Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Outstanding product; brings new life to DivX collection!
I consider this to be the best $70 I have spent to date.  A very slick low-profile design fits in perfectly with any room's decor and looks even better with a silver TV. <br /> <br />First and foremost, it's ability to play DivX, XviD and other format videos from CDRs is amazing.  So far out of my rather vast collection of DivX movies only one has yet to play right, but that was a bad CDR eitherway, so I'm not blaming the player. It loads up a new movie right away if there is one file there or will show you a list of files to choose from if there are more than one.  DivX playback quality is absolutely great.  Perhaps better than when I was using my laptop's composite out for watching DivXs on my TV. <br /> <br />DivX movies encoded with AC3 audio instead of an MP3 stream play on the either optical AC3 or coaxial S/PDIF connections on back.  If not connected to an AC3 decoder, the sound is muxed into two-channel stereo. <br /> <br />A nice feature of this player is that it converts PAL to NTSC (and vice-versa I believe) on the fly, allowing you to watch European DVDs without any compromise.  An added bonus to an already outstanding deal. <br /> <br />Installation is a breeze and is truly plug-and-play, I was up and running in two minutes watching my favorites movies come to life again. <br /> <br />One downside that I can learn to live with however, is the poor design in the remote.  It lacks intuitive organization of buttons and I sometimes end up pressing the wrong button.  Too bad my Wega remote doesn't support Philips DVD players. <br /> <br />Another small, but less bothersome downside is that you can't do slow playback of DivXs as you would on DVDs.  But that is a minor moan when you consider the amazing deal you got. <br /> <br />I give a full 5-stars, since I DARE you to find a better deal for a superb DVD player that plays every format you can throw on it.  My parents and sister were so impressed when I got this player that we went and bought two more todayand now we have three total around the house (avid DivX watchers). <br /> <br />Cheers to Philips.