Philips 642/ 37 Region Free - Code free DIVX PAL NTSC DVD Player

The player is great. It arrived very quickly and is very easy to use. The price was right too. Of course, it plays my other than US DVDs. I highly recommend it.

I HAVE BOUGHT MANY ITEMS FROM YOUR COMPANY,HOWEVER I BOUGHT THE DVD (WATERLOO) FOR MY FATHER. YOU ADVERTISE IT AS A REGULAR DVD. MY FATHER IS 75 YEARS OLD AND HE OPENS IT AND IT WILL NOT PLAY ON A u.S.DVD.I FEEL LIKE WE HAVE BEEN TOTALY RIPPED OFF.PLEASE ADVISE US WHY YOU WOULD EVER DO THAT....JIM

Our Philips 642/37 Region Free stopped working, BAM, right in the middle of a taut mystery! With a multitude of suspects, several intriguing story arcs, and us on the edge of our seats. Without warning,the DVD player stops working. We franticallly tried to revive it, pressed all buttons. But it was dead. (Prime suspect: Philips!) The DVD was stuck in the player, no way out. Thanks to someone else's review, the next morning we got out a screw driver, removed the entire top of the player. At least that was easy. But now we have to look for another DVD player, and we considered this Philips 642/37 as our "new" one.

The manual says that this DVD player only plays "Region 1" or "All Regions" DVDs. However, mine also contained a separate page saying that it plays individual regions as well AND IT DOES. Several other people have posted the following comment but some people seem to have overlooked it. Here are the instructions (not due to me, but successfully used by me).

Open the tray (that is, open the shelf on which you place the disc)

From the remote enter the following sequence (take your time)

7 > 8 > 9 > OK > 0 (zero)

The right pointing carets simply designate the sequence.

Close the tray.

VOILA!! You can play any DVD.

Just a short note: where have you (the DVD player) been all my life...! I don't understand the logic of the film industry by not allowing one to watch movies from other regions. Now that I can, I buy local movies from England, France, Holland Sweden and Denmark - which I can see on my regular American TV set. My friends can send me DVDs as a gift, etc.
One more happy consumer.

You can't find other region free DVD for over $100 or more and I know I can't afford it. This one is slim, practical and a good name (Sony? Good as well). I watched any DVD (from 1 to 4) by one single DVD player. Recommended!

This is absolutely awesome! I've had the non region free model for almost 2 years now and this one for almost a year, they are both still working fine. Divx formats that wont even play on my computer will play on this just fine. It's awesome for slideshows, mpg's whatever. This unit ROCKS! Especially for the price!

How is it that I have just received a DVD from Region 4 (Australia, NZ etc) and I get this message despite the fact that other DVD's from that region are working fine, and I have already performed unlock for that purpose

I got mine from "My Cybershops" for about $36 refurbished by the Phillips factory. It looks and acts like a new machine. I had to put in the code to make it region free and that took about 30 seconds. Using component video the picture is fine. I've been enjoying PAL DVD's from UK with no problems.

I did my research before buying this DVD player by reading reviews. I liked the relatively high ratings and Amazon.com description that promised it played NTSC, PAL and all different region's DVDs. However, I was very disappointed with it once I started using it and ended up giving it away to someone else. (In fairness, my player did not break or malfunction, which seemed to have happened to some users.)

Remote: very flimsy, buttons non-intuitive and very close together; because the remote's unlit, hard to use in a dark room

Playback: problems playing disks from other countries (my DVDs were not boot-legs); can only fast forward up to 8x speed, which is very irritating when you are watching a DVD without lots of chapters and want to go straight to a certain part

I was disappointed when I first set it up as it is advertised as "region free" out of the box and when I inserted region 2 the message came up "wrong region". I went through all the menu's I could find, read the manual only to find it states region 1 or All region only!
Thank you Amazon and customers for these reviews as I took a look here and realised there may be more to do. You need to open the tray and enter "7,8,9,OK,0" on the remote (slowly on each button) and then close the tray. Hey presto, its region free. Don't forget the OK in the middle, some of the advice here does not include it.
Now why couldn't Northstar Elecronics who ship the box tell you this in the first place? It would save everyone time and effort.

