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JVC XV-S500BK Progressive-Scan DVD Player (Black)

JVC XV-S500BK Progressive-Scan DVD Player (Black)

List Price: $199.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: For VCD/SVCD/MP3 enthusiasta
Review: I purchased this specifically for its capability to play VCDs and SVCDs. It wasn't the cheapest player on the store shelf but it was the only one that specifically stated support for the above formats. The case is slim and elegant, almost delicate looking with its streamlined buttons and low key styling. It weighs almost nothing and while in operation doesn't even get slightly warm...a good sign that quality components are inside. The drive is quiet and spools up quickly and the remote is a joy to operate. As i also have a JVC television the small TV/DVD switch allows me to operate both devices. Video quality is outstanding and the onscreen menus are slick, attractive and intuitive. If you have never seen progressive scan output this will be an eye-opener, wow. This is one well-thought out DVD player. MP3 support is excellent with long filenames. It does not have shuffle or playlist features though, and JPEG picture view speed could be better. Picture loading is very slow but the output is excellent. One possible firmware bug I discovered is that the screen saver kicks in while watching a movie. I simply turned off that annoying feature and all was well. Other features include a stereo enhancer and Theatre Mode.
Support for VCD, SVCD, MP3, DVD is excellent. This sucker will play just about anything you put in the tray. It is not picky about CDR/CDRW media at all and even 200-pack generics work great. No need to waste your cash on expensive brand name media. The outputs include component video, S-Video and digital fiber optic audio option. Considering how wonderful the video is out of the plain RCA single port, The S-video or component out should be all that much better.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very Pleased
Review: I replaced an exsisting DVD player with this Model and found a very noticeable difference in the picture quality from my existing standard scanned picture. I have a High Definition Wide Screen and the picture is much better on this Progressive Scan player. An Example would be- almost the difference between VHS and DVD-(being better)now Standard DVD player and Progressive Scan-(being better). A difference you could really see immediatly. Also the setup screens for audio and picture allowed me to utilize my 16.9 format without having to manually adjust on my Monitor and DTS sound through my audio system which both unable to do with my past DVD player. And I might add at half the price of what I spent on my last DVD player 3 years ago.--Unbelieveable--Highly recommend--My Consummer magazine rated this highly and they were correct.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Looks like I'm not alone
Review: I signed on to complain about the skipping and visual garbage I've been experiencing. It got especially bad just now trying to watch my new Star Wars DVDs. I wish I'd read these reviews before wasting my money (much more than it's selling for now) on this player.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This baby's got the goods - for an incredibly low price!
Review: I'd heard a great deal of buzz about JVC's new XV-S60BK DVD player - much of it revolving around the low list price and the anticipation that it would deliver artifact-free progressive-scan images. Buzz aside, the player looked unassuming enough when I removed it from its box. The sleek front panel has only the most essential control buttons, plus an indicator that lights when the player is set to its progressive-scan mode.

The back panel is equally streamlined but has all the usual outputs. The component-video jack is switched to progressive mode by pressing the Progressive Scan button on the remote and holding it for a few seconds. In a new and very welcome trend that saves you quite a few bucks, JVC packages a set of component-video cables with the player.

The JVC's remote control felt substantial, with large buttons I could easily locate by touch in the dark. The controls you'll use most often are on the lower half. Directly above them are buttons for less used functions like picture zoom and shrink, Digest (displays a grid of images from each chapter on a DVD), and picture-quality presets. The remote can also be configured to control your TV.

Pressing the On Screen button near the bottom of the remote during playback shrinks the movie to a quarter-screen window and fills the rest of the screen with a control panel. Several functions can be accessed from this panel, including repeat modes, time and chapter search, and selection of soundtrack and subtitle language or camera angle. It also includes bar graphs indicating elapsed time and the disc's data-transfer rate. When you're playing a CD, a similar onscreen control window is available to set up repeat modes or program track order - if you don't mind turning on the TV.

The JVC's 2x fast-scan mode delivered smooth, fluid playback. Another neat feature is aspect ratio control, activated by selecting the 16:9 Normal setting in the setup menu. This will prove useful if you have a widescreen HDTV that locks into a 16:9 or "full" display mode when it receives a progressive-scan signal (a number of them do). Set to its 16:9 Normal mode, the JVC player formats standard 4:3 images so they'll appear on widescreen displays with correct geometry instead of being stretched out to fill the screen.

Like the Marantz changer, the JVC effortlessly sailed through my progressive-scan torture tests. Scenes with fine horizontal lines combined with moving cam erawork all came through without any artifacts. Colors, too, looked solid, with no combing visible in either the bright reds of Yellow Submarine or the catcher's orange chest protector in For the Love of the Game.

