Bought this about 3weeks back in $300 (including shipping, ubid.com). My decision was based on features and reviews. Saw just 6 movies and all worked. Only drawback, it can't play CD-R (so can't many others too). But sound and picture quality is surely best in this calss.

After already reviewing this product, I must ammend it again after hooking up my 5.1 system to it. Though all the features are neat, they don't make up for the basic lack of reliability. I've tried to play the X-Files on 5.1 and it wouldn't send out the right signal. God forbid I try a DTS disc on it. Another problem, which is extremely annoying, is that whenever I try to scan forward (not chapter search), it keeps on sending an audio signal which gets distorted due to the frame advance and sounds horrible. I've given up on trying to fast forward altogether. Oh well, I'll be more careful next time.
My system:
JVC 501 BK DVD
JVC S9500 SVHS
Sony STR-DA50ES Receiver/Amp
Sony CDP-CX90ES 200 disc CD player
Infinity RS-9 (left+right)
Infinity CC-3 (center)
Infinity RS-3 (surrounds)
Infinity BU-120 (subwoofer)
DH Labs Silver Sonic T-14 speaker wire
Ultralink Optima optical interconnects
Ultralink Challenger RCA interconnects
Monster Cable THX subwoofer cable
(oh yeah, and don't forget the Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64, woo-hoo!)

The JVC DV-501 is excellent. I shopped around, and found that the JVC offered the best features for the price. Coupled with my Yamaha RX-V995, DVD movies really rock! The on-screen/unit menus are very useful. I shopped around and almost purchased the Toshiba or the Pioneer, and considering the reviews posted here, I'm glad I didn't. They were all the same price.

Owned this unit for two weeks before returning for a refund. Although the picture appeared to be very good, using only the composite input, the sound was disappointing. On standard CD's, bass was weak, treble too strong, and the soundstage very compressed. Very little detail, overall inferior sound compared even to the six year old Sony changer it was intended to replace. Sound seemd adequate on movie soundtracks although on some louder dialog segments, distortion was noticable. As noted in reviews below, this unit also experienced problems with freeze up on the Lethal Weapon 4 disk and would not respond to any remote input or direct input on the front panel. Had to unplug the unit to reset.
Packed with features as others have mentioned, some useful but many which I consider "fluff" and seldom used beyond the first few days of novelty. A very large player, taking more space than many others. The joystick remote is not sensitive and requires a lot of thumb pressure. Feels cheap and flimsy, especially considering the force required to use it. The "3D Surround" enhancement is very poor, removing all traces of detail and accuracy. At least it is defeatable.

For the price of $599 Canadian, it is a reasonable product with features that may appeal to some. However, it will not satisfy anyone looking for high quality music audio without the use of an outboard DAC via the optical output. The construction is solid, other than the remote, and the drawer loads smoothly. Overall, there are better values out there. Three stars for the price, but just barely.

System: NAD 310 amp, Paradigm Atoms, D-Box David-300 sub.

my JVC dvd player stops playing dvd disks.I tried 2 disks and it stops after reading
and displays error message "wrong region code,"
which doesn't make sense since the disks are region 1,
same as the player.
I have it for 3 weeks. It used to work ok.
I will return it to BestBuy.
Anyone got the same problem?

This is an awesome DVD player. It is not that expensive, has a lot of features and options, easy to use, and is real clear. Would recommend it to anyone.

Zoom, Digest

Remote, lack of cable hook ups, generally a piece of trash

I purchased this unit in July of 1999. It worked (sort of) until December when it choked for the last time. I ALWAYS had green screen, pixelation, and lock up issues but in December the unit refused to read a disc, just as everyone else has stated. The dreaded - NO DISC message. The reset did not work. Customer Service didn't work. I even emailed the President of JVC and got no help. JVC sucks, period. Do not now, or ever buy a product from these losers. Class action law suit is right! Any lawyers out there willing to represent us? Let's shut this bonehead company down!

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Sony S560D which I bough to replace my useless JVC

Collecting Dust. The fins have a great abilty to hold dust until I plan to throw the whole thing away.

Other than it doesn't work at all, none.

This dumb thing broke on my 8 months after purchase. I cannot even believe how many people are having the same problem. For those of you that have not had the problem yet, you will and I would just take advantage of any warrenty while you still have it. Goto http://www.ugetheard.com and make a complaint. They'll make a formal letter for you and send it out for you to JVC.

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Swifter

It played well at first until I purchased my first DTS Movie

DTS Sound Drop out. Class Action Suit pending because JVC knowingly shipped this with defective Hardware

When I first purchased this player I did not know about this site. If I had known about this site I would have ran as far as I could have away from the JVC XV-501BK. It played regular DVD's fine. I purchased my 1st DTS DVD and found out how inferior this player was. I had sound drop outs through out the whole movie, and sometimes it would drop into regular mode and not read the DTS track unless I turned it off and turned it back on. I just Recently replaced it with a Sony 360 player because I could no longer play an entire movie with out it pixalating, skipping and finally locking up. I am truly disappointed in this JVC product. I have a JVC 888 series receiver and have been very happy with it. I will never buy another JVC product because of this incident. I have also joined the class action lawsuit against JVC because of the shoddy workmanship of this DVD player.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 360 Awesome player. I replaced the JVC with this.

None

Everthing.

This is the biggest pile of junk I have ever purchased. I have sent it back three times in a year for malfunctioning. I will never ever buy another JVC product again. Must be the worst quality piece of electronics sold at Best Buy. If I could give it less than 1 star I would.

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None are of this poor quality.