price, features, picture quality

can't play CDR

I own this product since last 3 months and have not found any problem. I have tried all the suspected DVDs and all worked perfectly ( Lost In Sppace, Shakespeare In Love, Matrix etc). I found sound and picture quality superb. I don't know if my unit is an exception. I even like remote ( for select, you have to press for longer duration).

price, features, picture quality

can't play CDR

I own this product since last 3 months and have not found any problem. I have tried all the suspected DVDs and all worked perfectly ( Lost In Sppace, Shakespeare In Love, Matrix etc). I found sound and picture quality superb. I don't know if my unit is an exception. I even like remote ( for select, you have to press for longer duration).

price, features, picture quality

can't play CDR

I own this product since last 3 months and have not found any problem. I have tried all the suspected DVDs and all worked perfectly ( Lost In Sppace, Shakespeare In Love, Matrix etc). I found sound and picture quality superb. I don't know if my unit is an exception. I even like remote ( for select, you have to press for longer duration).

Works great ... have had no problems after a year of use

The JVC XV501BK is my 1st DVD player and have been using it for a year this month. On average, we watch 2 movies per week ... if I had read the reviews posted here prior to purchasing, I probably would not have bought the unit. However, I did not read the reviews and after using the unit for the past year I have encountered none of the problems stated by other users here. Have never had disks skip, machine freeze up or anything of the kind ... so far. I don't play around with "special features" ... just put a movie in and watch it ... with that in mind, I am not sorry for the purchase of this machine. Absolutely no problems with it, excellent pic (plays into an Hitachi Ultravision 48"), and sound is great (Bose A6 system). I like it ... what can I say???

See below

Ditto

If you have had problems with your JVC 501BK "freezing" or "locking-up", I have provided step-by-step instructions in my review below on how to reset the ROM. No sense in the rest of us having to sit through the automated phonecall if I already did! I'm sure this will help any disc-reading problems, as it is not the players quality in question, but rather the disc coding. The full monty is about 5 reviews down(under the name Victor Buntic). Hope this makes us JVC consumers fell better about this quality unit (remember the price?!)

Similar Products Used:

Catchin' on?

DTS Output

Random Lockups, Ejects good discs on insert, Horrible playback

Worked almost perfectly (aside from lockups where the only option was to unplug power) for the 1st year. Just long enough to go out of warranty. Now it constantly ejects good discs as it apparently cannot even detect them anymore. When it does play discs, it usually plays them with an incredible amount of video and sound distortion. Garbled blocky video with chunks and pixelization everywhere are accompanied by skipping audio, static and high pitched squealing. I like others believed JVC would make a quality product, but obviously their quality assurance standards, or engineering design failed horribly in the creation of this product. I personally recommend you stay away from this model, and possible similar products by this manufacturer.

The picture is good when it plays the DVDs. It is easy to set up.

The problems with the computer chip. The remote.

As others have stated this is not a review but just a confirmation of what goes wrong with the JVC XV501. I purchased mine for a Christmas present (1999) and it worked until June, 2000. When I called JVC customer services the rep told me I probably just needed to reset the EEPRO - it didn't work. The rep then asked me if I had played certain DVDs, specifically Cruel Intentions or the Matrix (who hasn't played the Matrix?) He then told me that my computer chip probably needed to be replaced. I had to then take the player to a JVC service center (50 miles from my home) to have them fix it. Four weeks later, I picked up the player and it has been working ever since. Does it seem right to you that if they know certain DVDs will cause problems that they wouldn't announce that or at the least not charge their customers for something they knew would cause the problems (did I mention it cost $60 for labor?? Thank goodness the parts were covered). It would be very difficult for me to recommend this DVD model, let alone any JVC product after this experience.

Excellent price/feature ratio.

Succumbs to EEPROM, Optical Block problems. Poorly designed remote.

Not so much a review, but felt I should add my name to the growing list of frustrated users.

The unit worked flawlessly for 13 months, but, suddenly has manifested a variety of the malfunctions described by others on this site, i.e, freezes, skips, excessive noise, etc.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that resetting the EEPROM will get me back up and running.

Smells like class action to me.

Similar Products Used:

None

Great Price, Quality pic and sound. Overall Great peice of equipment

None so far

Great product never had any problems. The thing about special features and not playing is a joke. And the thing with the enter button is a joke also. Love the joystick style remote. Not many other Remotes have. My whole system is JVC playing through BOSE AM 10, and 50 sony flat screen looks and sounds great. It must be operator error with the disk play thing.

Great menus, sharp picture, compatible with DVD's that are notorious for choking other brands (Matrix)

DTS dropout, occasional crashes, I had to reset the ROM when it suddenly refused to read about 2/3 of my DVD's

I've had my 501 since February after a brief, abusive relationship with a Toshiba 2108 (shudder). The 501 has been a workhorse, and I have had few problems with it. a few days ago it stopped reading most of my DVD's- the day I got a big batch of DVD's from Reel.com. I was freaking out- I couldn't part with my player for the few weeks it would take JVC to fix the machine. Thankfully I looked up this forum, and the ROM-zapping fixed my problems. You guys rock.

I give the 501:
-5 stars for performance/value (a steal at $279 in Feb)
-minus two stars for giving me a coronary
-plus one star for having such an easy fix.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 2108