hi iv been looking around fourm rooms and reveiw sites but its all confussing me when i think i found the best dvd/divx/xvid player another one comes up or there's a problem with divx playback flicker and stuff. if someone can help me, i need to know the best dvd/divx/xvid player around at the moment for around £100 that can play all divx and xvid aswell as normall dvds with good playback quality.
philips 642, don't know if you have a walmart, but they are 35.00 us right now. Plays anything. Flash upgradeable. Say's to cure most recent DivX probs. Good CNET rating. If you can't find it locally, try the internet electronic sites.
I think the 2 you mentioned are being replaced, I could only find links to them at outlets, and liquidators.
A quick check on cnet reviews found this: Philips DVP5960/37 The good: Relatively inexpensive; HDMI upconversion to 720p, 576p, and 1080i; DivX compatibility with decent playback performance; mostly solid video quality; front USB port for digital photos and music; ultraslim styling.
The bad: Annoying shift bug causes some black bars on movies; 576p mode is close to unwatchable; no S-Video output.
The bottom line: The Philips DVP5960/37 HDMI-upscaling DVD player is an excellent choice for budget-conscious HDTV owners and multimedia aficionados, and its DivX playback is a nice bonus.
It seems to be the replacement model. The good thing about Philips is that they are flash upgradable. If it has a bug it can usually be fixed. Can't beat the price. To look around go to www.cnet.com. Read the consumer reviews, the editors can be biased.
so which one should i get that is purely to play DivX and XviD and maybe a veiw normal dvds and cds. but has no problem with XviD and DivX playback like jagered playback and stuff just plays anything and everything you throw at it.
Me? 642. Thursday it was on sale at wally world for 35.00. For what it does, and concidering the format war going on, you couldn't go wrong. Why pay extra, when the HD DVD or BluRay players will be in the 100+ range next year. If the PS3 is going to be 600.00, with Blu Ray, and Toshiba HD DVD players are 500.00. Both are sold out, and no one can say exactly when more will arive. They will milk the market till after christmas, then the prices should start to fall. Let the economics play out, supply and demand. As far as the other two, yes hdmi and "so called upscaling," is nice, but wouldn't a HD player, "either Blu Ray or HD DVD," be worth saving for now, to spend on later. Trust me I've got two HDMI ports on my t.v. that are subliminally screaming at me to use them. But... I'll wait. Think HD.
I have been using the Philips DVP 642 for about 3 years and have had great success with it.
Quote:plays anything and everything you throw at it.
There is no such thing, although the Philips comes close. In particular Xvid's have too many variables to have 100% compatibility. (Divx, if they are really encoded with a Divx ccertified encoder works fine all the time).
For the DVP 642, here are the most commonly known/encountered issues:
1) Wierd colors/pixels display. Hit the System Menu button twice to fix.
2) Audio goes out of synch. Hit the System Menu button twice - usually fixes, but sometimes not. This is usually a result of a VBR (Variable Bit Rate)set too high when encoding the audio. Generally, the better know teams that release packs do a good job (LOL, XOR, Gothic,PROPER).
3) MPEGS taken directly from SVCD .bins are choppy. Extract RAW MPEG-2 files (see below). burned SVCD's play fine.
4) Does not play files using Q-Pel. No fix for this.
5) Some units are lemons. This is the most common complaint, as there have been a few bad batches. Make sure you buy at a retail store in case you need to return it.
Here is what you need along with ANY standalone player you get.
1) GSpot - Software that gives you detailed information about what codecs are used to encode your Xvid/Divx file. Use this to check for q-Pel.
2) IsoBuster (or similar) - Software you can use to extract MPEG video from SVCD .bin files. I have not had much luck pulling the MPEG files out directly.
3) Divx Create - If all else fails, run your file through this.
You can also use VirtualDubMod to re-encode if you want to tinker around with learing that tool. (Well worth the effrot, especially if you want to maintain as much quality as you can).
Generally, I use Divx Create since it is a no brainer and quality does not drop off enough for me to care. <-- That comment will drive some folks nuts!!!!
