LOUD, TRAY NOISE, INCOMPATIBLE WITH CERTAIN DISKS, BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE

I GET RID OF MY PLAYER BECAUSE SEVERAL MOVIES WOULD NOT PLAY, AND THAT EVEN MORE WOULD NOT PLAY. JVC HAS THE WORST AND MOST INCONSIDERATE CUSTOMER SERVICE I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH. I WOULD ADVSE STAYING AWAY FORM JVC PRODUCTS.

Excellent picture and sound...period. DTS transfer presented no problems. If you experience problems with DTS, check you're other equipment as well as you're inter-connects.

JVC needs to include the information provided Victor Buntic,
in his posting here at audioREVIEW.com, with each player they sell. As far as I know, they don't.

Victor Buntic, thanks for restoring my faith in what I once again believe is a great DVD player. The glitch mentioned by you in you're posting, I too experienced..."Arlington Road", presented problems for my unit as well. I'm happy to report that all other "problem" discs play well after following you're step by step procedure. Ironically, I went on line tonight to buy a new DVD player, but came to
AudioREVIEW.com first. This is a wise practice before purchasing any HiFi equipment. Mr. Buntic, thanks again.

One more note. After spending a good number of years dealing with Microsoft operating systems , having to
"re-boot" yet something else, in this case a DVD player, creates little heartache. This awesome player is well
worth the trouble. All of us who slandered this unit,
as well as JVC, now have mud in our faces.

Great picture, ok design.

Dropouts during movie DTS playback.

I submitted a review (i really can't find it now) giving it 5 stars in both categories. I really have to withdraw my statement. This really strange occurence happens and by process of elimination i have determined that the JVC DVD player is the faulty instrument. During DTS movies (except EAGLES:Hell Freezes Over) there are dropouts about every 5 minutes. I really can't explain this because i bought some DTS music cd's and they work fine on the player. I use a Technics processor with a Denon AVR-2400 receiver and have used the optical output to connect the DVD player with the processor. I am really dissapointed and I will replace this player with the Mitsubishi DD-6000 (or any other progressive scan DVD player). If you have simmilar problems please e-mail me. Other than that i have no problems during Dolby Digital playback. One other problem that I saw was the menu for the movie THE MATRIX takes a very long time to surf through.

none

electrified chassis and frozen/pixelated picture

My player is the XV-K505GD, the gold variant of the product. Somebody decreed that all DVD players sold in our region HAS to have Karaoke (Croaky). I had no choice in the matter.

I needed a player that plays all regions coz' DVD titles are scarce here and we buy DVDs from all over the world. This was the only model in the store (at time of purchase) that can read all the discs I brought.

The problems:
1. electrified chassis - I didn't find that out until the player froze/pixelated/jerked etc. When isolated from other components, I get 1/2 the household voltage at the casing.

2. freezing/pixelating/...etc. I tried some of the solutions in these posts. For EEPROM reset, I get "TEST UF1" on the display. Now the player displays menus in Chinese and freezes 2 minutes into a movie.

3. Parental Control - one of the posts said to set it to G level w/ password 0000. The only levels available on mine are 1-8.

4. Overheating - I'm looking to cut a hole in the casing and set a fan directly over the mpeg card. I'm hoping I can get 1/2 way thru the movie before the payer freezes.

The player is still being sold in the market. Stay away from it. Newer models are cheaper and should have some of the bugs fixed.

Similar Products Used:

none - 1st DVD player

I have had nothing but problems with this player! Many movies have lip syncing problems, and pixxelation problems and pauses. I am lucky the store took it back for an exchange, but I am completely dismayed at the fact that my particular player could not play fully half the discs I fed it!!! Very frustrating, to say the least.

great picture (when it plays)

freezes on SEVERAL discs.. pixellation, skipping, etc

I should have realized there was a problem when one of the included 'free' DVDs (Lost In Space) would not play correctly (pixelattion, freezing, skipping). The disks that do play look good, but it seems that fewer play all the way through as the unit ages. I recently returned it to JVC's Service Center in SF for repair, painstakingly describing the problem. I just got it back yesterday unfixed... they could find 'no problem'. Rest assured I will never buy JVC products again, and will warn my friends as well.

