i also picked up this dvd player at wal-mart as a christmas gift for myself.. it works wonders, many people have condenmed this dvd player because some encoded divx/xvid does not work correctly. So far 20 of the 20 movies i've tried on it have worked flawlessly... definetly a good buy..

__________________

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there is a known issue with the power capacitor on these particular dvd players... as documented on afterdawn and videohelp forums/comments .. alot of people have junked these players after as little as 6 months of use because of the issue but with 1.75$ of parts from RatShack and some rookie soldering abilities a fix (as documented thoroughly) can be applied to allow the player to work properly again with a beefier power capacitor... knock on wood though, my particular dvp642 hasn't had the issue & it seems as if certain production runs used the finicky capacitor in question. These players aren't produced by philips anymore, so get em while you can.

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Love my Philips player... Its still listed on the Philips website with the /37 firmware upgrade..

Dvp 642/17 ver.1109 (Macrovision version) : http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/...60104084208_68.
218.101.66&ctn=DVP642/17&slg=ENG&mid=Link_Software&hlt=Link_Software

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dvp 642/37 ver.1109 (Macrovision version) : http://www.p4c.philips.com/na4/d/dvp642_37/dvp642_37_
fus_eng.zip

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--- NON PHilips Website ---

Dvp 642/17 or /37 ver.0531 (Shuts off Macrovision Support) : http://www.geocities.com/ryanxor/
arquivos.htm (English)

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>> 1. Turn on the player.
>> 2. Open the tray.
>> 3. Press the following sequence on the remote:
>> 7 8 9 OK 0
>> 4. The number 0 will appear on the lower left side of your screen.
>> 5. Your player is now region free! Put in a DVD and enjoy!


Just a quick summary for all those visiting this page for the first time including how to install the newest firmware & region-free hack.

I'm from the USA (region 1 default)
My DVP-642/17 was manufactured in May of 2004 and had firmware version 0409 on it when it arrived at my doorstep.

Directions for applying Region Hack:
1. Open DVD Player tray (You can do this also by holding down the stop key on your remote for a couple seconds).

2. Type 7, 8, 9, OK, 0 (Zero for region free. Replace the 0 with the region number you want).

3. A 0 (zero) will appear on the bottom left corner of your screen.

4. You should now be ready to rock with other region encoded DVDs!

Full DVP-642 product details, firmware upgrades, and owners manual can be obtained at the following URL:
http://www.consumer.philips.com/global/ ... =DVP642_17

To verify what version of firmware you have do the following:

1. Open the tray.

2. On your remote punch in 5, 6, 9, OK

3. Your firmware version will be displayed on the screen.

The direct link to the most recent firmware upgrade is (version 0531):

http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/d/..._17_fus_eng.zip

And the Instructions on how to run the firmware upgrade at:

http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/d/..._17_fur_eng.pdf

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I also bought the DVP642/37 a few days ago at Best Buy Canada. Unfortunately, I think I have a bad unit. I tried feeding it Sony DVD-RW, DVD+RW and Memorex DVD-RW. Every one of these skipped & jittered the output. I could see and hear the AVI/MP4 file, it would jump every few seconds. Just a tad annoying, if you ask me!

After talking with Philips support, I've decided that I will be taking it back tomorrow and getting the LG LDA-530 unit.

I also purchased a Kosch DV-X721 unit just before Xmas, and that one died after about 4 plays.

Wish me better luck with the LDA-530!


BitHevn

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I had a similar experience with playing CD-RW discs on the Philips DVP5900 player that I bought for x-mas for the parental units.

Skips and freezes badly. Cd-Rs work just fine however.

On a similar note, I think this thread would be an excellent place to keep track of xvid releases that have trouble playing on the Philips Xvid players and other Xvid playing DVD players.

Sound sync issues were found/reported with:

Proof.2005.DVDRip.xVID-LRC (by myself; Philips DVP5900)

Jarhead.DVDRip.XviD-DiAMOND (by The Candyman;Philips DVP642)

if you experience problems with these or any other releases on XVID PLAYING DVD PLAYERS ONLY please let the thread know!

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