REMOVE Phillips DVP-642 "angle" indicator

[gumbico]

I've got some concert DVDs with multiple viewing angles on them. When playing with the 642, the angle indicator is ALWAYS displayed. I can't seem to figure out how to turn it off. So friggin annoying. My pioneer and apex players allow me to hide the indicator but it looks like the phillips won't.

HELP?!

[freestylegreek]

The losers from Philips wont tell me how to get rid of it either. I dont even have the player yet and i was just asking cause i wanted to help people out. They told me there is no camera angle. I told them if you dont believe me come to videohelp.com and check the dvd player topic forum you will see people talking about it.

There a bunch of losers over there. It seems like they spend more time looking at a manual then really trying to solve a problem.

I thought I saw someone post a message someone on this site something about toggling through it until you get to the last one and waiting for it to go away. Something like that i saw not 100% sure.

[gumbico]

What a load of crap. I thought I could never find a flaw with this player till now. I guess not enough folks out there have multi-angle DVDs so Philips doesn't want to even address it. But honestly, I've clicked through every single friggin menu item and there is nothing to turn it off. There's a "display" button that will toggle between output of track info and stuff like that on the screen but it won't remove the angle. It's so annoying!!!

[freestylegreek]

I was scanning the message board and someone had a movie and said they scanned the angle's from 1/3, 2/3 3/3 then back to 1/3 and they didnt touch anything and said it went away. So what im saying is trying scanning angle's until you get to the last one then go back to the 1st one and wait and see what happens.

[gumbico]

I tried that. The concert DVD I have only has 2 angles. So I've gone 1/2 to 2/2 to 1/2 over and over and the thing won't go away. I've let it sit for over 5 mins between switching and it stays. It only disappears when a chapter has only 1 angle, but the moment a muti-angle chapter comes, the damn icon pops back. Firmware wise, I'm still running the old 0531 not the new 1109 one, besides, I've heard too many bad things about the new one.

thanks tho

[freestylegreek]

BTW I didnt say you leave it when switching. In this case since there are 2 angles you go from 1/2 to 2/2 back to 1/2 and let it sit and see what happens.

I called the idiots at philips and yelled at them for answers they again think im a crank caller and that im a lier. I told them the reason people aren't calling is cause maybe they think your no help which is true.

I tried that. The concert DVD I have only has 2 angles. So I've gone 1/2 to 2/2 to 1/2 over and over and the thing won't go away. I've let it sit for over 5 mins between switching and it stays. It only disappears when a chapter has only 1 angle, but the moment a muti-angle chapter comes, the damn icon pops back. Firmware wise, I'm still running the old 0531 not the new 1109 one, besides, I've heard too many bad things about the new one.

thanks tho

[gumbico]

yeah, that's what I meant. I clicked the angle button 3 times to go from 1/2-->2/2-->1/2. Then I waited. But it just stays there. Oh well, guess I'll just have to find myself another region free dvd player that doesn't do this. Then again, I only have two non-region 1 multiangle DVDs, so I can put up with it. Still, it just seems weird that Philips would program the player that way.

[freestylegreek]

I contacted them again about this and they still dont believe me. They said why would an icon come up. Im like well ummmmmm cause the dvd has angles in that you can view. How do you turn this function off?

Of course they dont know nor do they believe me.

[scottymac]

Have you tried hitting the display button?

[freestylegreek]

I think your talking about gumbico. I know i dont have the player yet so i hope he has tried that and got it working. I hope im getting this dvd player since it all goes to if i get it from someone else in my family as a christmas present.

[seymouru]

I just got this player based on all the positive reviews. Then of course one of the first DVDs I played had multiple angles, and I couldn't get rid of the angle icon. Has anyone upgraded to 1109 to see if it fixes the problem? Or is everyone holding off doing the upgrade, like I am?

[anzimike]

I don't remember which of my players it was but actually toggling the subtitle button on the dvd remote (or was it the tv remote?) turned off the little icon on my multiangle concert dvd. It's worth a try.

[seymouru]

I wish it were that easy. I tried every button on the remote -- display, subtitle, audio, preview, OK, left, right, up, down, zoom -- you name it. No go.

[jbreaker]

1109 does NOT remove the angle icon.

[Krispy Kritter]

Yes it is very annoying.

Cycling through the angles and back to 1...it will usually clear after a second, however, it will reappear for every multi angle scene.

[jbreaker]

Its annoying to say the very least.

No button pressing or toggling or firmware that I've tried does anything. I've spent hours searching, calling, translating Portugese into broken English, but I've found nothing of any use.

And if your disc has multiple angles throughout, its there the whole time - the Invader Zim DVDs, for example, have a second angle of animatics or animation storyboards throughout every episode, so I've got an angle icon on the screen for 6 DVDs worth of stuff.

The response from Philips varies depending on who you talk to. So far, I've gotten:
-There is no angle icon.
-There's not supposed to be an angle icon, so the player is broken.
-There's supposed to be an angle icon and you can't remove it.
All of these are very helpful information.

[canadateck]

Cant the icon/Image be removed in the firmware? Or somthing like that?

