Nice looking:)

Will not play DVD's. Picture becomes very garbled, skips, sound drops out.

I used this DVD player for about 4 months before the problems began. The unit began having problems with the layer changes, and continued to get worse until it would no longer function properly. The player does not register that a disk is in the player when you try to play a disk, it just says NO DISK. Early on, the reset would get the player to work, but now nothing works with the player. The cost to fix the problem once the labor warranty runs out is more than you can buy a new one for.

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Door stops, Paper weights, and other handy items for around $295.00 less.

Features, looks, display,joystick on remote, digital audio output.

None for the price I got it

From reading all the previous I noticed that a lot of people have had some real problems with this model. I wonder if it has to do with the model year. I actually won my JVC 501BK model in a contest back in 1998. I've kept the unit clean and it has worked flawlessly and the sound when hooked up to a reciever with digital audio inputs is awesome!! DVD's with DTS also work great! I am a little worried that something may happen because of all the bad reviews I've read. But for me I'm very happy with this DVD player.

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None

Features

None of the aforementioned Features EVER work reliably.

I just placed a complaint at UGetHeard.com, and I urge everyone else to do the same. I am an attorney from NJ, and I am currently investigating the possibility of filing a class action suit against JVD due to their defective DVD players. I have personally purchased over $2000 in JVC electronics in the last year-and-a-half (on its own, not a large sum, but to me it is) including my defective XV-501, and it is simply unacceptable that the known problems with these machines has been allowed to exist without repair by JVC. So, please file a complaint at UGetHeard.com. It is only by aggregating our complaints that we might get some resolution from JVC absent legal action.

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Sony, Toshiba DVD

worked great for four months.

lousy remote control
terrible customer service

The dvd player has been sent out to be fixed three times over the past eight months. The next time it breaks it will be in the trash.

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Sony & Denon

Beautiful styling, menu access on front panel, joystick remote.

Lacks second set of RCA audio out to hook us as both DVD and CD player separately.

I bought one of these "open box" and had the same problems described by others. I was told that JVC had to upgrade these units from a Second Gen DVD to Third Gen. That it was a problem between the firmware and the software.

So, intent on having this unit or bust, I purposely bought a refurbished model on E-bay for $197 and it works fantastic.

NOTE: This is confidential information for all you folks looking to talk to a JVC employee: In Los Angeles, by Cedar Sinai and the Beverly Center there is a JVC Factory Outlet and Service Center. They also answer the phone and are talkative. Here is the phone number:

(310) 659-5262. Ask for Doro

Good luck!

Great Dolby Digital 5.1 audio and picture, nice features. Plays every DVD I've watched flawlessly.

Remote control layout and feel is terrible. No digital coax output. Unit needs to be reset by unplugging VERY rarely if you do a lot of repeated menu commands on a DVD.

I've had this unit for going on 2 years now and overall I'd say it's a good DVD player, especially if you can get it for around $200. I paid $399 retail at good guys. It has some nice features like thumbnailing the first scenes of every chapter, zoom, multi angles, resume, etc.

Every DVD I've watched has worked flawlessly, and this includes Matrix, Apollo 13 Special Edition, Fifth Element.

Like I said above, the only real problem I have with the unit is very rarely (only happened about 3 times over almost 2 years) when I'm in the menu of a DVD and I do a lot of repeated things (like clicking a back arrow then arrow forward several times) it will stop responding to almost all remote commands and you can't turn the unit off with the remote or on the front panel. It's not locking up because there is at least one function that still works when it isn't responding. The only solution to this is to unplug the unit and plug it back in.

The remote control is TERRIBLE, probably the worst remote layout I've ever seen. I don't have to use the remote though because I have a $20 "One For All" Cinema 7 universal remote with macros, learning keys, etc, that controls all my devices flawlessly.

I would give it 4 stars if it wasn't for the lacking of a digital coax output and the rare lockup thing.

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Sony S330

I haven't experienced any real problems since using the system

CDR's don't work on the system

I've had this player over a year and have been pleased with it overall. I own over 50 DVD's
I've never used DTS with this system, so can't make any comments either way. I haven't used the remote much since my system is operated by the Sony AV-2000 but I've never experience any glitches, fallout or any other problem with AC-3. I have had to unplug it a few times only when trying to cut it off it was unresponsive to the remote and the power button on the unit. I purchase it for 399 but I've seen it recently at Sams Club for $249. the jog dial feature eases scan through movies. I hope that by reading all the other poor reviews that I have not jinksed myself but to date I've had nothing but high quality video and audio with no other complaints then whats mentioned above.

See My Review below.

All mentioned below in y review, but I am adding one other:
the infamous DTS dropout problem.

We finally got the JVC back from the shop. (I detailed all of my earlier problems on 5/2/2000 review below). Everything seems to be fine on the returned unit, it's functioning properly .. for the last month. I can't wait for it to die again. And, when it does, I'll be getting a Kenwood unit.

However, a new problem has arisen which is extremely annoying and is mentioned in MANY places on this message board. This is the DTS dropout problem.

I purchased the Galaxy Quest DTS disc and was quite excited because it was my first "DTS" disc to try. Everything went smoothly for the first 20-30 minutes of watching and then I would notice a "pop" on the disc and the sound would drop momentarily. This continued for the remaining of the movie. It wasn't an every 5 minute problem. Sometimes it was every 2-3 minutes, sometimes it would wait 10 minutes to do it again. Definetly no pattern that I could discern.

JVC MUST be aware of this problem and they are doing absolulety NOTHING to solve this problem. It was a major annoyance in the "action" scenes in the movie, and only to a smaller degree in the "talking" scenes.

DTS sounded AWESOME while it actually worked. The positional audio was much better than DD5.1.

As I said below, JVC should be ASHAMED of releasing such a flawed product and then not taking responsibility for it.

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See my review below.

Everything about it.

None as of yet.

I got the JVC VX-501 almost 6 months ago now. After reading all of your reviews I feel sorry for all of you. My uncles and other family members have their assortment of Toshiba and Sony dvd players, and don't get me wrong they are nice. And I was gonna get either Sony or Toshiba. But this one caught my eye. I got it for a low price of 209 dollars. It has never locked-up or froze on me. Picture and sound quality is the best I have seen and heard (other than my uncles Sony dvd, I don't know the model number but it costed him 679 dollars). It plays everything I stick in there, except for cd-r's of course. I think this has to be one of my best investments. Ohh and the zoom feature, I don't get any graininess when I use it. Maybe I just got the gold child outta the bunch?

It works again!

But for how long?

Well, I've had mine back for two weeks now, and it seems to be working fine. Didn't cost me anything to get fixed. No more lockups. Optical block was replaced. The tech told me that he sees lots of DVD players, and that this is a common problem with several brands. Hmmmmmm.