All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

No longer will I need to play downloaded TV shows through my laptop, fumbling to change the connections from the DVD unit to the laptop. No more wires strewn all over the place. I’m the proud owner of a Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player! (Well, it’s for my mom, but I’ll reap the benefits, of course!)

• Steve Bass recommendation
• VideoHelp DVD Player Compatibility List for the Philips DVP642
• Amazon.com listing for the Philips DVP642
• Official Philips website product details

I bought it at Best Buy. There was three pallets of them stacked! It was crazy in that store, but I got through the line smoothly.

I got home, opened it all up carefully, and plugged it into our old and cheesy 20″ TV. I had an issue with the first Divx movie, but the following fixed it:

For anyone that gets funny colors when playing some xvid/divx files: When the movie starts, press system menu, then press it again to go back to the movie. It should look normal now! I wish I knew that before I had to reencode 20+ movies…

I tested four more, and they’ve all worked since. Actually, one didn’t, but I think the CD is messed up. Oh well! Mom’s watching an older episode of Alias right now. Ahh…