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

This player is awesome. Its played everything I've thrown at it, both DVD+R and -R discs, plenty of media formats (including DivX!), CD-Rs, CD-RWs, and audio CDs. (Not that I recommend using this for CD playback - get a real CD player!) Video quality is excellent - far better than the PS2s and cheap players some of my friends use.

It can be made region-0 or macrovision free (it might be out of the box?) very easily. I flashed it with the latest firmware, and the code given on videohelp.com did the job. That helps, since the occasional DVDs I get mailed from Australia will play in this player. It can also be set to any valid region code, letting you play DVDs with active region checking.

If you play burned DVDs regularly - legally or not - or play overseas DVDs at all, buy this player. It does a great job with DVDs and pretty much every format you can put on a DVD-R.

I bought this player about 10 months ago and was very happy with it -- so much so that I highly recommended it to several friends. It seemed to play just about any format I threw at it.

Then, day before yesterday, the power light started blinking and the unit wouldn't eject or power on. After several attempts to cycle the power I started looking for help online. Apparently I'm not the only person experiencing this problem.

So now I'm in the market for a new DVD player. It's unlikely that I will purchase another one of these machines.

If you don't have much desire to watch video files from your computer on your television, you might want to get a different DVD player. This one is very good, but you can do better in terms of features, or just get a less expensive one.

However, if you're like me and you have far more video files than DVDs, this player is a blessing. I'm sure you're tired of watching things on a monitor, a couple feet from your face. This player will decode and play almost all files as well as, or better than, your computer. I stuck in a CD with RealPlayer files just to see if it would work, and unsurprisingly it doesn't, but everything else has played. A couple CDs (out of many) produce a buzzing noise while the CD is in the player (not just while playing), but that's with cheap CDs and I have no other playback complaints.

The on-screen menus are easy to use and while there aren't that many features beyond the standards, nothing is really missing. The remote is a little frustrating to use, but in total, this player easily earns 5 stars of life improvement.

This thing is great. I have tons of movies and files in the DivX format and this player reads them all. You can burn an entire movie onto one CD-R and play it on the DVP642 with no issues. I have owned this for about 4 months now and it plays EVERYTHING. Types I have tried (with success)....
DVD, CD, JPEG CD, VCD, SVCD, MP3 CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R.
For $70, it's just insane that the player is this good. My grandmother's old player would not play much anymore, so I got her one of these and she LOVES it too.

Can't say enough good stuff about this. Progressive-scan, plays every format out there, slim-line, quiet, works well, lots of options. Awesome DVD player.

Oh and a note to the guy who said it doesn't play "dvdr/w-" discs. Well first of all, there are no such things :) I assume he meant DVD-R and DVD-RW. Well if it doesn't play those, then tell that to the unit I own (and my grandmother). I burned some DVD-Rs and they play with zero problems. It even played ones that my friends' players couldn't.

So don't worry about it playing DVD-R. They play just fine. I haven't tried DVD+R yet, but all reports say that it plays them fine. (...)
Enjoy!

The Philips DVP642 is truly superb at its price point. DVD playback is just as good as my older Onkyo DV-SP501 (at more than twice the price) and it can play DivX and XviD files (at almost DVD quality) as well as MP3's JPEG's and VCD's!

Unlike the experience of the reviewer from Erie, PA, my player does resume playing the DVD from the scene where you've pressed the stop button (of course if you press stop TWICE it will take you to the beginning of the DVD).

The unit is ultra thin (1.7" high) and stylish. Colors are vivid at its default setting but you have the option to tweak them if you deem necessary via a system menu, a feature that Philips calls SmartPicture. Video output is available for component video, SVideo or CVBS. For audio you have digital or analog output. You also have an option to set the video for your type of monitor 4:3 P/S, 4:3 Widescreen or 16:9. You may zoom in during playback on both DVD or DivX/XviD files. Resolution

The one weakness I can find is with the remote. It is a bit skimpy, for example, no dedicated open/close tray button, instead one must press the stop key for about 5 seconds which will either open or close the tray. Buttons are small and placed close together. If anyone knows of a universal remote that works with this unit please include it in your review.

Overall this player has far exceeded my expectations. Well done Philips!