Philips dvp642 $69 Divx player at Compusa - anyone knows?

[divuer]

Before the update I had firmware ver 0113, after 0409. Wonder if that means Jan 13 and Apr 9?

I currently have the older firmware (0113) on my unit. What is modified by the upgrade to 0409? Have you checked to see if the player is still Macrovision free

[junkmalle]

What is modified by the upgrade to 0409? Have you checked to see if the player is still Macrovision free

Read my last few posts in this thread. I don't know what's changed, I haven't seen anything obvious; appears to still be macrovision free.

[anton_r]

I checked "Where to buy" link on philips web-site and it said for my zip code: Best Buy, Walmart, CompUSA ... checked Best Buy and 2 Walmart's - none of them have it or even heard of it : ( guess gotta wait a little bit

[MechanicalMan]

Same here. There are no CompUSA's where I'm at, but I called every Wal-Mart in town and also tried Target and BB. No luck. I don't want to pay walmart.com's shipping charge, so I think I'll just try to be patient. Hopefully they will migrate here pretty soon.

[MechanicalMan]

BestBuy.com is now selling these for $69.99 with free shipping. Thanks to duofold over at FatWallet for the info. I just ordered one.

[x-kid]

i see on phlip's website that this player supports dvd+r/rw. i was wondering if anyone knows if it also and read dvd-r.

[optimus]

I have an RJ1500 and just found that the new rc3 version of Koepi's xvid codec is not supported on this divx player.

Does anyone know if the rc3 and rc4 versions of the xvid codec are supported on this Philips model?

For more info on Koepi's xvid codecs,

http://www.roeder.goe.net/~koepi/xvid.shtml

****Updated****

I thought the RJ1500 did not support rc3/rc4 version of xvid. After further testing, that may not have been the problem. Therefore, any RJ1500 users please disregard this post for now, til I have time to find out the real culprit that is giving me a codec not supported error.

Will update again later.

[somebodeez]

Your player is already obsolete.

Not if they keep coming out with FW updates (and hopefully next time they will tell us what the updates are suppose to be for)

[jtoolman2000]

Yeah. hopefully future FW updates will render it able to play all the mpg4 formats as well as the illusive nero digital. I like to convert a few of my flicks to nero/dig so when I travel arouund with my laptop I can at least watch a few movies while flying or when the choices in hotel TVs truly sucks. The results on most movies converted to nero/dig is so good that they are almost viewable on a regular 27" inch tv. Too bad it will not play that format at this time

[Gazorgan]

If you guys are going to watch AVI's on a settop player, then you absolutely have to have the fourcc changer. The player is getting confused by "unknown" 4 cc lables. I've changed some headers and gotten virtually everything to play (all MPEG4 complient video's are pretty much the same).

[optimus]

I've changed some headers and gotten virtually everything to play

Can you explain what you mean by this?

[lyonhart]

I just bought the Phillips DVP642 player last night at Comp USA. When I went into their DVD section, it looked like they didn’t have it. It wasn’t on display, and the price wasn’t marked anywhere. On the lower shelf, below everything else – there were 4 boxes of them. Looked like they were a new product, and didn’t know what to do with them, or maybe they can’t keep them in stock, even without any display signs!

Anyway, this little device is great. It looks a lot better in person than it does on the box. Very sleek, light and stylish. I only had a few hours to test it, but here’s what I’ve found out so far, comparing it to my present 727:

The Phillips 727 that I got for the same price of $69 (just last Christmas…), is the best DVD player I have ever used. I have a 38” RCA HDTV, and my DVD’s look stunning, make that twice as good as they did in my 2 year old $240 Panasonic Interlaced player. It plays pretty much any kind of DVD you throw at it – but here are the 727’s faults:

It tends to distort MP3’s pretty badly, as though they are overloading the audio pre-amp. At first I thought there was something wrong with my files, but the same disks sound fine through my computer system.

It always displays an annoying index number in the upper left hand corner when playing MPEG2 files that have been burned to a DVD with no menu or VOB structure. I do this a lot with my camcorder footage, and store them on DVD’s so I can take the files apart later very easily, and make different combinations of disks with menu’s for other people.

You can’t Zoom in without the annoying “X” display staying right there on the screen. Makes the Zoom feature useless. Otherwise I love the 727.

OK, on to the new DVP642…..again, I only had a few hours to try it last night.

It played everything I threw at it. I have a pretty big collection of Divx movies. A few I downloaded (which looked pretty bad) and about 30 I’ve done myself using Dr. Divx. These mostly looked great. In fact I was surprised how close they looked to the original DVD’s. Divx blows away VHS tape. I convert all my movies at the original size of 720/480. A few of the disks (which came from old 80’s analog sources) actually looked BETTER than the original DVD’s. The post processing in Divx does a great job of logically cleaning up all the noise and video gunk.

