Customer Reviews

JVC XV-D701BK DVD Player

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Purchased this unit in September 99. It worked with no glitches or misshaps for 4 months, until I tried to play "Razor Blade Smile". Honestly, I was surprised at JVC, this is very unusual from a top notch company. I disconnected the unit and walked into their service center (I'm only 8 mi away from JVC headquarters). I picked it up two days later with a new set of instructions attached to it. The instructions are for programing the machine to play the following movies: Arlington Road,

Razor Blade Smile, Cruel Intentions, (There are another two obscure titles, ONLY).

Reason: JVC's parental lock gets activated when on of these movies is inserted. Due to their unusual encoding it will lock the machine from the grownups too. Don't fear, is not fried. If it happens again, which it did with "Razor Blade Smile" the instructions let me reset parental lock and watch the movie. Honestly, I could not ask for a better DVD player. We play an average of 6-7 DVDs per week. There are a lot of great machines out in the marketplace, but to me JVC has always presented the best value in quality and service.

I've had this player now for about 3 months and have absolutely no complaints. The only warning I might give is that the manual says that the player doesn't play DVD audio CDs. I don't know how popular that format is or will be, but so far, that's not a concern to me.

The remote has a joystick on it that you use to nagivate many of the menus. It can be a bit difficult to use at times. The problem is that to select a menu item, you press down on the joystick. Sometimes I acidentally press a direction on the joystick while pressing the button down and miss the menu item I intended to select. It's really a matter of getting used to it.

I've never had problems with this player that I've heard about with other players, such as the audio track not being synch'ed to the video track. It has performed flawlessly in that regard.

The best way to explain how I feel about this player is that I'd buy it again.

This is a great player which offers stunning picture and sound quality, and best of all, with a built-in Dolby Digital decoder (AC-3). The front panel has all the essential buttons to navigate the player without grabbing for the remote. It's a big plus. Originally, I was waiting for Panasonic to release the DVD-A320, but Panasonic delayed their shipping date until the fall quarter. I also checked out the Toshiba SD-3109 and Sony 550. I didn't like Toshiba's dual tray design. It took

forever to pop out a disc. Since it had more gears involved, it would have greater chance of disc jam. In addition, the remote is too big. I then turned to the Sony 550. It's quite user friendly, but it still has the lip sync problem many owners talked about even though a few revision of the fireware had been released. I decided not to take the chance. My final winner is the JVC 701.

Regarding the problems with the Cruel Intentions DVD and this player, just make sure you don't use the original pressing of Cruel Intentions. That disk was recalled and repressed. The new Cruel Intentions pressing can be identified by the part number 04827 on the keepcase's spine (the flawed pressing is part number 03827).

I purchased this unit about a week ago and also purchased the movie ARLINGTON ROAD. After trying to use the special features options, My player froze and some of my other DVDs that played before would not play anymore - Upset, I took it back to the store and switched it out for a new unit - no problems as of yet - Arlington Road didn't kill the new player like the old one - I can't understand how a disc could screw up the hardware - It's like saying that my new cd killed my cd player - I called Scott Downs, the divisional manager at JVC and this is what he told me: He said that there should be several DVDs that will not work on this player because of incompatible software issues created by the different studios releasing different DVDs. There has not been any word on a set industry standard disc format and even then, JVC will probably not perform an upgrade on the unit if the standard is not compatible with the player- I was rather shocked by the casual attitude regarding something as important as industry standard compatability - You'd think it would matter to JVC. If you're thinking about getting this player - try running Cruel Intentions and Arlington Road (special features section) - If your player doesn't die, then chances are you have a good one - Outside of the compatibility issue, everything else about this model was great

I purchased one of these models in July '99. After around five months it started to show signs of glitching and some audio distortion. At first I thought it just needed cleaning, the thought never entered my mind that the NEWEST model JVC DVD Player would be problematic, further to the fact, that SOON. However, the cleaning did seem to clear up the problem, until the next month, and it started all over a again, with sticking and distortion, and no amount of cleaning could solve the problem.

I took the player back to the suppliers where I purchased it, and fortunately I will be given with a new one.

Before the problems, it proved to have excellent picture and audio quality, and if I could be assured that all future releases of this slick looking model were without errors, I would definitely but this product again.

By the way, this was my first ever purchase of a DVD player. The overall features are GREAT.

ALSO, if you have the new procedures issued by JVC for the "Parent Locking Problem" caused by some DVDs, Please email them to me. THANKS

I've owned this player for almost one month now and it is excellent in all aspects. The front of the machine is asthetically pleasing, unlike many other DVD players, and the quality is very impresssive - much better than any other DVD player that I have seen. (Except for the reference standard Sony Player, but even then the difference is hard to notice) The built in AC3 Decoder gives you the flexibility to choose a reciever with Dolby Digital Built it or Dolby Digital Ready - keeping your options open.

I bought this player several months back and have been happy ever since. It is very pleasent, eye-appealing, and easy to use, espically with it's GUI. It also has a mass of video output options (S-VIDEO,COOMPONENT,COLORSTREAM). This player also has exceptional audio, espically when used with a 5.1 channel AMP. The only drawback I can mention is that it does not player CD-R media. This is not to big of a deal but thought I would mention it. overall a great player for the money.

I bought this player about a year ago. I have always respected the JVC name. Not any more! I too have experienced the same "lock-up" problems.... "Arlington Road" messed up my player so bad that I had to call JVC for advice. They gave me a reset procedure that worked, but only temporarily. My player continued to have this same problem on other disks as well. I also encountered some MAJOR audio and video distortion while watching "Notting Hill". I took that disk to a friends house and it played perfectly with no prblems whatsoever on his RCA player. I have also had problems with accessing certain special features (cast biographies, trailers, etc...) on some disks. Once again, these DVDs played fine on other players.

The features on this player are very nice, but they don't do any good when the player won't play DVDs....

I just bought this player about 2 months ago and I couldn't be happier. It plays DVDs flawlessly and CDs couldn't sound better. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.