Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
by Philips
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List Price: Our Price: $42.00 You Save: $37.99 (47%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Home Theater See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Customer Review: Very good product
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this product for my mother-in-law so that she would have the opportunity to play home movies that she burns off of her computer without the problems and space waste associated with turning to a standard dvd format. My mother-in-law has a dvr, and many disks she deemed unrecoverable and was ready to throw away were able to play on this dvd player, even when they couldn't play on the dvd writer that wrote them! With composite, the video is ok, moving up to component is a lot better for the obvious reasons. The only real beef I have with this product is that it comes with a composite cord, but doesn't even offer a composite choice in the video selection. (s-video and component are the two choices, this might have been fixed with a firmware upgrade, but I don't know, I didn't do the upgrade yet). Either way, definately buy a component cable or s cable, everything will go much smoother, I promise.
Of course, the reason one gets a dvd player of this caliber is not for dvds, but divx and mpeg4. For those of you that don't know what that means, essentially it means that this dvd player reads video files from a data disk as well as dvd movies. Data files take up less room on a disk, so you can fit more, which means you don't have to lose video quality to fit a movie, and you can even fit a whole movie on a cd, which it will also read and play. The divx player read most of the media I had. Upon playing some of my media, it showed ridiculusly bad pixelation, however, after adjusting the video setting, this was fixed. However, at the beginning of each file the pixelation would return and I would have to adjust the video again. It did not matter what adjustment I made, I just for some reason had to kick it back into motion. This did not happen with every file, and I am hoping the firmware upgrade will fix that too. Other than that, great product at a reasonable price, specially with free shipping.
Customer Review: Best bang for the buck DVD player
Summary: 5 Stars
Got it for $40(that is good price for a progressive scan DVD player).
Here are more details: IT SEEMS TO PLAY EVERYTHING. Here is a list of things it will do and will NOTS:
Wills(in addition to regular DVDs):
1. Plays DVD-r/rw dvd+r/rw. I repeat it plays DVD-R/RW.
2. divX all versions.
3. MP3 burnt directly to DVD.
4. mp3 on CD of course
5. multiple divX on dvd. gives you a directory
6. JPEGS. Even lets you rotate the pics as they slide by.
7. can upgrade firmware via CD-R (very kewl as always) never have to worry about not being able toupgrade unit.
8. plays regular retail music cd's
9. This unit is divX certified. www.divx.com/vod
10. this unit has component out for your 480p pleasure.
11. this unit has pre programmed settings for different audio settings ex. hall, studio, etc..
12. has pre programmed settings for video ex. soft, bright, normal etc. also has custom.
13. has ability to change region VIA REMOTE
14. Supposedly macrovisionfree except when transferring to dvd-recorder.
15. has a zoom to 3x and you can move arrows to move the pic around
16. Progressive scan and has beautiful Picture for DVD's
Ok heres the not so popular features.
1. divX quality lousey. VCD quality at best. I have tried 3.11 4 and divx 5.11 before and after upgrade
2. no open tray button on remote. Later found out just hold the stop button
3. 11 character titles
4. doesn't come with component cables just standard rca and a video.
5. when forwarding through chapters display on tv just says next without giving you a chapter number.
Last but not least, you can change the title on the DVD wallpaper(you can put your name, so if some one else steals it the name is visible after they try to sell it)
Customer Review: so far, working great
Summary: 5 Stars
My parents bought me a DVD player two weeks ago, and I think it was this model, or one close to it. A Philips Progressive-Scan DVD Player. So far, it works great. This is actually the second DVD player I had in the home since the one I received for Christmas broke a month ago after using once and couldn't be fixed (it was a Durabrand DVD player, AVOID those).
I really enjoy having a DVD player. The sound is incredible. The speakers are small, but the sound they create will blow your mind. The surround sound constantly goes back and forth and left and right through the speakers when watching a movie. You see, for the best listening experience, you're supposed to move all the speakers around the room to provide the ultimate sound. I'm not used to THIS kind of sound.
