Philips DVP5140 Multiformat DVD Player with DivX, MP3, Windows Media Support

For the price, this DVD player is compact and produces a good quality picture and sound.

This DVD player is as described. Plays everything, but is very slow to response and with a lousy remote control. But I knew it in advance from other people's reviews, so I don't complain. I think it is a very good purchase for the money.

We just got this to replace our Toshiba DVD player that died. It is awesome!! It plays DIVX movies and Windows Media Players and it took 2 seconds to get it to play any region DVDs. Fantastic price for all these features. Plus it looks cool!

This product worked as advertised for about 18 months. I was able to easily convert the unit to a multizone with a very easy sequence of numbers on the remote; and was then able to play European discs. Also, this unit plays Divx movies beautifully, very practical when downloading movies (commercial, copyright free or amateur movies available on the web in Divx or Xvid formats).

However after 18 months, I have to report that the unit has become very capricious and rejects most of my home copied DVD (I back up commercial movies - such as the Disney Treasure series - because I do not want the kids ruining the expensive original ones). At first I thought that I was making mistakes in my back-up routines, and/or that I had bought bad media. So I threw out good discs, one after the other; I also spent (more than the value of the DVD player itself!) in the search for the elusive perfect blank DVD (hint: try Verbatim discs, they still are the best).

However on a whim, I decided to test my back-up discs elsewhere and they played beautifully on cheapo units.

So after 18 months, basically the multiformat, "plays anything you can throw at it" claim that Philips makes in their marketing for this line of DVD players, has become moot at best. Searching the web has confirmed to me that I am not the only one to experience these malfunctions.

The only redeeming three features are that (1) downloaded movies still play when burned on decent quality discs (my problems are related to backed-up discs that keep all MPEG2 contents and menus of the original DVDs, not downloaded movies in MPEG4 formats); that (2) progressive scan gives beautiful results and (3) purchase price is very low, making the problems less heartbreaking.

I bought the DVP5140 to play UK (format2) disks, since it specifies multiformat. BUT, when bought here in the US, it will only play US (format1), and Philips tech. support won't help. They say it cannot be changed- any attempt would void the warranty, etc. They want to sell you a "Multi-region Code Free DVD player" that plays all formats, for twice the price. The review by H. A. Emet (Amazon, 7/27/08) explains that DVP5140's are the same worldwide, and all happily play all formats. Changing is easy, using the remote.

The machine is great, and it now does what I need.
J.R. Parkes

I purchased this dvd player as an emergency replacement, and so far have not regretted it! It was easy to set up, and is easy to use. I had it playing my region 2 disks in a matter of moments. The drawer is a little slow in opening, but that alone is no reason to send it back. Just wait the 30 seconds and it'll open!

My only complaint was in the shipping. I ordered it from Target through Amazon (as they had the better price). I received it ahead of schedule, but was dismayed when I saw the packaging. Or should I say lack of packaging? All they did was slap the shipping information on the dvd box itself and sent it along it's way. I would have preferred it to arrive within another box, masking what the product was. They way it was shipped just screams "Steal Me!"

But, as that's my only complaint, and not necessarily Amazon's fault, I give it four stars!

This is a good DVD player. Once you program it to play all regions, it works quite well. An earlier reviewer has posted the instructions on how to program it. I have only played Region 1 and Region 2 on this DVD player so I don't know how it works with other regions. The only real downside to the DVD player is that the remote doesn't have an eject/open button or volume control. Overall though, it is a quality DVD player that plays DVDs from multiple regions.

I bought this multiformat DVD player as a gift for my husband since our DVD player recently died. He loved that it was so easy to set up and it also plays audio CDs and MP3s. Great value!

I didn't think it would work for me, but it does and now I can watch DVDs encoded to any region. I like to watch movies dubbed in foreign languages, so this is awesome! Thank you!

I hate this DVD player. I bought it, because I wanted something that wouldn't break down or kidnap my discs. Now I know I'd rather have a different machine, even one that stops working after a couple of days.

The stupid thing is just too annoying. It doesn't have fast forward or rewind, and it forgets where you left off if you turn off the machine. It's also super slow to start up and to load discs.

I can't wait for it to screw up just once so I can justify buying another player. However, it keeps working day after day. This thing will never die.

