Philips 642
NS
Juanito
That the Phillips 951 is alot better:
Gregory Kleverlaan
"NS" <N...@NoSpam.com> wrote in message news:Y0Jhe.7213$Iw1.6790@trnddc03...
> What's the difference between Philips 642 , 642/17 and 642/37 ?
The only difference difference between the models is the regieon on which it
is used.
Othere than that the units are identical in performance and features
Gregory Kleverlaan
"Juanito" <juanito...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:9r5o81p99ff1hqu50...@4ax.com...
This guy spammed the internet with this trash. The 951 is at least a 3 - 4
years old model. From what I've read it doesn't play mp3. dvd-r/dvd-rw/ some
vcd and svcd.
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDnameid=274&Search=Search&#comments
Stick with the 642 its a great player with a playback format guearantee. If
it can't play a particular format they'll refund your purchase price.
misfit
but again...i might be crazy
"Gregory Kleverlaan" <g123...@nospam.yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:428d8d0f$0$7123$5a62...@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
Marty
alt.video.dvd.tech, I think I thought I saw this post from "misfit"
<dand...@hotmail.com>:
>im not sure but I think my Philli is a 642 and it plays Divx/Xvid
>
>but again...i might be crazy
>
No, they definitely play them. But there may be some flavors of DivX that
can't be played, depending on what Codec was used.
--
Marty - mjf at leftcoast-usa.com
"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...
well, I have others." - Groucho Marx
misfit
if you get a scrambled video try switching the video output to 4:3 standard
to 4:3 letter box or 16X9
my brother showed me the trick
"Marty" <this.a...@is.invalid> wrote in message
news:7t9s81lkgbahjk5sn...@4ax.com...
Nonymous
"misfit" <dand...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:7woje.3$0b...@dfw-service2.ext.ray.com...
> im not sure but I think my Philli is a 642 and it plays Divx/Xvid
I hope so since that's the main selling point of that particular player.
tman
news:7t9s81lkgbahjk5sn...@4ax.com:
> Somewhere around Fri, 20 May 2005 09:46:59 -0700, while reading
> alt.video.dvd.tech, I think I thought I saw this post from "misfit"
> <dand...@hotmail.com>:
>
>>im not sure but I think my Philli is a 642 and it plays Divx/Xvid
>>
>>but again...i might be crazy
>>
> No, they definitely play them. But there may be some flavors of DivX
> that can't be played, depending on what Codec was used.
>
The only divx/xvid video that I've found that won't play are ones that are
encoded using either the QPEL or GMC options.
Nonymous
"tman" <so...@noway.com> wrote in message
news:Xns965ED6B9B0...@199.45.49.11...
My 642 didn't like the season finale of Veronica Mars which I downloaded via
bittorrent. Same group prepared this file as all the other VM episodes I
downloaded and viewed with no problems. There was some sort of glitch in
this particular file that the 642 didnt like. Played fine on PC.
There was also an episode of Family Business where the color was all messed
up: All the reds were blue, and all the yellows were reddish and everything
else was B&W. Looked fine on the PC.
tman
news:AJKdnYuHwcj...@giganews.com:
I use dvd+rws for most of my viewing & occasionaly I will have a problem
where a file won't play at all on the 642 (just skips over it & plays the
next one) or skips, etc. Plays fine on my computer though. On a whim I
re-burned the problem file & it played fine. I'm guessing maybe that the
player is not as sensitive as a burner. You might try re-burning the
files on a different dvd (although many times I just re-burn on the same
dvd+rw with no problems).
Tom
tman
642. She included several test & sample avi files but the text portion is
as follows (with her permission I hope):
*** Lisa B.'s Guide to Standalone DVD Player Compatibility ***
If you are tired of burning an AVI to disc, only to find out that it
doesn't play in your standalone DVD player, then this is the guide for
you!
Although I wrote this guide with the Philips 642 in mind, I will talk
about just about every AVI feature that could possibly affect standalone
playback, so it should be useful for anyone with a standalone DVD player.
