Philips DVD Players for TV with HDMI Port 1080P All Region HD DVD Player for Smart TV USB

This DVD/CD player works very well. I use it for playing music CD's. I had a Sony DVD player that was fine except you had to hit the play button repeatedly to get it to play a music CD. Very Annoying!! This player cuts off when the CD finishes and when you turn it on, it says loading for about 3 seconds and then plays it!! And it sounds as good as the Sony, and it had Dolby!! Read more

I ordered the Phillips DVP642 a few weeks ago and I am very impressed with its performance. I actually received the 642/37 (some places charge extra for the region-free pre-hacked version). Here are the pros and cons: Pros: 1. It plays DivX/XviD (without QPEL/GMC) and MP3 files with great quality. 2. It has progressive scan 480P output. 3. It is "hackable" to be region-free by opening the tray, pressing "7 8 9 OK 0", then closing the tray and powering off. It can play NTSC and PAL DVDs on NTSC and PAL TVs. I am buying a second one for relatives in South America for the region-free ability alone. 4. Great price tag (<$70). Cons: 1. Only displays 8 characters of the DivX/XviD filename. "moviename part 1.avi" becomes "movienam.avi" then "moviename part 2.avi" becomes "movie000.avi" and is displayed BEFORE "movienam.avi" due to alphabetizing, making the play order the opposite of what it should be. This can be remedied by burning discs in ISO 8+3 mode renaming beforehand, but long filename support (Joliet or UDF) would have been a huge bonus. I find it no surprise because I am not aware of any DivX/XviD DVD players with long filename support for under $200,besides my hacked XBox ;) 2. Subtitle files (.srt and .sub) are supported, but don't always work unless named the same as the .avi (recommend 8+3 again) and selected before playing the movie. Many people in forums have reported issues with subtitles in foreign languages, but I only have experience with english subtitles. 3. When you insert a DVD+-R with DivX/XviD files, the player takes a long time to bring up a menu with all the filenames for play selection (about 20-40 seconds). This is enough of a wait time to be mildly annoying. Hint: Always use the "stop" button to return to the generated menu, not the "Disc Menu" button. 4&5. The drive can be VERY noisy when reading DVDs. Some people have returned their players for this reason. In my opinion, this is the player's biggest drawback as it can be very distracting while listening to the movie or music. No other player that I have encountered makes this much drive noise. In Summary: I recommend this player to anyone looking for a great priced progressive scan, DivX/XviD, or region-free DVD player with the only major drawback being a noisy drive. Read more

Okay, I first posted my review in January 2005, now it is February 2006 and time to put in an update. My DVP642 is more than a year old now is still going strong. I have one and I got one for mom. In addition, at least four of my coworkers each have a DVP642 and I have yet to hear one complaint from them. I will probably pick another one up soon for the bedroom by either ordering from Amazon or just stopping by Wal-Mart. PROS: --your bang for the buck is high --Philips is a good name brand --component video outputs --composite outputs ("RCA jacks") --progressive scan --plays most AVIs and MPGs burned to blank CDs and DVDs (including -R, +R, and RW DVDs) --plays MP3s --plays both NTSC and PAL discs (I have several Region 2 PAL DVDs, so I need this feature) --can be set to "region free" easily (open the tray, press 7 8 9 OK 0 on the remote...voila!). Please note some people are saying the newer versions of this model (newer firmware) disallow changing to region free mode, though, but I have not confirmed that (I'll update this if and when I find out if this is true). CONS: --limited controls on the device itself to play/stop a movie --so-so controls on the rather small remote --no dedicated eject button on remote (however, holding STOP in for a few seconds does the eject as well as closing the tray remotely) --silver color only (which clashes with my black black TV, black VCR, and charcoal gray DIRECTV box). Why did the manufacturers start making EVERYTHNG silver?! --video file movies burned to disc only recognize the FIRST ELEVEN characters of the filename (so when burning to disc, take this into account when naming the files). Someone else reported it only uses the first eight characters, but on mine it's eleven characters based on the old DOS 8.3 naming convention (8 + 3 = 11). Despite the cons, I still give this unit 5 stars for its price range and the fact it comes from Philips, a name I trust (along with Magnavox). In a nutshell: this DVD player ROCKS! This is a name brand, progressive scan player for about 60 bucks that *also* plays computer video files directly. I definitely recommend this player for its price range, but if you are looking for a high end player with more features, then look for a player in a higher category. And if you want a differnt DVD player that will also play computer video files, then you can find a list here: [...] Read more