Philips slipping?

For the record my family does not have cable and we watch a tonne of movies.  So our DVD player get a constant workout.  We have worked our way through five DVD players in four years.  So I am comparing this player to all the others I've had to this point.

Good picture.  We recently upgraded our TV and this DVD player does a nice job of improving the image that the TV produces.  When compared to the couple channels we get the DVD picture is amazing.

Better at reading scratched disks then some.  All DVD players have trouble with skipping but this one was able to work through more scratches then our other DVD players to date.

Still ticking.  Like I said earlier we've been through quite a few DVD players so far and a couple lasted no more than a couple months due to the high use, but this unit is still working after a year and a half which puts it above all the other DVD players we've had till now.

Doesn't work well with universal remote.  We bought an RCA Universal remote to get rid of some of the clutter in our living room.  Unfortunately our Philips DVD player doesn't like to receive from it.  You have to sit right in front of it to get it to work and hold down the button you want to use to make sure the signal is strong enough.  You are unable to get full function out of your DVD player with the RCA remote as well and since there are a lack of buttons on the player itself you can't bypass it.

Lately freezing has started to occur more often and the player has a harder time recognizing compatible DVD's or other media that is supposed to play in it.