Hi everyone! in new to the forums, but i just had a few question i hped someone could help me with. First off i would like to say that the player i have (Philips dvp642) is exceptionally great for its 69 dollar value, you can get it at Walmart, BestBUy or COmpUSA incase you wanted to know. Not the main point so im moving on... This player plays DIvX files which i great, and exactly what i was looking for! I just have a few questions to all you smart ppl out there; 1) If you own this player: Whenever i play a disk the player "chirps", the video and audio is fine, but the i was wondering if i should get it replaced or if its ok. 2) The "resolution" or what ever you call it goes to "3:4" and "16:9" or something like that and i was wondering if there was anyway i could get a bigger picture. 3) A friend of mine in Australia wants me to send him one but im not sure if it will work, i know the power only goes to 110V, but that can be easly fixed by an adapter of somesort. i am more interested if it can play DVDs in that region it plays the "1" region, but i believe there is a way to make it play region "2", im not too sure what they have in Australia, but if anyone could provide any info on weter or not it could play then that would be great! 4) Now the last question... My cousin is visiting me here in the USA and she is interested in the unit. If anyone could shed some light on if it could work in Europe that that would be wonderfull. I know its not the best DVD player (I use it only for my DivX movies) but she seems impressed with it and thats why i wanted to know if it will work in Europe. If there is a better player for under $100 (does not need DivX support) but playes dvds in the American and European region and is PAL + NTSC compatible could you please post the name of it here, i would be extreamly greatfull Thank you guys sooo much!
I registered just to answer your question http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDname=dvp642&Search=Search&country=&orderby=Name On that page (around the top of the page), it has a link that says "Region Code Hack." That lets you choose the region code. I would reccomend using the "5-6-9 + OK" hack on the remote keypad that they talked about on the page that the Region Code Hack link led to. Also read some of the user reviews, it'll come in handy (especially the latest ones). _X_X_X_X_X_[small]bahh![/small]
Enlighten me folks. I am assuming that I could put 3-4 DivX movies on one DVD and this player would play them correct? If so, that is pretty cool, I might just have to pick one of those bad boys up.
Hello All I just ordered this unit from Amazon for $66. Being a tech support rep for one of the major DVD authoring software companies, I was amazed to find that there is a product out there that will read all media formats and pretty much any multimedia file you can put on them. At this price the two week wait is not bothering me one bit. I very much look forward to receiving this device and will hope to post more information as I discover it. And to MobileMIT: According to posts at the below URL, the player has a menu system that will display the file structure of the disc so you can navigate to different movies/clips. It will also default to the "next" file on the disc so you could make some pretty impressive presentations to play on this player... Hope this helps -E _ _X_X_X_X_X_[small]mailto:techboyz@charter.net[/small]
There is a lot more info from DVP642 owners here (I use this site daily to keep up with what my customers have): http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDname=dvp642&Search=Search&country=&orderby=Name Cheers, Eric
This is the best player i have ever had. no microvision!!!!, plays all the xivd and divx files i have. i am a one happy man!
i heard that this player does not support long filenames. So does that mean if I have a Divx/Xvid movie with a longfile name it won't play on this unit?
i also have a divx dvd player. my question is how do I need to burn the .avi files to cd/dvd to make them playable? I dont mean converting to mpeg-2, cuz that defeats the whole point of having the divx dvd player!! thank you in advance!
I've this player for about a month, it works wonderfully with everything I put in there. It'll play all regions, microvision free, all Dvix AVI/MPG files. I've burn like 4 movies in a DVD+RW disc (in .avi format) and play them with no problem. I think the correct hack for the region free is: 7,8,9, OK, 0. I have so far play region 1 & 6 with no problem. It also break the other Jpeg limit of 256 pictures on 1 disc, this player will break all files into 256 in a sub-directory (but it'll take a while). And I have order 2 more of this players from Amazon. $66 a piece with free shipping. Hey if it broke, chuck it and bring out another one ** Only set back is this player only goes up to 8X FF/REW. but, what the heck.)
