It Took Five Tries to Find a DVD Player That Plays All Formats
Written: Jun 17 '06
Product Rating:
Sound:
Ease of Use:
Picture Quality:
Durability:
Pros: plays almost all DVD & CD formats including DivX, sharp images, good sound, affordable
Cons: images and sound could be better
The Bottom Line: This is a great DVD player for non-technophiles who just want a good-looking player that reads a ton of formats (including dual-layer discs) with good image and sound quality.
Even though we rarely watch DVDs, weve gone through five* (hubby had to replace his PS2 once) different players over the past five or so years. My husband initially dragged me into the DVD world by buying a PlayStation 2 and persuading me that wed watch movies together on that contraption rather than him playing video games for hours at a time. Right! We bought a decent progressive scan Samsung (to go along with our TV) that we ended up never using because it didnt read many formats. Then we had a cheap Apex that read lots of formats but was of really poor quality. About six months ago, we bought this Philips DVP642 player at Target based on a recommendation from a friend, who claimed it would play everything.
THE BASICS
The Philips DVP642/37 is a progressive scan DVD player that can read a slew of formats and provides sharp images without any flickering. This super-thin player measures 9.3 x 17.1 x 1.7 and weighs about 5 pounds. It has component, S-video, and composite output ports that allow it to be connected to just about any TV. Although it is a single-disc player, it has a five-disc playback option that allows you to go back to where you were on the five most recently viewed DVDs (Ive never used this option). I believe theres a 90-day manufacturer warranty on this product.
CONTENTS
DVD player (AC power cord is attached)
Yellow video cable
Red and white audio cable
Remote control (w/2 AA batteries)
User manual (in English, Spanish, and French)
READABLE FORMATS
DVDs, video CDs, super video CDs, DVD R, DVD RW, CDs, CD-R with MP3 files, CD-R/CD-RW with JPEG pictures, CD-R/CD-RW with MPEG-4 files, CD-R/CD-RW with DivX.
SETUP
I honestly only remember sticking the batteries in the remote and plugging the cables into their color-coded ports and plugging in the AC power cord into the power strip we have behind our TV. Flipping through the instruction manual now, I notice that Philips also wants you to set up the language and select a color system, which corresponds to your TV. I dont think me or my husband did this, but it still works. It is possible hubby did this when I wasnt looking. The only problem we encountered with setup was that the power cord was pretty short so it didnt reach through the back of our entertainment unit to the power strip on the floor.
MY EXPERIENCE
I didnt expect much from this DVD player. It cost about $70 and all I wanted it to do was play the discs that my other players couldnt read. I wasnt looking for any pretty design features or fancy extras. I just wanted decent sound and image quality and to be able to watch movies in whatever format I received them. That said, this player can read dual layer discs. Yippee! Personally, I know nothing about burning DVDs, but I do know that I couldnt view dual layer ones, which are a newer type of disc that allows for two layers of storage, on any of my other players. The other neat thing is that the instruction manual provides a Web address for playability upgrades so that this DVD player wont become obsolete overnight like my other ones.
The player itself is much slimmer than the other DVD players Ive owned. Its very sleek and attractive without looking like its high maintenance or hard to operate (few buttonsall of which are large, symmetrical, and clearly labeled without looking garish). There are only four panel buttons (standby/on, open/close, play, and stop), the disc tray, and a small output window.
The remote also has a simple design (power in the top-right corner, numbers next, directional keys and OK button in the middle, and play functions/zoom on the bottom). It reminds me a lot of the remote for our older (about 8 years old) Philips/Magnavox 28 TV, so perhaps its a Philips trademark style. Regardless, its pretty fool-proof. I havent had any problems figuring it out. There are two menu buttons, which threw me a curve at first, but after a momentary lapse I saw that theyre labeled differently (one is for the disc and one is for the system itself). The Samsung DVD player we have in our room came with two remotes, which to me was overkill. I like this one better.
The on-screen menu leaves something to be desired. Theres no friendly interface, its just folders and boxes. It reminds me of a simple PC root directory and BIOS menu. That said, it serves its purpose and isnt too confusing to navigate.
The playback image quality for this player is fairly good for such a low-priced piece of equipment (Ive seen it for as low as $55). Ive never had any problems with graininess or color bleeding. There's no lagging or flickering. Our cheap Apex player would leave some videos looking dull and gray, but I've never noticed that with this player. Most images are fairly sharp.
The sound quality is adequate. Im no expert on acoustics, but its definitely better than my old Apex player, which reverbed from time to time. We dont use any special stereo system so the sound is just through the speakers in our Samsung 47 projection TV. There's never any weird booming. But it does seem like we need to raise the volume a bit when we watch videos versus watching TV. But that could just be the quality/nature of the videos themselves.
We use this DVD player once or twice a month and so far we havent had any problems. It's been a little more than 6 months and it's still running like the day we took it out of its box. No repairs or need for disc cleaners.
I cant comment on this players ability to view photos or read music files since Ive never used it for that.
OVERALL
For my purposes, this is a four star player. Its easy to operate and plays all sorts of formats and media. It doesnt have any high-end, glitzy features, but I wasnt looking for any.
www.usa.philips.com
For online help and upgrades: www.p4c.philips.com
1-888-744-5477
Measures 17.1 x 1.7 x 9.3 inches (W x H x D); Plays DVD-Video, video CD, audio CD, JPEG image CD, and CDs loaded with MP3, MPEG-4, or DivX 3.11/4.x/5....More at Amazon Marketplace
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