JVC XVN650B DVD Video Player with Up-Conversion
By: JVC Average Rating: 3.5 Total Reviews: 16
More Information
 On: 2008-01-26
This is a brand new christmas gift that is a piece of junk! Hangs up during any media you throw at it you name it DVD CD Mp3 new or old it does not matter. This thing will be sure and jump with any of them.
I have never had so much trouble trying to explain that the player was messing up and I had not tried to use it for anything other that playing DVDs and CDs and had not had it for even a month. You would think that JVC would want to make a customer happy.I explained that I had recieved this as a Christmas gift and they said they would not even look at it unless I had a reciept.I tried to explain again that it was a gift and the person that purchased it lived across the country from me. They said sorry that is there policy. And told me to call a local repair shop to get it fixed.I am going to purchase another DVD player and place this one in the trash after I list it on ebay with a link to this review.
On: 2008-01-19
Player skips on CDs. This includes MP3 CDs and brand new audio CDs. Only a 90 day warranty. Of course started doing this after 90 days...
Video is fine.
 On: 2008-01-16
The DVD player produces very nice images and sound.
My biggest gripe is the upconversion feature, 480p to 1080i,
is enabled from the from panel. There is no way to set it from
the remote. You cant set it permanently to 1080i from the setup
menus either.
For every movie you watch, you have to to stop motion, manually
set it to 1080i from the front panel, and then resume playback.
 On: 2008-01-10
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Upon opening the unit the first thing you will notice is its small footprint and shallow depth.
The width is a standard 17" wide so it should be on the very top of your other video hard ware due to the shallow depth.
As others may have stated, the disk tray is made with very thin materials and is something that should be handled very carefully due to its almost "to flexible" build.
But getting past the 2 noted features we just pointed out let us move on the reasons we bought this unit!
QUALITY VIDEO AND SOUND REPRODUCTION!!
We only use the HDMI output for the obvious reason of the HDTV 1080i quality playback features this product can produce. The best resolution this model outputs is 1920 X 1080i via the HDMI connection on the back. Playback on our 50" wide plasma monitor is outstanding to say the least! Using a burned copy of "Transformers" with a very high compression method still provided near perfect replay and visual performance!
Playback of the factory copy of "Transformers" showed us a flawless, perfect visual replay!
The unit also has a menu setup for 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio for viewing.
Additional Black Level Expansion B.L.E. for allowing expanded grey scale settings of 0 IRE cut off and 7.5 IRE Cut off, making black level settings even more enhanced with your plasmas Black level settings. Nice feature.
Menu setup is very straight forward and the G.U.I. takes very little time to use and feel comfortable with. The visual replay level from this unit deserves a 5 out of 5 for its top performing playback, true up-conversion abilitys and stability on screen thru out the entire resolution spectrums.
Moving on to the sound quality. Digital and Audio Sync is 100% accurate with no laps in synchronious replay!
We only use the Digital Toslink output connection due to the higher sound replay and ability this model outputs! True Digital DTS, DOLBY 5.1 and in higher 96 kHz digital signals. Anyone who owns a quality full feature H.T.S. receiver with the upper band ability for playback is going to notice a big difference in sound play back!
This model shoots out Dolby surround sound better than any other DVD player we have found on the market to date for the price paid! Clear, Powerful, and stunning sound quality! So we gave the unit a 5 out of 5 for sound playback as well.
If youre looking to upgrade your DVD player for the benefits of HDMI 1080i playback and want to take advantage of the higher bandwidth on the sound spectrum as well, you wont go broke throwing down for this lightweight compact DVD player. The only features we wish it had come with... a 3 to 5 disk changer, and seeing the disk tray built a tad bit stronger than its current structures design. JVC componant owners will also miss out on the lack of Compulink connectivity, as it is also not present on this model.
If you can look beyond these small quirks, you wont be disappointed with what you do get from this very well priced player. Great video HDTV Play back and Fantastic DTS-DOLBY Sound reproduction! For the price its a "VERY" safe bet!
Final Thoughts: Keep your power cords "AWAY" from any speaker wires and other input output cables. Learn the correct ways you can eliminate RFI noise in your H.T.S.
Read the manual thru and thru and also take your time setting up this unit.
SCC-AXION Studios Inc.
 On: 2008-01-08
Please read update at end of review. Unit is defective after a week.
I dont have a HD TV, so Ill just be reviewing the player in general. The unit loads DVDs faster than in some other units Ive owned - in fact, I was impressed with the loading speed.
It takes a little while to eject a disk, however, but luckily there is an eject button on the remote, so youll have to get used to using it if you dont want to stand around at the machine waiting for the door to open. Waiting time isnt horrible, but Im used to units that eject faster.
