Progressive Scan, DVD-Audio, Availability

Audio sound, remote, disc tracking

I bought this for the DVD-Audio capability. I do not have a progressive scan TV. I found the CD quality just slightly more defined, but harsher than my Sony DVP 300. DVD-Audio was an improvement. The highs were cleaner, but I wasn't satisfied. I also bought a Pnasonic A-7, which was $100 less and did not have progressive scan. Audio quality was similar to the JVC. I first returned the Panasonic and brought a Sony 9000ES (cost me $1300) and the CD/DVD audio quality was in another world. It was even vastly superior to DVD-audio play on the JVC. After listening to the 9000ES, listening to my old Sony, or the JVC, was a disappointment. One day after purchasing the 9000ES, I returned the JVC. I could have kept it for a couple more weeks, but why?

Then there's SACD on the Sony. In my mind, there's no comparison between SACD and DVD-Audio. SACD wins.

The JVC also had trouble reading two of my DVDs: the Talking Heads Stop Making Sense and the Sixth Sense. The Sony does not have the problem.

I've kept the Sony 9000ES.

Similar Products Used:

sony 9000ES, Sony DVP-300, Panasonic A7

Great picture and sound, Progressive scan, DVD-Audio, Nice looking unit.

Horrible remote, the designer of this unit must have very small hands!!
I am having a problem with the panel display blinking during playback - things like Index, DTS, Dolby Digital, etc. blink intermittently during DVD play.
Anyone else experience this? It doesn't seem to affect the performance at all though...
Setup is a bit confusing.

Overall I like the unit - but the blinking problem has me worried.

Similar Products Used:

None, first DVD.

Incredible picture and sound

Remote, replay after stop is awkward. Does not ouput a 96khz signal, but downconverts to 48khz.

I did not purchase this as a DVD player, but as a first attempt at hearing DVD-Audio. They had the Technics units on sale in the store for $400, but they had less than good reviews for the sound. I have a very expensive unforgiving system, but I thought this would be an introductory piece to sample the music. First, this unit violates all the sacred cows of high end audio: it doesn't weigh much, power supply must be tiny in there, mostly plastic with a thin sheet metal cover, you can pick it up easily with one hand!

Hooked it up both analogue and digital, with S-video to my Pioneer 710. The Sony 9000 is using the component in and I will give an update when I can hook this unit up with component video. I had found about 20 DVD audio discs in NY and placed one in and hit play. What a surprise! Sound is wonderful. As the saying goes, it sounds like analogue with no steely highs or screechiness. Bass is kind of overwhelming (could be the discs) so I turned the bass down. The enveloping surround sound is very good. If this cheap thing sounds this good, what will a really fine box sound like? I am not going to get into the arguement over this versus SACD (I also have the Sony for that) because so far the discs available vary so much and the SACD is only two channel so far.

But this sounds wonderful. As a previous review pointed out, the sound is also going to depend on what you connect to. I have a Meridian Digital Theater system with an 861 processor, which is very revealing. Tried it both ways, all analogue and digital, and it sounded wonderful (with the limited discs I had) K.D. Lang, some Beethoven, classical compilations, and Espana/Bolero. The sampler disc in the box was all rock that I found totally awful, but that's a matter of musical taste.

The real surprise here is this: you also get a great DVD video player, a built in DTS decoder, built in Dolby Digital decoder, wonderful menu system, picture quality controls, a display of everthing it is doing (many units don't give a clue as to what you are hearing). This clearly indicates DVD-Audio, DTS, Dolby Digital, and a diagram of how many channels are output, as well as the frequency of the recording method.

Instead of the simple method of resuming, i.e. turn off, press play, this one has a special button on the remote called "resume" to start where you stopped. OK once you get used it but why? The Pioneer 09 also has a trick to resume that is cumbersome. The remote is bad news, but almost everything is there without having to call up the on-screen menus, with the exception of interlaced/progressive which can only be accessed by a slide switch on the rear.

There is a strobe type of image with stills of each chapter that makes it very easy to access scenes and chapters (works quicker than the DVD menu) and for examining special effects, these shots can made to move ahead one frame at a time. When you call up the menu it does not cover up the picture but inserts the picture in a window surrounded by the options you can pick from and these are large and easy to choose, covering just about every aspect of performance.
The first DVD used was Men In Black, and it looked as good in S-video as the Sony using component! Very good image depth, startling colors, deep blacks.

