I can't agree with all the other reviews entirely. It is true it plays better than others (Sony, for instance: It plays perfectly some of my older music CDs with errors that get stuck on Sony). However, many features (CD repeat, CD display, DVD audio track) can only be accessed through the menu, which has to be viewed on-screen. Also, the remote does not work well: often buttons have to be pushed twice before any action. A few times DVDs have simply locked up, to where no buttons worked. Had to unplug it to get it restarted (does it have Microsoft software inside??)! Maybe I have a bad remote?
Some nice features, good tracking, but many frustrations.

A couple of notes regarding both the JVC 501 and 701 players. The remote can take a bit of getting use to. The buttons have to be depressed for at least a second or two for the signal to be transmitted. This particularly seems to be the case with the center joystick button of the remote. I suspect it was done that way to prevent people from accidentally selecting menu items while navigating up and down the menus. Also note that original pressing Cruel Intentions DVD can screw up the firmware settings on this player requiring a front panel reset. Columbia Tristar has remastered the Cruel Intentions DVD. It is claimed that the new pressing can be identified by the part number of 04827 on its spine (the old bad pressing is marked as part number 03827).

I just took back a Sony s330 that had terrible lip sync problems. Got the jvc 501 instead. So far no problems picture quality is good as well as the sound. I agree that the center button on the joystick remote is weird. I hold it down for more than a few seconds and it does nothing. All the other keys work...To me this is not a big issue. I usually just pop in a movie and watch it I don't care to use the other functions. In this regard the JVC performs great for its price.

I bought the 501BK last January and have been very pleased with it. I have really had no problems with it nor with any of the DVD's I have played on it. I just got a JVC RX888 receiver and it works well with it and the Dolby Digital sounds very good. The video quality is excellent and I was able to exchange the 4 included DVDs to Suncoast Video for 4 titles I liked. I like the on-screen menu and like the remote better than most I have seen on DVD players. The only compaint I have is that it won't play CD-R disks, but that isn't a big deal, I just had to keep my old CD player.

After 7 weeks, no real complaints. Audio is terrific, including DTS. On two occasions the unit froze and I had to unplug it. Thanks to many'
user warnings, we will view Cruel Intentions on VHS.
Having studied the DVD player market carefully, my best advice is to
buy locally from a reputable retailer because you will very likely
need warranty repair and/or exchange, regardless of the brand/model
you choose.

I bought the JVC XV-501 from ubid and got the 4 free DVD's. I've wanted a "REAL" DVD player ever since I got the Encore 5X drive for my computer. I haven't had ANY problems with it. I did have a problem with Deep Imapact not playing AC3 5.1 but I figured out that you can't just select it from the on screen display and had to access the DVD's setup to get it. It seems that alot of people can't play CDR's in it. I can. I've even played some VCD's that I've burned on CDR's on it. I was very satisfied with that. I played an audio CDR in it too. It was an 80 min CDR though. I need to go and check it out with a regular 74 min CDR. Overall I enjoy my player and keep buying more movies to watch on it. I might just rent some of the "Suspect" disks and see what happens. I might be disappointed then.

I purchased the JVC XV-501 about a month ago and must say that I am truly disappointed in the player. Like the other reviewers I also had problems with the machine playing dvd's and now the machine will not play any dvd,s. The player just keeps on reading the disks indefinitely and in order to eject the disks I have to pull the plug from the machine, plug it back in, and turn it back on. As soon as it turns on I have to eject the dvd. Another problem that occurred was with the remote control. The enter button on the remote doesn't work ninety-nine percent of the time and I have to press the enter button on the machine. With all these problems I have with the unit I would very strongly suggest looking at other players. As for me, I will never buy another product from JVC. I wish I had known about this web site before I bought that piece of garbage.

I received the XV-501 as a gift, and after reading the reviews here 6 months ago, decided that it was an acceptable selection. Now, I have run into the "Cruel Intentions" problem, and had to unplug the unit for it to reset and play my other disks.
I rented "Shakespeare in Love", and this disk also would not read. It worked fine on a friends Sony 550D. (He had sync problems in "Twister" that I did not see.) I got another copy of "Shakespeare..." and it would not read either. (Anyone else find this?)

I see from previous posts that there is a chipset fix available. I'm going to try a few more disks before going throught the warranty-fix hassle. The good news is that "The Matrix" plays fine. I wonder if more recent production lots are having more trouble?

So, I went from a potential 5-rating a couple weeks ago, to now wondering how big a problem I have with my 6-month old unit. I'll rate it down the middle a 3. (I would rather not invest more $$ in a DVD player until the DVD audio and DTV/HDTV standards hash out.)

Excellent video quality, handles audio very well.

Appears to "die" after playing some discs.

I've had the 501BK for over three months and have been very happy with the exception of the past month. I had completely forgotten about the Cruel Intentions bug when I was at the video store; bye-bye 501BK! A zillion thank-yous go out to S. Bias who posted a review on October 4 and put a link to JVC's own service pages to fix the problem. With the exception of that bug, I think this is one of the best players on the market in this price range.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 2109

Price, Looks, Name

No DIGITAL COAX out. Poor DTS Playback

After upgrading my Sony "AC3 Ready" receiver to a Sony ES555 receiver, I attempted to play a DTS disc in my Sony S3000 DVD player, just to find out the it doesn't support DTS. So I hooked up my PC's Sony DVD drive to a Hollywood Plus MPG Decoder card, upgraded the software to the new "DTS" supported release, and WOW, DTS worked without any further modifications, and it sounded great. So off to the store I went to purchase a new DVD player, that would support DTS. I walked into SEARS, and purchased a NEW in the box JVC XV-501BK, on closout at $239 with 10% off. What a deal I thougt, until I hooked it up, and found that it skipped audio about 10 times, and lost audio / vido sync twice. Then I read the reviews on this board, to find that I have the same problem as several other people. I will not send this player to JVC. I will be returning this player to the store tomorrow, and forget DTS. I enjoyed the sound quality of DTS, but will wait until I can afford the Sony 7700. In the mean time, if I need DTS, my PC-DVD will do fine.