$69 Philips divx-xvid-vcd-dvd player

[gamecock]

Just picked up one of these sweet new dvd players last night at Walmart for $69. This thing will play anything you can throw at it. It's awesome having a standalone DivX player. I've been wanting one of those Kiss dvd players for a long time. It's about time someone made one of these available to the masses in the US.

Philips DVP642 Progressive Scan DVD with DivX Playback

Plays practically any disc format
True-to-life picture quality
Progressive Scan for razor-sharp and flicker-free images
Features DivX technology, allowing you to fit a full-length movie on a single standard CD-R disc, with no quality loss
With DivX, take any video from a computer, save it to a CD, and play it back instantly on your DivX certified device
Even transfer videos from DivX certified DVD players to DivX certified portable video players and handheld devices
4x video upsampling for improved image quality
192kHz/24bit audio DAC
Movies: DVD, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, VCD, SVCD, MPEG-4, and DivX 3.11/4.x/5.x
Music: CD, MP3-CD, CD-R and CD-RW
Pictures: Picture CD (JPEG) with music (MP3)
Smart Picture for custom image settings
Edited to say: The img tag doesn't seem to work here and I keep getting an error message trying to attach an image, so here's the link to a pic: PIC (http://www.uscgamecock.net/ss/1.jpg)

[PiRaNeTuS]

Awesome find...i'm gonna buy one tonight and see how it works

Thanks

[MusikBeatz23]

Whoa!... my friend had a DVD player with the same/similar features but he olny piad $40 (APEX i think)... but ima have 2 pick one of these up.

[gamecock]

Whoa!... my friend had a DVD player with the same/similar features but he olny piad $40 (APEX i think)... but ima have 2 pick one of these up.
The Apex players you're probably thinking about will play VCD, but not DivX and xvid. That's what makes this one so great. Especially for the price.

You don't even have to make it like a video cd or anything. Just write the divx file to cd and it will play.

[PiRaNeTuS]

This player is awesome. I just burned 13 divx movies onto a dvd..it played them all......this is GREAT.

[ducttapeBigSexy]

god, i wish i had money :)

[MusikBeatz23]

Alright ive heard enough I'm getting one of these tomorow. This is gonna be my 5th dvd player.

[DefCoN]

Im getting me one of these tomorrow!!

[fireforce555]

I am going to walmart tomorrow, I will check them out if they have them. It plays Xvid even! Wow. I have many fiaz eps all in high quality xvid format, it would be bitchin to be able to play these on tv without reencoding them!

[MonkeyMadness]

If this can be made region-free, macro-free, and no-skipping-previews free, then it will be the perfect dvd player....

[PiRaNeTuS]

It is macro-free...and can be made region-free with remote...and it plays xvid...and I bought it at target...walmart didn't have it

[MonkeyMadness]

awww man, I was in target tonight! time to make a another trip!

[dazed917]

Can this play omg files? Web site only specifies divx/xvid and mp3, not ogg.
(please say yes, please say yes......).

[matt merch]

if your in the uk i would suggest you get a medion 40814 from amazon.co.uk £49.99 inc shipping 2 year warranty progressive scan plays mp3s mpegs jpegs xvid divx dvd svcd vcd kvcd region free had mine a couple of months and played everything i tried with it disc do not even have to be finalised

[Mels_Smileys45]

This will be awesome! The Apex player only plays mpg no avi files as said. I'm ready to get one for my 700 divx movies! Although my computer is already hooked up to my TV, now ill be able to do crap on my computer while I watch all the stuff I haven't got around to watching yet.

[Greylin]

Can this play omg files? Web site only specifies divx/xvid and mp3, not ogg.
(please say yes, please say yes......).

Sorry to say that I found some customer reviews and here is a quote from one of them:

A few comments regarding playing video files only disc:
1. The player does not support Divx+ogg audio, but standard Divx + MPEG audio is fine.
2. The video file name must be in english (normal ASCII).
3. The "preview" function will not work on a video file disc.
4. Only 8X scan.

[neoufo51]

At 63 bucks at Amazon, I'm not too sure about the quality of this player. I'm reading about this and I'm seeing a lot of comments such as "choppy playback," "ok progressive playback," and "ugly menu display." I'm gonna wait till Panasonic rolls out a divx capable player.

[PiRaNeTuS]

I read the reviews as well.....I found them to be wrong. I had no choppy playback, and the video quality is outstanding. I have a 37" tv and the picture quality is excellent. And for $60, it's a steal.

[cjules13]

Yeah, you're gonna get better quality having the player decode it than sending it over svid to your tv... Not surprised you can't play ogm files yet - haven't seen a stand-alone player that's able to yet...

Sounds like a really good deal - I'll look forward to reading more reviews - I have the KISS DP-500 which can do all of the same but has a network connection in the back so I can use the player to read my computer's hard drive from upstairs on 802.11 - it's nuts. Now I don't even have to burn the movie at all! It just reads my 120GB hard drive and you can scroll through hundreds of movies and just hit play. Move on to the next movie without even getting up!

