Advice on JVC 7 disc DVD changer (1 Viewer)

[STLMIKE]

I'm awaiting delivery of my new 16:9 set, and am now looking for a DVD player -- and very frustrated... (when I bought my first player, a Panasonic A110, I think there were like 5 models to choose from.....)

Anyway, in the event that I cannot get used to the stretchmode for 4:3 material on my TV, I want a DVD player that will scale to OAR -- without the grey bars.

I was looking at the Panasonic RP91, but would really rather have a changer, and someone mentioned the JVC 900 7 disc. First -- will this unit do what I want it to do, and second -- is it a good unit? I've never bought JVC before, and would like some recommendations or warning.

Also, what is this "chroma bug" mentioned frequently on the forum. Is there a quick explanation out there?

Thanks, Mike

 

[millercv]

I got this player (the 900 7 disc changer) about a month ago and this weekend picked up a Panasonic 53wx42 widscreen set and they work very well together.

The only gripe I have so far is the changer is a little noisy and a tiny bit slow changing discs - if you haven't seen it the discs aren't in one big tray but are on staggered pie shaped (for lack of a better term) pieces that move around a lot. DVD Audio sounds great on it.


Hope this helps!

 

[STLMIKE]

Thanks for the reply -- any other opinions?

Mike

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I had last year's model of this player--it will scale nonanamorphic discs and put black bars on the sides of 4/3 discs, just as you want. It won't scale nonanamorphic letterbox discs unless they are properly flagged and many aren't.

It's picture quality is quite good on film based stuff, within a hair of the highly regarded panny rp82. It's noticeably worse on video based material but by no means unwatchable.

JVC has a lot of neat features like picture adjustements for brightness, contrast, color, tint, gamma, Y-delay, and sharpness. The gamma adjustment is really nice for bringing out shadow detail without washing out blacks. If you get one leave sharpness all the way up--contrary to conventional wisdom it works best all the way up on these players.

I now have a Panny CP-72, and it's performance on film based stuff is just a bit better, video more noticeably so. I do miss the gamma control and scaling at times, but I still have the JVC and may just put it back in tandem with the Panny for 4/3 movies.

The chroma bug is something I've not observed, but the JVC and Panasonic both do not suffer from it so that might be why.

 

[STLMIKE]

By video based, you mean for instance ST-Next Generation DVDs, etc...on source material that was originally shot on film vs. video, the picture quality is worse than the Panny...?

 

[JoeyR]

Mike I got mine last week and love it to death all probs I have have dealt with the DVD,marked up out of the box,plays great,looks great,sounds great,great menu options,alot of different viewing options,did alot of research before I purchased,no dvd expert,but with the chroma bug,something you can only see like on toy story logo at opening movie,wanted one chroma bug free which the FA900BK is,I say go for it,buy it from a major retail chain,get the 2 year extended warranty and your set up

P.S.If you bought Ice Age from best buy there is a 20 dollar coupon for a dvd changer in it

 

[STLMIKE]

Joey, are you using a 16:9 HDTV and have you viewed any video based material (i.e. ST-TNG, etc.)?

If so, how did you rate the picture?

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Video based in this context means a picture that originated on video tape rather than film.

To the best of my knowledge, STNG was originally shot on film.

The vast majority of the stuff I've encountered that was video based was interviews and such in special features sections of dvds.

The JVC has a light on the front to indicate it's in progressive mode. This light is green when the 3/2 pulldown is engaged (as it is for film based material), red when it's not. Most special features sections would have the light changing color depending on whether there was a film clip or trailer or an interview going on. Very few movies made the light stay red, The Red Violin was one. This movie looked noticeably better on the Panny than on the JVC, but it was by no means unwatchable on the JVC.

If you watch a lot of dvds of tv shows in 4/3 I think the JVC would be a good choice as the black bars on the side are less distracting than the gray bars you have to put up with without the scaling feature. As long as contrast is kept within reason there should be little or no risk of burn in with the black vs gray bars.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Steve,
I've also heard that STNG was shot on film, but I wonder if that's only true of the later seasons.
Currently, I'm still using my Panny TV's internal linedoubler, and while I've only seen hard-to-repeat(!) combing w/ film-sourced DVDs on a couple occasions thanks to the 3:2 pulldown, I see combing galore w/ my Season 3 STNG DVDs. Every episode I've seen had combing effect just about every minute of the way(!). There's combing even in subtle handshakes and headshakes!
Perhaps, all of STNG was shot on film, but the Season 3 DVDs definitely look like their DVD masters did NOT employ 3:2 pulldown in the telecine process OR simply threw it away during some reprocessing stage.
Hmmm... Wait a minute. I always use the TV's 4x3 mode for STNG. I wonder if the TV disables 3:2 pulldown in 4x3 mode(!). Hmmm... Gonna have to try it out in FULL mode to see if that gets rid of the combing. If so, then my conclusions were wrong and the STNG DVDs are indeed film-sourced w/ proper 3:2 pulldown. Of course, this still doesn't help my situation until I get a new player.
_Man_

 

[JoeyR]

sorry mike wish I could afford a hdtv but I still got a regular 27" cheapo

 

[EdD]

See here for a very often referenced chroma bug description. You can also find other threads in this forum by doing a search on "chroma bug".