Now it works fine and is an absolute bargain and in good condition.

Don't listen to the people that complain that the remote control is too small or useless or that the picture quality is "average" or anything.

I do agree, some products might arrive dead or non-working, etc. That's just the luck of the draw. You can't rate a DVD player just because it broke on you. If my DVD had arrived like that, I would have exchanged it and be done with it. However, if it had not performed to my expectations, then I would have given it a bad review.

Ok, now that we got that out of the way.

The DVD works perfect. It plays ANY format. I was a little concerned the manual doesn't specify this but forget the manual. It plays everything. I got it yesterday and I tested DVD's from England, Germany, Brazil, Singapore and Mexico. All worked. The one thing you might have to do and I did it for mine, is enter the "region free" code. That is no hassle at all.

The picture quality is great and I played it on my 50inch Sony Grand Wega and it looks very nice. I mean, if you have a George Lucas complex and you want the video to be VIRTUAL REALITY QUALITY, then you definately need something for that specific purpose.

I HIGHLY recommend it if you are a DVD collector and often buy DVD's from all over the world. This is your machine!

Excellent! Great! I'm not into home theatre or into some fancy gadgets. It serves purpose of playing DVD/CD. It's chic, the color matches my TV. I have no complaints...

I'm not sure how great the dvd player they describe above is, because when I ordered and recieved my dvd player from this very site I recieved a player (the one in the photos) it was certainly not multi region striaght out of the box. In fact it was not multi-region at all. According to the manual it only accepted 1 and "any", not 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 and "any", as the website promises. I attempted my different discs any way in hopes that this was wrong - a region 1, region 3, and a burnt region 2 (granted that one would have impressed me if it worked) - only 1 worked. I am insulted by this and hope it's an easily reversible, or at least fixable mistake in some way.

Also, the remote is not intuitive -- have to memorize buttons or watch movies with the lights on.

I'm a Laurel and Hardy fan. Most of their sound films are available in England, but not in the U.S. You can order them on DVD from Amazon/UK, but unfortunately, films for the England region can not be played on conventional DVD players in America. This is for two reasons. 1. They use PAL encoding format which is incompatible with the US encoding format, NTSC. Second, they can't be played because discs from there are Region 2, and U.S. is Region 1. U.S. DVD players lock out discs from all other regions. However, this Philips DVD player is a marvel. It can play PAL discs by converting them to NTSC. It also can play discs from any region - Europe, Japan, Asia, etc. The unit has progressive scan and the picture quality is so fine we now use this player for all our DVD's. There are other similar players on the market made by companies you've never heard of for less money, but I prefer the Philips because if something goes wrong with the machine you know it is backed by a reliable company which will honor the warranty. I give the unit a 4 rating instead of a 5 only because the "remote clicker" is not as flexible for use as it should be. Still, this is a fine unit and well worth the price. One caution, however. This fine player is offered in two versions. One can play every region, the other one can't. Be sure you order the unit that can play all regions.

I have now been using my Philips 642/ 37 Region Free - Code free DIVX PAL NTSC DVD Player for over 6 months. I've played regions 1 & 2 and several other formats and couldn't be more pleased with the outcome.

I must admit that I had a little trouble with figuring out what channel it would view on but kept trying everything I could think of and finally stumbled onto the secret of my set... It plays perfectly in my PIP (picture-in-picture). No great problem as it's given me many hours of enjoyment from DVDs sent to me by friends, as gifts, in the UK.

I find both the picture and sound to be super, if I had to recommend a code free for someone else, it would be this one. My recommendation for anyone having problems to try the PIP method, it worked for me!