[fujow]

Crap, Walmarts webb page says out of stock.

[Bhangra Knight]

Dude. this is a tite find. Awesome shit yo. Thanx for the post

[babarfloyd]

This looks great! Only missing one thing, a network plug for streaming.

I currently use my modded XBox to stream all my AVI's from my PC. I have a network plug in each room of the house, so I can move the XBox from room to room pretty easily and still have access to everything. If this had a network plug, I'd buy a few of them for sure! (I still might for my daughter's room) :)

[gamecock]

To answer a few of the questions in this thread:

The player appears to be macrovision free out of the box. Just open the tray press 7 8 9 OK 0 on the remote then close the tray to make region free.

Long filename files will play. You'll just be able to see the first 11 characters. That's all. No big deal, just name your files carefully when you burn to disk.

Here's a link to many many REVIEWS (http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDname=dvp642&Search=Search&country=&orderby=Name) for this player. More reviews at Amazon.

Most of the folks writing bad reviews have the earlier model without the updated firmware. I haven't had a jerky picture yet or any of the other problems and I've watched several action flicks in divx. DOWNLOAD UPDATED FIRMWARE HERE (http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/d/dvp642_17/dvp642_17_fus_eng.zip) & Upgrade instructions here(PDF) (http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/d/dvp642_17/dvp642_17_fur_eng.pdf) at the Philips website.

These things are selling like hotcakes! Best bet is still your local Walmart or Target. CompUSA sells 'em for $69 too if they have any left. I called around town and all 3 of our local WalMarts still have them in stock, but they are going fast and don't know if they they will be resupplied anytime soon. Circuit City doesn't have them. Best Buy only has them online so far.

Online: Walmart.com is out of stock. Bestbuy.com has them in stock, but they are $79.99 and Free shipping. Amazon.com has these for $66.49 with free shipping, but they are out of stock. They are also selling them on Amazon through Office Depot (in stock!) $63.95 + $7.54 shipping.

[Explicit]

Can this play omg files? Web site only specifies divx/xvid and mp3, not ogg.
(please say yes, please say yes......).

i am pretty sure it doesn't, but i haven't tested it myself though

Reviews:
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDnameid=4117&Search=Search&#comments

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=215682

http://forums.divx.com/viewtopic.php?topic=58271&forum=21

[gamecock]

Just personally tested it and no, this dvd player does not "see" the ogg files on the disc at all. Sorry...

[MonkeyMadness]

wooo, I went everywhere in town tonight, walmart said they'd never had them but knew what it was because everyone was asking about it, best buy said they didn't carry them, target was out and I couldnt' convince them to part with the display model, circuit city had no clue but was sure sears had them, and sears was really well informed but didn't carry them. Maybe I'll try to snag one online somewhere.

[DudeAsInCool]

Nice find! Thanx!

[Ne007]

http://www.jr.com/ They are available here Free shipping $69.98

Bought from this site yesterday....going to arrive ups tomorrow.

I'm wondering if I can put avi's on a DVD-r and play them that way?

[gamecock]

I'm wondering if I can put avi's on a DVD-r and play them that way?
Yep, it'll work. Then use the menu to choose the file you want.

[gamecock]

http://www.jr.com/ They are available here Free shipping $69.98
You lucked out. Just checked and they are out of stock now too... This thing is hot!

[Ne007]

Yep, it'll work. Then use the menu to choose the file you want.


HELL YEH! I've dreamed about this. Not only can I have a hard copy....I can stick it in and play it!

Genious Phillips! I ought to buy your stock now.

[Ne007]

You lucked out. Just checked and they are out of stock now too... This thing is hot!


It read "out of stock" when I bought yesterday.....they shipped it yesterday! I signed up for notification when in stock....I got email today saying it was in stock.

I just think they haven't updated the site yet.

[Burd]

PiRaNeTus: You said that it is macro-free. Does that mean that if you hook it up to a DVD recorder that the recorder will not refuse to record it? I'm talking about a free-standing recorder (I have a Panasonic), not a computer. I've been trying to figure this out for a while. I've gone back and forth between burning DVD's (which often turn out to be very unstable and won't play on all DVD players) and recording using the DVD recorder. The recorder's DVD's play on just about anything, but I can't record some DVD's, even if they are decrypted. So, if this really plays and eliminates the Macrovision, that would be really good. But, I doubt it because the manufacturers and the movie industry have some sort of agreement, don't they?

[gamecock]

While I have not confirmed this yet, reports from other boards say that this player comes with the macrovision disabled by default or not present to begin with.

See this thread on videohelp.com for more info specific to this model:
Philips DVP 642 (http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?select=Philips+DVP+642) as far as macrovision and region codes go.

================================================== ========
Macrovision explained: http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/macrovision.html
================================================== ========
Macrovision is a form of analogue copy protection for video only (audio is not affected) - for DVDs, it is a way to prevent you from copying them to VHS (thus obtaining a very high quality VHS copy of the DVD). This is fair enough, and while it does prevent users from exercising their rights as consumers to make VHS backups of their DVDs, we'll leave this debate for another time.