When I switched to another reference DVD, the Hitchcock classic North by Northwest, I thought at first that the JVC came up somewhat shy on picture detail. Checking the sharpness control in the player's Normal preset, however, I noted that it was a notch below maximum. Bumping it back up let me clearly see both the texture in Cary Grant's impeccably cut gray suit and the details in the intricate furnishings of James Mason's library. Setting sharpness to maximum added slight ringing artifacts to the lines in the resolution pattern of Ovation Software's Avia test DVD, but I didn't notice any with movies.

The JVC XV-S60BK is an all-around excellent progressive-scan player that's also very reasonably priced. Having finally gotten my hands on it, I can attest that it more than justifies the buzz.

Order yours now!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great player
Review: I'm not necessarily a video-phile, but I know enough about DVD players to know a good one when I see one.

This JVC player has a ton of great options. Progressive scan, component video, etc.

All this stuff comes second to buyers like me, who demand not really picture perfect video quality, but simply that it works and it works well. This is where the JVC shows its stuff. It has never skipped on me. Layer changes are barely noticable. The load time is little to none for a DVD, and skipping through MP3's is pretty painless as well. One of my older players would take almost twenty seconds loading an MP3 disc; not so on this JVC.

Any complaints? Sure. As other reviewers have said, the buttons are a bit frail on the player. But this is overcome by the great remote control. Also, the disc tray seems a little fragile as well. But if you are careful, this will never become a big deal.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great for DVDs, could use some help with SVCD and MP3
Review: My main reason for buying this player was its SVCD playback capability. I was making SVCDs of That 70s Show to start a little collection about a month before I bought this. I'd tested the SVCDs I was making on my friend's Apex player - where they all played perfectly. With this player, however, the video in the SVCDs was quite jumpy in any scene with a lot of action. The apex player, however, showed none of these problems. I reduced the quality of the movies, and then made new SVCDs that worked better, but as a result of reducing the quality, the video was worse than an old VCR tape. So, if you're looking for a player with good SVCD qualities, check out the Apex models...

As for DVDs, however, this player is great. It seems to produce a better picture than my old Toshiba. It also has component out, which is the best picture possible at this time. The choice of coax and optical digital outputs is also really good. This, and the slim design are the reasons I give it 4 stars.

For MP3s, playback is OK... but there's no Random choice, so you have to listen to your files in the order you put them on the disk. With lots of today's burning software, you'll end up with several songs by the same artist in a row due to the alphabetic sorting.

So, to sum it up:

PROS
-Great pictures
-Best video outputs (compenent)
-Video and Audio output choices (Coax, optical, etc.)
-Progressive Scan (if your TV is compatible)

CONS
-No random MP3 selection
-SVCD playback is sub-par

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Beware! Don't waste your time on this one...
Review: Nice features and nice price. If at least it could play DVDs...

I bought one at Future Shop (Best Buy) and out of 12 DVDs it had problems with the 12! Things like credits (when there were few lines of text), the starting graphics of animation movies, even the THX sequence cause the scren to go black or flash. I've tried changing a few options with no avail. Some of the DVDs it had problems with: Time Machine, Harry Potter, Mosters Inc, Toy Story, Lord of the Rings (and the list goes on). My old Sony DVD player (not progressive, no CD-R(W) or MP3) plays all these flawlessly (actually, I've never seem a problem with it and I have many DVDs).

I exchanged it for another unit. Same problem. It has been returned, but I lost too many hours of my leisure time.

Someone mentioned that JVC DVD players are not compatible with Sony HDTV (or HDTV-ready) TVs, and I do have a Sony TV, but it is an analogic one, and incompatibility with the oldest standard around would be a little bit too much.

Now I know why a Sony with less features cost the double of this one -- you get what you pay for. It is a shame to see the company who invented VHS, was at least responsible for making video cameras popular, produce such a piece of junk! Of course, I will never buy JVC again.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Skip this one
Review: Nice picture and features, but could not play DVDs that other players had no problem with

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: disappointing
Review: Nice small design, but with problems. Like some of the reviewers. when it gets into about one hour of play, it starts skipping and superimposing. Now I have to have it serviced. I thought it was the dvds, but its not

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I like!
Review: Purchased a Sony that began rejecting discs. Found that many other owners were having the same trouble and given no help, so I bought one of these. It not only works supurbly but has many features that the Sony did not have. For instance, a fast forward (or reverse) of many speeds, not just two.

Have used it for three months with no troubles at all.


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