Let's get this right out of the way: the whole schpiel about multi-region or region free/worldwide DVD players being "finnicky", "overpriced", "prone to failure", "impractical due to the inavailability of imports to watch in the first place" and "needing to be sent all the way to Malaysia to be repaired" is a myth perpetuated by Best Buy supervisors who have been indoctrinated to do one thing: Sell DVD players that only play the DVDs they sell in their stores. It's a bogus myth, and this player is proof.

I'm a cult film buff and not a geekanoid tech nerd so pardon me if I pass over a technical evaluation of the deck: It plays any DVD made anywhere on the planet regardless of region code, converts PAL to NTSC and vice-versa, has S-Video and component output capacity, *LOVES* DVD-R media (even PAL DVD-R), and you can bring it home for a reasonable enough price to have some coinage left over to buy some Region 2 PAL releases to go with it. Like, stuff not available in the US. Get it?

If you love movies, take your viewing needs seriously and resent having the media companies decide what you can & cannot watch, then you need a multi-region player. Period. This is a good one to start with: I concede that we are only watching our stuff on a standard 4:3 analog TV set without a DTS or surround setup (though both are supported) and just use it to watch movies. Not sure what else one would need a DVD player to do, though I will admit a certain amount of chagrin at the maximum 8x FFWD advance speed. Even my $30 K-Mark Apex deck has 16x but if you get hung up on how fast you can skip through your movies I would recommend getting a life or something.

It plays any DVD right out of the box, no need to "crack" or modify anything, supports a bunch of other media formats, and has yet to do anything hostile like throw a brick at me or try and cheat at checkers. It plays all of the DVDs in my library just as well as the deck I paid $350 for in 2003, and having one will instantly quadruple the number of DVDs you can watch.

Why settle on the crap movies they sell at Best Buy? Once you watch your first Japan made Region 2 NTSC format DVD of an ultra-obscure Spaghetti Western you will wonder why you waited on getting yourself set up to make up your own mind about what you watch, and why you let yourself get suckered into thinking that DVDs made in Germany were like, weird or something. This DVD player is liberation and I would recommend it to anyone who loves watching movies. The End.

:-)

I bought this player in order to play region 2 dvds from the UK (where both dvd players and vcrs have for a long time been compatible with all regions or formats), and everything I've tried works flawlessly.

I've had this for about 2 months now, and there have been no hitches whatsoever.

The output quality is average, not the best but hardly the worst.

Overall I think this is a great product, but considering my mum bought an equivalent model in the UK for about $50, it's a little overpriced (which is the main reason it got 4 stars instead of 5). It's well worth the investment, however, as I have many DVDs sent to me from friends and family in the UK, which until now I have been forced to play on a PC DVD player (output to the TV).

This DVD player arrived and was working within 10 minutes of opening the box, great value.

The online tracking system was great.

My only concern was it stated we would have to sign for the package but it was left on the doorstep despite being in when it was delivered.

I took the advice of "vratner" on this message board and bought the Philips DVP642 at CompUSA for $60 and used the code he posted. I had it up and running in less than five minutes, and I am "technologically challenged". I am now happily watching my UK DVDs. Picture is fine as far as I'm concerned (hooked up to Sony 42" screen). Thank you for the info! P.S. I paid $20 for CompUSA's 4yr. no questions asked warranty, felt it was worth it view of some peoples' comments here.

I bought 2 from Amazon in 2004 at $65 each. One died just before the 1-year warranty expired. Philips sent another free of charge and I didn't even have to send them the old one. When I got the replacement, I put it in storage.

Shortly after the 1-year warranty on the second unit expired, it went dead as well.

I pulled the replacement out of storage and put it into service only to have it quit after a couple of months.

Bought 2 in 2004 and by December 2005 I had no working 642s.

Brings shame to the Philips name brand.

My sister and I bought this so that we could order our favorite British TV shows on DVD. So far, it works wonderfully. All I had to do was take it out of the box and plug it in.

