Rating: 
Summary: The JVC XV-N50...A true jewel...can run with the big dogs!!!
Review: As I write this review I am enjoying the Dave Matthews CD Crash. My favorite cut, 'Let You Down' with its wonderful guitar, percussion and sax performances are as liquid as ever. Before I go any further let me say this. I am proud to say that I have a budget priced system. I truly believe that as much as I respect high-end equipment the gap between price and sonic performance has closed considerably. I have the new Hk 130 surround sound reciever. A pair of Athena SB-1's, a very good 3 driver, ported, Sony center channel, and a pair of Kevlar Sony satelites. A Sony 32 inch Trinitron rounds out the system.
For me the most important criteria for choosing a budget Multi-Disc player was optical output. I listen to a lot of music...different music...classical, rock, funk, country..if its good I will listen to it, so I wanted the purest signal going from the player to the amp. However way you want to look at it there are a host of multi-disc players on the market. You can read reviews and listen to peoples advice and even a\b players at the local audio store. But the bottom line is how it works and sounds for you when you get it home. Well here is my bottom line... Not only does the matching blue facia lights of both the HK130 and the XV-N50 make for one of the best looking combinations in all of audio, but...this is one hell of a good sounding, good looking...picture wise, and best real usable featured multi disc player at any price!!! The picture quality is outstanding...really!... and thru the player itself...customizable!!! Thats right. You can adjust hue, tint, color and even gamma, or go with one of the presets.
This player has too many features to go into...seriously! It plays everything, its beautiful, and sounds awesome. I have the fortune to own several discs recorded on the DMP label from the late eighties. The big band album of Bob Mintzer entitled 'Spectrum' is a must have. Truly one of the finest recordings ever, the XV-N50 shines allowing the horn sections the perfect space to breath. Drum riffs are tight and precise. Symbols are lengthy and well placed. The HK 130 which I love more and more every day, is equiped with its own Logic7 music mode surround which creates a beatiful soundstage that is seamless. Together these two pieces of art perform as soulmates in the audio/visual world. I paid less than $500 dollars combined for the two. I challenge anyone to find a combination that outperforms much less looks as elegant, and should I say...'expensive' as these two.
As it stands by itself, unless you find a multi-disc player that brushes your teeth for you spending hundreds more for a esoteric name would be throwing money out the door. I strongly suggest that anyone building a system at any price take a good strong listen and look at the JVC XV-N50. I am sure that soon enough you won't be able to find this gem of a player...There was only one left when I snagged mine! Little did I know that my budget priced multi-disc palyer was in fact only budget.......in price!
Rating: 
Summary: JVC and other top brands
Review: I purchased this unit for christmas and it really has lots of
features a great machine. but JVC, PANASONIC, SONY AND other
top brand dvd player manufacture should realize that we live in
GLOBAL market with dvd disks from all over the world and this
machine only play NSTC region 1 please at least give us the option to use diferent systems like NTSC/PAL
next time I will invest my money in one unit made by a KOREAN
company that is compatible with NSTC/PAL.
Rating: 
Summary: Very nice except on-screen instructions
Review: So far, so good with this DVD player: nice playback, quick transition to the "other side" of the DVD, and I even actually like the lit-up blue line on the front.EXCEPT . . . I find it very difficult to make out the words in the on-screen DVD-player instructions, settings, etc. brought up in various menus. The font size is too small and too unclear. If I'm sitting at an angle to the TV, there's no way I can read it. Even my very first VCR with on-screen instructions was easier to read.
Rating:
Summary: Blue Light Special
Review: I just bought this player a couple of weeks ago and i am extremely pleased. I initially bought a Sony in the same price range (maybe 20 or so dollars more) and took it back because it wouldn't play some of my DVD-R's (although the picture and sound were decent). I'm glad I switched to the JVC. The picture is much better than the Sonys. The colors are WAY more vibrant and the blacks much sharper. Far superior picture quality. I also like the zoom and play at 1.5x features that the sony didn't offer. I have noticed absolutely no stutter. Those concerns seemed to have been adressed. As far as the light goes...I don't like it either so I turn it off by using the dimmer button on the remote. I believe there are 3 different settings for the light. The only problem being (for some) that it also dims the LCD. Personally I like the simple, sleek look (lights out). Also, if you buy this or any other high end player be sure to invest in some good component cables. You get a much better picture. I believe you can get the monster cables for 30 dollars or so. Well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: About the blue light
Review: FYI - Three stars because I still haven't decided to buy it or something else yet. Anyway, as to the annoying blue light on the tray, some electrical tape and some attentive trimming with a razor blade should fix that problem. It's worked for me on numerous appliances/devices with LED's or other illumination you could land jets by in the fog. Well at least that how it seems when getting up in the middle of the night. So, should remedy the blue tray issue.