The only disk it wouldn’t play without skipping was one that didn’t play right in my computer anyway, cause it was really short, and I cranked the bandwidth up WAY too high to stream off a CD.

The picture quality so far, seems the same as the 727. I have 1 PAL DVD that I haven’t tried yet. So far, I can’t tell the difference between the two players. Remember, there are a lot of tweakable user settings in there for picture quality, so unless you set everything to zero, it’s hard to compare.

Here is the ONE glitch I have found so far in the 642: there is no sound when playing back non-VOB structured DVD’s (sorry, I don’t know the official name for this), that contain raw MPEG2’s. This feature, again, works fine on the 727. The good part is that you are not stuck with the index counter on the screen - -but why no sound??

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a fix for it with an update?

Also the new 642 does not distort loud MP3’s like my “old” 727 did. So far, this little player is an incredible $69 investment. If I can just fix the no-sound issue with raw MPEG2’s, I will be totally happy with it, and will sell my old machine.

[metapy]

I've changed some headers and gotten virtually everything to play

Can you explain what you mean by this?

From the ORIGINAL post and google.com

If you guys are going to watch AVI's on a settop player, then you absolutely have to have the fourcc changer.

http://www.google.com/search?&q=fourcc+changer

[optimus]

The AVI FourCC Code changer allows you to change the FourCC code in an AVI file. The FourCC code is the identification key used by the AVI format to inform itself of which decoder to use for the AVI file playback.

Changing the FourCC code is only useful if you are using a slightly modified codec of a currently encoded file, a codec which shares the same compression algorithms.

Okay, so what do I change the fourcc code to?

There is a description code and a used code. What do I change these to?

[junkmalle]

I have an RJ1500 and just found that the new rc3 version of Koepi's xvid codec is not supported on this divx player.

I've made one test burn of an xvid file created with koepi's rc4 and it played fine on the dvp642.

[Vanderlow]

So with a new firmware you should be able to go into a menu and play European PAL DVDs? as many times as you want, just go back and forth from NTFC region 1 to PAL 2 through the menu?

Also Lyonheart what is the model of $240 Panasonic you had? I have the RP-56.

Does this player come in black?

Does it do Divx in both CD and DVD (multiple Divx movies) formats?

I doubt that it does WMV video. It would be the first to my knowledge. That would mean it should play the Termiator 2 HD DVD.

[anton_r]

just got one from Target

ok ... I found one movie that it would delay audio and skip few seconds there and here of it ... and video would be jerky ... with these parameters:

Video: 576x432 25 fps DivX Codec 5.1.1 2329 kbps avg
Audio: AC3 Dolby Digital 2/0 192.00 kbps avg


Also, in one subfolder it would not even enter ... just froze ... I had there subtitles packed in RAR ... so maybe that's the problem ...

but overall, I like it ... though, drive is noisy

[fantomasz@hotmail.co]

sushix,

The
But using the firmware check instructions listed at the Philips site (in the upgrade readme PDF file, tray open, press 5, 6, 9, OK) you can select from what appears to be several different model numbers and region settings. I'm using

VER0409 642/17 02 1

The last digit appears to be the region number (I'm in the uSA). I have a few region 2 DVDs and they would not play at that setting -- gave the message "wrong region". When I changed it to:

VER0409 632/05 01 2

It played my region 2 DVDs but wouldn't play region 1.

exactly
I install new firmware few minutes ago.after upgrade You won't find number 642/17 02 1.You will find 01 1.
If I change into 632/05 01 2 I am able to play region 2.Super!!!

[soghjai]

OK I flashed the firmware to 409, the only difference I can see is the addition of VoD (Video on Demand) option in the menu which displays your account number on top.

[shinypenny]

I have an RJ1500 and just found that the new rc3 version of Koepi's xvid codec is not supported on this divx player.

I've made one test burn of an xvid file created with koepi's rc4 and it played fine on the dvp642.

Xvid is hit or miss with me. I've tried three files burned with Xvid, one with RC4, and have gotten the "Codec Not Supported" Error Message. On the other hand, many Xvid files play back with no problems.

The key difference between the ones that play back and ones that don't seems to be the interleave. On the Xvid files that didn't play back the Split was set to "No". On the Xvid files that did play back, the Split was set to "Yes". If you still have that test xvid file, could you please check with Gspot and see what the interleave Split was set to?

Also a question for you - what firmware were you running? I'm using the most recent 409 release.

[shinypenny]

I have an RJ1500 and just found that the new rc3 version of Koepi's xvid codec is not supported on this divx player.

