Well my Yamaha DV-S5350 died yesterday after almost 8 years of service. I ran out to store looking for a DVD player with similar features and found the Philips DVP642 for $50 so I bought it. I popped in Casino Royal and enjoyed myself. I went for a double feature with The Prestige and it wouldn't play. I could get to the root menu but then the screen would go black and the player would go into a cycle of spooling up and down when I hit play . Controls quit functioning. The only way to stop it was to pull the plug. After going through this about 3 times I am about to return the player. If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated. FYI both Casino Royal and The Prestige are new. They were purchased the day before. I tested The Prestige in my computer and it played, so it's not a bad disc. I also threw in a random DVD from the closet to see if the player had suffered infant mortality, but it worked. Also for those still reading and/or those familiar with this player's quarks I have it set to standard 4:3 non-letterbox and non-progressive scan. Thanks any input is greatly appreciated.

Update: 3/30/07
Well after much testing of other DVDs I found that the player worked with everything else I could find. I called the tech line and they told me I may be having trouble with dual layer discs. I checked all the DVDs that I had tried in the player and found they were all dual layer. I went back to the store and exchanged The Prestige for another copy thinking my disc was faulty. After trying the new disc I get the same result.

You should consider exchanging not your DVD but the player; the Philips 5960 and 5140 are superior for only a bit more money. - DR

The Philips DVP642 is outdated.
As dr0s said, exchange it for a newer model, like the DVP5140 which routinely sells for less than $50.