The image quality isn't GREAT, specifically on the imported DVDs, but it's not distractingly bad, either. This is my only quibble with it. Otherwise I highly recommend this player!

PLAYS DVDs, CDs, MP3 CDs, JPEG CDs AND VCD!
AND: PAL-to-NTSC FORMAT CONVERSION

Tap into multimedia fun with the Philips broad-format, high-style, and ultra-slim DVP-642 DVD player.
This sleak looking DVD player features progressive-scan output creating a picture using 2 times the scan lines of
a conventional DVD player for seamless, flicker-free images on HD-ready TVs.
If your home entertainment system currently includes an HDTV or if you are planning on adding an HDTV in the future,
this DVD player stands ready to deliver the full potential of your DVDs.
PAL-to-NTSC format conversion enables viewing of non-region-encoded European discs.

PLAYS: CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DivX, DVD, DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVR-R, DVD-Video, MP3-CD, MPEG4, Picture CD, SVCD,
Video CD, Audio CD, JPEG image CD, and CDs loaded with MP3, MPEG-4, or DivX 3.11/4.x/5.x files.
The five disc resume feature allows you to pick up where you left off on up to five of your most recently viewed DVDs.
SmartPicture and 4x video upsampling enhance all outputs.
Optical and coaxial digital-audio terminals pass Dolby Digital and DTS surround signals.

SUPERB AUDIO and VIDEO PERFORMANCE:
4x video upsampling for improved image quality
192kHz/24-bit audio DAC delivers high-quality audio
Progressive Scan for razor-sharp and flicker free images
Plays practically any disc format
Movies: DVD, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R, (S)VCD, DivX, MPEG4
Music: CD, CD-R/RW and MP3-CD
Picture CD (JPEG) with music (MP3) playback
Ultimate convenience Smart Picture provides personalized image settings

PICTURE/DISPLAY:
Aspect ratio : 4:3, 16:9 D/A converter:10 bit, 54MHz Picture enhancement : 4x Video Upsampling,
Progressive Scan, Smart Picture

SOUND:
Crosstalk (1kHz) : 105dB dB D/A converter : 192KHz/24 bit Distortion and Noise (1kHz) : 90dB dB Dynamic
Range (1kHz) : 90dB dB Signal to noise ratio : 90dB Sound Enhancement : Smart Sound Sound System :
Dolby Digital (AC-3), MPEG2, Stereo

VIDEO PLAYBACK:
Compression formats: Divx 3.11, Divx 4, Divx 5, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 Playback Media:CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DivX,
DVD, DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD-Video, MP3-CD, MPEG4, Picture CD, SVCD, Video CD Disc Playback Modes: A-B Repeat,
Disc Menu, Fast Backward, Fast Forward, OSD, Pause, Screen Saver, Standard Play, Zoom DVD Region : 1 Loader Type:
Tray Number of Discs :1 Video disc playback system : NTSC, PAL Video Enhancement : Progressive Scan, Smart Picture

AUDIO PLAYBACK:
Compression format : Dolby Digital, MP3, PCM Playback Media : CD, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3-CD Disc Playback Modes :
A-B Repeat, Next/Previous Track Search MP3 bit rates : 32 - 256 kbps MP3 sample rates : 32, 44.1, 48, 112, 128, 256 kHz

STILL PICTURE PLAYBACK:
Playback Media : Picture CD, DVD+R/+RW Picture compression format : JPEG Picture enhancement : Rotate Rotation :
90 degree steps Slide show : yes, with music (MP3) Zoom:Yes

CONNECTIVITY:
Digital audio out: cinch, coaxial, optical Other connections: ComponentVideo out Progressive, Composite video (CVBS)
out,S-Video out Output rear : Audio L/R out
CONVENIENCE:
Child Protection : Parental Control Convenience

ENHANCEMENTS: On-screen Display Display Type:FTD Ease of use.
On Screen Display On-Screen Display languages : American, Canadian French, Mexican Spanish

FEATURES:
4x video upsampling
Progressive-scan output
PAL-to-NTSC format conversion
Optical and coaxial digital-audio terminals
Disc Lock Parental Controls
Picture Zoom
Dimensions: 17.1'W x 1.7'H x 9.3'D

Model No: DVP-642/37
Weight: 6.5 Lbs.

