Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Needs much better DVD playback.
I installed the newest firmware, and DVDs still appear very pixellated. I can watch the same DVDs on my X-Box and they are MUCH clearer. I have both players connected by component cables, but I tried with basic RCA video on a non-HDTV and the pixellation was still horribly apparent. It does play a lot of formats, but I've found that Divx or Xvid usually looks better if I convert it to a DVD using dvdSanta and watch it on the X-box. For your video files not worth a whole dvd, or to fit over 30 hours of 256k quality MP3s on one DVD, it does the job. Maybe with firmware it will get better. Also, its goes real jittery and even the menus flicker spastically if in progressive scan mode. The web site suggests turning off progressive scan mode, yet this is still advertised and labeled as a progressive scan player. Play a lot of stuff for cheap, but it shows. Especially DVDs.... I thought if nothing else DVDs would look good on a Philips player. They look better on my friend's Apex which is cheaper.