There are really only two tools that you need to diagnose your AVI's -
MPEG4Modifier and GSpot. The latest versions of these can always be
downloaded at the great general-purpose video site, www.videohelp.com, in
the Tools section. Make sure to download the latest Beta of GSpot, since
it contains many features not in the latest stable version. You may also
want to download VirtualDubMod from the same site.
*** Diagnosing your AVI with MPEG4Modifier ***
After launching MPEG4Modifier, simply click the browse button, then
select and open your AVI.
A. Aspect Ratio
This should be "Square Pixels". If it is anything other than "Square
Pixels", the Philips 642 will not play it. For other players, you may
want to make a small test sample, burn to CDRW, and see what happens.
To change the Aspect Ratio to "Square Pixels", just click the radio
button for "Square Pixels", click the "Save..." button, and you will be
prompted for a new AVI name....it will take a few minutes as it saves the
new, modified, AVI.
Keep in mind that MPEG4Modifier is not an encoder. When you save out a
new avi, it is just changing header and/or packaging information, so
there will be no loss of video quality.
B. Packed Bitstream
The Philips 642 has no problem with packed bitstream, so if you have a
Philips 642, don't touch this option. Some other standalones have
problems with packed bitstream...the problem has been described as a
"stuttering" of the video. Keep in mind, though, there are other
possible causes of "stuttering", so you'll want to eliminate the other
possible causes first.
You should not unpack the bitstream unless you need to. Packed bitstream
can help maintain audio synch after editing or remuxing, for example.
To unpack the bitsteam, just click the radio button for "Unpack", click
the "Save..." button, and you will be prompted for a new AVI name....it
will take a few minutes as it saves the new, modified, AVI.
C. User Data
This is not very important, but it can tell you what version of DivX or
XviD was used to encode the AVI. You may also tell if someone has
mistakenly changed the 4CC code of the file.
D. Interlacing
The Philips 642 has no problem with a properly interlaced AVI. That
being said, I have yet to come across a properly interlaced AVI in all my
roaming around the internet. By "properly interlaced", I mean that the
original material was truly interlaced (not just telecined), and that the
interlace was properly maintained from source to final encoded AVI.
Here is what happens when you take a *progressive* source and encode it
as interlaced:
1. In the Philips 642, if the frame rate is *not* 29.97, then there will
be a very jerky playback. If the framerate is 29.97, then the interlace
has no effect.
2. In other standalones, interlaced avi's may not play at all, or they
may look fine. This you'll need to test using the provided support
files.
MPEG4Modifer cannot "uninterlace" an avi. If you are dealing with a
jerky playing interlaced AVI (and this is not due to wrong field order),
then you will need to re-encode it.
The other thing that can go wrong with an interlaced AVI is that the
field order can be wrong. If the field order is wrong, you will have a
very odd jerky movement which I can't quite describe, so refer to the
support files.
If you need to change the field order, just click the radio button that
is not currently selected (either "Top First" or "Bottom First"), click
the "Save..." button, and you will be prompted for a new AVI name....it
will take a few minutes as it saves the new, modified, AVI.
E. Video Info
This button supplies some additional important info. Click it, and look
for the following features:
1. QPel - The Philips 642 will not play Qpel. Some standalones will.
You may want to make a small test sample and see what happens.
QPel cannot be removed from an AVI. If your player doesn't play QPel,
then you will have to re-encode the AVI.
2. GMC - in parenthesis, you will see how many "warp points" were
possible. GMC is associated with S-VOPs. At the bottom of the window,
there will be a statistical breakdown of how many warp points were
actually used in the S-VOPs. The important thing to note is the
following: if it uses only 1 warp point 100% of the time, then the AVI
will play without problems in the Philips 642. If, on the other hand,
some S-VOPs use more than one warp point, then the AVI will quit playing
as soon as it hits a "multi-warp-point" S-VOP.
GMC cannot be removed from an AVI, nor can the number of warp points be
modified. If your player doesn't play GMC, then you will have to re-
encode the AVI.
