Philips DVP642 DVD Player

Oh No, old DVD Player is Toast!
The little one wanted to watch her favorite cartoons that had been compiled onto a CDR as the VHS tape busted a long time back. They were safely saved on backup. The little Apex player that could, could not any more. The tantrums of a 7yo are not that different from that of an adult when it comes to not being able to watch their favorite program even though it had been watched a million times. A quick call to the techies revealed the board was burned out. The fact it had lasted a long time with heavy use made it less painful when it headed toward the garbage can with a moment of silence from all as it slipped into the garbage to be hauled away.


The Search is on, Research is The Key:
Hours of research brought up many different quality players but one in particular led the pack. The number one component any DVD player that makes it into our home has to have is the ability to play everything - audio CDs, special compilations in mp3 format, home movies transferred on CD, picture CDs, not to mention it had to play nice with various brands of CDRs, DVDRs and formats such as DVD, VCD, KVCD, etc...


Boom! Out of nowhere comes the Philip VDP642 Progressive Scan DVD Player WITH DIVX no less! Wow! It was like hitting the motherload of DVD players. The price was reasonable. The machine appeared to be sturdy. It had many functional options such as ability to play subs. The little one could watch her out-dated but still loved cartoons. The teen could listen to her mp3 collections and photo CDs. Mom, that would be me, had the subs so once again foreign films were possible again without having to sit at the computer. And, it played AVI files too!


The only thought that kept coming back to my mind was the old saying, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." Research continued for another day or so but I kept coming back to this sweet sleek machine that played Divx, something other players cannot do. Way to go Philips! All the research showed it would play numerous different formats from DVD to Divx. It would take CDR, CDRW, DVDr, and DVDRW. This even played WMA music format along with the MP3 in addition to the Picture format for slide show. This put a new spin on looking through the family album. LOL!


Almost Decided but Buying Options Limited:
The Philips DVP642 Progressive Scan DVD with Divx was unanimously voted as the next DVD player to grace our entertainment center. There were two downsides to this player, neither of which had anything to do with performance. First issue was that it was only available in silver. The entertainment cabinet, television, DirecTV receiver, and VCR were all black. The only time the player would be seen is when it is in use. I could live with that. Second issue was finding somewhere to purchase it locally. The phone line buzzed to life with each call I made to all stores that carried electronics within a 20-mile radius. Each time I received the same answer. "That model is not carried in stock but you can order it online. Our website is blah, blah, blah. Thank you and good-bye."


Okay, so it wasn't going to be found on the local store shelf. I hit the internet running. After checking the obvious price watch websites for the cheapest prices and then searching through for the possibility of coupons to be used, I found the cheapest one available and there was an optional 3-year replacement warranty that only cost an additional $16 or so. Hmmm, $69.84 with replacement plan of $16, taxes, and shipping. It came out to be a total of about $90. I could live with that. The Philips DVP642 alone was $10 higher than the Apex I had bought some years back but the Divx option was worth the extra money.


Place Order, Wait for UPS Man:
Walmart surprised me with their shipping service. The player arrived a few days later exactly as the posted shipping time proclaimed.


Delivery Day and On-time:
It was so nice to fill that empty void in the entertainment cabinet. The girls dusted it out while I broke open the box with all the wire goodies. No S-Video Cable included. Drats! They did include batteries for the remote control though. It was the usual cheapies but they are still going strong after three months of use.


The player came with video and audio cables but again, there was no S-video cable. It is my hope to get one eventually. It keeps slipping my mind when I am at a store that sells them. The remote is pretty decent. The batteries were shrink wrapped separately. The box included a quick setup manual, a user's manual, registration card, DVD unit, audio/video cables (the ones with the red, yellow, and white tips), remote control, and batteries. The packing material had to hit the garbage can so the cat and dog would not be chasing it around while we were hooking it up to the television.


