buggy JVC XVD723GD. Tweeter won't ackowledge (1 Viewer)

[Haru]

I have a JVC XVD723GD DVD Player that has spent 8 months out of the 18 that I have owned it with the service shop.

Let me start at the top:

I bought it with an extended warranty.
I first noticed a problem when it wouldn't work with the Guns of Navarone DVD. It wouldn't say "no disc" or anything like that. It would just eject the tray a few moments after I closed it.

At some stage I got a letter from TWEETER saying that if the player had been freezing up, I should take it in and it would be replaced for free. While mine was not freezing up, I figured that it DID have a problem, and surely the freezing problem would also surface and that they'd surely fixed it in the current production units. So I did take mine in and got it replaced.

The replacement unit started freezing up and nothing but pulling the power cable would reset it. I took it in for the first time, and the service slip said that they had replaced the laser and fixed a short in the power supply.

Then I bought an DVD of an Indian movie, Lagan and another one called Angoor. With Latter, it would do exactly the same thing that it did with Guns of Navarone, but with the former, it would play fine till it got to chapter 28, and then the picture would start artifacting badly, the sound would go out of sync with the video. The video would get worse and worse, until the thing would stop dead and eject the DVD.

I took it in again, and when it came back, they had replaced the laser again. This time Lagan would play 99% fine with only some artifacting and audio/video sync hiccups. Angoor, which would not play earlier, would now play but would do what other one used to do. I.e., it would play fine, but then well into the movie, it would start artifacting, audio and video would go out of sync, the picture would go all the heck and then the disc would be ejected.

These two discs would play perfectly well on every other DVD player that I tried them on. EVERY SINGLE ONE. However, there is a possibility that these DVDs don't meet the DVD specification. However, the player would intermittently exhibit video artifacting and would stumble once in a while (frozen or dropped frames, audio out of sync with video) with DVDs like Spy Game and The Man Who Wasn't There, and lots of others.

I took the player in again, and this time it came back with the note"no problem found". I went in to speak with the manager who said that they had been unable to verify any problems with it and that my Indian DVDs were bootlegged and therefore the player didn't play them and that was normal. I asked why it did it with Spy Game. No satisfactory answer to that. I said that with confirmed good DVDs, its an intermittent bug, that it doesn't cause the player to stop running, so unless you are watching the screen at all times, you'll miss it. He tells me that the service tech has 20 screens with machines running on all of them and he watches all the screens simultaneously, and would surely catch anything that might go on. I found that quite ridiculous that the service tech sits and watches all 20 screens all the time tests are on, and can see intermittent problems in all of them.

I reject that this could find my problem. I was quite upset because I felt that their diagnosis procedure was by design going to skip over intermittent, short burst problems, particularly if you weren't actually listening and paying attention to the sound track.

After some heat, the manager said that they would take it in one more time, and if it didnd't work we'd go from there. I specifically said that if they watched Spy Game and listened to it, they would see what I was talking about. I had no hope because I knew they would only repeat the tests they did earlier, and they would not try the Spy Game DVD. Sure enough, 6 weeks later it came back, "No problem found". I asked the manager what he intended to do.

"I don't know that I can do anything. We can't do anything about something that we haven't found". After some discussion, he said that the player would be sent to JVC for their diagnosis. And if they couldn't fix the problem, it would be replaced. If they didn't find the problem either, well then......

I am concerned because I am fairly certain that JVC's diagnosis procedures are probably no more thorough or investigative than Tweeter's. I am certain that there will be no resolution here to my satisfaction.

SO what should I do?

 

[EricK]

what I think you should do:

#1 You bought an extended warranty...tell them to make good on it. The player should work to your satisfaction. Thats why you paid good money for the extended warranty. If they don't resolve the player issues then go to step 2.

#2 If JVC doesn't have a fix, then I would purchase a new player either at Tweeter (If you like their store and service) or at another retailer. I would definitely not buy an extended warranty as they are usually a waste of time and money (as you are experiencing by having a player for 10 of 18 months you have owned it).

#3 Finally, If you do buy another player, get a better model or different brand.

Eric.

 

[Haru]

Thanks for the reply, Eric.

I have told them precisely that, i.e., that I am not satisfied. SO they seem to be going through the motions of trying to satisfy me. It seems that as long as procedures are followed, they consider themselve to have done their bit, and don't feel obligated to produce any actual results.

I am extremely unlikely to buy anything at Tweeter again. If this doesn't get fixed, then I certainly will not, but even if it does, I am still not happy with their approach. They are a sales organization and woe be upon you if you need them to act as an effective service organization. With $11k invested in my HT, I need the security that I will have the support I need. I know that I won't get it from Tweeter.

I have already resigned myself to buying another player, and am keeping an eye on the various discussions to keep abreast of the models of distinction. "Buying a better player" is a flaky thing to execute. This JVC had a list price of $1000 when A Sony DVP360 was $250. How does one tell? I paid close to $700 including the extended warranty.

Technology is advancing so rapidly, and the price for cutting edge performance is dropping so fast, that I begin to wonder if it really doesn't make more sense to buy a $200 DVD player every 15-18 months or so, rather than spending $700 and hope to keep it for 4-5 years.

 

[EricK]

Agreed here. Might be better off and upgrade or update every year/year and a half. Thats been my situation since I got into dvd back in 1999. I went from a Toshiba 3802 in early Dec. 1999, to a Toshiba 6200 a year later in Dec. 2000, and then by March 2002, I had my hands on a Panny rp91 and a Sony DVP-NC650v. I fully expect to have something new come end 2002, beginning 2003.

It never ends!!!!
Good luck with your next player!

Eric.

 

[Bill Will]

I don't know what the store policy is but if it comes back not fixed I would take the dvd that's not playing correctly & sit right with the tech. & show him or her, what your talking about & if you can't sit with a tech. make the store manager sit with you that way if you show him or her the problem they will probably do something about it rather than just thinking this guys a pain in the a**.

 

[Haru]

Bill, I thought of that. The problem is that the one DVD that I know will definitely cause the machine to bomb out, the manager has rejected as a bootleg and refuses to consider it. THat it plays perfectly on every other player is of no consequence to him.

While the player will flake out with lots of discs that are KNOWN to be legitimate, its an intermittent problem. Its not predictable. He would have to sit and watch the whole movie with me. He's not going to do that.

 

[Bill Will]

How about if you could get around the macrovision in the dvd's you could make a video tape using different dvd's to show him what your talking about. You could also do this with JVC if the unit comes back saying nothing is wrong. Also ment to tell you before you give up on Tweeter make sure you talk to their home office not just some store manager & make sure the store manager knows you are going to do this, not to get him in trouble but to have Tweeter make good on it.