Rating:
Summary: Great product in dynamite packaging!
Review: A great birthday present from my son .... Clarity of picture and sound was incredible. Still have to hook it up to speakers to check the sound out.
Rating:
Summary: Some mentioned problems don't exist.
Review: The stuttering has been fixed. I just bought one a few weeks ago. Also, concerning the blue light; if you keep pressing dim there are several levels of dimming including completely off. Note though that dimming the blue light on the drawer also dims everything else so you won't be able to see the LCD display. I haven't had the opportunity to see if there are some video problems in some scenes of movies as I've read elsewhere. I haven't noticed anything weird. It plays the VCDs and DVD+Rs and +RWs I've recorded in my PC. I bought two cheap players which were both DOA so got this one and it works great.
Rating:
Summary: Good player - But that blue light must go
Review: Great player - but the blue light is really annoying. Anyone know how to turn that off completely? (the dimmer doesn't really dim it very much).
Rating:
Summary: What To Compare It To?
Review: This is my first DVD player. I've had it since June 2003, and it still works. It lives here with me, and there are no kids around to destroy it, and it gets played once or twice a week. Why wouldn't it work? It's extremely slim, has a cool blue light when it's on, and I've been able to play everything I've ever gotten from Netflix. So, as far as I'm concerned, this player is great! There are a couple of things I've noticed about it, and I don't know if this is common practice with VCRs or not. But not all my reviews are for ranting or raving; I like to inform, as well! So here's what I know: I don't have cable, and I've noticed that if I sit the machine on top of my TV, the reception on the TV gets very snowy. It took me a while to figure out why my picture got so bad, when I had a powered antenna that usually brings in a great picture for me. This problem went away when I moved the DVD player off the TV and onto its own shelf. I think the machine is very quiet. Mind you, I live in an apartment, and I watch my TV with stereo headphones, so machine noise as I'm watching a movie is not an issue for me. So if the DVD player is making noise, it's not enough to bother either me or the neighbors. The remote has more buttons on it than I will ever use. Six months later, I still haven't figured out what they all are. All the important buttons that actually play the DVD are in white. If you switch to TV, you can turn the sound up and down and channel surf with the blue buttons. Other than mute and video, I've never touched the gray buttons, and frankly don't understand why there are so many. On the other hand, I've bought more DVD player than I need, so it's not that surprising that the buttons are a little daunting. I have a JVC television (which I've reviewed some years ago), and that colored my decision to buy it somewhat. It ended up being a choice between the Panasonic and JVC, but ultimately, all other things being equal, I bought it for its looks. Being JVC, I knew it would be a quality device, and a delightful result of my decision is that it is already programmed to work with my three-year-old JVC 20" TV! I didn't have to program it or anything. I could have bought a ridiculously low-priced machine from APEX, but I'm old school and I don't like buying things figuring I'm just going to toss it later. I buy quality and I expect it to last. So far, the XV-N50BK is just what I need. If, heaven forbid, I'm ever crazy enough to spend more on a TV than I do my car, then the machine will be ready, since it is already progressive-scan. I don't know what progressive-scan is, and I cannot use that feature anyway. You don't have to use it to use the machine. Part of me wanted to wait for DVD recorders to get real cheap, because I have a lot of videotaped TV shows I'd like to convert. Well, I figured why wait for what could be years down the road, when you can enjoy DVDs now. Tomorrow isn't promised to anybody! And I was a die-hard convert, too. I didn't jump on the DVD bandwagon; I had to be thrown! But I'm glad I made the move. I love the fact that you get extra stuff besides the movie on the DVD; audio commentaries are the best thing since movies started talking, in my opinion. And when you pause the DVD, it's perfectly still and will stay that way forever until you un-pause it. (My VCR only paused for 3 minutes, and you had some flicker with it.) So, all in all, I think I've made a great decision on two counts: one, jumping on the DVD bandwagon (and if you rent you never really have to own any...no more bulky tapes! Imagine the storage space you save...); and two, choosing the JVC XV-N50BK, a beautiful little black machine that says hello to you when it's activated and shows every indication that it's going to be around a long time.
Rating:
Summary: A great little powerhouse
Review: I have had this player for about a week now and I have to say that I am very impressed. It plays DVD-R disks that other players wouldn't even recognize. It also plays damaged sections of the disk without a skip or stutter. If you are looking for your first dvd player or an upgrade you can't go wrong with this JVC.
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