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

[absolutic]

Anyone knows anything about this player?
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=312093&pfp=srch1

what chip it uses?

[noki]

I think CompUSA screwed up. go to Philip's site for the 642 and nowhere does it mention it plays back Divx.

[absolutic]

actually it does say on philips site that it plays divx you have to find a manual instruction on philps site which i did and i read it, it says plays divx but nothing about whether it plays xvid or what chip it uses.

[absolutic]

I ran to a local Compusa and picked one up. Why pay 150$ for RJ when u can get this baby for $69. Played with it for the last 2 hours. I think it is ESS Vibrato because it ff and rw with no problems up to 8X. I put it in my bedroom b/c I have Liteon 2001 in my living room. It played every disk I had with an exception of 1 divx disk which my Liteon 2001 did not play. Also I had one divx where my Liteon only played video and could not play audio. When I played it on Philips DVP642, it also played video only with no audio. Essentially, it played everything that Liteon played with a little more stability. Of course it does not upconvert to 1080i like Liteon. And I don't know yet how to make it region free, no hacks yet.

Remote control is identical to the one I have for Magnavox MDV421. The player is very thin and fits everywhere. So far I am pleased for $69.

[boroda]

Do you know if it does subtitles? Which languages does it support?

[noki]

absolutic
thanks for your post. Question: how does a well produced Divx movie look when compared to the actual DVD that it came from? can you really see a difference, and how much? Also is a SVCD version of the movie better or worse than the Divx movie (of the same DVD)? Personally I can see a big difference between a SVCD encoded w_CCE and a transcoded DVD (DVDR much better). But I do not have a home Divx player to compare it to SVCD or DVD. Thanks.

[absolutic]

Noki,

I've had this player for about a day. I played a few divx files and the quality is excellent. Now, I can only compare DIVX playing to my Liteon LVD2001. I only have these two players that can play DIVX. I also have Magnavox MDV421 and older JVC progressive scan DVD player but these don't play fivx.

I don't own any SVCDs. I cannot comment on these. If I find a divx test cd which I have to look for (I have it somewhere but I just moved) I will post which files it plays and which it does not.

[boroda]

Absolutic,
Have you tried external (SRT, SUB) subtitles? Do they work at all?
Thanks

[absolutic]

Absolutic,
Have you tried external (SRT, SUB) subtitles? Do they work at all?
Thanks

Results of German test DIVX CD:


Auflmsung:
480x204 ok
496x208 ok
512X220 ok
528x220 ok
544x236 ok
560x236 ok
576x248 ok
592x248 ok
608x260 ok
624x260 ok
640x272 ok
656x276 ok
672x288 ok
688x288 ok
704x296 ok
720x308 ok

DIVX 3
VIDEO AUDIO
Fast3k-Divx good no sound
Fast3k good good
Fast6k good good
Low15k good good
Low3k-DivxT good no sound
Low3k good good
Low6k-320 good breaking


DIVX 5
1k-BF ok ok
1k-GMC ok ok
1k-Qpel ok ok
2pass15k ok ok
2pass3k ok ok
6k-320 breaking twice breaking
fast scenes
6k-gmc-bf-3 breaking twice some
breaking
fast scenes


I dont understand the abbreviations of different codecs but there are the results of mine playing that cd for what its worth

[jtoolman2000]

None of the CompUsa stores in my area have them in stock. Can only order by mail though the their site. I am glad, if I read the specs correctly, that it also plays straight mp4 which is what Nero Digital is supposed to encode to. I think the overall quality of Nero digital compared to Divx and even Xvid is very good. The fact that it only takes less than a hour for most movies in Nero Digital as opposed to many hours or even overnight to convert to Divx the conventional, multy program way, makes it an atractive combination.
How it will look on most tvs may be another story. Sounds really great though!

Incase you all have not seen this other piece of HW, thake a look at this

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=309630&pfp=SEARCH

[somebodeez]

Is it multi region?

[noki]

you can probably buy the 642 unit straight from Philips..$79 list price.

[absolutic]

None of the CompUsa stores in my area have them in stock. Can only order by mail though the their site. I am glad, if I read the specs correctly, that it also plays straight mp4 which is what Nero Digital is supposed to encode to. I think the overall quality of Nero digital compared to Divx and even Xvid is very good. The fact that it only takes less than a hour for most movies in Nero Digital as opposed to many hours or even overnight to convert to Divx the conventional, multy program way, makes it an atractive combination.
How it will look on most tvs may be another story. Sounds really great though!

Incase you all have not seen this other piece of HW, thake a look at this

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=309630&pfp=SEARCH

check your local Compusa stores tomorrow. I checked mine on Tuesday and none had it, and I then checked it on Wednesday, and then ALL stores had them! The stock changes every day so you should check day by day. Or you can order it in alternative

[lets]

Can this player (from CompUsa) work from 220V? In oter words, is there a lable on the back like " 110~240V"?

[absolutic]

Can this player (from CompUsa) work from 220V? In oter words, is there a lable on the back like " 110~240V"?

NO IT DOES NOT
it is 110V only

Isn't it a non-issue though because a voltage converter costs like 25$ at your local store?

[partners]

i burned some clips of xvid on to a dvd-r and a mpeg2 sample and it had the browser menu and i could play each file. so far so good. i got it today when i saw it at compusa. I tried a very old divx 3 like one of the first generation files and it plays like 2 seconds then freezes for a long time while the sound continues then 2 seconds then freezes. i can browse for mp3 also. haven't tried subtitles. needless to say the bitrate of the xvid affects the video. two cd xvids movies look best. if you get a rather lower "just enough" bitrate you might see some blocks but that is with playing on the computer also. dvd plays fine. It was 70$. Have to do some more tests hehe. Thanks for a great site. My other dvd player is a sanyo dwm 370 from walmart which i love and plays vcd svcd dvd mp3 dvd-+r like a champ and i love it.