Bought this months ago and have enjoyed watching European DVDs without a hitch. Like other reviewer, Amazon.co.uk provides many DVDs otherwise unavailable in USA. Can see movies, BBC and other TV programs either not aired here, not released on DVD in USA, etc. A great value.

This is not a code free multi region player, on page 19 of the manual it reads "plays only DVDs marked region 1 or all regions" I poped in a Region 3 disk, (Korean) and it comes up "wrong region". I was shocked and ticked off. I'm returning it!

This DVD player is perfect for me since I was not looking forward to entering codes to get the player to read different dvd regions. All I did is put in a dvd from the Netherlands and it worked. Perfect. There is, however, a bit of low humming noise when you play the dvd, but overall it works well and the picture quality is good.

Until now this item is working very well, and I don't have any problem yet. I've seen many movies on it, and Its quallity is good and I'm satisfied.
The only thing that is not so good to me, is that every time that the dvd change from a section to another, there is a noise which is audible a little far from the dvd player.

Antonio.

As a movie afficiando, one the most frustrating things is the limited viewing capabilities of movies due to DVD regioning, combined with inconsistent release of materials among the regions. Congratulations: you finally found a movie for which you have searched ten years. Letdown: It's only released in Italy, and only works on PAL region 2, and the American film distributor has chosen not to release it. I know your pain. But there is an alternative, and this sleek little Phillips is the answer. It plays all regions, as advertised, with a clean, easy interface. It handles PAL with no problem. It plays mp3, cd, cd-r, dvd-r, and has handled my div-x with no problem. Stick it to the man. Give the middle finger to the dull distributors. Free yourself from asinine regionalization forever with the Philips 642. Peace and power to the people.

It Works with any regions, full of connectivity, support both Ntsc and PAL. I was ready to give 5 stars but: 1) I was expecting a better picture quality (seen on Hdef big screens it is remarkable, no probs with smaller) and 2) without the remote control, you cannot access Disc menu options

I purchased this unit from North Star Electronics through Amazon. I had a problem with the first unit freezing up to the point where I had to unplug the unit to get it to power off. I called North Star and they gave me the RMA #, no hassle or fuss. The second unit they sent works flawlessly. Nothing additional needed! Plays PAL movies, NTSC movies and DivX files perfectly. I have DVD's from US, UK, and even Australia (Region 4 I believe) and everything plays without problems.

As I relocated from Europe to the US I own DVD's from both regions. The DVD player works to my full satisfaction. It plays even PAL version DVDs on my NTSC TV which means there is a converter inside. You can't beat that for the 80 bucks (incl shipping). THe unit arrived in excellent condition and my worries that such a device might get beaten-up on the way were baseless. OK, I was not shopping for a high-end DVD, as you can already tell by the price. But it works well for me. It's sometimes a bit slow though to recognize the disc, probably because of the region coding thing or so, and that's the reason why it does not get 5 stars.

I just saw some negative ratings here and cannot confirm those. The remote works just fine, it has an clean design and is very handy. I don't have to point it to the player and it takes every single button press... The other issues, hang-ups, etc. don't shown up on my device either.

the best buy I did recently, totally satisfied of this product...It reads everything...and so easy to use!!!
super pleased...

We got this player because our other one (Sony NS575P) was giving us an area error when we tried to play DVDs that we brought back from mainland China (Region 5, i believe). Since most likely the discs were pirated we also didn't know what format they were in, whether they were DivX, PAL, DVD-R, whatever... This player claims to play it all, and a friend recommended it for the same reason. So to make a long story short, it plays all the discs we have without any problem! It was like this out of the box, no codes or anything. We bought it from samstores.