The remote has all the bells and whistles, including a zoom feature and a numeric keypad.
The only problem Ive had with this unit is that it sometimes wont locate an episode or chapter on a disk and will revert to its splash screen (the screen that appears when you first turn it on). This tends to happen after using it non-stop for a long period of time. I dont know if the unit overheats or just gets tired. I am a marathon dvd watcher - I will watch the entire season of a TV show in one sitting (as I did this past weekend). There are 4 issues that could have affected the player: (1) the room was overly warm ; (2) the unit overheated; (3) the unit got "tired" or (4) the unit is defective. Each time, shutting the unit off for a short period of time "fixed" the problem, so Im thinking there is something in the unit that may be overheating.
The disk tray seems fragile. Its very thin. I suggest you use the eject button (either on the unit or the remote) to operate the disk tray unless you have a slow and gentle touch.
The display on the unit is very unobtrusive. Its small and doesnt serve as a nightlite as the display on some units do.
All-in-all, Im happy with the unit. The picture on my old CRT TV (which I am planning to replace with a HDTV soon)is as good as it can be. Im taking away 1 star for the flimsy disk tray and for the couple times the unit would not load an episode. If that problem becomes chronic, I will be back to edit my review further.
OK..problem is now chronic. It is refusing to locate episodes any old time. Im also getting disk errors. The unit is not hot; the room is not hot; I just turned it on so its not "tired."
Doesnt look like Im allowed to change my star rating, but if I could, Id bring it down to 2. Im returning the item and asking for a replacement, just in case I just got a lemon.
On: 2008-01-07
Please read update at end of review. Unit is defective after a week.
I dont have a HD TV, so Ill just be reviewing the player in general. The unit loads DVDs faster than in some other units Ive owned - in fact, I was impressed with the loading speed.
It takes a little while to eject a disk, however, but luckily there is an eject button on the remote, so youll have to get used to using it if you dont want to stand around at the machine waiting for the door to open. Waiting time isnt horrible, but Im used to units that eject faster.
The remote has all the bells and whistles, including a zoom feature and a numeric keypad.
The only problem Ive had with this unit is that it sometimes wont locate an episode or chapter on a disk and will revert to its splash screen (the screen that appears when you first turn it on). This tends to happen after using it non-stop for a long period of time. I dont know if the unit overheats or just gets tired. I am a marathon dvd watcher - I will watch the entire season of a TV show in one sitting (as I did this past weekend). There are 4 issues that could have affected the player: (1) the room was overly warm ; (2) the unit overheated; (3) the unit got "tired" or (4) the unit is defective. Each time, shutting the unit off for a short period of time "fixed" the problem, so Im thinking there is something in the unit that may be overheating.
The disk tray seems fragile. Its very thin. I suggest you use the eject button (either on the unit or the remote) to operate the disk tray unless you have a slow and gentle touch.
The display on the unit is very unobtrusive. Its small and doesnt serve as a nightlite as the display on some units do.
All-in-all, Im happy with the unit. The picture on my old CRT TV (which I am planning to replace with a HDTV soon)is as good as it can be. Im taking away 1 star for the flimsy disk tray and for the couple times the unit would not load an episode. If that problem becomes chronic, I will be back to edit my review further.
OK..problem is now chronic. It is refusing to locate episodes any old time. Im also getting disk errors. The unit is not hot; the room is not hot; I just turned it on so its not "tired."
Doesnt look like Im allowed to change my star rating, but if I could, Id bring it down to 2. Im returning the item and asking for a replacement, just in case I just got a lemon.
On: 2008-01-05
With a good upconversion cable, this unit does a good job rendering regular DVDs to a better video quality. Was well worth the cost and made a great Christmas gift.
On: 2008-01-02
We bought this unit about 4 months ago for my mother-in-law. After only a few movies - maybe a total of 10, it repeatedly freezes during playback. Unfortunately, it is 4 months since purchase, so no guarantee (JVC offers only 90 days). I am out the purchase price and will buy another unit - but not on line. Next time I go to my local shop so that I have a place to return it if need be. I should have listened to the negative reviews here as they had the same problems I did.
On: 2007-12-15
FYI For anyone who wished to turn this player into a region free player. Start it up..open the tray......leave it unlaod and then click on the 0 button on remote 2-4 times and u will get a dispaly message that player is coded for region 1.just puch the 0 button on remote then hit pause/exit button on remote and u have urself a region free player.i have plyed dvds from region 2,4,5, and 1 without any problems.was very happy to discover this whne i was fiddling around with the player.this feature is not included in the product description and you will not find any refenece to it in your product manual.but it does work.
