seeking new Philips DivX DVD player

[coyote2]

I need to replace my sister's Philips 5992 (or maybe 5990 I forget, they're just different colors) with another inexpensive player.

When I bought mine the cheap players I tried by other brands were inferior. As were the other Philips models (most wouldn't stay paused, instead they turned themselves off and lost their place). I also like that the 5992 supports .sub files in addition to .srt files, and automatically loads subtitles with matching filenames.

But the 5992 is no longer made. I see there's a Philips 3680 now. Any advice, please?

My sister doesn't currently need HDMI or upconversion.

[deadmeow]

I recently bought a 3680, and all I can tell you is that Philips makes nothing but flimsy junk the last few years. I bought a Philips in 2007 also, and it was flimsy junk. The 3680 has a usb port and plays from a usb flash drive which is nice, but the DVD mechanism, the moving parts are all junk. It doesn't play half or more of my regular DVD's, and the ones it does play, it struggles with, and it is sometimes louder than a film projector.

I have nothing against Philips, I have a Philips LCD tv which I like, and I loved the old divx and dvd players, especially the DVP642, that was a very sturdy divx-DVD player, and I had another good philips dvd player before that one.

What I will advise you to do, is to go to Amazon.com and do a search for any potential divx/dvd players you are interested in, including the 3680, and look at rating and reviews. You may even be able to replace her DVD player with the same model (used) from Ebay.

[coyote2]

p.s. In the 3680 manual, I see that the 3680 does two things that I liked which my 5992 does (and that other Philips models didn't):

1. It supports .sub files in addition to .srt ones, and it does so automatically by with filenames matching the video, and

2. It doesn't turn itself off and lose one's place when DivX movies are paused, if one disables the Auto Standby setting.

[jman98]

I also owned the old DVP642 and while it gave me years of useful service before dying, it was actually a piece of crap. People everywhere, including here, complained mightily about it. deadmeow and I got lucky and got some of the good ones, but many who bought it had it die within months of purchase.

If you can find the DVP3560, it could still be made region free when I bought mine in 2011 and it plays Divx better than the old 642 did. You can set the output to 480i or 480p. No upconversion with those. Do check the connections on the back as I'm not sure that it can do old "yellow RCA" composite video, but I think it does component. I'm using HDMI on mine.

I do NOT recommend buying used on Ebay and think that's a terrible suggestion unless deadmeow wants to send you the money to do so.

[coyote2]

I also owned the old DVP642 and while it gave me years of useful service before dying, it was actually a piece of crap. People everywhere, including here, complained mightily about it. deadmeow and I got lucky and got some of the good ones, but many who bought it had it die within months of purchase.

If you can find the DVP3560, it could still be made region free when I bought mine in 2011 and it plays Divx better than the old 642 did. You can set the output to 480i or 480p. No upconversion with those. Do check the connections on the back as I'm not sure that it can do old "yellow RCA" composite video, but I think it does component. I'm using HDMI on mine.

I do NOT recommend buying used on Ebay and think that's a terrible suggestion unless deadmeow wants to send you the money to do so.

My 642 worked for many years until I gave it to a buddy and it then promptly died.

I was delighted by the features newer models added.

I agree about eBay; I thought about a used one there, they I decided I didn't want to risk getting saddled with one someone was selling because something made it undesirable. I just got a new 3680 at Bestbuy for $39.99

Thank you all!