Macrovision is built into the TV-out device of your PC-DVD system, and activated when a activation code is found on DVDs that have Macrovision protection. Not all DVDs have Macrovision (eg. MGM DVDs), just like not all of them have region or even CSS protection.

Macrovision comes in many forms - some simply blocks playback (see below), some distorts the picture (black and white, rolling, unstable picture, etc ...).

When PC-DVD first came out, there was not a lot of attention made to Macrovision protection (or even Region protection, for that matter). When the powers that be threatened lawsuits if Macrovision was not enabled on all devices (even those sold prior), some rather draconian schemes were implemented.

One such scheme saw all software DVD players to detect TV-out capabilities, and disable DVD playback if the TV-out was activated and did not have Macrovision protection built into the TV-out chip. This did prevent DVD to VHS copying, but it also prevented people from watching DVDs through their graphics card's TV-out (and to be honest, many people bought TV-out enabled cards just for this very reason).

[fireforce555]

I checked my local walmart and they to have none. This baby is selling like hell!

[Ne007]

How do I make a upgrade disk?

The instructions are as follows:

-File system CD-Rom iso level 2
-Mode 1/2/XA
-character set iso 9660
-finalized, single session
-write speed slow (e.g. 2x, 4x)
-finalize the disk

My question is, what software does these settings?

[neoufo51]

Those settings are pretty standard. Nero is the easiest software to use to change these settings.

[Ne007]

Those settings are pretty standard. Nero is the easiest software to use to change these settings.

So if I burn with Roxio Easy CD creator as a data disk, it should work?

I don't have nero installed, it hasn't been friendly to me in the past.....

Update-
Just burned as data file (4x) and it worked.

[neoufo51]

I'm fairly sure it will, but check your help file to find out where you can change your burning options.

[Ne007]

It works great! High quality avi's look awesome with this! Menu is good - sort thru the files!

[SeeMoreDigital]

I have not read all the posts in this thread but are you guys also aware that this player can spin Mpeg4/mp3 streams in the .MP4 container, as well as the .AVI container!

Over on the Doom9 forum (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77641&perpage=20&pagenumber=3) we have generated quite a few test files for our members to burn onto CD~R/RW....

And it would seem that this player supports anamorphic Mpeg4 streams in MP4 too.


Cheers

[crackerjacker]

hmm
I am just curious for anyone who brought this multi-format player do you like it?
Hows it working out for you? And do you still recommend it?

[crackerjacker]

I have not read all the posts in this thread but are you guys also aware that this player can spin Mpeg4/mp3 streams in the .MP4 container, as well as the .AVI container!

Over on the Doom9 forum (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77641&perpage=20&pagenumber=3) we have generated quite a few test files for our members to burn onto CD~R/RW....

And it would seem that this player supports anamorphic Mpeg4 streams in MP4 too.


Cheers

would this be in the ogm format then?
*wonders if u still post here*
?>?
even if you dont post here thanks for that link

[PiRaNeTuS]

hmm
I am just curious for anyone who brought this multi-format player do you like it?
Hows it working out for you? And do you still recommend it?
I love it. It's great. It plays everything I have thrown at it, which includes:

DVD (of course)
DVD-R
DVD+R
SVCD
VCD
Non-authored DVDs and CDs that contain MPEG-1, MPEG-2, Divx, and Xvid files.
MP3-CDs

Also, it's an attractive unit. It's not ugly or anything.

For the price...I absolutely recommend it. If this thing would have been over $100, I would have still bought it and thought it was a steal.

[YWD67]

Does Walley world still sell it. God I hope so; damn near every burn I have is either Xvid or Divx. I have a clone system that goes from my computer to my tv, but that is the only one that can show the cd's, this thing sounds like a damn god send. One last thing is it able to play dual audio burns as well?

[crackerjacker]

I love it. It's great. It plays everything I have thrown at it, which includes:

DVD (of course)
DVD-R
DVD+R
SVCD
VCD
Non-authored DVDs and CDs that contain MPEG-1, MPEG-2, Divx, and Xvid files.
MP3-CDs

Also, it's an attractive unit. It's not ugly or anything.

For the price...I absolutely recommend it. If this thing would have been over $100, I would have still bought it and thought it was a steal.


hmm i want one :)
i been reading a review and have asked someone i know about it as well, and i think as soon as i can find it i will buy it.
something like this is what i would definitely want*

[MushroomheadXIII]

Holy shit thats a great deal, they must have em here in holland, philips is a dutch brand. Dvd players get cheaper everyday!

[the great one]

I have the philips DVP642/37 it plays divx movies pretty well,sometimes it has audio sync problems with divx but it's usually it's only a quarter of a second off.

[pravdaspain]

the best actually are pioner dv 470 and 575, philips not good

[Ne007]

A modded xbox seems to be perfect at playing avi's and mpegs....the dvp642 i've run into alot of trouble with...leading to re-encoding and such which sucks.