I bought a DVP 642 around February 2005. In late October or early November it stopped working. Everything appears to work, except when any disk is inserted it whirs for a while, then finally displays the words NO DISC on the screen. Unfortunately the player comes with a 90 day warranty, and even with my credit card extending (doubling) the warranty, it was beyond the easy fix. The player does not recognize any CD or DVD or burned CD or DVD anymore. I do not know if this is a physical probelm with a motor or focusing servo, or if it is a firmware problem. Phillips wanted $54 to fix / swap it out of warranty. I could buy a new one for close to $60 from other retailers, so there was no way I wanted to fix it at that price. Any suggestions on how to make the DVP642 work again are appreciated.
does it happen with every disk inserted? i'd just return it and buy the LG LDA-511 from best buy.. much better player anyway and has HiDef upconversion.
Returning it isn't an option because I've had it too long. I was just looking at info regarding a possible fix to my DVP642. I've replaced it with a Toshiba SD-K850SU that I'm happy enough with so far. It only upconverts on HDMI but my big screen tv is a CRT based unit, so I suppose running at 480p via component is just fine.
yes, cuz 480 is the native resolution of that tv.. so you cannot take advantage of the HDMI plug.. the phillips player is just cheap in my opinion.. i can only suggest try a repair shop, see how much to fix it. it may exceed the cost of the player it self..
My big screen TV does 1080i just fine. It doesn't support 720p though. If you understand the scanning issues with a CRT, you can understand that it has to do with the vertical retrace issues of a CRT. It seems to me that when I'm playing DivX files or XviD fiels that have a higher resolution, upconverting to 1080i in the DVD player would come up with a better picture than sending the 480p image to the screen.
true... but i rarely use divx any more.. i used to download all the time, now i am more into the backing up of originals. my player supports tons of formats, i experiment all the time with different formats. just to mess around. so far so good !! i especially love mpeg4 (data) in this player. i can pack almost 9 full length movies on a CD-R !!
Last night I finally took the cover off my DVP642. First I was amazed at how little is inside the metal case. Then I pushed down on the laser assembly and a everything else inside the case. It seemed to bring the unit back to life, and I was able to recognize a disk and play it again. This mornign, when I tried to watch the same disk that had been left in it overnight, It was back to the NO DISC mode again. There were 9 screws holding the case together. I'm glad I only put one of them back in when I set it on top of the TV again.