Simple Setup, Directions Not Required:
The little one held the cables as her big sister and I put the unit into the DVD slot then proceeded to fish the cables through the back opening and up to the television. We considered going through the VCR but I was not sure if the Macro vision could be hacked so it went directly into the television without incident. It took a little effort to get to the surge protector surge strip. All the electronics in the house have quality surge protector strips. We lost the 55-inch wide screen television a few years ago along with a 21-inch television, and a 19-inch TV/VCR combo unit. The homeowners did not pay nearly enough to replace the big screen so we used the money to replace the smaller two but opted out of the combo unit and instead went with just a television. The teen has a DVD player in her computer that works well with the 19-inch screen and wireless mouse. It is almost like having a remote control. Once we had power, it was time to test it out.


DVD Player Aerobics
The DVD aerobic session began. I popped in several AVI movies of varying ages - early avi format through the latest avi format - Divx, Divx sub. All played well. I popped in DVD, VCD, KVCD, CVD, XVCD, XSVCD, and SVCD. Then out came the jpegs and MP3s. Then the Kodak picture CDs. I tried DVD, CDR, CDRW, DVDR, DVDRW, and even the 90min and 99min CDRs worked. It even played MpegISO and DVD MPEGISo. This was great considering only one computer in the house can burn a 99min CDR. There were numerous brands used. There were generic brand discs right up to the expensive name brand discs like Memorex. And we cannot forget Mom's subbed foreign films - played beautifully! Additional feature was the multisystem Pal/NTSC convert.


Great Player But Some Flaws
Picture quality was perfect. Progressive Scan was nice. Played everything I threw at it. As the DVD player aerobics were going on, I did notice a few things I wish were different. The remote does not have its own separate eject button. How weird is this? What happened Philips? All that great work building a sweet player then you forget the eject button on the remote control? A downside is found. The stop button also doubles as the eject button. The other downside is that the fast-forward and reverse only go as high as 8x. It should be much faster. Considering the Divx addition, I can live with the few inconveniences but had to make them know, especially here.


Overall Opinion
After everything is said and done, the lack of an independent eject button on the remote and the issue of the 8x speed forward and reverse are small inconveniences to live with considering this machine plays just about anything.


There are some additional perks that were not mentioned above. The Philips DVP642 DVD/Divx player has updated firmware located on the Philips website. There are also several hack codes available to remove the region codes. It is believed the macrovision is already removed but I cannot personally verify that fact as I have yet to try it. It would be nice to get the little one's DVD movies onto VHS so she can watch them in her bedroom, thus freeing up the main television for grown-ups. She has a shelf full of DVDs and VHS tape movies along with the Kid Bop types of music CDs. Her big sister has shelves of music, VHS tapes, and her own DVDs. She also has the downloaded music that can be found through the new Napster and Windows Media as it is connected to the internet. She is set where the little one has no DVD player. Considering the dropping costs of DVD players and the addition of Divx, this is something we, as parents, could possibly pull off as Christmas gifts for our family members and/or friends.


Philips Magnavox has been a trusted brand in my household for better than 18 years. Some of the longest lasting electronics I own have been from this company. The fact they would go against the wishes of the music and movie industry and build a machine that is compatible with the technological advances in formats of today. This company has always been cutting edge. This new flavor of DVD player is what I hope to be just a glimpse of more wonderful things coming off the manufacturing room floor.


In one home, we have four televisions - each with satellite box, five computers - all connected to the internet via broadband, three cellular phones, two VCR, one DVD standalone player and three internal computer DVD players. Technology is abundant here. I am very pleased that Philips has kept up with the modern family when it comes to technology.


For more information about firmware updates and hack codes regarding this model, stop by vcdhelp.com. There is a lot of information there including how to convert your home movies onto DVD and CDR for safe keeping.

That's my view. It is worth the money even considering the few annoyances that one has to learn to live with. It has outplayed machines that cost four times what it cost. I'm rather pleased about that. (grin)