Philips DVP642 DVD Player

Pros: looks great, works great
Cons: none that i have found

plays everything i throw at it....cant be beat for the money, very small and sleek and it will play your divx movies too!

Pros: The best DVD for the money on the market today!
Cons: I can't think of any ...

I bought one these to see how it played because I liked the features it has. The ability to play DivX is hard to find. It had several other features that were important to the initial decision to buy. I liked it so much that I bought a 2nd one for my parents!

Pros: Compatibility
Cons: Poor workmanship, terrible warranty

I bought this DVD player 9 months ago because of its ability to play multiple formats. This was wonderful. It could play just about anything I put in it.

It worked fine for 9 months, then, out of the blue, the DVD player wouldn't recognize any DVDs. I tried a number of different formats and nothing worked. Then, a few days later, the door would no longer open and shut and I had a Netflix video stuck inside.

Even though it is cheap, I am shocked it fell apart this quickly. If you can afford to replace it every 9 or 10 months, then buy it. Otherwise, look for another model.

Pros: Plays everything including PAL and Divx
Cons: Ummmmmm, I'll get back to you, can't think of one right now

Excellent player that plays Divx (no not MP4). But that's just the beginning, it plays nearly everything. Got a VCD? Copy the .DAT file, rename it .mpg and it plays it. Got a .WMV? It'll play it. PAL? No problem. Sturdy and reliable, get one now and don't hesitate because they're almost gone.

Pros: Everything about this model is great. BUT.......
Cons: The zoom display in the middle/screen just won't go off. Can anyone help please??

The zoom function really sucks. Every time i press the zoom button to enlarge the wide screen picture, the display such as x2,x4, etc. just won't go away or disappear. It appear at the top middle of the picture and it's blocking my movie screen. I even call to the service center for help but they can't do anything about it.
Do anyone out there who know how to make the zoom display disappear?? Very headache about this. Thought of going to trade-in for a new brand model. Please help. Thanks.

Pros: Plays many different formats, PAL->NTSC conversion, region controls
Cons: No eject button on remote; still not the end-all video format player

This is an impressive DVD player. Not only does it just play DVDs, but it supports a wide variety of other formats, including VCD, SVCD, DivX and MPEG files, MP3 files, and as a bonus, it can convert PAL-formatted videos to NTSC and also has region-control features. The video & audio quality are both excellent. It even has several different audio modes to choose from. This player is just what I was looking for, and then some.

Since it can play DivX and MPEG files, it seems that they could go the distance and make it be able to play a lot more formats, but its format support is still limited to DivX and MPEG, plus maybe a few others (I found that it can play video from a WMV file, but not the audio, and I've heard it can play XVID files as well). But still, this DVD player goes way above & beyond any other DVD player. And for a price in the $60 range (I paid $63.94 at amazon.com), this player is hard to beat.

Pros: - Plays all formats - Affordable price
Cons: - Lack of surround sound outputs - Lack of independent eject button on RM

Affordable & Convenient:
Why by an expensive laptop or a big computer to run your MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MP3 movies and music? This awsome player plays it all. Divx/Xvid/VCD/SVCD/MP3/DVD etc.. This unit is also one of the cheapest DVD players in most stores, and it goes for about $60 US to $ 90 US.

Flexible:
With the ability to update the firmware you can always be up to date with the latest formats and features offered. You can download the firmware at the phillips website, burn it to a cd and update the DVD player with it. You can check what firmware version you have by pressing "5 6 7 OK", and compare it to the newest one on the phillips website. This player plays all region codes, by turning it on, and ejecting the tray , you can press "7 8 9 OK 0" then close the tray and reset it. This allows you to play DVDs from all region codes!

Pros: Plays most media formats, Progressive scan, Thin design
Cons: Doesn't support non-standard Divx codecs, No Quicktime support

Unless you are a Home Theater Buff with a set of purple velvet seats in your stadium style room, there is no reason to buy any other DVD Player. The unit will play just about everything. It will even play DVDs that contain 1000s of MP3 (DVD-MP3), which my previous Panasonic did not. If you are looking for something versatile, progressive scan, and affordable, then this is the player for you.

