Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips DVP5140 Multiformat DVD Player with DivX, MP3, Windows Media Support

I was looking for a dvd player that would play regions other than Region 1, because I had accidentally purchased some Region 2 DVDs and they wouldn't play on my current DVD player. I checked with a couple of local electronics dealers and they told me I couldn't buy a region free dvd player in the U.S. Wrong!! I looked up DVD players on Amazon and found this great inexpensive Phillips region free DVD player! It may say on the box or in the booklet that it won't play all regions, but, believe me, it does. The trick, if there is one, is going through the dvd set-up menu and selecting what you want it to do. It took me about 20 minutes to hook it up to my tv and then go through the menu and set it up. I am not an electronics wizard, so I really believe anyone can do this. All the connection cords (whatever they're called) are included, so you don't have to run out and buy anything. The picture is really crisp -- much better than my old one. The remote control's buttons are in convenient and logical places (which isn't always true with other dvd players or even tvs). It is easy to use and very affordable. I am totally happy with my purchase and think it is a great bargain for what you get! Also the design is very slim, stylish and light-weight. I love it!

I have seen this slim player in several homes, and I am glad we bought one for our own house.
It functions well, the DVDs slip in perfectly, and there is no skipping, jarring unless it's the DVD itself.
We watch a lot of movies so this gets used a lot. We've had this for a year, and have seen no problems. We haven't really used all its functions but we're happy with what it does for us.

This machine almost lives up to its name. Most of the discs that I've inserted played. Unfortunately, WMV files will not play. I assumed that since the title says "Windows Media Support", these would play, but I called Philips and they told me that only WMA files are supported.

I didn't try the Region hack, but is anyone aware of a hack that would allow WMV files to play?

I agree with most of the other comments I read.

- It does take a long time to load (but it takes longer to get in my car and drive to a movie plus that costs more money).
- The remote is confusing.
- To FF prest the -> key. It goes 2X, 4X, 8X, 16X and 32X
- Rewind is the <- key.
- Eject is the stop button twice.
- The display panel is hard to read.

Overall, I would have given this machine 5 of 5 if it would read the WMV files.

I've had this player for about 4 months and it's great! I've played CDs, DVDs, DVD-Rs, DVD-RWs, etc. Everything plays great with no problems. The discs load fast and the picture quality is great. I also like the fact that the remote control is easy to use. I've had a few that I had to get the manual out every time just to see how to use them. Having said that, I do have a few complaints which is why I gave it 4 stars and not 5.

1. When you turn it on and hit the open/close button, it doesn't open right away. It takes about 10-15 seconds to open. Not too bad; just a bit annoying.

2. When you hit stop or pause, you have 5 minutes until it goes into standby mode and 15 minutes until it turns off. I'm one of these people that just can't sit through an entire DVD, no matter how good it is. So, when I pause it, sometimes I may not come back until an hour or so later to finish it. But, I can't with this player. I contacted the manufacturer and was told this was the way it was designed and there was no way around it. It's apparently designed that way to prolong the life of the player.

3. As an extension of 2, I read in the manual that this player keeps the memory of the last 5 DVDs played in it and you can come back and finish any of them later. I have yet to see this player do this. Anybody else with this problem?

4. My biggest complaint (and one of the biggest for the other reviewers) is the poor reception of the remote control. About every other time I use it, I have to hit the button twice to get the player to recognize what I want it to do. And I'm pointing the remote directly at the player each time. This is very annoying.

But for the price, you really can't do much better than this player. It does just about everything you want it to do. If you're looking for an inexpensive, simple to use DVD player, this is the one to get.

Had my eye on this for a while as I'd just moved to the US with alot of Region 2 DVDs.

It has alot of good and bad things about it. On the negative side, I'll accept every bad thing said about the remote, it leaves no room for error when you're pointing it and that doesn't seem to be the case with any of my other remote controls. Can be a bit frustrating at times. I'm not a huge fan of the menu system either, especially for mp3s and CDs - just seems ugly and I can't imagine it would have taken much to code in better aesthetic software.

On the plus side, the playback quality is good for composite and it is multi-region. The playback of video files is quite nice, despite the misgivings of reviewer who (rather smarmily) felt his computer was for such things, it's nice for showing homemade videos - when you have friends and family over, for instance.

I'd also be dubious about the negative marks for not being able to figure out how to fast forward or resume play. It has a nice little booklet with it for those who are unable or afraid to experiment with a few buttons to get things working. The book is printed on that old school paper stuff too, so there should be no problem figuring out how to work that!

You can get nice fancy players for 100 dollars up that do all of the things this does and more, so if you're expecting something high end, look elsewhere. What you do get here is a nice solid multi-region DVD player for under 60 dollars, that also plays PC-format disks.