I'm thinking of buying another tv to hook it up to, so I can get myself a better one, but my girlfriend says that's even more wasteful than having two DVD players.

Now I'm thinking maybe I'll have a kid so he/she/he-she can have it. It can be like a punishment for whenever he/she/it does anything wrong, like having sex before marriage or dancing. That's not wasteful, right?

Kids are like investments. You feed and water them for a couple of years, and then you either make them start working the land, or you sell them for big profits.

What?! This DVD player has clearly made me insane. Don't buy it.

This is a great player for those that want an inexpensive way to go region free! A quick internet search will show the easy way to set the region to 0 so you never need be concerned about the pesky region coding.
I live in Europe and also have U.S. dvds, but buy and rent locally. This player was the perfect solution! And for less than $50 USD! Get one for yourself quickly!!

I bought this player because it plays DVDs sent by family and friends in Europe and Asia. In particular one previous reviewer, H.A. Emet, posted easy instructions to make it play DVDs from all regions. All credit goes to Emet and below are his instructions. They work!
To make it region code free follow these instruction:
1. Turn on the unit
2. Open the loading tray
3. Press the "Setup" button on the remote
4. Navigate to the "Preferences" page using the right arrow key
6. Press the down arrow once to enter the Preference page
5. Enter 138931 on the remote
6. You will now see the current region code displayed
7. Use the Up/Down arrow keys to select the region required or "0" for all regions
8. Press the "Play" button on the remote

I spent an hour researching region free DVD players- apparently I should have looked further. This unit would take forever to load the CD, and other times it would tell us it was the wrong region and not play at all. Fortunately, Amazon has a great return program and we printed out a postage paid return and back it went.
After further research, we bought a Pioneer. I learned that there are a numbr of ways to make a DVD player region free. 1) A software hack, or 2) a chip replacement. The software hack works most of the time, but will never be totally consistant , where the chip replacement is a real "fix" that will work indefinately.
Spend a few bucks more and get a better DVD player. Thank you Amazon for making this transaction easy.

Purchased this solely to be able to play DVDs of all regions. Adjusted my setup accordingly (search other comments or other websites for details) and has worked flawlessly. Only had to run the setup once so far (have ha d the unit a month). Everything else this box offers is just "gravy". There probably could be more buttons on the front panel but certainly not a showstopper. For the price, you can't go wrong unless you want to go super-cheap like Coby...but I expect a longer life from my Philips. Good luck!

I was easily able to change this DVD player over to Region-Free. It works great, especially for the price! Highly recommended!

This might be a fine DVD player. I wouldn't know; I never got it out of the box. The reason for the low rating is the misinformation on the Amazon.com page, which led me to believe the model DVP5140 is a multi-region player. But as soon as it arrived, I saw a big statement on the box saying this was for Region 1 (USA) DVDs only. The whole reason I bought it was to play DVDs that are only available in Region 2 (UK) formatting. So I sent it back. Amazon customer service couldn't find a DVD player that fit what I need. So now I'm just down one major gift idea.

A low cost, but not the lowest. It doesn't play WMA files at all as specified, no matter what bit rate is. Dispointed. Othe functions tested seem OK. I don't recommend this product>

The item is very good. Everything plays like a charm and I mean everything, CD's, mp3, DVD, DivX etc. I have never seen something that complete for such a low price. Some features are missing like memory when the video is stopped and other little things but the unit do what it promises. Other thing... the resolution for the DivX is a bit low... it is good quality for TV shows that I download and watch aftwerwards but not so good for movies... but again, at such a low price I cannot not complain at all...

I'm happy with this player. It does what it's suppose to do, but not all features are described in the manual that comes with it. Additions to the manual can be found online at [...] This decribes how you can resume playback from where you left off if you turn off the unit, how to open the tray, and other things.

One thing that I really like about this player is that the remote is well laid out and not cramped. You cna change the chapters, fast forward or fast reverse, open the tray, or get back to the DVD's main menu.

The unit supports Windows Media but only WMA files on audio disks. It will not play WMV videos.

In two weeks time the unit has worked without fail. It does not skip. It plays music CDs. The picture is sharp and the audio is great. The unit is somewhat slow to respond to commands, but I think this is inherent in all DVD players.

I bought this unit for $[...] plus shipping from a vendor who lists here at Amazon. This is a good price for this unit.