I've made one test burn of an xvid file created with koepi's rc4 and it played fine on the dvp642.

Xvid is hit or miss with me. I've tried three files burned with Xvid, one with RC4, and have gotten the "Codec Not Supported" Error Message. On the other hand, many Xvid files play back with no problems.

The key difference between the ones that play back and ones that don't seems to be the interleave. On the Xvid files that didn't play back the Split was set to "No". On the Xvid files that did play back, the Split was set to "Yes". If you still have that test xvid file, could you please check with Gspot and see what the interleave Split was set to?

Also a question for you - what firmware were you running? I'm using the most recent 409 release.

Bah, it's not the interleave. Just tried an Xvid file with interleave switch No and it played. Weird. I wonder what the problem is.

[Vanderlow]

OK I pick this player up at Target. I compared the DVD playback to my Panasonic RP56 with the Faroudja FLI2200 de-interlacing chip on a Sony 24in Wega. I have to say the Philips has got the worst DVD playback I have ever seen. It's mediocre at best. It's colors are bland and are a bit washed out and not vibrant like the Pannys. I watched Seabiscuit and you couldn't tell Toby McGuire's eyes were blue in certain scenes where the Panny could. The Panny just had better coloring, more subtle shades of coloring. Where the father makes Red recite Dickens he's wearing a very dark purple sweater with the Philips it looks black in the Panny you can see the dark purple (as he's sitting down and saying "good"). Another really bad aspect of the Philips was that shadows look plain black were on the Panny shadows look more gradient and transparent. I've also had a $70 Panny from Target that I bought my sister I believe it was the S32 and it was very closer to my RP56 when I compared it on my TV. I've even seen a Cyperhome 420 at my nephew's house and it looked better. This seems like a first generation DVD player to me in playback performance.

On Divx its a slight more mixed bag. I pipe in Divx to my TV from my G3Ti200. The colors are warmer and more vibrant through the PC. There is slightly more detail in the Philips. On a more compressed film I believe there was more pixelation on the Philips, on better Divx they were about the same in video artifacts. The Philips also had a slight green tint on certain people's skin in certain scenes where my PC didn't. I also noticed it on the DVD playback too, but less often. It did play all 5 of the Divx I put in it, but half of them wouldn't play sound. I also upgraded the firmware. The PC had a more filmlike look to it as did the Panny DVD playback. On one Divx the Philips border on the right was wavvy where on the PC playback it wasn't. The Philips did fill up the TV screen where the PC leaves some black border, so that was a plus for the Philips.

To me it's not a keeper. I'm really rather stun about what's all the fuss about, other then it's a cheap Divx player.

[spiffy]

I finally found one too. Three issues:

1. No audio in raw VOB files. Raw mpeg files are fine though.

2. File Browser is quirky -- seems to stick on the first file -- cursor arrow navigation is not very responsive. Almost easier to use the NEXT button instead.

3. Don't like the remote! The down arrow is placed too close to the PLAY button. Has anyone been able to find a good replacement Universal Remote?

Thanks,

Spiffy

[dun4cheap]

The box states it plays Divx. I bought one last week and it plays Divx, Xvid, nAVI, mpg, mpeg, AVIs with AC3, mpg4, mpg2 without any problems so far. Its quite loads up quickly both DVD Data, DVD's and CD Data with avi and mp3s

[grumpy2906]

Hi every one. I live in Montreal, Canada, and i want to buy de Philips DVP642 from the internet, but none of the web sites you mentionned delivers in Canada.

Is there someone who could help me in finding a web site that delivers to Canada for the Philips DVP642, please ???

Thanks.

Andre

[optimus]

Shinypenny, I am wondering if the problenm has to do with the number of b frames used. The files that are not working for me give me the b frame lag message when I open them in virtualdub. Open in virtual dub and check to see if you get such a message. I am using 1.5.x version of virtualdub.

[PlasticChicken]

grumpy2906 ---> Go buy one at the Wal-Mart in Plattsburgh

[absolutic]

1. Best Buy sells Phillips universal dvd learning remote for 12.99 or 14.99$ that has eject button and works this unit perfectly.

2. Compusa always shows none in stock on line but when you get to the store, they always have a couple of boxes laying around.

3. Divx.com now lists this player as Divx Certified Dvd Player.

[fantomasz@hotmail.co]

Is there someone who could help me in finding a web site that delivers to Canada for the Philips DVP642, please ??

ebay
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&ht=1&from=R10&satitle=ph...&sosortorder=1

[Jev]

just don;t understand what the f... every1 is testing and wining about here

player supports everything that kiss 450 and so on supports, pretty much all DIVX, MPEG and so on

Has support for Subtitles but only as *.srt (no sub support yet) with the latest firmware
for 70$ its a steal \