Excellent sound & picture.

Remote seems a little cheap, but it is reasonably effective.

After direct comparison on a number of trips to the AV stores, I ruled-out buying any Pioneer models (yes..even looked hard at the Elite) or the cheaper JVC units based on picture quality using the DTS sampler and Star Trek First Contact to test. Narrowing the list of remaining competetors, I was left with a head to head showdown between the Sony 550D and the JVC 701. I thought it was a dead heat for picture sharpness between the two, but I preferred the color of the JVC a little better, and the store I was at had a sale going making the JVC a full $150 less than the Sony. I already was a bit biased in favor of the JVC based on my previous experience reading about and hearing the remarkable capabilities of the K2 interface which is designed to reduce digital noise and jitter.

When I got my JVC unit home, I was dazzled by the picture quality and thought that set-up was a breeze. Being an audio freak, I had to start testing this thing against my Harman Kardon CD player with Audio Alchemy DAC. My early impressions are that the JVC blows away my old set-up on SOME material, but not others..can't pinpoint a reason for that yet, except that I will get some Tara Labs Prism 22 interconnects for the JVC later this week to match the ones I use with my DAC to receiver connection and then see what happens.

I'm using an HK AVR-30 receiver--their former flagship in the Pro-Logic world, but NOT a new-fangled Dolby Digital monster. So, I can't give impressions of DD performance. But I can tell you that it certainly didn't disappoint me in standard Pro-logic surround!

Convenience features abound with this unit. The only beef I have is that the little joystick on the remote seems cheap...nevertheless, it is effective...I've definately had worse remotes before. As long as I don't drop it on anything but my carpet, I doubt there will be a problem.

If there's some reason you must have the Sony 550D or you must have a changer, go for it, but I can't see why anybody would buy ANY other DVD player at ANY price!

Time will tell about durability. I don't care to ever see Cruel Intentions--the movie that apparently gave this player a bum rap, so I'm a happy DVD camper for now!

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Panasonic & Sony brands.

Good feature set and picture quality for price

Cheezy remote.

This is really a follow-up review. I had the product for a year and noticed what I thought were problems with the DTS. After up-grading to the Harman Kardon DVD5, I discovered it was my receiver(HK AVR300), NOT the JVC DVD player.

Compared to the HK DVD5, the JVC doesn't sound nearly as good and the picture isn't as nice either (more jaggies), but the JVC has a decent picture and an excellent feature set for the price

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HK DVD5

Good picture quality and sound.

Doesn't work anymore

This unit was great while it worked. After having it for about 6 months, the unit wouldn't even make it through any entire DVD that was more than an hour long. Ridiculous!

JVC was no help and since it was out of warranty, I decided to buy a new unit, the Toshiba SD-2200. It has worked very well for the 4 or so months that I have had it. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will continue to do well.

Stay away from this DVD player!

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Toshiba SD-2200

Am happy with the product. Sound is good, and picture quality is very impressive.

Did have trouble with the system freezing ONCE. Otherwise, am very satisfied. Have to agree though with the comment about the lack of JVC's technical support or customer support.

Read above.

great remote

locking up, gets really hot

Having to reset my player sucks. Sometimes the player causes the picture lock up, then I would have to stop the movie and go to scene selection to find it. Definately, my next player would be NON-JVC DVD Audio/Video Player with Progressive Scan. What happend to you JVC? ...

Unreliability

I wanted to add a quick review of the 701 because I think it is getting alot of unfair criticism. I bought mine in September of 1999 and have had absolutely no problems until a few weeks ago.

We moved the home theater system from our upstairs living room to the downstairs family room and into a new entertainment center that had a slightly smaller enclosure for the components. While watching Dinosaur (which previously had no problems), the picture and audio became distorted like so many others in here have described.

I am convinced this is a heat related problem and not anything with the optics/electronics. Since then, similiar problems have arisen on other dvd's, but not until 30 minutes to 1 hour into the movie - which would indicate to me that it is a problem with heat buildup. It is beyond me why JVC designed the case with no vent slots on the top or sides of the enclosure. The only venting is located on the bottom of the player, which makes no sense, since hot air rises, the air will theoretically never reach the vents.