[spiffy]

To absolutic or anyone who's got this player:

Does it play raw mpeg ISO and DVD ISO (raw VOB) files too? The last popular line of Philips/Magnavox players all seem to have an annoying problem of displaying a time counter when playing raw ISO files, which doesn't seemed to have any way to get rid of. Please let me know! Thanks in advance...

Spiffy

P.S. Will the remote multi-region hack for Philips 727 work for this model?

[absolutic]

good question, spiffy,
i have the magnavox that has this annoying timer problem on raw mpeg files. will check it when i get home from work

[partners]

i put a short mpeg1 clip of a tv rip on a cd and it played it from the file browser menu. no number display on screen only the clip viewable. still trying some small various xvid clips with vbr mp3 and ac3 sound all working great. and mpeg2 file it played also. haven't tried straight vob files yet.

[spiffy]

As I write this, all CompUSA stores in California seem to be out of stock on this player.

[lets]

I called the CompUSA store (35 miles from me) and they said they have only two in stock. I went to this store and got it (Philips dvp642).
The player is so slim (less then 40 mm), the display is a little bit small.
It played everething I put into it. It took more time to load data DVD then CD. The quality of mpeg4video was better then on computer. I even could see some files that I downloaded from internet and couldn't see on computer because of the codec issue.
I tried to play VOB files I did a long time ago (so, I don't remember how I did them). The player played only the first file without sound, but again, I am not sure that those VOB files are OK.
To me surprise, it could play compressed WAV files. I got some CDs from Russia, probably nobody knows what I am talking about.
I think for 70 bucks this player is the best.

[jtoolman2000]

Just picked up the last one they had at my local store. Plays all the Divx / Xvid and straight Mpg2 files I have on CD. Unfortunately it cannot play the Mp4 format output from Nero Digital. I have been extremely impresed with Nero recode's Nero Digital. The speed to convert to this format is about an hour for even a two hour DVD and will also do a two pass process if it senses it requires it to improove overall quality. So it might take two hours at the most, and you have a near perfect cd sized copy. It's really sad that the new Phillips DVD player will not recognize this format. at least not for me. If any one else has any imput I would really appreciate it immensively.

This player really does rock though!!

[lurker]

Got it today. Plays a dir full of mpg files. Plays a dir full of Xvids. Quality is beautiful. Only having 3 issues:

1.) One Xvid movie I started playing was desynched with audio/video. i fixed this by rewinding the video for a sec then hitting play again. Was synched perfectly after that.

2.) No long file names???? I have about 500 XVID movies, 300 mpg1 videos, and a couple thousand mpg2 music videos. They ALL have long file names. Yet, I can only see 7 letters of the name on the screen. That is no good when I have a movie called "Fish.Called.Wanda.Disk1" and "Fish.Called.Wanda.Disk2" All I see is "Fish.Calle" and "Fish.Calle" Not knowing which number is which (though i can probably guess by the order it is listed. Anyone know how to do long file names?

3.) Fast forwarding 8x is great But if I have a mpg or xvid movie that is 2 hours long, how can I fast forward to a certain point. I tried entering the time edit mode, but I hold down the display button and can't get into it.

Other than that, this is a Xvid player for $70 when all others you can buy are about $150. Wish this had a network adaptor... but for this price I can't complain.

[tommyoz]

Just placed a pickup order with CompUSA. I'll be picking it up probably Monday since I believe they are closed tomorrow. I think it's worth a shot for the money. Having a second Divx player for that amount isn't bad.

[AdministratorX]

Just picked up the last one they had at my local store. Plays all the Divx / Xvid and straight Mpg2 files I have on CD. Unfortunately it cannot play the Mp4 format output from Nero Digital. I have been extremely impresed with Nero recode's Nero Digital. The speed to convert to this format is about an hour for even a two hour DVD and will also do a two pass process if it senses it requires it to improove overall quality. So it might take two hours at the most, and you have a near perfect cd sized copy. It's really sad that the new Phillips DVD player will not recognize this format. at least not for me. If any one else has any imput I would really appreciate it immensively.

This player really does rock though!!

Maybe they will create a firmware update that will allow it to play Nero Digital. I also like the MPEG 4 format created with Nero Recode. Till then I will have to use DrDivx. My question is which MPEG 4 media will it play other than Divx?

[jtoolman2000]

Yeas I hope so. A Nero Digital 700mb file could be re-encoded into Divx using A+Canopus Procoder ( adding yet another step ) using thte Divx codec but at default settings it produces a file about 90-100% larger and actually looking a bit lower in quality. Youo end up with about a 1300-1400mb file which defeats the purpose of of a movie to a single CD. In Nero digital mp4 format it looks a LOT better than in Divx even at twice the file size. I do hope they do come up with an firmware update to cover this newer form of Mpeg4

Still enjoing the hell out of this player!

[spiffy]

Um, is Philips known to release firmwares to update their players? They seem to keep releasing new models instead...

[Zimdvd]

ooh, an alterative to the overnight-obsoleting bastages at Lite-On.. wait... yet another player that lets you have 1000+ mp3 on a DVD, and doesn't let you play them in random order... arghhhhhhh... why do none of these "advanced" players have what is an old and basic function?

Mike

[ckw]

BTW, anyone know if the Philips DVP642 or Liteon player can play
.WAV files? Or does any other player can?

Thanks.

[lets]

BTW, anyone know if the Philips DVP642 ... can play
.WAV files?

It can play compressed WAV files (like MP3), but not a regular WAV files. I've already checked.