I used this item like a present for my father (he does not like complicate and advanced equipment). It's perfect just to watch movies at the weekend. Don't expect any kind of advanced audio decodification-video features. In the other hand if you want a player just to watch home videos and last releases, you don't have a plasma 50' tv then this one will satisfy you. general features like angles, zoom, widescreen letterbox options are available. Sometimes we look for advanced features that we will never use. My recommendation: if you're running out of space in your media center room, you have a traditional and modern tv then this little friend can keep you busy with all new releases. Buy it! You won't regret it. Now, if you're looking some advanced features like DTS, bluray, hd, etc, start you search and forget this one.

First of all, I love the slim line look and light weight feel to this DVD player. I haven't had the chance yet, to play any DVD's other than NSTC, so I haven't tested it for PAL DVD's which is the reason I purchased this player. Reading the helpful hints and coding to use to enable this player to play all regions will help a great deal when my PAL DVD's arrive from England.
It is becoming a bit more difficult to find multiregional players, and this was a great deal for the price.

Yes, the trick by H.A. Emet does work.
I can see all of my Japanese DVD now:)
If you coulsn't get it work, you really
need to try it again!
Thanks H. A. Emet.

This is a great little DVD player! Once I entered the code to make it region free (Region 0), it plays all my Region 2 and Region 4 DVD's without any problem. The picture quality is good. The only thing Philips could have done was put in a rev/fwd feature, but other than that I could not be more satisfied! I bought two of them becasue the price was so low!!

I bought this DVD player in order to watch DiVx material I downloaded from the internet, as well as to see some Italian movies that a friend of mine in Rome had burned for me. What an awesome player! I followed the instructions posted by another Amazon.com reviewer and was able to make the player code-free in a matter of minutes. That's a big plus, as my wife and I travel overseas quite frequently and will enjoy having a DVD player that plays all regions. But what really astounded me about this very low-cost player is its non-low-cost video resolution. It's as good as any stand-alone DVD player I've ever used. The sound quality is also exceptional, and I haven't even hooked up the coaxial cable yet. Lastly, I haven't had any of the issues with the remote that some others have. I simply point it at the player and it works, period. Ditto with using the STOP button to open/close the tray. Amazing what happens when you read the instructions. I love this player!

I think the DVD player is great. I bought it several months ago because the one in our family room kept skipping. When I got it, I was impressed by how light it is and it does everything that I need it to. You can't beat the price. I got it on Amazon for $50. So when my DVD player in my media room quit working I bought another Philips DVP5140 Multiformat DVD Player. I can't believe you can buy such a good quality dvd player for only $50. I would highly recommend it.

As esay to set up as the the one writer states. Follow his directions to a tee and you will be watching all your PAL and non- USA DVDs you want. We hooked up the audio wrong and paniced for a short time but got it switched around in no time and are enjoying our Speedway Grand Prix races as I type this review.

I bought this DVP5140 from Amazon for $47.99 to replace my damaged DVP 642. The biggest problem with the DVP 642 has actually been "sort of" fixed in DVP 5140; Certain Region 4 discs I bought ( legally) would go from widescreen to Full Screen for no Reason, well, with the DVP 5140 if I change the display setting for the problem discs, it "forces" the playing of the disc in widescreen. So, the setting is now there, hopefully a firmware upgrade will follow.
The crazy thing about this, is that the DVP642 just needs a slight repair which will make it workable if I can find the time to do the repair ( which I have to, since I have a favorite disc jammed in the machine).The First DVP642 I bought lasted, and that was bought for 62-63 dollars. The DVP 5140 ( which is Multiformat, Multiregion, etc) was 47.99 and it is great. Complain all you want about what it has NOT got, but this has features. Yes I will admit that the remote takes a little getting used to, but for a multizone multi-everything gem, this little beast compares with items up in the 1,000 to 1,500 mark; and favorably. Anyways, the cost is low, just look at what you get for the cost of an Optical drive on a PC... its great.
The problem I had with the DVP 642 was the flashing red Power light problem; supposedly this refers to a burned out resistor, and can be fixed "easily" ( I don't know about that, but the instructions on the web are fairly straightforward, you just need the time). So I upgraded with the hope that there was a fix or some change related to the region 4 issue as mentioned above, and I also have not had the time to devote to repairing the 642 ( yet), so I may wind up with two multi-zone players.
Anyways, the 5140 is a keeper, and its great.

this is a very bad product, the remote does not work unless you are next to the dvd, it takes forever to act once you send the remote order. It is slow in every aspect. I dont recommend it, I was too lazy to returned but i should have returned it

I bought it for the VCD compatibility (showing slides made into movies on CD). It works! My multi-format Samsung with a card reader cannot play VCD's, but this can do it. No open/close button is a small disadvantage. To open the tray right away, you need to turn off the "standby," and then, press the open/close button on the machine. For $48 (on sale at Target for $39.99 right now) it is a pretty great buy.