There is also very good control over speaker layout. You can set speakers up as large/small, redirect the bass from the small to a sub or other large speakers, set delay, etc. with a very clear on-screen diagram. Instruction book is not very clear about some things, but that's Japanese translated into English. The only thing that I have seen NOT work is the screen saver, but the dimming part works.

No problems with flickering display, or of any kind so far. This is the most bang for the buck I have seen in quite some time. Picture quality is equal to my Sony 9000 (at least on this 64 inch screen). My experience is that you can't see much difference in picture quality between decent to good units unless you are projecting on a really large screen or you are down converting to 4:3 regular screen.

The features of these new DVD Audio discs are quite astonishing: lyrics of the songs, biographies of the composers/performers, gorgeous stills of landscapes. On the Buena Vista Social Club disc, you have some full motion scenes from the documentary, stills of the players, bio info, ability to play back the two track version or 5.1 version, etc. The possibilities here seem endless and this is very early in the game for DVD Audio. I think it was worth the wait and can only get better.

This player is a "buy." Get one. There are two models, gold and black, designated by suffixes on the model number.

I am giving it 5 stars as the best you can get at this price point, not that it the best possible. You will have to go to double or triple to find a better picture, and you will not find all these built in features.

Similar Products Used:

Sony ES9000, Pansonic H1000, Toshiba 6200, several others

User friendly control, adaptive settings from 2CH stereo to 5.1 Home Theater, THE PRICE!!!

NONE,not with all the these features at this price.

This unit has all the features you will need to build a complete home theater, especially if you have a tube tv of 30" or larger, a projection tv, or plasma tv. you can not go wrong buying this DVD player for its new retail price from $899.98 -> $399.98

Features:
-Single Disc player
-easy On Screen GUI Menu
-plays DVD, DVD Audio, and CD
-does Progressive Scan or Interlacing(Standard)
-does Dolby Digital and DTS Processing
-has 5.1 outputs
-Standard outputs (Optical,Coax,Analog,S-Video)
-different video settings for 4x3 or 16x9 tv,
expands 16x9 format to use more of your screen,
ex: 16x9 normal, 16x9 expand(less black area,
more picture)
-different audio format, from 2CH w/sub to 5.1

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, Sony, Onkyo

No 24/96 Digital Outs !

I received my JVC unit ($330 delivered) from J&R this morning.

Awesome Progressive Video. (no testing of DVD-A done; not interested).

Whats all the fuss about the JVC not detecting the flags right. Heck ! The way I see ... you can't have your cake and eat it too ... I like the flexibility it offers to change the modes; If it only had one setting (auto) like the Toshiba ... then I would always be wondering if it was doing the right thing.

Having said that --- Do you know how to switch modes (Film,Video1, Smart, Auto etc.) without having to stop the DVD and go into the menu ?

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 5109

Picture, sound, flexibility

no CDR capability [not a big deal], weak remote, DD/DTS decoders not really necessary

For way less than $1K, this unit is great. It is a true progressive scan. The picture in conjunction with my Mitsubishi HD 55" Widescreen is quite nice. Smooth and clear. It contains features which allows flexibility for the owner to alter the picture to their taste as well. It is also switchable to interlaced that is very good also for non-HD picture. I was at first, not very keen given a JVC product as I had on more than one occasion had trouble with the 501BK. Hopefully, it is reliable enough for years to come. It is also capable of DVD Audio playback. I do feel that the DD/DTS decoders aren't really important since all receivers are equipped with those anyway. The remote is too tinny buttons wise. To this buyer, it is a minor issue since I memorized the keys by touch [how I don't know]. At this juncture, I am quite happy with this purchase. Recommended to the common rank and file, audio enthusiasts, and anyone who want up to date good quality at less than king's ramson price.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba SD2200, JVC X501BK

PERFECT PLAYER!!!!!!

NONE

DOES EVERYTHING YOU WOULD WANT!!
GREAT PRICE!!!

