And to that I say (since I'm here with a bunch of Europeans...) [bold]BULLOCKS![/bold] If I spend money on a new DVD player in the year 2005, it should have better image quality than the Sony PlayStation 2, hardware that was finalized in the year 2000!
Perhaps it should, I'm just saying why most people buy the damn thing. I've yet to see anyone rave about its ability to play regular dvds better than even a $29 piece of shite available on sale at your run-of-the-mill electronics retailer (some of those actually do quite well, in fact). More than a few sites have detailed accounts from owners who claim that the 642 plays retail discs like crap. Should have done your homework
I can't complain about the image quality. I am running it on component but so does my PS2 and I think the image quality is definitely better than the PS2. I'm sure there are many players out there that are better and cost more but I don't see the graininess others speak of.
I'm with you guys on this one. I have 5 other dvd players that I use for playing back regular dvds. Either of my Panasonic carasol players does a much better job than the Philips does. But then the reason I purchased it is because it can do divx and xvid.
I totally agree that video quality for retail DVDs is worse on the DVP642 than on my PS Two. I have both devices hooked up with high quality component video cables (monster cable) and have progressive scan enabled. If you don't manually enable progressive scan on your ps2 video will definitely look worse than on the DVP642. Also, you might be using a crappy component video cable that's not shielded enough to provide a crisp and sharp image. For all owners of European DVDs: If you have NTSC as your default TV Signal and progressive scan enabled when you watch European PAL DVDs, image quality is absolutely crappy! (check out "love actually" to experience the worst image quality ever that will make your eyeballs bleed from inside when played back with the DVP642). I guess this is related to the PAL-NTSC converter which totally sucks when progressive scan is enabled. I actually found image quality to be much better when I disabled progressive scan to watch PAL DVDs (which is sad when you have a wide screen TV). I guess you would have to try to purchase only US DVDs if you wanted this otherwise good player to perform at its best.
Has anyone used Cyberlink's Power DVD 6.0? I seem to have better luck making a menu for a VCD with it than with Nero. Just looking to see if anyone likes anyting better.
I have a DVP642/17 that for some reason will not play any of my VCD's. It plays DVD and DivX just fine, but all I get when trying to play a VCD is a scrambled TV screen. The VCD's will play fine in my JVC DVD player. Anyone else having this problem. I have the latest firmware.
hi, i have a similar dvd, and as from what i've understood, it's based on ess chip. i'm willing to know if there's a way to extract my firmware using a serial cable like in mediatek, or this option is not supported by dvd's based ess chips?
[bold]SUBTITLES[/bold] I can get subtitles to work fine on my player (642/37). The only problem I have is the size. They are so small you practically have to sit up on the tv to read them. I have upgraded to the latest firmware (1109 i think) but I need some links to firmware which allows me to edit the font, color or size of the subtitles, if this firmware exists. I was told it does. Thanks!
Re: GSpot How is GSpot used to detect a playable or unplayable XVID file for the philips player? I'm using v2.52 b1. The program displays all details but I don't know what to look for.
There are a lot of reasons a file might not play, but most of them are because they are encoded using QPEL/GMC. Check the Video section on the right upper corner. Under "Stat" there are 4 black buttons/boxes. Make sure QPEL and GMC is not lit. (Most of the time it will show NVOP & BVOP). Another reason might be Pixel Aspect Ratio, it needs to be Square. You can check/fix that with MPEG4 Modifier very quickly (This program needs .NET framework installed)
I just bought this player. I wasn't planning to, but I saw the list of formats it played, and how cheap it was, and I couldn't resist. But, I've had some issues. I tried to play an Xvid movie on it, but the video was all messed up. I'm guessing it just was a newer Xvid codec and the player doesn't accept it. I tried to play an Invader Zim boughten DVD, but after about 13 or 14 minutes, it started freezing and skipping. I stopped it and ejected the DVD, and tried again and it would play again for maybe 4 minutes before doing the same thing. I'm guessing there's a flaw in the DVD, because I played the first 3 episodes of Harvey Birdman just fine with no skipping. Also, Zim has multiple angles available, but the angle viewing icon was constantly onscreen. A little camera with "1/2" beside it. When I push the Angle button, it changes to "2/2", and the angle changes, but the icon never leaves. This is kind of annoying. Anyone know how to make the icon disappear?
I was wondering if the player can only play square pixels.I don't like watching in widescreen & I want to reencode my files so that they will have 4:3 ratio...Will the player still play it if it isn't square pixel?
I've been following this player for some time and it has its advantages (plays back almost any type file and great price) and disadvantages (poor DVD playback and other quirks), but it’s been around for at least April 6, 2004 (threads from videohelp.com). Surely with all the competition out there, more players have come out that do more without the problems with DVD playback. Can anyone recommend a new player? I went to Philips site and they show only one DVD player and it’s a DVD VCR player combo.
Your pixel aspect Aspecratio has to be square, or it will not play. I had files which would not play. I could play them after I converted them to Square Pixel Aspect Ratio.
Reminder: There is also a very active DVP642 Yahoo group on the web, you can read the message archives at: [bold] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/philips_dvp642/ [/bold] You can join the Yahoo! group if you want to check these: FAQ, etc... in the Database section... Firmware archives... in the Files section... Links to other DVP642 resorces (including AfterDawn.com) in the Links section... * Messages * Post * Chat * Files * Photos * Links * Database * Polls * Members [bold]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/philips_dvp642/[/bold]
I am pretty ticked off at Philips. I spent several weeks editing home movies, encoding them to Divx 5.2.1, and burning them. For a test run, I burned 20 minutes to a CD-R and tried it on the player. It worked like a champ! I have burned all the divx files onto a single DVD-R (Liquid Video 2x) and tried to play it. No luck. The DVD player reads the disk put does not show the files. After researching and reading the forums, I checked my firmware. I have the original firmware (version 0113 I think), so it looks like I need to update the firmware and I should be good. I followed the links to the Philips site and there are no updates there. I called Philips. They yanked them. The support rep on the phone claimed that they had multiple complaints of the last firmware breaking machines and they were researching it. They told me to call back next month and see if they had a new firmware or if they would make the old one available. What am I supposed to do now? Does anyone know anywhere else I can get the firmware? Thanks.
