Anyway to remove zoom icon on JVC S500BK? (1 Viewer)

[Ryan_J_C]

I recently purchased a JVC S500BK to go along with my new HDTV. I really love the JVC S500BK except for one annoying problem, if the DVD is a non-anamorphic DVD but is not flagged as such, the DVD player plays it full frame (4:3). If you zoom once, it will in effect zoom out the black bars, but the player then has a zoom icon displayed on the screen allowing you to move up/down/left/right. I cannot seem to get this icon to disappear! It doesn't disappear after a certain amount of time, and pressing all sorts of buttons on the remote has no effect. Turning off on-screen display doesnt remove it either. If anyone has sucessfully removed this icon, please let me know! This player does virtually everything I want (VCD, SVCD, DVD-R, Progressive scan) but the zoom icon is its one drawback. Thanks to anyone who can provide help!

 

[Matt DeVillier]

the zoom icon cannot be removed. also, if you zoom once on improperly flagged letterboxed discs, it overzooms quite a bit and 2.35:1 films end up looking closer to 2.00:1

I called JVC customer service about it and they seemed aware that people were not pleased about the zoom icon (and the lack of a way to force improperly flagged discs to the correct expand mode), but more calls can never hurt.

 

[Ryan_J_C]

Darn, I was hoping somebody knew a trick which would remove this zoom icon. This is my first JVC player, and I've heard older players had firmware upgrades. Do you think this would be possible for the S500BK, and do you think they would charge a bundle for it, since the S500BK's zoom problem isn't really a functionality problem but an annoyance?

Also, can anyone recommend a replacement unit for the S500BK that is within the same price range, yet also can play VCD, SVCD, DVD-R and has progressive scan? Thanks to anyone who can help out... If I find anything myself I will be sure to post it!

 

[Sean Patrick]

i had to return the 500BK for the same reasons. once i went through my collection i just had too many improperly flagged discs that i would have to "zoom". I bought a RP91 used, but even that was twice the price of the jvc. It's frustrating because otherwise the JVC was a STEAL at that price. People say the rp91 has better audio and video, but so far i'm not sure about that at all.

 

[Jason Spencer]

I'm trying to decide between the RP56/new panny or the JVC 500bk. On the zoom function, I currently have a jvc 36" tv (no progressive), and will probably upgrade to a HDTV 52" in the next year or so. I don't plan to get a widescreen model, so my question is will the zoom icon issue be a problem for me?

 

[Ryan_J_C]

Well, I have a non-widescreen (4:3) 32" Samsung right now. But it has 16:9 "squeeze" mode which I cannot use without the zoom. The other thing is I have a few foreign (but region 0/1) DVDs with subtitles burned into the DVD (unremovable) in the black bars, that I can "zoom" away ... but this is not possible with the S500BK's zoom icon on top.

Anyways, it isn't as much of a deal unless you're playing on a 16:9 TV and you have a lot of non-anamorphic discs. This problem probably wont make me return the S500BK, but it would be really nice if it was fixable with a firmware upgrade or the like.

 

[Jason Spencer]

I found a pretty good site explaining the anamorphic thing at: www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/index.html
So basically, if you have a regular (4x3) tv or HDTV but not widescreen version, you won't need the zoom (most of the time)? It is mainly used to stretch the letterbox (non-anamorphic) film to fill the 16x9 (widescreen hdtv) screen, right? I plan to get a regular screen, and I don't care about the bars, as long as it doesn't look stretched. Will I be OK with this player? (I don't plan to purchase imports or anything, just american movies...)

 

[Ryan_J_C]

Jason,

Sounds like you'd be fine... This player is really nice except for that one zoom icon problem too.

 

[Jason Spencer]

Ok, sounds good. One last question. If I get the right TV, I won't even need the zoom on the DVD player anyway, right?

 

[Andrew_Ballew]

Sometimes you can press the RETURN key near the top of the remote to remove the zoom graphic. I have two JVC players in the house- a 75 and an 85, and the trick works on a LOT of discs, but not all.

Cheers

Andrew B.

 

[Ryan_J_C]

Andrew,
Thanks for the suggestion... It looks like on the S500BK that pressing Return brings you back to the menu or the beginning of the movie (depending on the disc). Looks like the only way to fix it might be through a firmware upgrade! :frowning:

 

[Sean Patrick]

none of the tricks that work on the other jvc models work with the 500BK.

 

[Matt Sheeler]

Here's one to try, its worked on all the models i've tryed. hold down the camera angle button for a few seconds and it should blink off. Its worth a shot.

 

[Ryan_J_C]

Matt,

Thanks for the tip. I just tried what you said but no luck still. I wonder how JVC could have made it removable in all their previous DVD players but overlooked it in this one. Oh well!