Video quality, smooth layer change and features.

DTS, no CD-R/RW compatibility, and suspect quality control.

Well, I've had this player now for about a year and think it's time to provide an update to my earlier review (one of the first ones in this forum). Overall, I have been pleased with this product. The biggest gripe I have is the inability to play CD-R and CD-RWs. However, I realized this drawback when I purchased the player, and few, if any, players at the time could really play CD-Rs (there were a few that played CD-RWs). The biggest surprises, and unpleasant ones, were the DTS incompatibility and occasional menu lockups on a few titles. The DTS problem is rather minor to me, as the only DVD video rental shop near me does not carry DTS discs. On average, I rent about 2-3 movies a week and have had only one other problem than the ones mentioned above: audio drop-out in the last chapter of the crappy Liotta movie "No Escape." Yeah, I've watched A LOT of DVDs this past year -- even the less popular ones. I've seen a number of others in this forum mention lock-ups, lip-sync problems, and some noise from the player. I believe that this player's sensitivity to scuffed and dirty DVDs, as well as variable quality control in JVC's plants, to be the main culprits. As a test, I lightly scuffed and placed dust on a number of DVDs. Here's what I noticed after doing this:

1.) The player became noticeably louder and slower, making the infamous chirping noise.
2.) Audio dropped out frequently.
3.) Several movies actually locked the player up. I had to unplug the player to shut it down, so I could turn it back on and get the disc back out!

Cleaning the dirty discs seemed to do the trick. I was able to watch all of the tested discs to the very end without any problems. One thing I should add: layer change occurs very smoothly in the movies I have viewed (e.g., I just got finished watching "Entrapment" without noticing the layer change at all). Taking into consideration the DTS problems and feature menu lockups, I don't think that this player is quite the same deal as it was when I purchased it over a year ago. The newest generation of DVD video players are clearly superior, and I can therefore no longer recommend this model. While the video quality and feature set is still competitive, the other problems compel me to lower my rating by a star. If DTS were more popular, I would have to lower it by a couple of stars...

Similar Products Used:

About every available model (I work in the DVD industry).

Decent picture and Nice Controls

Has trouble with a few discs

I noticed the same problems that some people mentioned on this forum, but I found that part of the problem is the Parental Controls. If you set the parental controls to G level and the password to 0000, you shouldn't have problems with the freeze-ups. I found this tidbit of information on another review board. Lately, though, I've noticed some dual-layered discs won't even play on this unit (Akira for one). Anybody know of a fix for that one? (It doesn't click or anything... just reads and pops it out).

All in all, it's a decent unit with some problems. I'll probably replace it soon with another unit.

Similar Products Used:

None

Very configurable. No reliability problems in my experience.

No CD-R support. Momentary static sound after scanning forward or backward. Some rental DVDs have caused problems.

I bought this player at the beginning of 1999, and unlike many of the people here, I have not had a serious problem with it yet. It still plays great to this day, and I have never had to go through the reset procedure that some have talked about.

One annoyance: Sometimes when I resume play after scanning forward or backward, the player emits a VERY LOUD static sound for about a half-second. Scared the hell out of me the first time it happened. Now I turn down the volume on my receiver anytime I scan a disc.

I have had skipping or other problems playing some rental DVDs, but I can't be sure the problems weren't with the discs themselves.

None

Breaks Often

I wish I had visited this site first before buying my JVC 501 DVD player.

It broke within the first 6 months and cost 120.00 to repair. (part was not covered under warranty)

It broke again last night. This will be the 2nd major repair on the same unit within the last 2 years. I just hate to throw stereo equipment away, but will make an exception with this unit.

Nothing good to say about this unit...I feel that I have thrown my money away and still have to buy another DVD player on top of the lost time and frustration caused by the 501.

JVC now makes a DVD player that also handles MP3 cd's...if it were any other manufacturer I would buy it in a minute to replace my broken 501, but I'm so discouraged with their equipment, I think I'll play it safe and go with a Sony DVD player instead.

Shame on you JVC for producing an unreliable product. Consumers should not be faced with this level of quality a perceived reputable company like yourself.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVD