Philips DVP642/630 first modified firmware

[lordyu]

Got his over from VideoHelp. This must be the first modified firmware for these models of Philips.


on http://huffyk.hollosite.com

you will find unofficial FW for philips dvp 6** (modified1109)

the only difference to official FW 1109 is that subtitles are bigger and better readable (dark transparent background)

i have upgraded 5 players with this FW so far and all work perfectly
cosma


Edit: No, it isn't new. Seems to have been around for sometime now. Why hasn't anyone told us? :angry:

The fireware has been modified using DVD Patcher http://sourceforge.net/projects/dvd-patcher/ . They even have a 2.5-year old Yahoo group! I should check it out for the possibility of .idx/.sub support.

[gircobain]

Semi-transparent dark background is available even with 0531 official firmware, though it is needed an awkward procedure to turn it on:

1 - At the disc menu, take note of both movie and subtitle numbers
2 - Press "DISC MENU" and wait for playback; press "STOP"
3 - Key in the subtitle number you took note in step 1 and press "OK" (the hand icon will show up)
4 - Press "SUBTITLE" ("DIVX SUBTITLE SELECTED" will show up)
5 - Key in the movie number and press "OK"
6 - Upon playback, press "SYSTEM MENU" twice

I wonder if this mod makes the dark background strip default?

[lordyu]

Originally posted by gircobain
I wonder if this mod makes the dark background strip default?
I suppose so. Here's from readme_en.txt

v 1.1
Modified firmware 1109 for philips 63x, 64x
Same fonts as in v1.0

v 1.0
Modified firmware 0531 for philips 630.
Latin1 section contains Arial size 28
Latin2 section contains Arial size 24
Cyrillic section contains correct position of some characters in CP1250 charset (there are still missing characters from 0x80 to 0xA0)

Color of font is white on transparent background.

huffyk2k4@yahoo.com

[gircobain]

Perhaps it be possible to make the font color yellow?

So much for the VHS tapes times... :D

[giannid]

Well this does appear to be better than using the doubleclicking gimmick because it says that the fonts are Arial size 28 for Latin1 and Arial size 24 for Latin2. That should make them much more readable.

Also using the gimmick (select sub, no menu autoload .avi) I found that they would run the subtitles together. Example, what should be:

- Did you ask Mother?
- No, she wasn't at home.

would read something like this

- Did you ask Mother?- No, she wasn't
at home.


Don't know if this firmware respects the separate lines. Also it would be great if it were able to process the Italics and Bold directions (<i></i><b></b>)


Has anyone tried this mod firmware out? What do you think?

[giannid]

I tried this and it was not good for me. It wouldn't read my portuguese language subtitle files at all. Maybe it only works with english.

It did however play an english subtitle file and in Latin 1 the size was good against the semi-transparent background (the same that can be used by doing the Javier gimmick). Perhaps though not much better than the gimmick and the Cryllic display.

When fast-forwarding it would skip a subtitle or 2 before displaying them properly again.

It might be okay if all you want it for is to use with english subtitles, but it might give you a couple of problems. It probably won't work for languages like Portuguese french spanish swedish german etc.


I redid the official 1109 firmware, but I wasn't sure if it was working properly, so I then reflashed with the 0531 and then reflashed again with the official 1109, and now it works as before.

[giannid]

First of all, a new version of the modified firmware has been released.
http://huffyk.hollosite.com

Second, I need to retract my criticism of the modified firmware which was probably due to small problems of the DVP642 (e.g. not reading subtitle right after Fast Forwarding) and not the firmware itself.

According to Jefferson Ryan's review
http://www.ryan.com.br/prod_dvp642_fwhack.htm (portuguese)
the modified firmware does play Portuguese fonts and probably most others too.

He reviewed the modified firmware version 1.1 and says that he likes it enough that he is now using it instead of the official firmware.

He says that the firmware will apply the settings for european DVP630. This is the same player as the DVP642, but it is configured a little differently - for language menu options and for PAL video format. PAL can be changed back to NTSC from the system menu. However he says to first make sure that your tv screen is readable in PAL and that you should test this out before installing the firmware. He says you can test it by using the current firmware and switching to PAL in the system menu. If it's not readable, then don't worry. Don't do anything and it will revert back by itself, however then you shouldn't apply the mod. If it's readable or if your TV supports both PAL and NTSC then it's okay to install.

The imperfections:

1. The remnants of the edges of a lengthy subtitle line remained as the film went on and new subtitles were shown. This is a side effect from using a bigger font.
(example)
http://www.ryan.com.br/IMAGENS/DVP642/legenda_hacked_sobra.jpg

2. He tested cetain letters particular to portuguese
"áéíóú ÁÉÍÓÚ ã Ã à Á ü Ü âêô ÂÊÔ ç Ç", and there was problems with only 3 of them - "à" "ê" and "Ê". In the example photo linked above, he marked the letter (above number 3) which appears as an "r" with an accent. This should have been "à".


The Advantages of this firmware (version 1.1):


1. The subtitles are significantly larger.

2. You can easily use the semi-transparent background without having to apply the Javier double-click gimmick. This is especially convenient with multiple files on one disc.


Jefferson concludes, "If you are able to live with a few imperfections (I am) and don't care about Macrovision, then do upgrade using the modified firmware."


Just after Jefferson performed his tests on the firmware he found out that a newer version of this modified firmware has just been released. It looks very interesting.

The release notes say that Latin1 has yellow arial size 32 fonts (outline) whereas Latin2 has white Arial size 28 against a semi-transparent background.

---------------------------------------------------
(release notes)
v 2.0
http://huffyk.hollosite.com

Modified firmware 1109 for philips 63x, 64x (only ISO-Latin2 charsets)
Latin1 section contains Yellow Arial Narrow font size 32 (outline)
- full charset
Latin2 section contains White Arial Narrow font size 28 (transparent background)
- only CZ/SK characters! (no room for other)