3. Quant type - The Philips 642 will play "H.263" or "MPEG" quantization
type. The Philips 642 has problems playing "Custom MPEG" quantization
type, but there is a workaround.
When the Philips 642 tries to play an AVI using "Custom MPEG"
quantization, then you will typically see all these pixellated, blocky,
psychedelic colorings. This can be fixed by pressing the "System Menu"
button (on the remote control) twice.
The "System Menu" fix is a cheap fix, and you will still notice some
funky color smearing throughout the film. This is mild enough that it is
acceptable to many people. To get the best results, though, all AVI's
with "Custom MPEG" should be re-encoded for proper playback on the
Philips 642.
There is also a minor incompatibility between the Philips 642 and the
"MPEG" quantization type, which is noticeable in certain kinds of scenes.
This is why I do all my own encodes using H.263. See the support files
for more details.
4. N-VOPs - This is the rather interesting thing I discovered, that, to
my knowledge, no one else has discovered. The Philips 642 seems not to
recognize N-VOPs...in other words, it just skips right over them. This
leads to audio synch problems. The audio can be brought back in synch by
fast forwarding or rewinding a few frames, but then it will go back out
of synch the next time it encounters more N-VOPs.
Look at the number of N-VOPs. Keep in mind that everytime the player
hits an NVOP, the audio will get out of synch...if your avi has more than
1 or 2 N-VOP's, you'll probably want to re-encode the AVI if you want it
to play back in synch on the Philips 642.
If you have a different player, it may play N-VOP's just fine, so test it
out with the file that I supply in the support files.
Don't use GSpot to figure out if you file has N-VOP's...GSpot will say
that all packed bitstream AVI's have N-VOP's whether they do or not!
*** Diagnosing your AVI with GSpot ***
MPEG4Modifier is great, but the one thing it doesn't tell you about is
how your AVI is interleaved. Interleaving tells you how the audio is
mixed with the video. This isn't important for playback from a hard
drive, but it is important when you are playing it off of a CD or DVD.
GSpot will tell you how your AVI is interleaved.
A. Audio
Look in the "Codec" field and see whether your AVI has MP3 or AC3 audio.
If the audio is something else, then you will have to re-encode the audio
if you want to play the AVI on the Philips 642. Re-encoding audio is
easy, but is beyond the scope of this guide.
B. Container
The container should be either "AVI v1.0" or "OpenDML (AVI v2.0)". If it
is anything else, then you should re-mux the avi.
There should be a line labeled "Interleave:". If there is not, then your
audio is not interleaved with your video and you need to re-mux the avi.
"preload" should be around 500. If it is 300-600, then great. If it is
not, then you should re-mux the avi.
The other part of the interleave parameters depends on what kind of audio
you have.
1. MP3 Audio
For MP3 Audio, it should be set to "1 vid frame"
2. AC3 Audio
For AC3 Audio, it *could* be set to "1 vid frame", but this is not
preferred, and may or may not lead to "stuttering" at various points in
the film.
For AC3 Audio, it should be set to "64 ms"
*** Re-muxing your AVI with VirtualDubMod ***
1. Open AVI in VirtualDubMod.
2. If you get some kind of warning about VBR header, and it asks the
question "Do you want to rewrite the header?", then say "No".
3. Select "Video - Direct Stream Copy" (i.e., direct stream copy in the
"Video" menu)
4. For AC3 audio, select "Streams - Stream List"...Right-Click on the AC3
audio stream...Select "Interleaving..." from the pop-up menu...choose to
interleave audio every 64 ms (remember to click the "ms" radio button).
Then exit out of the dialog and the stream list (i.e., hit "OK" twice).
5. Select "File - Save As..."
6. Specify a new file name, and click OK.
*** Making a test sample of your AVI with VirtualDubMod ***
There's no need to burn the whole AVI just to test it out in your
standalone -- make a sample! Keep in mind though, that the sample is
"re-muxed", so just because it plays perfect in your standalone doesn't
mean that you don't need to check the interleaving of the original AVI
with GSpot!
