deal for the price and the features. I've used the player for about 9 months and it is still working. Philips is a well known name in the electronics industry and one that I trust.
Good but has a down side, April 25, 2005 Reviewer: John - See all my reviewsThis a great buy because you get a brand name DVD player that also does video cd's, mp3 and divx. The only down side to it is that if you are watching DIVX movies on it there is no skip function, if u press stop you have to fast forward through the entire movie, which takes forvever other then that its good. If some one knows of a program that will add chapters to divx movies please post it hear thnks!
Great deal for the money, April 21, 2005
A Kid's Review
I bought this after waiting for a year since I'm not much of a gadget hound, should have done it when I first saw it on Amazon! (I've had it for a week now.)
Pros:
It has played most of what I've thrown at it with no problem. (yes nothing to add to it).
Like the slim look.
near-Cons:
Remote not as slick looking as the player, seems flimsy.
Slow to read the cds but I guess I should have expected that too aye.
Plays anything... some problems, April 20, 2005 Reviewer: G. Hopson "hazmat" (Huntsville, AL USA) -
I was very happy with the player when I got it. It plays anything I can throw at it. You can even play raw mpeg files. But the fast forward and rewind don't work right on any thing but proper formatted DVD's. The other thing is the sound stopped working except for the optic output after the warranty expired a week earlier. I still love the player (I can listen through my home theater), but I am looking for a better player with these features.
3 months warranty only and stopped working after 5 months, April 18, 2005 Reviewer: teon - I paid $67 for this Philips DVP642 and it worked fine for 3 months. After that it started to skip chapters, jump, and hang.
Now after 5 months it stopped working; I can not turn it on anymore.
I called Philips (1-888-744-5477) and they confirmed the warranty is only for 3 months.
They offer a refurbished replacement for $29.99 + tax.
You should buy One-Year Replacement Plan for this DVP642 for only $9.99.
Progressive scan on this one not good enough for projectors , April 17, 2005 Reviewer: Will B (Cambridge, MA) - The progressive scanning solution employed by this player is truly subpar. This DVD player is simply not suited for projectors or other large screen situations. In the past couple years I've used three different DVD players in progressive mode, projected on a large screen, and this was the first time I ever was stunned by the massive DROP in quality. I'd assumed that all DVD pictures looked about the same, but this player sadly proves that isn't true.
Download on Your PC and Play Movies on your TV, April 16, 2005 Reviewer: J. Lyons (San Jose, CA) -
This is an excellent DVD Player but it's real strength is that it can play MPEG4 and DiVX movies that can are donwloaded from the internet. DiVX format has the same or better picture quality as a standard DVD but has about an 8-times smaller file size.
Immagine being able to burn full length movies onto regular CD's instead of DVD's. DiVX removes all of the juttering and skipping related to copiues of DVD's too.
Heck, for about $60.00, buy one for each room. I did!
Just amazing for its price!!!, October 21, 2004 Reviewer: Claudio Marcos M. Leme "Anime and Manga Lover" (Aruja, Sao Paulo Brazil) - Although I have not bought it from Amazon (what I regret but had no choice...I recomend buy it from Amazon anytime) I would like to share my impression with fellow Amazon customers...This device is stylish, High End in features and cheap! Sure not a very common composition of qualities... It plays my downloaded DivX files like a standard DVD...And my VCDs, and CDs...Just give it a disk and it will play like a normal DVD...And it is Progressive Scan...DTS and Doby Digital....Well, what else you want. And one big plus for me,it is really simple to set different playing regions...As I live in Brasil (region 4)such feature is really important. Just got the codes from the net and presto. Easy and fast, and I got mine here Code Free.
The only downlines here (if you are too demanding a customer) are the menu graphics, wich are really simple, and the remote control, wich is really a simple one. But c'mmon, with all the features this device offers, those 2 points are really not important.
Go get yours before long, for my wife had a pretty hard time to find it in her last visit to Atlanta, last 19th October '04.
Very happy with this DVD player, November 17, 2004 Reviewer: Gadgester (New York) - This Philips DVD player not only looks good, weighs little, but is one super hero of a DVD player. Everything you've read or heard is true: it can play not only video DVDs, VCDs, CDs, and JPEG pictures, but can play DivX and MPEG4 files with grace. In fact, with the latest firmware, you don't even need to navigate any folder menus to play DivX files: just put in the disc and the DVP642 will automatically start playing (after about 30 seconds to a minute, though).
And, yes, this player can play DVD-R and DVD-RW just fine, even though the user's manual only mentions DVD+R/RW compatibility.
The user's manual is one of the better ones I've seen for a DVD player, even though it's printed in China. At least the writer could write in proper English. Best of all, this manual explains pretty much everything about the DVD player, except its video upsampling capability.
The remote control is minimalistic and as other have pointed out, lacks a dedicated open button, although you can just hold down the stop button for 2-3 seconds to get the same effect.
When I took this player out of the box, my significant other, who's more of an artistic bend but ignorant of technical details beyond "put-in-the-disc-and-it-should-play" variety, was wowed by its super-thin profile and general good looks. This player is so good, that I'm getting a 2nd one just as a backup.
Very highly recommended. Cheerios.
Does what it promises, hope firmware is fixed for 1.5x zoom, September 7, 2004 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 DVD Player with minor flaws, July 16, 2004 Reviewer: An electronics fan 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.