Philips DVP642 Questions

I just got this dvd player I love it but have a few problems with it that I want to try to fix if possable.

Some of the videos I play look kinda weird & have weird colors when I switch the tv standard to something different it fixes the video.

Some of the files have choppy audio but the video if just fine.

Avis play fine but without any audio.

What doo the firmware update do & how apply a firmware to this dvd player.

Can any of these problems by fixed by using the firmware updates.

If you get no answers here, you might check the CDFreaks site for the Phillips forum: http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=114

Originally Posted by DJboutit

Some of the videos I play look kinda weird & have weird colors when I switch the tv standard to something different it fixes the video.

I betchya those files are XviDs.
To find out if they are, open those files with GSpot.

See if pressing the "system menu" button twice on your remote control while playing those files helps.

Some of the files have choppy audio but the video if just fine.

The audio with those files might be AC3.
You can find out using GSpot.

If so, try opening 1 of those files in Nanodub.
Set Video to"direct stream copy".
Go to "Audio" and then "Interleaving".
Make sure "Enable Audio Interleaving" is checked.
Where it says "Preload" put in "96" (without the quotes)
Where it says "Interleave Audio Every..." put in "96"
Select "ms"
Save with a new file name. Then try that on your player.

I have the first edition of this player without any firmware updates done to it and I have found that generally, those things have helped with the playback on mine. Also, I have found that my player has issues with XviDs encoded to anything more than about 2000 kbps. (Because of this, my personal preference is to stick with DivX for my player)

Also keep in mind that if you have any AVIs encoded with QPEL (GSpot will tell you) or XviDs encoded with GMC, those will have to be re-encoded in order to play them.

Also, (and this is in general for any player) use good quality media, make sure to finalize your discs when you burn them and don't use sticky labels.

I bought a DVP642 early last year and ran into a bunch of trouble with most of the discs I had burned. Turned out the problem was not my discs nor my burning software but the lack of any standard being used by those who encoded the AVIs; all sorts of video and audio codecs with which the player was not happy.

I returned the player and did nothing until the 5G iPod (video) was released. Now I simply convert all AVIs to H264 using ffmpegX (happens quite quickly on a dual-G5), drop 'em into my iPod and connect the iPod to my TV with the AV cable. No problems, no incompatibilities. I know the quality isn't quite as good (although quite acceptable on my 32" CRT TV) but now I have one standard and everything plays. Better yet, I don't need discs.

left column, dvd players, search for this 642. You should have lots of info on it.

If you use any audio codec in an AVI other than MP3, you may have problems with this DVD player. Some have reported being able to play AC3 on their AVIs, but I seem to recall that others had problems and DTS has been problematic. If you are using Ogg Vorbis for audio, you can forget about it working on this player.

I bought the 642 as a DVD player, since I read good and bad reviews on it, most of the bad ones being that the player isn't 100% with DivX and Xvid files. If I encode them properly, they play just fine. It plays every DVD I throw at it, VCDs as well. DivX is a crap shoot, and if I didn't encode it, odds are it won't play.

Now however, I seldom use it for DivX, since I obtained a mighty Archos AV500, and that's an amazing device. I love it.