1. Open AVI in VirtualDubMod.
2. If you get some kind of warning about VBR header, and it asks the
question "Do you want to rewrite the header?", then say "No".
3. Select "Video - Direct Stream Copy" (i.e., direct stream copy in the
"Video" menu)
4. Select "Video - Select Range"...in the "Frames" column, set the length
to 3000, then exit out of the dialog (i.e., hit "OK").
5. Select "File - Save As..."
6. Specify a new file name, and click OK.
*** Re-encoding your AVI ***
This isn't difficult, but is beyond the scope of this guide. One day
I'll write a re-encoding guide!
*** Support Files ***
I have a variety of little avi clips that will let you test your
standalone, and see examples of various AVI problems and
incompatibilities. Information is in a separate read-me file.
*** Tips ***
1. If you have more than 1 physical hard drive in your computer, then
when you modify an avi, or re-mux an avi, you should choose a destination
folder which is not on the same physical hard drive as the source. This
will make the process a *lot* faster.
2. Unless you do a lot of encoding, you probably want to go into the
VDubMod's preferences and set "Direct Stream Copy" as the default video
processing mode...that way you won't have to set that option every time.
*** About the Guide ***
A lot of this I learned from an awful lot of trial and error. I hope you
guys find this to be useful information!
Lisa B.
RYAN
Where do you got that guide?
I want to look at that Support Files area.
Thanks!
TarHee...@gmail.com
less all of this stuff over the eight months I've had my player. The
cheap-ass System Menu fix I found long ago, but here are three
questions that I hope Lisa B. (or someone) can answer for me which I
haven't gotten help with at doom9 or afterdawn.
1) I encode a lot of 720 x 480 source dvds which are episodic (e.g.,
24, Sopranos) in AutoGK, for playback solely as Xvids burned to dvd on
my Philips. I notice that if I leave the resolution setting to auto
that I sometimes get output files which fill the screen of my 4:3
standard TV (no black bars at all at the top and bottom of the screen),
despite the AR of the original dvd. It only happens sometimes, and
ALWAYS with .avi files output by AutoGK which have a horizontal
resolution greater than 628. Anything 628 or less pretty much maintains
the original AR when played in the Philips. So, does anyone know why
this happens, and, should I just be setting the resolution instead to
"max of 628" so that it looks good on my TV from the Philips.
2) I have a few episodic dvds I try to backup which have only periodic
"jerkiness" in the resulting Xvids on the Philips. The very best
example of this is Chappelle's Show. These shows appear to be comprised
of different source videos since the skits themselves always play
smoothly but the periods where Dave does his standup in front of the
audience get all jerky, stilted, etc. Is there a way I can "fix" this
in the Xvids I'm making in AutoGK and burning for my Philips?
3) There is a well-known red/blue color inversion problem with some
Xvid/DivX files when played on the Philips. The easy way to describe it
is that you'll run, say, 12 episodes of a TV show through AutoGK, check
them all on your computer, then burn them onto a dvd for the Philips.
Then, you'll notice that one or two of the episodes exhibit the color
inversion problem on the Philips, and everyone's face is blue! It
doesn't show on your computer and can't be fixed with the System Menu
trick (though it does go away if you zoom in with the Philips' remote).
The only way to fix it, as far as I know, is to re-encode the original
file to a slightly different size, maybe change the codec from Xvid to
DivX (or vice versa), etc. An infrequent problem, but very annoying.
Anyone know a trick for making sure this NEVER happens?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
vst...@twcny.rr.com
tman
@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:
Sorry to take so long to get back to you. I found it in the
ab.multimedia.utilities group. It may still be there.
I didn't keep the support files since they were basically examples of
videos that won't play on the 642.
Tman
tman
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
> This is good stuff! Where can one get the original article by Lisa B?
>
>
I got it from ab.multimedia.utilities but I think she has her own website.
You might try googling for it.
Sorry to take so long to get back to you.
Tman
tman
news:Xns967FC1F90C4...@199.45.49.11:
She has made many great tutorials on photoshop, etc. Also suggest checking
at dvdrhelp.com