Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player

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.