I've had this DVD player for little over a week and it works wonderfully. We bought it specifically to play multi-regional DVDs and thanks to the other reviews were able to make it happen and it operates flawlessly. I only gave it a four/five since I've only had the player for a short time, although we've used it for several hours, every day since we got it without a hitch. I haven't had any difficulties with the remote or the player, and setting it to all regions took only a few seconds. Top that with the awesome low price, I hope this DVD player is around for a good long while. I definitely recommend this for anyone on a budget, looking for a versatile player with little to no sacrifice of quality.

I tested this thing out with a dvd full of AVI's and it played them back with great quality and was very easy and straight forward to use menu system. Plays about 7 700 meg avi, mpg, mp4 movies to a dvd.

I purchased this CD/DVD player a month before and it is very good for the price. The only problem is the remote, which is not user friendly. Only 3 buttons are there in the DVD player, so you have to depend on remote for all operations except turning on and off, so when the remote does not do what you want it to do, you have got no other choice except to turn off and give up.

Good news: Player plays everything it's suppose to.
Bad News: The remote does not have an "Open/Close" button and you must be close to the player and at just the right angle for the remote to work. When I first got it, it wouldn't open, unless you pressed the "off/on" button first. Then you pressed the "open/close" button on the player and wait an eternity for it to open. Now, the only way to get the door to open is to use the remote and hold the "Stop" button for several seconds and the only way to get the door to close is to use the remote and press the "Play" button and the door instantly closes and plays the media. Very touchy player and the method I now use to open and close the door "ain't" something I learned from Philips! It will be a long time before I buy another Philips "anything"!

This machine does what I want which is simply to play dvds. Once I figured out how to resume playing from where the dvd had left off, I ran out of complaints. (Simply press play while the dvd is loading.) Now all that's left is the test of time, as I've only owned it for about two months. I've owned too many that've completely quit after less than a year's moderate use, so we'll see.

This DVD player is a great option for those with DVDs from multiple regions. It was very easy to change the region to 0 (I followed instructions that someone listed in the reviews). The only problem I have is that it doesn't flag your DVD when you stop the player so you have to fast forward or start all over when you turn it back on. Other than that, it has great picture and sound quality.

What other reviews say about the weird standby mode instead of a regular on/off, the slow-to-respond eject, and the less-than-perfect-remote are all true. But I bought this to have something to play divx, which it does beautifully and affordably. So I am plenty happy. I don't think you can do much better with these features at this price.

I just received my DVP5140 and couldn't be happier. The code and instructions given here worked like a charm. At first the remote was somewhat unresponsive but changing the angle of the player just slightly resolved the problem. The remote has fewer buttons than the norm and for me that is great. Easier to feel your way to the right button in the dark.

What I haven't seen mentioned is that the manual does include instructions on how to set up your system to play both NTSC and PAL. The instructions refer to the NTSC/PAL settings found on the set up menu. So, though the multi-region feature is not advertised, it is documented.

This is nice looking and solid built machine. The best thing is that it supports DVDs from all regions, although some hacking are needed (you can find it the highest review). The remote control is very ugly and hard to navigate in the set up menu. Other than that I would give it a 5 star rating.

If you have DVDs from Germany, Japan, etc. you may want to buy this one. It may be the cheapest one that really supports region free dvd and divx.

This DVD player did everything I expected.
$40 + shipping for a DIVX capable DVD player is very cheap!
Great buy!!

TWO out of THREE purchased were bad out of the box! You pay little...you get little.