Hi everybody, I was reading this forum and found lots of useful info about the product. However I have another question: does any of you know if the software can be updated? I mean in event of new versions of Divx can one download the latest codecs and install them? Another thing I did not understand was whether the product could playback DVDs with other region codes, such as the European one! Thank you and have a nice day you all!! Alba2
Yes alba2, it is Firmware Upgradable. You just have to download the latest firmware. And yes, it will play any region DVD's with the region-free hack. Hope that helps. Does anyone know if it plays 320 Kpbs CBR MP3's? and vbr higher than 256 Kbps? cause in the specs it says: MP3(ISO 9660) 96, 112, 128, 256 kbps & variable bit rate fs, 32, 44.1, 48 kHz ONLY up to 256Kbps???????
Thanks for the info, mok. I am considering buying this product these days so I really don't think I can help you. I guess from what I hear it is a product worth buying after all. I have one last uncertenainty though: since most of my divx are on DVD-R and DVD+R (some 6 films per DVD) I would like to know whether it will read my films in both DVD formats or no. If I have an affirmative input on this one as well I am definitely buying the product tomorrow. After all, I think it is a great deal for only $70. Thanks you all, Alba 2
Hi guys, I've been looking into this unit, and have found some odd discrepencies that I'd like to post here and see what you have to say. Recently someone posted a link to this unit on several related mailing lists I'm on, and, naturally, everyone rushed over and scooped them up. Just my luck that I was waiting until payday on the 1st, and now that I'm a week away from getting one, they ran them all out of stock on every site we knew about. Oops. Anyway, I was reading reviews, and saw lots of people complaining about some things, like how the picture for DVDs sucked, and that it didn't play -R media, only +R. (Everyone agreed, though, that the Divx picture looked great.) The product webpage on the Philips website (which is NOT easy to find, let me tell you. "Search" on their site doesn't give you the product, for some weird reason), but there are downloadable PDFs of the specs, along with firmware upgrades, and the overview DOES say that it plays both +R and -R media. It also claims to be using the most modern tech for resolution for the DVD picture, ie. it should look great, too. From the PDF: "Superb audio and video performance. -Progressive Scan for razor-sharp and flicker-free images. -4x video upsampling for improved image quality. -192kHz/24bit audio DAC." Is all that just hype, or does that tell us anything good? Not exactly my field, so I'd like a more experienced eye to let me know if that's actually a good thing. Now, here's where it gets interesting. This unit is "Divx Compatible" not "Divx Certified" right? Well, a friend just picked one up at a Target store in Kansas City, and the little cardboard insert on the shelf above the unit had the Divx Certified logo on it. Fudging? Or have they actually gotten certified recently with Divx.com? Secondly, everyone here is talking about region code hacks. Well, according to Philips, this unit is shipped as a region-free device. You shouldn't need a hack. They very clearly specify in several places that you can play any region without problem. Another thing, and here's where I'd like to know if someone can confirm or deny the ability, the specs state that it plays, and I quote, "Movies: DVD, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, VCD, SVCD, Mpeg-4, and Divx 3.11/4.x/5.x" (Doesn't mention Xvid, but we've all figured out it does play them, too). "Music: CD, MP3-CD, CD-R, and CD-RW." Ok, does anyone see what's missing? No DVDs are mentioned under music. My cheap little Norcent I picked up for 35 bucks at Walmart even does that. I put all my MP3s on DVD to tote around and have handy. If it won't play them, that will totally suck. Anyone able to play audio files stored on DVD? I do get a kick out of the fact that this cheap little unit does do one thing that most can't. It allows you to browse pics on disc while also listening to your MP3s. That's kinda cool. My Norcent won't allow that, and it's actually something I had wanted to see in a unit. (I at least wanted to load the album art while listening to an album.) Did you know there are two versions of this model? I noticed that today. DVP642/17 & DVP642/37. I have NO idea what the difference is, but the /17 is the one the specs have been referring to, so I assume a higher number can only mean added features, not anything lost. The firmware upgrade "ReadMe" says: "Key features added in this software version: -Support external subtitles for Divx with the following fonts supported -Latin 1, -Latin 2, Cyrillic. -Support Divx Video on Demand (VOD) -Enhanced performance for Divx/Mpeg-4 video files." Sadly, no mention of them actually fixing the truncated menu system, which is probably what everyone actually wants done first. And finally, one last question. I know this unit doesn't play all audio formats, so I was wondering if someone could explain what it does and doesn't do. I can't find the full specs for that now. I know that it will play Divx files that have an MP3 soundtrack, but not "Divx audio." I don't remember if it handles AC3, but I seem to recall it does. I know there's something it doesn't do in this area that could be important, and would cause some Divx movies to not play, but darned if I can remember what that was. Doesn't play OGG, but that wasn't it. Anyway, here's the page you can look up the specs yourself. Interestingly enough, half the good features (like Divx) aren't even mentioned on the page itself, but only in the PDF docs. Really weird: http://www.consumer.philips.com/glo...A&subCatId=DVD_PLAYERS_SU&productId=DVP642_17 Sorry about the long addy. Wasn't sure if it'd still work if I edited out the session ID, so I left it alone. Kurgan
