DVD/DivX/MPEG4 Player
Philips DVP642K/78

The following text is a translation of a small part (only the firmware section) of my page in Brazilian Portuguese. It was a gift from a visitor called Giovanni Dioro (THANK YOU Giovanni!). I have no spare time (nor the skills) to translate the page myself. So, if this page does not provides the info that you are looking for, you will need to translate my page yourself. Sorry about that.

I can't provide you with on-demand translations so, please, do not ask.

Giovanni's translation follows:

Firmware - Most recent version: 1109 [24/11/2004]

[27/11] - Until nov. 24 all of my tests were done with version 0531, but now version has come out - 1109.  I still don't know what has changed  and even Philips hasn't clarified it in its  official document. If you download from my Philips links, you will download the most recent firmware (The other helpful links still direct you to copies of firmware 0531). My text is still based on  version 0531. I will point out what was changed (or what wasn't changed) when I find out more. The official manual hasn't changed.

To see what firmware version of DVP642 you have:

[Open Tray], [5], [6], [9], [ok]

This screen is always in english, even if your DVP642 has been ajusted for Portuguese.

You can change the current model number of your player to whatever versions  are available (use up/down buttons on remote). Each version relates to a geographical region and a video (PAL/NTSC) system as well as other options such as the on screen display language. Press (STOP) to leave this screen withougt changing anything. If you change the version number and press (OK), then the identity (version) of your DVD player will be changed.

Note:  The firmwares 0531 and 1109 for the DVP642/78 do not allow for changing the version number.

You can get the official portuguese firmware  (with english instructions)  here, the manual in brazilian portuguese here and or the manual in english here. You can also read the PDF with information on how to perform the update (still only in english) here.

You can download the version 0531 here (I included links to DVP642/17 and DVP642/37 also) These links are working, but it might be necessary to turnoff any download manager to get the file.

To confirm that the archive wasn't corrupted, or if you want to see if you have the same firmware as me, just open the archive in Winzip or in winrar:

For the  firmware 0531 of the DVP642K/78

For the firmware 1109 of the DVP642K/78 (it has an extra file)

Of all these details, the most important is the CRC32.  If the CRC32 of the files is the same as shown above (Philips official firmware),  then you have a 99.999999977% (CRC16 has a lower precision: 99.998%) chance that it is exactly the same archive :)

If the CRC32 is different, either you have a different firmware or it was corrupted. Don't use corrupted firmwares, because it can totally ruin your DVD player!

[02/12]  Up to this date (Dec. 02), the english firmware and the portuguese frimware are identical - the same archive with different names.

Don't get firmware from unknown sources (emule, kazaa, etc).  Get it only directly from known sources that you trust and who have already tested the firmware.  An accident or malicious act on the files could make your player totally useless.  The internet is full of slime balls who
take pleasure in destroying things (just look at the authors of viruses).

My DVD player came with the version 0521, but many visitors have told me that theirs came already with the version 0531.

I initially used the firmware 0531 for the U.S. model, DVP642/17,  because I didn't know there were other firmwares and at the time, I couldn't find the correct firmware.  After upgrading I noticed that there didn't exist the 642/78 version among the available identities and only then did I realise that I screwed up.  I lost the karaoke feature as well as the portuguese menus for more than a month until I was able to get the right firmware.  It's not possible to revert back to the previous firmware unless you have the archives of the previous firmware.  Unfortunately Philips has removed all of their outdated firmware from their site.

Updating the Firmware (Requires a computor, CD burner, and nerves of steel)

Do you need to update?

The official Philips document concerning the firmware 0531 says the following:

Key features added in this software version:

1. Supports external DivX subtitles with the following fonts: Latin1, Latin2 e Cyrillic.
2. Support for DivX Video on Demand (VOD).
3. Better performance for DivX/MPEG4 video.
   

But... wait a minute... "1" & "2" were already present in the previous version, and well, how are you supposed to know if "3" is true! The only thing that changed regarding the subtitles from version 0521 to 0531 is that the font that used to be called Latin5 is now called Cyrillic..

In other words: I don't know if you really need to update.  If you do the update and are certain that something has changed because of it, please tell me about it so I can cite it here.

Updating the  firmware is a dangerous process. If the process is interrupted, the player can be totally ruined.  I recommend that, to be on the safe side, you plug in your dvd player to a no-break during the installation (in case of a power outage, it can happen) and verify that your CD files can be read before starting.    An intelligent update first tests the new software before removing the old software, but I don't know if the Philips update is intelligent because, at the end of the day, a process is only really intelligent if the device cannot be ruined in the processs, however Philips warns that it can.  If the electricity goes out during a firmware update, for example, an inteligent device will become totally inoperable except for a special sector of the BIOS that will detect this and would ask to reinstall the firmware CD, so as to complete the process.  The device would only be unusable until you loaded a "readable" CD and then the process could be completed.  If the update fails, even to the point where your CD gets stuck in the drive, and to get it out you would have to open the dvd player, loosen the loader and move the emergency ejection lever below it.  I haven't personally checked this out, but it was reported here by a DVP642 user that his update failed and he had to send his dvd player back to Philips.