[jbreaker]

I'm sure it could be, but I don't think anyone knows enough about hacking the firmware to do it, and they probably don't want to risk their player on trial-and-error approaches to it. I know there have been some mods made to the firmware, but as far as I know from talking to people who've done them they only deal with the subtitles and fonts.
It seems that Philips is aware of the issue at least on some level, but they don't seem too concerned or inclined to fix it. I'll admit that I'm a bit... "picky" about things like that, and a lot of times other people don't even notice stuff that drives me nuts, but I see a lot of people complaining abotu this, and I can't imagine it would take a lot of Philips' engineering time to fix it. Just put in an option to disable all On Screen Display - If you want it, turn it on, if not, turn it off.

[canadateck]

I had the same Kind of problem with my Apex when it was set to Region Free it would always show the play Button , My brother was able to remove,The image and replace it with a Trasparent one.

[canadateck]

I tried to open the Hacked firmware , but could only see the images for the Subs.

[jbreaker]

Which APEX? I had a 3201 that always said "Play" when it switched layers in the disc, which was really annoying, but I could never find a fix for it. Knowing how to fix it now wouldn't do me a lot of good, as I don't have it anymore, but it'd be nice to know it could be done...

[adam]

Could be worse. I bought my mom a cyberhome DVD player. The directional buttons are located on the number keys and you have to hit the shift button first to use them. After you hit shift, it leaves a giant SHIFT icon on the screen. As long as you are navigating through the menu's, you have to have the icon and it frequently covers up a button so that you can't see what it says.

[jbreaker]

I understand that when you're buying off-brand players, you sort of agree to make certain sacrifices, but jeebus! Doesn't anyone think at all about the design of these things? Who's going to be happy with a player that does that?
I guess that's why I'd expect better from Philips...
(Though I should say that I do have a Cyberhome that's a really great player - no giant SHIFT, just some playback quirks with certain discs.)

[Ender3rd]

Yah that icon is a real pain. It shows up on one of my movies all the time after a certain scene shift, and it will go away if I cycle through the angle options and then leave it alone for a few seconds. However, on a live concert DVD of mine, it persists, just like yours. So... my solution was to grab a piece of black electrical tape and slap it over the friggin icon so I could not see it. Works like a charm and does not interfere with the video at all since the icon is in the upper black bar of my 4:3 screen. While I had the tape out, I cut a small piece and put it over the friggin power switch LED that stupidly glows brightly when the machine is OFF. That was just as satisfying.

Seems like the angle icon issue could be addressed with the next firmware upgrade...

Regards,

Ender

[Lyris]

A total pain - I had this on an old Thomson/RCA player. Totally unbelievable that they don't see this as a problem!

[jbreaker]

The tape would work fine, but the discs I see the icon on the most are all full-screen stuff, so I'd just have a black piece of tape on the screen then...
And Philips obviously doesn't have a clue - you'd think that a fair percentage of the people who are going to buy this player are not going to want that thing on the screen. They told me that "not many discs have that feature", but I could just as easily say that not many players have a giant icon on the screen all the time.

[Ender3rd]

I know this would be an inconvience, but you might want to simply rip the original retail DVD to your computer and make it a single angle production. Then burn it back to a DVDr and live happily ever after. It seems crazy to have to do that, but if Philips does not take care of this it might be the only realistic solution. It certainly is an annoying "feature".

Regards,

Ender

[jbreaker]

Yeah, no DVD burner, though... And having to buy one to do that would make the Philips essentially a $169 DVD player or something, which is way more than its worth to me.

[kaptainprozac]

Hello
I too bought a DVP642, your best bet is either return the player or call philips customer support, (the cust support line keeps you on hold for close to 10 minutes but do this first), I told them that I bought the player from amazon, THERE is no way of removing the angle prompt if you do , when a second chapter or title with multi angle comes up it will come back again, The only way I successfully removed the angle prompt is by using my other philips remote control from my theater wide TV made by philips I programmed the remote to control both my philips tv and the dvp642 and guess what , the tv remote control has a clear button and I just press it once and its gone, It will come back again so I will press the clear button again , Now my solution might not help everyone because you would have to go spend $1800 to buy this TV , and no the remote is not offered from phillips, BUT here is the ultimate solution ALL owners on this forum who own a DVP 642, must call the phillips customer support line and request for a refund to return this player to them say that you just purchased this from amazon for around $80.00 and get your refund confirmations number, hopefully if many of us do this they will crap there pants and post a new firmware that sets the angle prompt on or off in there system setup, (like my lovely little cyberhome 300 does).
SO guys and gals call the phillips customer support and start complaining for a refund 1-866 philips or 1-800 philips and by the way most customer support staff are idiots, dont let them tell you that just return to amazon, you tell them you spoke to amazon and since there is no defective problem with the player to call philips. they will give you a refund no questions asked.
DONT keep the player the future of DVD movies will have multiangle on most movies so does this, firmware upgrade or downgrade will not work , philips has to write a new firmware to address the problem.

[scottymac]

Don't do anything, the angle icon will disappear within a couple of seconds.