Hello Kurgan- Wow, quite a post, I will try to respond with meaningful information where I can. [bold]-Progressive Scan for razor-sharp and flicker-free images. -4x video upsampling for improved image quality. -192kHz/24bit audio DAC." Is all that just hype, or does that tell us anything good? Not exactly my field, so I'd like a more experienced eye to let me know if that's actually a good thing. [/bold] Progressive scan refers, when speaking of DVD video, to the output of a 480p video signal. Standard TV's use an interlaced (each field only displays every other horizontal line, with every other field alternating which lines, i.e. 1 and 3..., 2 and 4...) signal to reduce perceived screen flicker. This means, at 30 frames per second, that there are actually 60 frames being generated in the signal. With a 480p signal, each field represents an entire frame, meaning 60 entire frames are being generated each second. You can see how this would result in a superior picture on tv's that are capable of displaying this signal. But moving on... Upsampling is basically the same as oversampling, which relies on digital filters to remove undesired high frequency "noise" introduced by the analog to digital conversion process. The difference is that upsampling uses a two or three stage oversampling process with components that are seperate from the oversampling filter in the Digital Analog Converter (DAC) 192khz/24-bit audio DAC: No benefit would be seen with this feature and today's DVD discs... However this is useful for the DVD-audio format (more on that later) [bold]Another thing, and here's where I'd like to know if someone can confirm or deny the ability, the specs state that it plays, and I quote, "Movies: DVD, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, VCD, SVCD, Mpeg-4, and Divx 3.11/4.x/5.x" (Doesn't mention Xvid, but we've all figured out it does play them, too). "Music: CD, MP3-CD, CD-R, and CD-RW." Ok, does anyone see what's missing? No DVDs are mentioned under music. My cheap little Norcent I picked up for 35 bucks at Walmart even does that. I put all my MP3s on DVD to tote around and have handy. If it won't play them, that will totally suck. Anyone able to play audio files stored on DVD? [/bold] Playing MP3 files from DVD media is completely different from the DVD-audio standard. I haven't received this player yet so cannot confirm whether or not it plays mp3 audio simply burned onto a DVD disc, but evidence from this thread of the flexibility of the unit would suggest that it would. DVD-audio is not encoded in the same format as CD-audio, as a matter of fact it is encoded at 96mhz/24-bit sample rate, so that is where those specs from before come in handy. [bold]Sadly, no mention of them actually fixing the truncated menu system, which is probably what everyone actually wants done first. [/bold] If you're burning files with longer names onto a disc, you're not conforming to the ISO DVD-video spec anyway, so this isn't really a "problem" with the player. Find a different naming convention for your files, or just navigate the filenames without them being completely enumerated. [bold]I know that it will play Divx files that have an MP3 soundtrack, but not "Divx audio." I don't remember if it handles AC3, but I seem to recall it does. I know there's something it doesn't do in this area that could be important, and would cause some Divx movies to not play, but darned if I can remember what that was. Doesn't play OGG, but that wasn't it. [/bold] Not sure what you're referring to here with Divx Audio... DivX is a video compression scheme only. AC3 refers to Dolby Digital compressed audio and all DVD players decode this. Hope this helps -E _X_X_X_X_X_[small]mailto:techboyz@charter.net[/small]
I recently purchased this unit. It rocks. Plays everything. To open the disk tray with remote, hold down the stop button and it will open. Also, I did the firmware upgrade and it plays subtitles now. I put the subtitle in a folder with the movie. I read somewhere the subtitle has to be the exact same name as the movie. It played perfect for me. I have an RJtech I paid 155.00 for and it does not play skvcd in color. This unit plays it in color. I have had a problem with xvid sometimes but I just hit the menu and then hit it again and it starts playing fine where it left off. In short, this player is the best on the market.Buy one if you can even find one in stock anywhere.They are going as fast as they can get em in.