I can't say for sure whether this DVD model is the same as the one I have, so I'm not entirely sure this DVD player model is supposed to come with speakers or not. There's so many different models out there, who can keep up with them?
The picture quality is nearly flawless. Sometimes you see a small green glow at the bottom of the screen, but I'm not entirely sure it's from the DVD player. It might be the television.
Since the DVD player can play CD's, I decided to try that out. Actually I like to experiment with CD players and try badly scratched discs to see if they work. I have a Traffic album in pretty bad shape (Traffic's a rock band from the 60's and 70's) but when I played the disc in this Philips DVD player, it only skipped one time for the entire 40 minutes, and it was only for a couple seconds. That's *awesome*.
Reading other reviews for this product, I see other people are having problems with the thing breaking in under a year. I hope this doesn't happen to me, but with my luck, it just might.
Customer Review: To sum it all up (a quick review)
Summary: 5 Stars
I've seen a lot of reviews of this unit so I'm not going to repeat what many have already said. Here's my take on this player:
PROS:
Plays almost everything under the sun (except QPEL encoded MPG4 files).
File-based subtitle support (only works after firmware update)
Firmware upgradeable
Good build quality
Slim profile
Progresssive scan w/ Component output
Great picture quality (better than many other DVD or DivX players)
Region-code unlockable (simple too)
CONS:
Chirping noise
Won't play QPEL-encoded files (I haven't seen a DivX player on the market that support this)
Remote gets a 6/10 rating (read: cheap but functional)
File-based subtitles must be stored in files with name of less than 11 characters or they won't work.
File-based subtitles are displayed in white and are pretty small. On a while background, you will barely see the subtitle but this could be fixed with an upcoming firmware upgrade (hoping).
I've had this unit for about 3 months now. For the most part, it rocks but it pains me every time I try to play a QPel encoded video (about 25% of my collection).
Just bought a JVC XV-NP100S player from Bestbuy for $106. On the outside it looks nice but closer inspection reveals cheap workmanship. It's also not firmware-upgradeable and has many more problems (odd colors, pixelation, and frameskip on certain MPEG4 files) than the Philips...but the drive doesn't chirp and the remote is a little better. Compared to the DVP642, I'd give the JVC XV-NP100S a rating of 6.5/10 whereas the DVP642 is a solid 8.5/10. I'm still waiting for better MPEG4 players to come out. For now, $70 buys you a great DVD player that can play many more formats.
Customer Review: The best price, Excellent Performance, and cool looking
Summary: 5 Stars
This was by far the best electronic purchase I have made in a while. I originally got this player because it was on sale, and I have had good luck with Philips in the past. I hoped that this would be a good middle of the road model. This player blew me away with its performance. Although the new upconversion models are out now, if you have a standard definition television, why waste the money on one. If you have a High definition television that can handle progressive scan, the 480p progressive scan quality is excellent, and had to seperate from higher definitions. Other available features on this model include the DivX capability for MP4 and other video files. This player doesn't flinch at all playing these files, a claim which some other divx player try to make. I have files from 6-7 years ago it plays. Also, this model has digital audio out as well as Optical audio out. The replacement model which philips put out for this model does not have the optical audio out, which is a huge deal if you want true DTS sound. This player delivers. It also has its own equilizer/sound settings for rock, concert hall, theatre etc, something i had not seen before on a player, although my last player is now 5 years old.
So If you want to make a solid purchase, this is the machine. If you prefer to buy your items at a retailer (not online), you may have to look around to find this player, many places have clearence it out in favor of the new models coming out. So don't be fooled into those new models, this one has more to offer. Thank goodness for amazon.com though, you can get this item offline, which if you need a player and can't find this one at the store, thank goodness for amazon. I have purchased many items from amazon, even electronics, with confidence.