Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Does OK Playing DivX Encoded Files
Imagine watching an entire season of a TV series, encoded on a single DVD+R! This player will do it. On an analog TV, 175 MB/episode DivX encodes don't look too much shabbier than DVD playback.  <br /> <br />The downside is that the unit is extremely finicky about encoding of AVI files. XviD encodes can have display problems. The audio encoding is very important. Many DivX & XviD files are encoded with variable bit rate audio - this will get out of sync and can be quite annoying. If the wrong audio encoding is used (WMA, for instance), there will be no sound at all!  <br /> <br />The good news is that an open source program like VirtualDub can be used to convert (transcode) most AVI formats to the required DivX standard and then they can be burned to CD or DVD. I've had the best results with DivX 5.x video compression and MP3 CONSTANT Bit-Rate (CBR) encoding. <br /> <br />Standard DVD playback works OK. The fast-forward/reverse seems to be limited to 8x, but that's not so bad. MP3 CDs play nicely, too. <br /> <br />Upgrading the firmware isn't difficult - the latest to date is 11/04. One weird feature is that I've had two of these players, one built in November '04 and the other in December '04. The December player won't recognize some of the CDs with XviD encodes on them that the November machine played just fine. Both have the same firmware level. <br /> <br />I'm glad I purchased the machine and I'm about to order another one for my wife!