Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Good for the price, but serious users beware.
I have just bought one of these players to replace an aging apex 1500. The philips as stated will play virtual anything. This includes mpeg, divx, dvd-r, dvd+r, dvd-rw,dvd-rw. As a brit in america who has a lot of pal discs, I can confirm it does a great pal to ntsc conversion. Do a google search to find how to make multiregional. Great price and you cant go wrong in general. <br /> <br />However here comes the downside, for serious dvd users like me, this players has many disadvantages.  <br /> <br />1) The machine is extremely noisy. <br />2) The sound output is awful , connect it to a high end stereo and see. <br />3) Random freezing on recordable media. It seems to need more firmware upgrading. I had about 10 discs in every 100, it would just spit out. On my 3 other players they would play perfectly. <br />4) The remote is awful as is the on screen display <br /> <br />Inconclusion for a low end player ita great and has the very useful ntsc/pal feature <br /> <br />BUT MY 4 YEAR OLD APEX 1500 IS SO0 MUCH BETTER. <br /> <br />HEY HOLLYWOOD WHY SHOULD I SUFFER BECAUSE I HAVE PAL DISCS. US ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY (OR SHOULD I SAY CHINA) MAKE A HIGH END PAL PLAYER.THEY ARE AVAILABLE IN THE REST OF THE WORLD. BUT ALAS HOLLYWOOD IS PARANOID ISNT IT. <br /> <br />