HOWEVER- I suggest staying far away from this model, and in general ANY electronic device that doesnt come with an honest 1 year warranty (at least!). Watch out for SONY, too.

First, the trays jammed on us (luckily within the 90 days "labor" warranty). Got that repaired, and it worked okay for a few months, though never played CDs right. Then, the audio started fluttering in and out at random. Turned out to be a $140 dollar repair ("parts" were free, though "labor" was $140). Try asking for your warranteed replacement "parts" so you can fix it yourself, and youll see how useless the warranty is: after 90 days you MUST use an authorized repair facility to get your warranteed replacement parts- so essentially after about 12 weeks of use you pay for all "repairs" (or defects).

Anyway, we paid the $140 to fix this 8 month old JVC player. 2 weeks later the audio problem has returned. I will take great pleasure in tossing this JVC garbage out of a second story window onto concrete, and will never buy another "90 day warranty" device again.

Good
- 7 disc capacity, very nice. Some complain about noise during switching, mines behind a glass door, I dont care.
- DVD-Audio, excellent sound quality. CD player specs are also excellent
- Very good bass management (unfortunately, not for discrete DVD-Audio output)
- Price/Value is excellent, you have to go to a very expensive player to get carousel and DVD-Audio

Bad
- MP3 functionality is extremely primitive, almost useless
- Lack of random playback across discs is a major deficiency
- Clunky control structure and UI make it a PITA to operate

Its a good player, but has some big problems. Price is the big attraction here. Still waiting for the perfect player, probably will ALWAYS be waiting....

PROs:

This multi-disc player handles more formats than any other comparable multi-disc player when I bought it: DVDs, CDs, MP3s, CD-Rs (even Black CD-Rs), VCDs, SVCDs, DVD-Audio.

The 7 disc capacity over the standard 5 disc of others is nice.

Its footprint is not quite as large as others would lead you to believe.

CONs:

This player has some very awkward and unacceptable UI quirks.

For example, there is no "Next Disc" function. This seems so obvious and simple, but is not available - and believe me, you will miss it. To advance to another disc, you have to press the "Disc" button plus a number button for whatever tray you want.

That wouldnt be so bad, except that the unit gives you no indication what disc tray you are on save a blinking orange light. This blinking orange light is of no use when you are sitting more than 3 feet from the player, and might even be annoying to some as it "blinks" throughtout playback. So, orange blinking light that serves no purpose other than to annoy. Ouch.

Another nasty omission is lack of time functions on DVD. You cannot, for example, show elapsed time for Chapter, or remaining time for Chapter, Disc, etc. There simply is no excuse for this. I like to know how much time is left remaining on a disc, and this unit cannot tell me. Ugh.

My particular unit turns itself on from Standby at random intervals for no reason - as if it were possessed by a ghost. I have no idea if this is a problem with the unit in general or not.

I needed a replacement player that was multidisc and could handle all the formats mentioned above. I bought this player because I couldnt wait a few months for the next batch of newer models that might have fit the bill...

You might want to wait.

gold (FA95)

silver (FA92)

black (FA90)

some people complained that it didnt come in silver.

also, no dvd-audio player has a digital output. its only 6.1 analog out.

as for the product, it is the best overall player in its price range. do your research before you pontificate.

Playback of the two problematic films was fine when playedback from the dvd player on my laptop through the same s-video cable into the same s-video input on my TV. So it definately seems like the JVC player has the problem. Im assuming its a defective machine and not a wide problem.

1) CD-RW - I blow through CD-Rs because I get sick of a few songs here and there so I wanted to be able to make new mixes on the same discs, like minidisc. The CD-Rs play, but act strangly. If you try to pause or scan or perform any standard CD functions other than play or skip, it jumps to the next disc. Also, no MP3 support for CD-RW.

2) MP3 - They play, but thats about it. You can only go straight down the list, in order. No programming or shuffle. Only reads from CD-R.

3) GUI dependancy - Too many features are only available from the on-screen display. I dont want to have to bring up menus to sift through for simple operations while Im trying to watch a movie or listen to discs.

4) Changer - This is a seven disc changer with a single disc mentality. You cant program across discs or stick in 7 CDs and shuffle through them. It reads disc to disc, track by track, unless you want to focus on one disc. I was hoping to replace my single DVD and CD changer seperates with a one-shot, but this isnt going to be it.

5) Output - I got a Panasonic DVD when players first came out that had two signal outputs, to I took it for granted that this would too. It doesnt. This can be limiting unless you get line splitters. (Ie., I dont want to have to have my receiver on to watch a late night movie).

6) DVD-R - I havent tried one yet, but the manual states that the unit doesnt play DVD-R. Since my next investment (after I replace this) will be a DVD burner, this doesnt fly.

Anyways, all the above seem to be accounted for in the Toshiba model SD-3755, so Im going to give that a go. Plus its silver color matches the rest of my gear. The JVCs gold(?) case is more aesthestically obtrusive than I thought, but I do find gold to be tacky, in general.

Thats it.