Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
by Philips
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List Price: 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: 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.
Customer Review: Does what it's supposed to do
Summary: 5 Stars
As a DVD player, it's what you can expect for a $50-$75 unit. It plays DVD's and does a good job of it.
The only "negative" I can post about the DVD playback is that the disc drive/transport mechanism is a little loud. It's very easy to hear when the laser is seeking a particular section of the disc and when the disc spins up. It's a minor irriatation since it's usually just at menu options or layer changes, but it can sometimes be heard over the disc audio. Not enough to detract from the rating though.
I understand that it is simple enough to remove the region restriction from this unit, though I haven't entered the code since I only have region 1 discs at this point.
It seems to play any disc format you can throw at it. I've used DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, CDR and CDRW. The only medium I haven't tried is DVD+RW and burned dual layer. I've never put a disc in that it wouldn't read.
Special features are where this unit stands out from the rest. DiVX playback is something I've looked for in a player for a long time. I never expected to find it in a <$100 unit.
It's the perfect thing for me since I love to download entire TV series and watch them as I get time. It's so convinient to be able to burn entire seasons of a show onto a DVDRW and play them from this unit. No more connecting the laptop to the TV.
There is the occasional file that can't be read. Other reviewers have mentioned that some files play back with no audio, and some will not play back at all. This is in the vast minority in my experience.
Overall, the unit is great. You can get more full featured units if you just want to play DVD's, but if you want DiVX playback, you can't get anything better.
Customer Review: Wow, this is one of the ultimate techy toys out today!
Summary: 5 Stars
I already own 2 of these bad boys, and I plan on buying at least one more for my entire setup before i'm done. This is also tops on my list of gifts to get for any friends or family that have a birthday or any special occasion coming up.
First off, despite a few minor, and I do mean Minor, flaws, just as a DVD player alone this thing is totally awesome. It's slim, sleek, has a very low power consumption, fits nearly anywhere, and plays AWESOME quality DVD movies.
On top of that, this will play nearly any Divx disc you throw at it. Just take your downloaded or copied backup discs, burn then, and throw them in. For that means alone this player is easily worth 3 times what it sells for new. The only other player on the market that offers near this level of Divx support, is an import player from Europe and it sells for over twice the cost this awesome baby sells for. With promised future firmware upgrades, the minor flaws this has are supposed to be fixed. On top of that, with an easy Google search you can region free this bad boy, and be set to play DVD's from virtually any region and not be stuck with just overpriced U.S. Region 1 discs anymore.
If you don't have one of these, GET ONE! If you have a friend or family member with a birthday or some special occasion coming up soon, get one for them! They will love you forever once they learn the ins and outs of this sweet DVD player.
If only more tech companies would follow Philips lead and release such high quality techy toys at such low prices. If you were able to combo this with a quality low priced HD ready TV, and 5.1/6.1/7.1 Dolby Digital surround system, you'd be set for having a home theatre anyone would drool over.
Customer Review: consumer friendly, solid quality, great features
Summary: 5 Stars
Sure, these days, you can get a perfectly fine DVD player for 30 bucks, but as a very happy owner for almost a year, I highly recommend you to get this very versatile Philips model, even though it costs a little more. The best feature of this DVD player is that it PLAYS practically ANYTHING!. In term of media, the player accepts DVD+-R/RW and CD-R/RW. I have tried many different types of recordable media with varying brands and qualities, the player handled them all flawlessly. In term of codecs support, this player is a bootlegger's delight: VCD, divx, MP4, MP3, JPEG... I must emphasize what a wonderful thing the divx playback is, in case you've been living in a hole and don't know what's the fuss is all about. Divx allows one to compress a DVD movie, with very tolerable quality loss, down to around 700MB, which fits snuggly on a regular CDR. Similar to CD->MP3 compression which you may be familiar with. As far as I know, this is the only player that handles divx smoothly at this price level. Quality wise, this player is also very satisfactory. I've had a few other budget DVD players before, they all made horribly loud spinning noise. This player, however, is very quite and smooth. Another excellent, but undocumented, feature is the ease of converting this Region 1-locked player into an all-region player. I'm not going to give you instruction, but let me just say googling for it as easy as anything. I'm so happy with this player, I almost have the urge of buying one more just in case this one breaks down - it seems something as CONSUMER-FRIENDLY (as opposed to MPAA-friendly) as this can't be available forever. In conclusion, if you're in the market for a DVD player, I highly recommend that you consider this model.Customer Review: Using it as a CD player
Summary: 5 Stars
I make no recommendation on this unit as a DVD player. See the other reviews here for that. But I do want to add some comments about its performance as a CD player.
Nowadays it's hard to find a component CD player that doesn't incorporate a disc changer with its extra complexity and more parts to go bad. When my ancient single-disc Sony CD player died, this Philips DVP642 was available at an attractive price. It plays every format one can imagine, so I bought one with no intention to use it as a DVD player, but only as a CD player.
I am very pleased with the result. I'm not an audiophile, but I have a decent stereo and can hear the differences between various music sources. I rate the audio quality from a standard CD on this player as excellent.
Significantly, it will flawlessly play CDs that consistently skip on any of my three other players. I have never noticed any sensitivity to vibration wiht the DVP642.
The remote control must be used to control all functions except play, pause/resume, and eject, but it is well suited for audio. A "repeat" button works as expected, and the repeat mode (one, all, off) is clearly displayed on quarter-inch-high LEDs on the front panel of the player. One can also repeat part of a normal CD track using the AB repeat function borrowed from DVD mode, but this doesn't work on MP3 files. However, I have one recorded CD with more than 800 MP3 audio files on it; with the remote I can enter a track number directly and play it much more easily than I can on most CD-only players.
All and all, I recommend the DVP642 without reservation for those like me who want it as an audio player.