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Review
of Philips DVP-642 DVD Player
First of all, let me say that this unit
is very well worth the money. As "just a dvd player" I give it FIVE over FIVE
points (or ten/ten if you wish).
The unit comes locked for Region 1 DVDs,
but can be easily unlocked (just google for the asnwer) to make it region-free.
I have tested my unit purchased on amazon.com and unlocked with Region 1, region
2 dvds purchased from Britain, and region 4 DVDs purchased in South America. It
just works.
The unit's COMPONENT-VIDEO output is superb, even if you use
an CRT TV. I recommend you get a quality component video cable and use that instead
of the "composite video" output.
When playing MPG and AVI files, the component
video output shows pixelation and artifacts on low-quality or low-resolution avi/divx/mpg
files, but when playing back the same files and switching the tv to component
video, these problems go away!.
Component video, it should be noted, is superior
to "s-video" (which just separates color information from luminance), as each
basic color (Red-Green-Blue) travels on a separate shielded cable.
Now,
the "extras" besides basic DVD playback
1. DIVX and XVID are supported.
But some .avi files will play back with NO SOUND if the original file was encoded
with a "codec" (compression algorithm) that is not supported by this unit. Just
because a file plays back ok on your PC with "Windows Media Player" it doesn't
mean it will playback in this unit.
2. DVD-R media *IS* supported. You
might need, however, to update the firmware (it's available for download from
the philips.com web site. You have to download a .iso image, burn the data to
a cd-r, press a key combination on the remote and then insert the cd-r disc).
Now the problems:
1. Even while DivX is supported, mpeg4/divx
files compressed with the Divx Pro software using the "QPEL" (advanced motion
optimization and prediction) will NOT PLAY on the unit. The unit will display
an ugly "QPEL CODEC NOT SUPPORTED" message and stop there. There's no way to play
back QPEL encoded files on this unit (it would require a much faster processor
inside).
2. ZOOM LEVELS ARE INCONSISTENT. On DVD movies, zoom levels featured
are 1.5x, 2x, 3x, 4x. However when you are playing back ".avi" (mpeg4/divx) files,
you will find that often the only zoom levels available are "normal" (no zoom)
and "2x", and that's it!. There is no 1.5x zoom level when paying back mpg and
divx files! So forget about watching that wide-screen (4:3 format) movie in full
screen by switching to 1.5x zoom mode. If it's a DVD movie you can. But if it's
a DivX/MPEG4 movie you can't!.
3. A-B loop doesn't work most of the time
on DivX/AVI files. Sometimes, when it does work, after you selct an a-b loop,
you turn the feature off by pressing the a-b key once again, and when you want
to create another a-b loop, the feature no longer works! (unless you press STOP
and PLAY the file once again). VERY annoying.
4. PHILIPS doesn't seem
very interested in updating the firmware. The last update is dated May 2004, and
there has been no update since then, even while the number of bugs is high (see
above).
However, even after all this, I think that for ~$70 dollars or
less including Amazon.com's free ground shipping, you can't go wrong with this
unit, as DVD playback is superb, and the ability to play most (but not all!) .mpg
/ .avi (DivX/MPEG4/Xvid) video files is just a nice extra to have in there as
a "bonus".
Burning .avi and mpg files to DVD recordable media also works.
Buy the Philips DVP-642 DVD Player