Accurate color decoder, build quality, no edge noise.

Progressive Scan dependent on imbedded flags only. Video mode not motion adaptive. 5 different PS selections. If film flags are not well sinked with film frames the unit will drop into video mode using only a vertical filter.

Let it be known that I am still waitng on the Denon 2800 before I decide if I will return this player or not. The more I read about the 2800 the worse I feel about it being a giant killer, especially if has the chroma bug.. but I need to see for myself.
As a preface, the desired performance from a PS DVD player would be to have no mode selections but instead by examing flags ,fields and redundant frames always figure out what to do.
Having said that..The JVC is capable of a dazzling picture. The colors are well saturated and accurate. (There are not very many players in that catagory). I found myself moving between "film mode" and "smart mode" with the JVC when viewing film material.(Smart mode gets it right most of the time.) Video source material also has 3 or 4 related selections. I haven't spent any time trying to understand them. Background video noise level is just good enough to render a 3-d picture but could be a little better. The over-all picture balance is changed going between PS and IL mode (not unusual). I needed to reduce brigntness quite a bit and contrast a little, when in PS mode, to get the same resolution as in IL mode (viewed on a tosh. 65H80). Before I did this I thought the PS mode was noisy in comparison, but retuning PS to match IL picture appeance also reduced the background noise to the same levels. Ths main difference (to me) when viewing the 6200 vs. the 723 is edge noise and color accuracy; both in favor of the JVC. Oh yeh,the DVDA performance is just OK . That said it is still pretty good and this is a $570 box. I think that even with its quirks it may be the best overall performer for the money.

Similar Products Used:

Tosh. 6200

Great picture and sound

Blacks out occassionally, remote

This is good product for the money. However, the only serious problem I have found is that it will black out momentarily when the picture is flooded with light as in an explosion or sunlight, in PS mode. I have had this problem with GLADIATOR and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. I do not know the reason but am still looking into it. Nevertheless, it is still a good player for the money and the picuture is amazing.

Similar Products Used:

none

Excellent progressive scan image, CDR-W playback, DVD-A, Excellent 16X9 downconversion.

Remote, Disables video and S-video out when progressive is used

A little history;
I have the DVDO iscan V2 and a hdtv Mitsubishi 4:3 VS-50805. My old DVD player is the Toshiba 2109. This TV shows every detail. With my old 45 inch interlaced Mitsubishi TV, I never noticed the downconversion artifacts. The negative about this TV is that it only allows me to compress the raster on interlaced inputs. So,.. I'm forced to do the downconverting in the DVD player if I want to use the DVDO.
So,.. I've tried 4 DVD players, trying to find the best downconverter. My first was the Toshiba 2109, way too many jaggies. I then tried the JVC GD723, WONDERFUL downconversion. Beautiful detail, excellent color fidelity, and no jaggies, but I didn't want to pay $599 for a single disc player. Next I tried the Sony CX860 301 disc changer, no jaggies, but way too soft of a picture(no detail). Then, I heard about the RV80, I mailed ordered it because no one had it in town. It had just about the same amount of jaggies as my Toshiba,wonderful 16X9 image, but horrible downconversion. So weeks later I went back to best buy to buy another 723 and noticed that they had an open item for $399. CAN YOU SAY "SNAGGED"?
Negavite: The remote is horrible, most of the buttons are the same size, spaced too close together, and it has no backlight.
Positives: It plays my CDR-W's that I have, I have a few CD's that I copied to CDR-W and they play perfectly. The big big positive is the image quality. Nothing that I tested could touch this player. It has user adjustable sharpness, contrast, Gamma, Tint, Y delay,Color, and Brightness. I haven't tried the DVD-Audio yet, but I plan to soon.
Check out http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_4/dvd-benchmark-progressive-shootout-12-2000.html for a professional review. In a nutshell, the only players that are equel to or better in picture quality than this player are the $3400 Camelot and the $3000 Panasonic H1000.. It has it's share of deinterlacing quirks, but most of the high end models do: Toshiba SD-6200, SD-9200, Onkyo DV-939, Pioneer DV-37, Sony DVP-S9000ES, and Toshiba SD-5109.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 2109, Sony CX860, Panasonic RV80.