Philips DVP642 DVD Player

Pros: Plays many formats. Pretty solidly built, remote is better than reviews would make you think.
Cons: Plays many non-DVD movies poorly, won't always fast forward or rewind.

After reading all the other reviews, I was very interested in getting this player. Unfortunately, I find myself disappointed by the fact that (A) audio and video go out of sync with non-DVD movies all too often, and (B) Too often you can't rewind or fast-forward non-DVD movies. In my opinion these faults are inexcusable. Imagine watching half a movie, and suddenly noticing the audio is out of sync. So you press "pause" or enter the system menu (trying to fix the problem) but it won't go away. So you press "stop," and then find out afterwards that you can't fast-forward or rewind this particular movie.

If you do get this player, play it safe and back up your DVD's to DivX format (don't use XviD as you can't FF/RW), and always use CBR MP3 format, don't use ABR/VBR. That way there's less chance of out-of sync problems.

Update -- I'm really annoyed at the number of AVIs that can't be fast forwarded or rewound (or accessed starting at some particular time) -- there are far more that can't than those that can. I am withdrawing my recommendation for this player, as FFW/REW is a very basic, necessary feature.

Pros: Worked for 4 months
Cons: Company misrepresents warranties, and all non English speaking.

Player worked fine until 4 months of limited use. Then one day it stopped working and just flashed the power light on and off. I called the support line in the Philippines and spoke to a very unprofessional and rude Jennifer. After she demanded I give her all my information before she would tell me it is covered or not, she came back on to tell me that the unit was only covered for Labor for 3 months. Only the parts were covered for a year. That I would have to pay $18.99 for a new unit to be sent to me, and I would get it in 20 business days. I declined. I will not do business with them again.

Pros: Plays a lot of different media types, divx, mpeg, jpeg, mp3.....
Cons: Doesn't last! Made In China, you get what you pay for.....

Mine died on me after little over a year! The little red power light starting blinking, and I had to pry open the door with a screw driver to get my dvd out! The one thing that really annoyed me about this player was whenever I would hit the open door button it would open and then close! After a few tries it would stay open...

Pros: Good compatibility, great price, progressive scan, plays DivX and Recordable DVDs
Cons: Small issue with divX audio in some discs that can be worked-arround

I bought this DVD to play my DivX collection along with any other DVD+R/-R/+RW/-RW.
I plays well everything that I have tested. Dolby digital sorrund works OK.
Some divX that play without problem in the PC are played with sound blinks on the DVP642. I solved this re-coding the audio with a different MP3 encoder, but needed to spend more CD-Rs.
The Spanish language menus are not very good, since the accents are displayed with extrange symbols.
As with almost every electronic device nowdays, it can't live without the remote control, if you loose the remote, you're in big troubles.

Pros: Plays most video formats Knows how to read DVD rewriteables; many do not.
Cons: Player sometimes shuts off while resuming playback Max scan speed of 8X

I bought this player a few months ago and for the most part I'm happy with it. However, I have found a problem with this player. Sometimes after pressing play to resume a paused video (burned to DVD-RWs) the player shuts itself off instead. This could probably be fixed with a firmware update if it were possible. I don't recall if this happens with store bought DVDs. Also, you can only search at a maximum speed of 8X with this player. Tip: For those who indicated a con about the remote not having an eject button - holding down the stop button for 2-3 seconds will open/close the drawer.

Pros: Philips Name, Plays DivX, DVD+R, DVD+RW, mp3s on DVD/CD excellent quality.
Cons: Cannot play DVD-R/-RW, Remote is stupidly designed.None other.

Am not going to write huge review when there are others who've screamed themselves hoarse praising this Philips DVP-642.
First, Its a Philips and however much crappy stuff Philips is selling in the US, worldwide they are still just as great as SONY and based on that fact, I decided to buy this just try out.
* Played DivX on CDs like a charm
* Played DVD+R (Its Philips, one of the companies promoting the +R standard. Magnavox does play both formats) flawlessly
* Played Regular DVDs with crystal clear clarity
* Slim design.
* Slimmer price, especially compared to the cheap chinese takeout boxes packaged as dvd players.
* Hackable to make it region-free.
* PAL/NTSC playback for a Unipolar world :-)
* Horrible Remote layout. Need either a good manual or a degree in Philipsology or whatever. Ever saw a remote where you press the STOP button for some time to eject/close the DVD Tray. Go no further, here it is.
* Firmware upgradable.

Pros: Cheap.
Cons: Cheap- broke after 1 year.

I bought this player because it was a great price ($55) for a name-brand that I knew. However, after one year and two days, it won't turn on- I just get a red blinking light and a stuck DVD. Last Philips product I buy.

Pros: plays all the formats
Cons: would like it in black

well, it's a good player. i'd had some trouble with my 2 year old sony and this just does everything it says it does, no trouble but i got mine for 52 dollars on onlineshoppingzone.com anyway, sorry this isn't a very good review, but it's a good, cheap little dvd player.

