DVD player that plays WMV files

[susjk]

Is there any DVD player available in the market that plays WMV (Windows Media Video) files directly from the CD?
If it is, please tell me where do I buy from?

Thanks

Regards,
Suresh

[RabidDog]

NO there is not! and praise be to god there isnt, do you want M$ making your underpants too? 8)

[misterchuckles]

Alot of Japanese companies are releasing DVD and wireless network AV players using Sigma's WMV9 decoding chip but none of these players are out in America yet. Some of them were released as lately as last week! Hopefully they will be in Europe and America soon.

We should be seeing some pretty impressive things on the horizon when blu-ray and HD-DVD come out. The only thing that sucks about the WMV files is the DRM authorization, but that will either go away for consumer players or someone will crack it soon enough. If its not Microsoft getting royalties for their work, MPEG4 or some other crappy codec will mean $$$ for someone else.

Either way, MPEG2 and MPEG4 suck and unless something better comes out, WMV9 is clearly the way to go for HD playback. I hope hardware decoders for the consumer comes out real soon....

[bugster]

Either way, MPEG2 and MPEG4 suck and unless something better comes out, WMV9 is clearly the way to go for HD playback.

but WMV9 IS MPEG4, or a variant thereof

[wayne421]

There is a DVD player that plays WMV files, as well as DivX and a few other formats. It's the Philips DVP642. Target sells it for around $70, and Amazon and others have it as well:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000204SWE/qid=1097089947/sr=1-1/ref=sr_...onics&n=172282

Videohelp has a bunch of reviews of it as well:

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDname=philips+dvp642&Submit=Search&Search=Se...y=Name&hits=25

It's also update-able / hackable via firmware, making it Region 0 (region free). Websites also report after being hacked it will play PAL discs on your standard NTSC television.

Quality isn't super-duper, but for $70 it's not a bad deal.

Hope this helps.

-W-

[irfans]

My philips DVP-642 runs on 0531 firmware and it is not able to play WMV files. When I play such files, it says "Codec error." I emailed Philips technical support and they replied that the player is not capable of playing WMV files.

However, someone else on this player's review thread in this website mentioned that it plays WMV files...

How did you guys do it?

[catdaddio6]

i read that too,but haven't tried it,,maybe they meant wma

[duhmez]

Either way, MPEG2 and MPEG4 suck and unless something better comes out, WMV9 is clearly the way to go for HD playback.

?Mpeg 4 sucks... since when? Mpeg 4 sucks when the source is crap and it was encoded by a noob.

Mpeg 4 is excellent, and itll be a cold day in hell before I archive ANYHTING in WMV formats.

[gll99]

irfans wrote

My philips DVP-642 runs on 0531 firmware and it is not able to play WMV files

A couple of users have posted that the dvp-642 plays wmv and also rm but when questionned they never post back. Unless someone speaks up with a valid explanation , I think they got fooled by putting mixed avi (divx/mpeg4, mpg, rm and wmv on the same disc and the player just skipped over the file when they chose it in the menu. I tested a few like that and for a second thought that they played but it just skipped the file and played the next valid clip. I also tested some with a fake avi extension but the results were the same. The only oddball files that worked were putting mp4's within an avi container. At least someone posted the specs on that process.
If someone knows a similar trick for wmv and rm then please post it.

[jman98]

Nothing currently available in North America will play WMV at this time. The people who claim the DVP642 will play WMV are wrong and probably don't own the player. This kind of stuff happens all the time. I remember a few years ago some people insisting on another forum that an Apex player would play miniDVD (DVD format on CD-R/W media). At this time, it was not supported in the firmware and there was no hacked firmware to support it. This was several years ago, as I said. I got into an exchange with a guy who insisted that a specific Apex model supported it and when I told him that I owned one and asked him to tell me what firmware he was using, he admitted that he didn't actually own the model, he was just reporting what his friend told him
Kiss Technologies is releasing a DVD player in Europe very soon that will play WMV files. This may eventually be imported into North America by a few companies, but it won't be cheap. I think it is going to cost over 200 Euros, but don't quote me on that. The last post mentioned some people have also claimed some players support RM and to my knowledge, no standalone DVD player supports that.