The only thing that gave me any problem was that at first the picture had a completely blue tint, like it was missing the red and green. Well turns out that if you are using component video connections you need to go into the setup and change the default input setting. Then it worked fine! We started using it a month ago and haven't experienced any of the problems that others talk about. I don't notice any difference in picture quality from our Sony, even on our 32" TV. So far so good!

The reviews on Amazon.com convinced me to buy one for myself and for my friends for Christmas. However, I've had some serious gripes about this player. I've shipped mine back to Philips, and they sent me a brand new one and it has the exact same flaws, including:

- A very flaky remote control. You have to point it right at the player, and even then sometimes it takes 2 or 3 keypresses for it to "take".
- Random resetting of the unit, especially when rewinding or pressing play from a paused state.

After shipping my player (that was manufactured mid-2004) back to Philips, and receiving a brand-new one (manufactured December 2005) due to the "random reset" issue, I have the *exact* same problem. I've decided to cut my losses and get a different brand.

I have a friend that I work with who bought a DVP-642 as well and has the *exact* same complaints, so I don't think these incidents are isolated, although I don't know why there haven't been more negative reviews around these fairly serious issues.

This DVD player actually keeps what it promises. I haven't had any problems with it yet. It plays NTSC, PAL, R-, R+, AVI files, MPEG files, MP3 files...
This is a great DVD player and the price is appropriate.

Since I like to buy a lot of import anime, regular dvd players can be a problem. On my old dvd player [which wasn't region-free] I noticed that my import dvd's did a lot of stopping and skipping, in which I had to start the whole thing over again and finally got so fed up, that I bought this region free dvd player. So I try this new dvd player out and it works so much better than my old one. If you like import DVD's, I highly recommend this one to you!!

The DVD player does not come 'region free' from the factory. You must set the player for this yourself.

1) Open the disc tray.

2) ON THE REMOTE, press the following buttons: 7, 8, 9, "ok", 0

That's it! The player is now region free.

I bought this DVD about 2 years ago. It was really easy to hook it up. I was watching movies from different regions - no problem. DVD was working perfectly until yesterday when it suddenly died. Sound was coming out, but no picture. I was disappointed. Tried to call support - and of couse because I was using it for more than year, my warranty expired and they wanted to charge me $15 just to talk to me. This time I'll try something different.

I have not one single complaint about this dvd player. It's played every dang thing I've thrown at it, and I use it alot since I don't have cable tv. divx, avi, mpeg, xvid...you name it, it'll play it. Had this thing and been giving it heavy usage since the summer of 2004 and have had ZERO problems. Well worth the 60 bucks I paid for it!!! Very happy camper here. :-)

Advertised as "Code free PAL player". Does not play PAL format. What's up with promising something that this machine doesn't do!
Contacted seller customer service dept. They simply said "does not play PAL format". Do not buy this machine! See other reviews

I just got my DVD player, put in a region 2 disk and the screen says "wrong region." I am confused!! and a tad upset.

Can anyone help me? Post a response

You can make the player region free yourself, and save yourself $30-$40.

You can purchase 'Philips DVP642' player for $50-$60 at Amazon.com. The price of this unit varies at Amazon, so you can purchase the player at $49.99 with free shipping if you wait until it goes on sale again. It's exactly the same unit.

The total price comes out to $92 from other vendors (including outrageous shipping charge of $21), so you can save $30-$40 by purchasing from Amazon.com and make the player region free yourself.

Here's how to make this player region free:

1. Turn on the player.
2. Open the tray.
3. Press the following sequence on the remote: 7, 8, 9, OK, 0
4. The number 0 will appear on the lower left side of your screen.
5. Your player is now region free!

Simple as that.
If you enter the wrong numbers, just repeat it over.
It does not even take a minute to do it.

