JVC XV-FA95GD DVD Player...any good? (1 Viewer)

[Gordon Ripley]

I'm thinking of picking one of these up. Like the MP3 playback, DVD Audio, Progressive scan...all in one package.

I have an Hitachi HDTV now and think it will be a good match.

It's kind of a long story why I am choosing this unit, it was a substitution from Sears as they do not carry the unit I actually ordered (Panasonic RP61, as everyone knows Panasonic never produced this model but Sears Canada still has it on their web site).

So, they are substituting this unit (JVC XV-FA92SL as it is called in Canada) for really a very good price, $100 less than Futureshop plus I am using Sears points.

Has anyone tried this player, would it be a good buy?

Your thoughts would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Gord

 

[Paul Clarke]

I think it's an excellent player. I own the 70 BK single play version.

The only thing I have any qualms about at all is the 7 disc changer mechanism. I know of people losing discs from the tray and having to open up the case to retrieve them. A good friend of mine had this happen when I was visiting but we couldn't determine whether it was due to faulty loading or the mechanism itself. If you don't need the multi-play I would go for simplicity.

Video-Audio Performance-wise these JVC's are great with a terrific feature set for the money.

 

[Stephen Houdek]

I too have a 70BK and find the picture quality EXCELLENT and it has most of the bells and whistles you'll ever want. CD audio is good as well.

 

[Gordon Ripley]

I really didn't need or necessarily want the 7 disc version but this is what Sears is substituting. I guess they are substituting for something of higher price, guess they feel guilty or didn't want there customers complaining.

I have heard that the disc changing was kind of so so and that you cannot play randomly with all of the discs, just one disc at a time (maybe JVC doesn't what the player to be constantly changing discs).

Gord

 

[Matt Stryker]

Gord- I'm really enjoying mine. I did have qualms about the changer mechanism at first, but I found that if you seat the disc firmly in the disc well, I have yet to have a "slipped disc" .

 

[Doug_H]

I have the black version of this player. I have not been impressed with the player in the 9 or so months I have had it. It has a tough time holding the picture without shimmering or ghosting during fast action scenes or very white scenes. I have tested it on a number of TV's so I know it is the player. JVC was kind enough to swap it out for a new one but it has the same problem.

DVD-A playback is very good and it is the only reason I kept the player. the 7 disc is painfully slow at switching discs but it has never locked up or been unable to play a disc including the infamous Boz disc so many have had problems with.

If you have a smaller TV 27" or below I would say go for it. The video problems won't be noticable and the DVD-A more than makes the player worth the money.

 

[Mike_G]

Does it have the Episode I subtitle problem like the other progressive JVC players?

Mike

 

[Rob_b]

I just demoed this unit. I also demoed the Marantz 5200 ($600) at the same time. In every area I gave the Marantz the edge except features. The Marantz is without DVD-A.

I was hoping that the JVC was going to perform as good as the Marantz. No luck. The JVC is a very good deal. But you get what you pay for. My biggest issue was build quality. In this case I would pay the extra $250 for the Marantz.

 

[Paul Clarke]

Mike,

Yes it has the TPM subtitle problem. The only way I know of to fix this is to bug JVC about it and see if you can ship it out for a fix. Do a search under this or JVC and you'll find someone on this forum, I believe, who is having this done. If not here then try consumerreview.com. I know it was one of them.

For myself, this is a non-issue and not worth the hassle of sending my 'beauty' away.

 

[Gordon Ripley]

What is the "TPM subtitle problem"? I assume it does something if you are watching a move with subtitles?

Also, does it have the Chroma bug thingy? As you can tell, I'm not totally up on all the jargon.

Thanks

Gord

 

[Robert Franklin]

I have the 90BK. I haven't had any problems out of this unit. I bought because I like that it holds 7 discs. One thing I don't like about it is the fact that disc changins is slow compared to the 5-disc and my former model 6 disc ONKYO. Another thing that I don't like is that I can't program dvds to play in any specified order as with my Sony. Outside of those 2 reasons I believe that the player is an excellent buy!!

 

[Eric Harrison]

I have the 85GD version of this player. It is the 7 disc changer without the built in decoder that you get with the 95GD For the money, I have to give it a thumbs up. The video is outstanding on my Mits 55809. Highly recommended as I have no problems with this machine on playback and the changer mechanism. It does not have the chroma bug either.

Eric

 

[Gordon Ripley]

Thanks for all of the comments everyone, much appreciated!!
Sears called me yesterday to say it was in, so I picked it up last night. Initial reaction from playing with it for an hour or so is GREAT! Good thing about Sears is the return policy, no questions...full refund within 30 days. So, I am going to play the heck out of it this weekend.
I believe my old DVD player (that came free with my new Hitachi widescreen) really must have a bad case of the Chroma bug, as I see a HUGH difference in the clarity of the reds. I see no distortion in the reds at all (so far viewing Toy Story for 30 minutes). So again, I watch as many moviews as possible this weekend to see if there are any problems.
The MP3 play back works well so far, very limited features (like no random or programming) but works fine, no problem with playing my CDR. The onscreen display is kind of cool, it's too bad the screen saver option is not available for MP3 playback (not sure why they did this?).
DVD-A is very cool, need to make some adjustments in the speaker set-up, but very impressed so far.
So, so far so good. Again, thanks for the posts.
Gord