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,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
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: It does everything, just nothing very well
Summary: 2 Stars
For only $60, this player seems like an amazing bargain. DivX playback, progressive scan, MP3, almost every kind of media support, and even PAL to NTSC conversion all built in. And in truth, this player IS quite the bargain.
However, picture quality in any mode is pretty sub-standard. There is no motion adaptive de-interlacing for video-sourced material. DivX files will always playback as if you have a 4:3 TV, even if you've set your TV up as 16:9 in the setup menus. Blacker than black (PLUGE) is not passed. Even properly flagged film-based video looks soft compared to most other progressive scan players. There is no scaling for 4:3 material (pillar-boxing). Finally, this player routinely forgets that you have set it to progressive scan, and will drop back into interlaced mode whenever it feels like it.
As for DivX and mp3 support, that also leaves much to be desired. The on-screen display only support 11 characters for the file names (DOS is alive and well, apparently). QPEL, GMC, and bi-directional encoding are NOT supported. Bitrates above 3000 cause this player to choke hard. XviD files have inverted colors when you start playing them, which must be cleared each time by going in to and then out of the setup menu.
But this player's worst failing is in the PAL to NTSC conversion. It looks horrible, even in progressive scan. The image is so soft, it is almost VHS-like in appearance. And there is terrible looking stair-stepping on anything diagonal in the picture. If the PAL source is interlaced video, then be prepared for an image so riddled with combing that it is completely unwatchable (even over the interlaced outputs). If you need a player for discs from overseas, this is NOT the player to buy.
Overall, a two star player with a two-star price.
Customer Review: Plays Many Disks and Files, but question on large displays
Summary: 4 Stars
The Philips DVP642 DVD player has become incredibly popular. I eyed the player for quite a while, before ordering.
I've used the player over a month now, and I have the following reactions:
The player looks very nice in my A/V rack. I like that it is pretty wide, yet slim.
The best part of this player is that it plays just about anything I throw at it. My computer's burned DVD+R, +RW, -R, and even computer burned dual-layer disks all play. Furthermore, almost all the divx and xvid files I've attempted to play, work perfect too!
The picture quality is fantastic when connected to my smallish CRT standard-definition TVs. However, the main home for this player is my DLP large-screen television. The picture quality is not too shabby actually. I'm quite happy with it. However, if you do have a large high-definition display you might consider one of the new up-converting DVD players. The picture quality gain is minimal, but a slight edge is there.
Furthermore, with this player, I find it is usually best to leave its output interlaced and let my TV do the upscaling rather than use this player in progressive scan mode. The scaling chip in this player obviously can't be very expensive, so it will not do as good as a job as the scaler in many televisions.
Overall, I am happy with this player. It does a lot, for the price. The ability to play DVDs, computer burned DVD disks, and disks with divx/xvid files is a great convenience. The picture quality is decent. The remote control lacks any sense, but that is not a big deal. I plan to use it, for at least a while, or until it breaks. Then I will consider an up-converting player, or maybe the high-definition players (blu-ray or HD DVD) will have come down in price by then.
Customer Review: Be forewarned on terrible customer service
Summary: 1 Stars
While this review may not apply to every Philips DVD player, I think it's relevant to any your hopes of getting customer service with any electronics product of theirs. My experience with the company borders on the surrealistic.
Please avoid their stuff no matter how good the deal may seem in the store.
(See letter below)
2/15/2005
Dear Philips/Magnavox,
I am writing you regarding my recent experiences with a product of yours and your customer service. I bought a dvd/cd player of yours at a local electronics store. It wasn't an expensive unit and I wasn't expecting much but it didn't last more than two months with minimal use. After getting instructions from your representative, I mailed the unit on December 18th, 2004 for what I assumed would be a simple exchange.
After innumerable calls (and waiting) to your staff it appears that the unit has been lost or misplaced at your warehouse. This has been after weeks of "confirmation" calls to me, which seemed to do nothing. Eventually, I was asked to fax a copy of the delivery number. I was given a fax number that is either incorrect or isn't working. This morning Tuesday, February 15, 2005, I'm spending another twenty-thirty minutes on hold to get a correct fax number and finally gave up. Later this morning I tried once more and spent more than thirty minutes on hold while they "researched" the correct fax number. I've given up trying your "procedures" for an exchange.
I can't recall ever wasting this much time on a worthless product. The fact that it's taken me longer to do a simple exchange with you than the unit worked leaves me certain I'll never purchase another product with your name on it.
Sincerely,
Name Withheld
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.