Pros: Inexpensive. Plays DIVX & PAL as advertised.
Cons: Short serviceable lifespan. Remote is

The DVP-642 played well for a year of occasional use. It performed as advertised with DIVX and PAL but the unit had a short lifespan. It died, with only a blinking power light and a dvd that would not eject. This problem has been noted in other reviews.

I would suggest not stacking it with other electronics to reduce the operating temperature. That may have been the cause of my unit's demise. Still, the conditions were not extreme in any way. The DVP-642 should not have succumbed.

The unit is ok, but don't expect it to last a lifetime.

Good luck.

Pros: plays almost anything
Cons: Progressive option seems to reset internally after unit is powered off.

I have had the DVP642 for a couple of days now. I have been actively comparing it to my older Panasonic RP62 player. However, I noticed a problem when analyzing some of the images (its most apparent on the credit screen when the credits are scrolling up fast). I have set up the 642 dvd player to playback in progressive mode (PROGRESSIVE=ON), and set up component video out (VIDEO OUTPUT=YPbPr set). However, when I turn the player off, then back on, I notice that the movie I watch is interlaced (i.e., as if the progressive option is set to OFF.. lots of jaggy lines.. try this by watching fast scrolling credits at the end of the movie). I can verify that the progressive option is set to on (by going back to the dvd player VIDEO SETUP PAGE). However, if I set the progressive option to OFF, then immediately set it back to ON, the image is displayed as I expect it for progressive scan (no jaggy lines). This happens every time I turn the DVD player off and back on again. Does anyone else have this problem?

Pros: Plays many different formats.
Cons: Poorly made, doesn't last.

Mine stopped working after about 9 months, and I didn't use it all that much. The labor charge to repair it would be as much as a new player. This seems to be a frequent problem from what I have been reading about it.

Pros: Worked great for 7 months.
Cons: Worked great for 7 months.

Dead at 7 months. I agree with all the glowing reviews of the previous reviewers, with the one caveat that you will not be happy with how long this unit lasts.

We watch 2 DVD's a week. The unit has been sitting in one spot (on top of the VCR) for all seven months that we've had it. No jarring, dropping, bending or whacking; just sitting. Now all I get when I put a DVD in (out of a new, shrink-wrapped package) is "NO DISK".

When I called Philips, they asked me 30 questions, and then wanted me to pay $15 to troubleshoot it. Instead I went on the webpage and found nothing about the "NO DISK" error. The webpage only had answers to: How do I plug it in? Where do I put the disk, etc...

This unit, like the Cyberhome I threw away 3 months ago (1.5 years old) was made in China. My experience with Chinese goods is that they look normal, work normally for a while and then die. This has been true of garage door openers, phones, computer equipment, electronics, etc.

Pros: Plays some .mpgs, sometimes
Cons: Everything else

- No support form .wmv, .mov, .rm formats

- Flakey support for .mpg, sometimes it works, sometimes I get picture but no sound, sometimes it won't play them at all, I suppose depending on how the mp3 was encoded. The whole point of buying this was to be able to play data discs of files from a variety of sources without having to go through the lengthy transcoding process, and it utterly failed at that. Only a few limited files from a few limited sources would play.

- The auto-generated menus for data discs is incredibly slow. It seems to be rescanning the disc and regenerating the menu every time you hit the menu button, instead of once when you insert the disc. And the navigation is also slow and really badly designed and clunky to use.

- If you hit menu or stop in the middle of a movie and then try to go back to the movie, it starts the movie again at the beginning rather than where you left of like any other player I've used.

Pros: Great DVD player.
Cons: The circuit board capacitors is going out about 6month but it can be repaired.

WOW. It is not PC but it plays all of the DVD movies original retails or from downloaded from internet. But It is not PC as I said that you have to go by its firmware rule that it can handle only with built-in codec/decoders firmware and chip sets. (that there is advance user having issues with Divx not play or out of syn. and forward and rewind not working on Divx moves) yes it can be but normal user will not have 100 or more divx/Mpeg4/avi-copies.
Just great to know that we can play movis from internet.

It can play PAL/NTSC also.

The Progressive-Scan is really great quality like LG and Samsung, because it is using same video chip sets.

One major bug is that this DVD player goes back to resets its self to defaults configuration if you power off the devices AC plug off from wall.

Pros: Fantastic unit, perfect picture quality, ease of use, smart remote.
Cons: Quit working after 4 1/2 months; It went out slowly over one week.

I loved this unit from the get-go: It was easy to setup, played movies flawlessly, and even played my computer files and MP3's with ease.

The remote is very easy to use and understand. One of my favorite features was the 'zoom' button, so I could finally read the 'fine print' credits following some movies.

Unfortunately, I purchased this unit in May 2007, and now here I am, it is October 2007, and the machine will no longer power up to play. For the last week, I have had to press the button up to 50 times to get the power to come on; Once I can get power on, everything functions fine: But it is taking even longer to get power, so I suspect a complete failure of the unit now. It's really too bad. The early failure is what reflects my final review score. Sorry, Philips. Thought I had a fantastic deal here for a few months.