I am in the process of investigating different ways of circulating air in the enclosure as well as venting the warm air out of the player (mainly with the use of a computer type blower). Will see if that helps.

Too bad JVC's tech support sucks so bad as they should have addressed this problem a long time ago and either recalled the player or offered to fix the problems.

Since the player is discontinued, I seriously doubt most stores would still be stocking it - but I'm sure it is still sold on-line. Also am not sure if the problems are only with early production and were fixed later on.

While I would not whole heartedly endorse this unit, I still believe JVC makes good components. If you look at reviews of almost all the other brands of players, there are complaints with them as well. I would not hesitate to buy JVC again.

Great sound, Good picture. Integrates well with other JVC comp-link equipment

Poor brightness levels. Much darker than any other inputs. DISMAL(NONE) JVC support for a product with known problems

Purchased the 701 to match my other JVC equipment due to their Compu-Link feature. Nice to power-up one component and have the receiver (JVC RX1028V) turn the TV on and set the inputs correctly. Sound is excellect. Picture is a little dark on DVDs and have to adjust the TV.
My bigest complaint is with JVC. The 701 stopped playing DVD
at all. CD worked fine but no sound from DVDs. I found info on the JVC web site outlining a reset procedure and followed it to the letter. I could now play DVDs but not in Dolby Digital 5.1 I contacted the JVC repair web site, to ask for assistance twice and have yet to receive a reply. I finally talked to a Cambridge SoundWorks salesperson and he told me to go back into the set-up menu and redo all the settings.
It has worked fine since, but I'm still disapointed in JVC.
Why maintain a web site and not bother to respond?
I think this is my last piece of JVC equipment. Not a bad DVD player, just an unresponsive company.

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none

Nice look

Unreliable optical pickup

I love movies. Prior to the DVD player I had a HiFi JVC VCR. I bought the DVD player after reading reviews from this web site. Its a great web site for finding information about any consumer electronics product.

Due to my foreign origin I like to watch movies from my home country. Well! as soon as I put my first foriegn movie (ofcourse the DVD was released for US market and was not duped or bad) GUESS WHAT? Yes it locked up and gave me NO DISK error. I took it to an authorized JVC service center for repair. After repairing, the guy at the service center told me that this is not the first case and this error is common (bad optical pickup) in JVC DVD players.

Now I am very hesitant to play a foreign movie and it took the fun out of buying a DVD player. I am happy with its sound and picture but not with its reliability.

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None

looks great!!

poor reading of dvds. needing repair less 4months! defective...IT sucks!!!!!

I was excited when i bought this unit. i was a pioneer owner. (NOT 4 months of light use)my JVC 701 STOPPED READING any DVDs. I was HIGHLY UPSET. i called JVC repair shop. they admit that this unitand more has a defect and needs re-ajustment. They charge me $80,00 for labor*s/h i could not believe IT! So i sold it the next day it returned from re-ajustment... AND I swear NEVER TO BUY JVC AGAIN!!! i am buying another PIONEER and you better TOO!

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pioneer laser disc player 5yrs old no problems

I'm afraid I have to add my voice to the chorus of unhappy JVC owners. I have had more problems that I can list with this machine. I had always just assumed it was a lemon. I am an avid fan of this site, but for some reason I had never checked here to read the review for this product as I am normally fixated on audio only equipment. For some reason I stumbled onto the review of it today, and could not believe so many people had had similar experiences to mine. Here's a quick breakdown of my experience: discs skip, dvd picutre bleeds, half the time it won't even recognize there is a dvd loaded in the tray. I've had in the shop 3 times and they have yet to solve the problem.

When the machine works, I have no problem with the quality of the picture or audio, but getting it to work is the problem. Needless to say I'm in the market for a new player. It is amazing to me JVC could let such an inferior product reach the market. I am not one to bash a product unless it really underperforms, and sadly this dvd player falls into that category. I will not purchase JVC again.