Hi, I recently picked up the Philips DVP3040 from Best Buy because it was extremely cheap on employee pricing. I will be a getting a large DLP later this year and was set on the Oppo for a while. However the Toshiba HD-DVD rolled around and right now I'm probably gonna get that. The only thing it is lacking though is Divx/Xvid decoding. I really don't need it that much, but I'd rather have it than not.

Anyway when I found out that the Philips DVP3040 was so cheap I thought I'd might as well grab it and give it a try. Overall it works pretty well but when I try to play some higher resolution videos encoded in Divx, the playback get very choppy. It's not unwatchable but it's kinda annoying if you wanna watch a long program. Here what I've found so far.

~576 x 304 videos= good playback
~640 x 336+ video = low fps playback (probably around 15FPS)

I'm assuming that the Philips' CPU is just too slow to decode the higher resolution videos without slowdown, but that's just a guess.

Does anyone know for sure what could be the source of poor playback? And has anyone here played a Divx/Xvid file at or around 720 x 480 on the Oppo or another player with good results?

Thanks!

This player cannot handle certain DivX/Xvid files that were encoded with a "packed bitstream." There's a piece of free software for windows called MPEG4 Modifier that will tell you if a file was encoded with a packed bitstream and will allow you to resave the file with an "unpacked bitstream." You can also fix files with improper aspect ratio settings too. Since I found this software, the DVP3040 has been able to handle anything I threw at it (although, admittedly, I have not played many huge scaled videos). The forum software won't allow me to type the url of MPEG4 Modifier, so let me try to suggest the address without actually typing it. It's "moitah" and then a period, and finally the word "net".

I've never heard of that Philips.
BTW how much did you pay for the unit, cause this store (http://www.employeestore.philips.com/b2c_redesign/b2c/productdetail.do?productguid=4192934B236F010500000000828BD47 342FCF3A09B90025400000000828BD443&productarea=4192934B236F010500000000828BD473&scenario=catalog&shop=PHILIPSCE) sells another Philips, the DVP5140 for just $43 shipped.
I have one and it plays the 640 x 352 DivX files (and every other file I have) just fine.

I got mine at a Best Buy around Oct. of 2006 for about $50. It was the cheapest DivX player I could find on the store shelves at that time. There are probably better, cheaper models out there now, but, alas, such is always the case with technology.

I've never heard of that PhilipsPhilips keeps adding models to their line. Fresh on the market is also the 3960, which makes 3 models (5140, 3960, 3040) all based on the Mediatek chipset and which all can be described as "like a 5960 without the USB". Even comparing the specs on the Philips website it is hard to figure out the difference between them. - DR