Pros: Absolutely none.
Cons: Serious reliability / performance problem.

I purchased a Philips DVP642/37 DVD player and returned it under warranty due to video locking up problems. The unit was replaced with another DVP642/37 with the serial number blanked out and this unit also has video locking problems.

Since the serial number of the returned unit was blanked out, I believe that Philips returned the same defective unit to me.

Pros: Divx & AVI, Great AC3 decoder, once i got it going
Cons: DIVX & AVI voices get left behind some time. AC3 setup not plug and Play

Great DVD player, However does have issues.
Had one on trial ($299.00NZD)but returned to store. Found one in a 2nd hand store 3 months later for $100.00 and was only 4 mnths old. So I brought it.

1) Had taken ages to figure out the 5.1 channel on board decoder as I have AC3 ready amp. This was the main reason why I returned it.
2) The voices get left behind on DIVX movies which is strange, cos we watched a movie in the morning it was fine, then watched again at night and the voices got left behind. Kids watch the same movie on putor with no issues.
This problem occured on Trial & thwe 2nd hand one so it wasn't a one off.

So it has been demoted to the kids room and out of the lounge, back comes the Mazuda cheapy DVD Player.

But I only lost a $100.00

Pros: Plays everything.
Cons: Doesn't last. Horrible warranty. Poor customer service.

If everything works as expected, this is a great player. However mine went dead after 5 months and this thing only has a 90 day warranty. Philips customer service is horrible and they want me to pay more money to return it for a replacement. Buyer beware, other competitors have one year warranties.

Pros: Yeah! it can play divx!
Cons: Really hard to know why some divx files don't play.

I don't know why all the people who posts great reviews of this player, can really belive that it works great.
But, in my case.. i download a lot of anime from japan, what is nearly popular en america, and that anime needs to be fansubed and they do a great job, and..
ok.
the player.. the player can't play certain resolutions of divx like 768x576, a lot of audio codecs, and is hard to burn the files if you got subtitles, the manual don't show how u need to burn divx with subtitles files.
if you have series with a lot of episodes, you need to change all the names to 8 characters if you want to recognize them.

Pros: Slim, sleek look and plays all formats.
Cons: Skipping between transitions of chapters. DVDs get stuck occasionally.

Its an average DVD player that plays all formats. Thats about it. Ive noticed that when it changes chapters it will skip momentarily which in my opinion is completely unacceptable. Nothing really shined about it otherwise, besides the fact that its really slim and I thought it looked cool. Given that, I had trouble getting the DVDs to go in once in a while especially with d-skins (slim clear cover over the bottom of a DVD/CD to help protect it) on my DVDs. It would catch them going in and then get them lodged in between the door. The sound and overall picture quality are pretty good of a normal DVD player. But the two faults about this are enough to get this DVD player dumped. Sadly I expected more from a company like Philips. Better luck next time guys.

Pros: It works, looks great, super buy, will play almost anything, and it works.
Cons: No HD, (Phillips does make one) but the component looks great.

Yes a great big wohoo!

We just bought this DVD player at Circuit City. Price: $39.00 after $10.00 in store discount and $20.00 mail in rebate. A steal on a very nice DVD player.

It is connected via component cables to our VIZIO 37" LCD (see my other reviews). Movies are breathtaking. Whats even better this thing will play almost any disc you stick in it. I still have to try some DivX movies, but it should handle those with ease.

CD play... I actually disconnected an older Onkyo changer to make room for the new player. The sound coming from the Phillips was amazingly improved over the Onkyo.

Some reviews have mentioned the menu and remote aren't that great. I disagree on both counts.

Again the setup looks crisp and clean on the new Bello TV stand in smoked glass.

Sorry Panasonic, you will never be invited in our home again.

Pros: Includes batteries for the small remote. Nothing else.
Cons: Can not be used for over an hour.

Nice looking unit, nice features.. but if you try to watch brand new DVDs it plays about an hour then starts pausing every few seconds. What good are all the features if you can't actually watch videos without irritating pauses an hour into a movie?! Going to be returned tomorrow.