JVC XVNP10S DVD Player with SD/MMC Stick Smart Media

Rating:
Summary: Good potential but somewhat flawed
Review: I own both this JVC XV-NP10S and the much famed Philips DV642P. Both are capable of playing DivX or Xvid movies, in addition to the regular DVD/CD/MP3/JPEG.

The following is a list for the Pros and Cons against the Philips DV642P, a well considered industry norm.

Pros:
1. The media slots. Almost all the popular memory cards are supported, which is very convenient for digital camera owners. Though the display speed is somewhat slow while reading the digital memory card, it's still more convenient than burning to a disc and play.
2. Remote control. The remote is much better in design, layout and quality than the Philips, which is almost like a joke. It's easier to hold in your palm too.
3. 480P/480i/Remote switch for the resolution. When equipped with a HDTV, the best resolution is 480P. It can be easily changed by a switch at the back of the unit, although switching via remote is also possible. This is much easier than the Philips.
4. More function buttons on the face plate. Fast forward/backward can be selected directly from the face plate.

Pars:
1. Display quality. Both JVC and Philips can play media in very good quality for MPEG4s.
2. Appearance. Both are slim, and IMHO, they both look good.
3. Menu. Both are equally bad. The menu looks primitive, though functional. The truncation of file names (9 characters long) is most irritating, especially when you have many episodes downloaded from the net which have long and similar file names.
4. Both cannot play more advanced features like Qpel.

Cons:
1. Sometimes audio and video are out of sync. My Philips unit never does that.
2. Some media files play with big pixelization. For Philips, you can hit System Menu button twice. For this unit, there is no such luck.
3. Cannot be adjusted to region free.
4. Does not seem to be firmware upgradable.
5. Face plate button quality is filmsy.
6. More expensive than the Philips unit.

I cannot provide information on the long term durability because both units are fairly new. For now, I am more inclined to recommend the Philips over the JVC unit, especially at a lower price. There are some other players which are even less costly, like Norcent 220. However, I do not believe they carry momentums like these 2, and I have never used those so I cannot provide more insight.