Customer Reviews
Why it is $189? 
2008-05-27
I bought this player in Target for $60 3 years ago. Works good especially after software upgrades. I could not understand what is sold for $189?
Now a few new, march better, Philips players available, all DivX certified, progressive scan and so on... All in range of $50-$70.
May be I did not understand something??????????????
Parental Permission Denied! 
2008-04-05
Simple is often best. This was allegedly a simple product, which I purchased to perform a simple task: play DVDs.
It tends not to do that.
Although it frequently ignores discs, and has a special affinity at not being able to play Disney products, especially the Studio Ghibli flicks they released and the Pie Rats of the Carob Bean trilogy, that's not the most critical problem.
For a while I noticed this problem on the special features on children's films. Maybe a short film, maybe a fun activity for kids. You know, unrated material.
Please enter password.
The parental controls, however, are disabled.
Please enter password.
It doesn't accept the default.
You know, on account of the parental controls being disabled.
I'm the parent - I'm the parental control for my kids. I don't need a piece of poorly coded software determining what does or doesn't meet some programmer's - or disc creator's - idea of what is safe for my kids to watch. Especially when it is, you know, safe. Veggie Tales. Disney. Kids stuff.
So I can use the password to set the parental controls, but even then, at the lowest-but-not-off setting, it asks and refuses to acknowledge the password I set or the default password.
So why am I writing this, long after I gave it a quick one star, moaned and complained to Philips Customer Disservice, picked apart the software bugs in their website that prevented me from reporting it on the first try, ripped them apart in a survey because they wanted to know how my experience using their website went, and figured that was more than enough time spent on such a useless, non-functioning product?
I was just attempting to watch a brand new DVD on some nice, relaxing qigong. You know, an exercise video. Which is, conveniently, not rated G, PG, PG-13, R, or anything else. So... I get the STOP hand. And then I try to go around that, and I get the non-functioning password prompt. At least with most of the DVDs I can skip the opening few seconds of the movie and get them to play, but because this brings the password problem in for the entire DVD, not the features, it's useless.
And no, it's not the DVD. It's running right now, attempting to help me relax, played on the PS2. Philips, I promise you one thing: you may have invented the CD, and I will continue to buy things based on that technology, but never will I purchase another product with your name on it. You've made a lifelong anti-Philips consumer out of me. Great job!
Well, to be fair, it does play some DVDs some of the time. Curiously enough, most of the time it hangs up, it's on that FBI warning. Perhaps I could involve the FBI in this? Maybe I should give the field office a call each time it stops? It would probably be more productive than contacting the irresponsible, incompetent manufacturer.
And, hey, maybe if I was lucky, they'd raid Philips and convince them to update the code on the product so it, you know, plays DVDs.
Region-free (zone-free) DVD player 
2008-02-13
About one half of my DVDs are from Russia, and the other half are from the USA. Thanks to Philips DVP642 Progressive-Scan DVD Player this is not a problem. It can be easily re-programmed to accept DVDs from all zones (regions). The trick has been published on the internet. Philips DVP642 plays all video and audio formats. It reads all types of media (i.e. DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW). I have used it with both wide-screen and normal TVs. With a three-cable RGB connection to a wide-screen TV monitor the picture quality is just perfect. The sound quality is perfect in all cases, whether I use analog or digital sound output.
Piece of Junk 2008-01-27
The unit quit working after only one year. It's had a good life & good location and there is no good reason for it to break. Consider another brand so this does not happen to you.
A 2nd issue, if you're still considering purchasing this product is the poor ergonomics on the remote control. It's too easy to press the "next scene" button when you're trying to fast forward. Not a great design.
Broken product 2008-01-22
I bought this DVD player and it didn't work. I tried to contact the seller but they couldn't replace or refund money. I was very disapointed.
I avoid Philips if possible 2008-07-09
I owned 2 Philips personal mp3 CD players. Both broke within the first year. I also owned 2 Philips 642 DVD players, which I only purchased for the DivX capibility. I knew I was asking for trouble.... and I got it. Both broke shortly after the warranty expired. I no longer buy Philips.
I also avoid Thompson-RCA. I owned one of their VHS/DVR desktop units. It died after 9 months. I paid $20 in shipping to get it replaced under warranty and, even though it was a newer model, it died after 4 months. The warranty on it was only for the time remaining on the original model, which had expired when the 2nd unit died.
It's a shame companies are allowed to produce product that croak at the same time the warranty expires. Remember the old stereos, etc that lasted 15 years? And they used to routinely supply replacement parts for appliances for at least 7 years. Ahhhh... no one can say the old days were all bad. In my opinon computer electronics has destroyed the country... and I work in that field!
Has trouble reading disks. 
2008-07-07
I don't know if we got a lemon or what, but our player doesn't live up to other reviews. While most features work as advertised, we have problems just getting a DVD to play correctly.
Just recently, we missed over ten minutes of a movie just trying to fast forward through spots where the DVD player freezes up. When it can't read a disk, it often becomes unresponsive to all commands and we physically have to walk up to the player and yank the power cord in order to restart it. This skipping problem happens with at least half of all DVDs making movie watching a chore rather than a hobby. All in all, the particular unit we have is a piece of crap and we will be replacing it before watching any more DVDs.
We did buy it at Fred Meyer and not Amazon so maybe that's why we're having trouble.
Phillips breaks immediately 2008-06-20
I bought a Phillips DVD player and it broke immediately (the small disc that holds the DVD fell off). When I returned it, at my own cost for postage for the entire unit--speakers included, this was their condition--they sent me another one that was broken with a bogus serial number. Then they told me the second one was out of warranty when I asked for a replacement. Their products break easily and their customer service isn't helpful.
BUYER BEWARE - This dvd player is a piece of junk 2008-06-08
I've had this dvd player for less than a year and it quit working. The on/off button no longer works (I tried trouble shooting this and finally had to take the player apart myself to get the dvd out). Don't waste your money on this player...it'll just end up in a landfill.
The dvd player I had before this lasted over 5 years and cost less!
Features are propotional to the price 
2008-06-01
Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
This is a nice entry level DVD player that permits DVD/ MP3/ DIVX readouts. The designs nice and the player yields good quality images. However it would have been very convinient to have a eject button on the remote control. Everytime you want to change or remove the disc, you have to try and locate the eject button on the face of the dvd player.
Its a nice gadget for the money spent.
