JJJD IV

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $80.00 from E Bay

Summary:
It is good to see that JVC has got the changer thing down. I mean, the 6 disc cartridges of the early nineties?? Yikes! This 7 disc changer plays just about every format you could want. The picture is the best I have seen to date. The audio is as clean as it can be. The design is fresh, but intuitive and of good quality. And in a market plagued with poorly built 60 dollar and cheeper DVD players, it is a reassuring concept. The first thing I had to take note of unpacking this bad boy is the sturdy well built chassis. You know, the kind you can have peace of mind when stacking your Dolby Digital reciever on top of... The construction of the slide out platter is sturdy and the mechanics look to be well thought out. Of course having used JVC CD players for many years, I know it will be a test of time before problems would occur in the platter... The face of the player is very clean and classic. Located here are the usual power and control buttons of course and to the top of the platter door is the small lit up buttons for individual disc selection as well as for disc exchange of 6 of the 7 while in operation... The only gripe here for me is the fact that the buttons are very small and kind of clumsy. To the back the unit has video outputs for composite, S video, and component. I am not yet running the progressive scan output so I cannot comment there but the video from the composite out is glitch free. Audio outputs come in the standard RCA as well as coax and optical digital outs... Functionality wise, this changer has been a dream to own. JVC has always been good factoring in bells and whistles versus quality and this changer is no exception. The remote is well laid out and controls most fuctions. The only thing I miss controlling remotely is the opening of the door and disc exchange. If you are as anal retentive as I am in owning gear, you would rather use the remote than fingering up the front buttons but this is a small gripe for me to make... I have this changer paired with the JVC RX8030 reciever and the Dolby Digital stream is flawless... The changer tracks very well and has not acted up with any of my DVDs or CDs thus far... It changes discs quickly and is nuisance free in all of the fast forward and reverse speeds as well as pause and frame advance... Never fails to impress me... In terms of changing discs, one thing to point out is the kind of flimsy design of the platter rotation and construction... Loading discs, I cannot help but feel as though I have to be extrememly careful. It kind of feels cheap I guess... The platter is fairly noisy at start up and changing discs but never too audible... I realize that in designing for the 7 discs and the eliptical shape, the construction has to be this way... It is no big deal but made my attention while operating the DVD changer for the first time... All in all this is a great changer. After going through the blues with other JVC single disc DVD players, it is a sigh of relief to see that the quality and design has been raised a few bars... I've been buying JVC for about 12 years now and this product only exemplifies reasons for buying JVC in the first place! I think that is worth the solid 5 stars for a rating to me...

Strengths:
Ability to change 6 discs while the 7th plays... Very classic and clean look. Intuitive remote control... The changer is glitch free in audio, video and in operation in general...

Weaknesses:
Not having the ability to control the platter door from the remote. (Pretty small gripe for even some obsessive as I...) JVC has a bed track record for slide out tray failures. Hopefully in this design those failures will never come into reality...

Similar Products Used:
JVC XV501... The black eye of DVD players and of JVC products. JVC XV507 6 disc changer JVC XV301 CD player

Price Paid:  $99.00 from e-bay

Summary:
Wow,This is a great player. I have had it now for 2 months and not one single freeze-up,even with so-so rentals! The Sound is just as good as my Yamaha and the picture rivals that of much more expensive players.

Strengths:
Excellent picture,does not suffer from the famous chroma bug,sounds great too!

Weaknesses:
None,maybe a bit noisy when changing disks but so what!

Similar Products Used:
Sony,yamaha,panasonic.

Price Paid:  $99.00 from Costco Online

Summary:
I just got this so am only able to give first impressions: Build - solid and hefty. Function - plays everything I've thrown at it so far. Performance - pretty darn good. Convenience - 7 discs...I mean what's better? I bought this as a replacement for my Toshiba which had begun to act unpredictably. The first attempt to replace it was a Panasonic F-61S. It never worked right and got worse from there. I'm taking it back - to Costco. The JVC is a Costco mail-order. I was a little nervous because the box showed some signs that it had made a trip from Southern Florida to Western Washington. It seems fine. I noticed how much heavier it is than my previous DVD players. I'm hoping that's a good thing. It sure beats them in other ways. It can use either optical or coaxial digital audio outs as well as analogue audio. Since I have both cables (because the Toshiba was coaxial only and the Panasonic was optical only), I'll compare them. Otherwise, I am very pleased with what I see and hear and am generally impressed with this unit.

Strengths:
Build, design, and function. Variety of Audio outputs. Price.

Weaknesses:
Can't think of any at this point - had it 2 days.

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba 2150 Panasonic F-61S

Price Paid:  $249.00 from Crutchfield

Summary:
You can exchange six discs while one is playing and not interrupt the playback. It has a digest feature which displays the first few seconds of up to 9 scenes, like "intro scan" on a CD Player. Progressive scan output, which unfortuntely I could not take advange of. It also has digital zoom in and zoom out. It also plays VCD discs very well.

Strengths:
Component outputs, can exchange while one is playing. Digital Zoom.

Weaknesses:
The only one that i can think of - the MP3 playback. There is some room for improvement

Similar Products Used:
Apex and Oritron

Price Paid:  $99.00 from returnbuy

Summary:
For the price (I paid 99 bucks), you couldn't ask for more. 7 disc changer fits in the space of a 5 disc, with progressive scan. It's got component and S-video as well as composites, and for sound you can choose coaxial digital or optical. Some people complain about the disc exchange being a little noisy, but that comes with the undersized 7 disc capability, and anyway, how often do you have to exchange discs in the middle of a movie?

Strengths:
Lots of connectivity choices and features, great price. Remote operates TV and DVD player.

Weaknesses:
Disc exchange a little noisy (who cares?)

Similar Products Used:
Samsung DVD-M301