[Darth Paris]

I have a copy of T2 special edition. On the secopnd disc there is a HD version in WMV, will these new players be able to play this?

[Cwluc]

Probably not cause you would need to be able to authorize your player, unless it has the ability to do so, you will not be able to and DRM encoded HD-DVD. To answer the question I think the only way you can play HD-DVD is with a Media Center Edition computer hooked up to the TV.

Next the DVP-642 cannot play wmv (nor RM), I'm not even sure if it can play wma but that wasn't the reason I bought it. It DOES play those XviD's and trust me it's nice, now if only we can get an upgrade on the firmware so we can play XviD version 1.0 or better... There are not that many encodes out there that use the newest build anyway, I believe it is for compatibly sake but when it happens you just have to watch that one on the computer again. (Few and far between guys unless you are making them yourself - but then you know to use version 0.9.2 I think or lower) What it can do is play DivX 5 video that has been encrypted since its DivX certified, but not many care about that anymore...

[Darth Paris]

Probably not cause you would need to be able to authorize your player, unless it has the ability to do so, you will not be able to and DRM encoded HD-DVD. To answer the question I think the only way you can play HD-DVD is with a Media Center Edition computer hooked up to the TV.

Actually I have an MC PC with a video out. The only problem is that the video out is real low resolution.

[Cwluc]

I did say I THINK, is it the latest version 2005?? Maybe you could get a better TV out card?

[Darth Paris]

From what I hear most are like that.

[victorcolorado]

Yes, DVP-642 can play WMV files.

I have a CD-R with 23 small wmv files. By my surprise I could play only the number 15 on my DVP-642.
AVIcodec say: Video : 22 Mb, 287 Kbps, 10.12 fps, res. 336*224 (4:3), MP43 = Windows Media MPEG-4 Video V3, Supported.

So, If I am right this DVP-642 supports WMV V3, ¿How can I convert my other wmv files, (most of them V8 ) to V3 in order to play them on this player?

[SoCalMK]

Where can I get firmware for the Philips 642. Could someone please post a direct url, because others have always pointed me to the philips home page and I can't find jack there. Thanks in advance for any help that might be offered.

[gll99]

victorcolorado

Video : 22 Mb, 287 Kbps, 10.12 fps, res. 336*224 (4:3), MP43 = Windows Media MPEG-4 Video V3, Supported.

The mp41,mp42 and mp43 codecs are microsoft mpeg4 codecs but are not the wmv codec that people are referring to. I too have many files with those codecs and they all play fine on the dvp-642.

What everyone is asking is can we somehow modify the video without reencoding or adjust the player so that it will play wmv7, wmv8, wmv9. These are newer microsoft codecs.

[stiltman]

Just to help you out in this thread, do a search on "Bravo D3"

[DereX888]

Yes, DVP-642 can play WMV files.

I have a CD-R with 23 small wmv files. By my surprise I could play only the number 15 on my DVP-642.
AVIcodec say: Video : 22 Mb, 287 Kbps, 10.12 fps, res. 336*224 (4:3), MP43 = Windows Media MPEG-4 Video V3, Supported.

So, If I am right this DVP-642 supports WMV V3, ¿How can I convert my other wmv files, (most of them V8 ) to V3 in order to play them on this player?

Windows Media (as it is commonly referred to) would be WMV7,8 or 9., perhaps 10 as well (I avoid any crap that is for-computer-only and I dont know is there a version 10, but I noticed M$oft releases new codec version always with new versions of their media player, so I assume there is V10 since I read about WMP10 being out...)
Anyway - as you can read for yourself your file is V3 (version 3). Thats actually the first M$oft's old MPEG-4 codec, on which gej and others have build their so-called divx codecs.
Obviously any player capable of playing divx3 will play WMV V3 files since its the same thing.