Enjoy!

Prior to obtaining this animal I had to do a lot of ripping or be satisfied with viewing on the laptop. Reading other reviews I was not sure if I was going to have to press a bunch of buttons or something to not only look at different regions or how the PAL easy going to display on NTSC TV's.

All the worry was unnecessary a note in the box said that the system had been adjusted by a technician before shipping. Sure enough all I did was plug and play. I was worried that the picture quality would not be the best. I do not have high definition but the picture is just fine.

I had a marathon playing all my favorite films:
She [1965] ASIN: B00005NMWA Amazon UK Region 0
Blott On The Landscape [1985] ASIN: B0007ZD6VS Amazon UK Region 2
The Ascent Of Man ASIN: B000772842 Amazon UK Region 2
Charlie Chan Collection ASIN: B0008JIHXA Amazon UK Box set, PAL Region 2
Viktor und Viktoria (1933) ASIN: B0009NSAR8 Amazon.de Format: Dolby, HiFi Sound, PAL Sprache: Deutsch

Now that the world has opened up to me the list will grow. I have heard that this animal will not last but a year under continual use; if so it is well worth it, however to hedge on this I still have another player hooked up parallel for the region 1 DVD's.

I intend to buy another for the second TV.

It's not a terribly glamorous unit, and I'll admit I was a little worried by the couple of negative reviews here on the site, but this unit has worked out just fine for me. It plays everything it claims to (.avi, .mpeg disks, etc, in addition to being region free) and setup was a snap.

I'm sure there are fancier, more sophisticated units out there - a/v-savvy friends of mine mutter things about video buffers and suchlike - so maybe this is a good "My First Region Free Player". It's worked well for me, so far.

The only reason I bought this DVD player was to be able to play PAL DVD's. Well, despite the misleading advertisement on Amazon.com that reads: "PAL-to-NTSC format conversion-PLAY REGION 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 any SYSTEM", and some reviews from others who had bought this unit, mine does not play region 5 PAL discs. I tried different ones but was only getting an error message: "Wrong Region". My player manual says that it will only play DVDs with Region 1 or ALL, but will not play any others. Any advise from people who said: "No codes needed - plays everything right out of the box"?

This unit was playing ok for about a year, and then would not power up, the call to the service department at philips was a nightmare and they would only allow to "replace" it at a lower cost,but I would have to ship it there first, without them sending me a box or anything. I put in the trash and will never again buying anything else from phillips.

This was one of the earliest units to satisfy two basic needs for owners of DVDs purchased from multiple countries. It offers multi-region capabilities (not quite out-of-the-box, but easy to set up even though I notice that some reviewers failed to do it) and it converts PAL DVDs to NTSC and vice versa. I own about one hundred DVDs from Italy and they all play fine. I have a multi-system TV so I was able to compare the unconverted PAL output with the converted NTSC output and they are indistinguishable. I have owned the unit for a couple of years and it hasn't given me any problem, although it runs quite hot and will probably fare better with plenty of ventilation. In most other respects this is just your standard inexpensive DVD player.

By now (1/2006) there are probably other units with similar features on the market, but I think that Philips deserves the credit for bringing multiregion and conversion at this price level.

I guess the idea in the beginning was good - to design a unit that would read all formats. The reason I bought it was to be able to watch DivX/Avi movies and it didn't have any problems reading those formats. Besides I finally could enjoy some MP3 albums that were recorded on DVD medium that my friends gave me. However right from the start it had problems reading brand new DVDs. The unit was stumbling as if the disc was dirty. Only it wasn't and my old DVD player didn't have any trouble reading it. I'm on my way to take it back to Wal-Mart right now. I'm going to give Pioneer DV 588A-S a try. It is more money (MSRP $129) but you reach that point in life when you don't care if it is a hundred bucks more expensive as long as it is good quality. (A stab in the outsourcing campaign:) Besides it can also read SACD's