I've had this DVD player for almost two years now. It always worked great.
Plays anything I throw at it (divx, other avi, dvds, etc). I mainly play dvds
and avi files, so I cannot vouch for other formats, though. It comes as a region 1 player (if you buy it in the US), but unlocking it so that it plays other regions took 30 seconds (google and you'll find how to do it). Overall, it is a great product. I read that the remote is flimsy and so I control it with my universal remote and have its own remote put away
in case I need it at some point for some menus that the universal remote can't access. Didn't need to use it so far (other than for unlocking the player).
I should also add that I recommended this player to a friend and they love it as well.

This has one of the worst remotes I have ever seen in the mid to upper range DVD player. The remote is tiny, finicky, and you have to sometimes be right in front of the DVD player to make it work. Its 50% effective from even as close as 5 feet away.

Besides the remote, this is a good player. I was able to make this multi region with the hack codes within minutes and its played almost all of my burned DVDs without an issue, and even some of my more scratched commercially produced DVDs played well.

Good price point for this product too, considering its capabilities.

The picture and audio from this DVD player are fine. There is a serious problem with the remote sensor. It only works from five feet away or less, and only if you're within 30 degrees of the sensor. The problem is not with the remote, as I have the same problem with a Pioneer universal remote. Look at the other reviews, they also complain about the remote. This DVD player is only useful in very small rooms. Even within this Cone of Sensitivity, it doesn't register button presses about a third of the time. I decided to give it a week, but after two days my wife and I are already tired of it.

Search on region 2 DVD player and this is the first one up. Only thing is - it doesn't play region 2 DVDs.

All I can say is beware of the search - I expect the items down the line to match a search less, but first up? BS, this shouldn't happen.

I don't write a lot of review. But I got this DVD player because I was looking for something I could play my British DVD's on - my daughter is a fan of Bagpuss, the Clangers and other obscure British children's TV.

I've bought several different DVD players for under $75 in the last few years, by Coby, Memorex, Akai, Sony and others. I'm not a video nut so I'm just interested in something that will work.

I bought this player over a year ago and it has performed very well. All my various Region 1 and Region 2 discs played fine. Set up is easy and the remote is efficient.

I was also pleased that the unit plays .avi files burned straight from the computer. It doesn't support every resolution, but it is handy to have. Note there is no .wma support, so those files don't play.

I'm now buying an additional unit for my daughter to have in her room. For the price, it's very good value in my opinion.

The documentation is a bit less than optimal, but if you read these reviews and follow the suggestions therein, you'll do just fine.

We have an ancient TV -- bought in 1984 -- and this machine works just fine with it. We're watching PAL/Region 2 DVDs as I write this. The picture and sound are great. If your old TV only has one audio input, you'll have to get a new cable. We borrowed the one that worked with our current region 1 DVD and it worked just fine.

Using the Preferred Shipping service, we had this player in hand the next day and in time for a long vacation weekend.

Just bought this and first .avi cd I played received a message: doesn't support GMC files. Looked that up and is .avi that is coded with General Motion Compensation.

If there is a way around this, I'd like to know because I'm very disappointed.

This DVD player serves its purpose but wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for something with quick response.

I purchase the regular Philips DVP5140 DVD player from Amazon and successfuly configured it to a region-free DVD player. It played all my DVD from USA, UK, New Zealand, and Asia without any problem. I think it is an excellent choice.

However, I am a bit surprised to find that the remote is very primitive, e.g., it does not have an Open/Close button, the standard Fast Forward, Fast reverse buttons are missing too (right and left arrow buttons does the job). I am unable to assign five stars to this product because of the deficiencies in the remote design. Otherwise it is an excellent value for your money. Otherwise it's an excellent product for the price.

the only reason to consider this player is the fact that you can program it to play mutiregion DVDs with a minimum of fuss. apart from that, it's a shoddy product. the build is flaky - the buttons are absurdly small and cheap-feeling. and the remote - don't get me started; it is so poorly designed that you practically have to be standing right in front of the unit at close range to use it (the remote's infrared transmitter is so recessed on the underside of the remote that there is an extremely limited set of angles at which it can work). this effectively defeats the point of having a remote. did anyone properly test this thing? the absence of track advance buttons on the unit itself isn't great either. overall, this is simply a shoddy product, even more flakily-designed and made than its decent predecessor, the DVP 642. i'd recommend buying it ONLY as your multiregion DVD player for occasional use. if you want a well-designed, user-friendly workhorse for everyday use, look elsewhere.