On: 2007-12-14
FYI For anyone who wished to turn this player into a region free player. Start it up..open the tray......leave it unlaod and then click on the 0 button on remote 2-4 times and u will get a dispaly message that player is coded for region 1.just puch the 0 button on remote then hit pause/exit button on remote and u have urself a region free player.i have plyed dvds from region 2,4,5, and 1 without any problems.was very happy to discover this whne i was fiddling around with the player.this feature is not included in the product description and you will not find any refenece to it in your product manual.but it does work.
On: 2007-12-01
I bought this unit from vann s electronics, fast shipping and good packaging, but the unit works flawlessly best picture for the price, fast loading easy to use, just one gripe display on front could of been brighter or a little bigger but this unit has excellent features and good sound, and picture quality ive always had good luck with JVC they just seem to keep getting better try this player it will work with any setup from basic to HD< I have one unit and im buying another for my bedroom this unit i would recommend to anyone this unit is well built and i just cannot say enough about this dvd player but I love it try it its well worth your money 5 stars from me
On: 2007-11-26
I bought this dvd player at frys about two months ago. Big mistake. It regularly will jutter and hang and freeze when playing a movie. If I eject the disk and reinsert it, sometimes it will play better. When I play burned discs, the player will constantly hang, no matter what I do (and my computer plays the discs just fine). I would have returned the player but the problems were not noticeable at first (I though maybe it was just me not being used to the player, but now it is obviously that the player stinks).
Another problem that I have recently noticed is that the player momentarily hangs or seems as it drops a few frames at each and every chapter change.
I love to watch movies and I did some serious research into my next DVD player, since my toshiba 5-disc changer had died after a respectable 5 year run. My girlfriend had found that consumer reports raved about this model, and that the amazon reviews were through the roof. Well, that may all be true, but the unit that is sitting on my shelf is a big, fat piece of junk.
I cannot recommend this unit to anybody since there is at least one more review for this unit that seems to demonstrate similar problems.
So, I would probably rate a working unit four or five stars, but since mine is basically a lemon (and its past the 30 days to return it), Im stuck with this POS and I give it one star (zero if I could).
I am waiting to hear back from JVC about this issue but from my research there were no firmware updates that could fix this problems (in fact, none at all). And upon googling these issues, I found that there is at least another JVC dvd player that has the "chapter change" problem and that JVC had issued a firmware upgrade that worked for some and not for others (check the amazon reviews for yourself of that player).
So in closing, take my review with a grain of salt as Im clearly a disgruntled consumer (wouldnt you be?). You may be one of the lucky ones, but your unit could end up being just like mine too.
On: 2007-11-22
I visited Amazon and saw that this DVD player had such wonderful reviews. All five people who reviewed this DVD player before me gave it 5 stars. Well, it looks like people bought this player, played one DVD and automatically assumed it was a wonderful player. Well, its not. I had this DVD player for ONLY 5 days and I have experienced a number of problems.
Day 1, this player played fine. I played a few DVDs and was very happy with the picture and the performance. Day 2 was a bad day. I played a few DivX videos and it kept on skipping. So, I ejected and put the disk back in and it played fine. So, I was like, ok, just one problem, no biggie. A few hours later, I play a DVD. Then when Im finished with the DVD player and turned off the machine. Well, it didnt shut off. The darn thing froze. So, I had to unplug and plug the DVD player back in. So, the DVD player went back to normal after I plugged it back in. Day 3, there werent any problems so I was starting to feel happy again. Day 4, I play a DVD and when I tried ejecting the disk, the tray wouldnt come out. So, I tried playing around with all the buttons and it finally came out. Day 5, I played a DVD and it was skipping. And in case youre wondering, the DVD is SCRATCH-FREE and it played flawlessly on my other players. So, I ejected and put the disk back in and it played fine. This is similar to my DivX situation. Apparently, this DVD player gets jinxed very easily. So, now Ive had it and Im off to the store to return this item for a full refund.
Im annoyed not because of these problems, but because everybody before me, wrote such a wonderful review about a product that isnt so wonderful after all. Ill be sticking to Sony DVD players as Ive never had problems with those. Ive had an old Sony player for 9 years and NOT ONE problem occured with that. I just wanted to upgrade to a new DVD player that is progressive scan and can play DivX and MP3. Oh well, I guess I wont be upgrading anytime soon.
On: 2007-11-21
I visited Amazon and saw that this DVD player had such wonderful reviews. All five people who reviewed this DVD player before me gave it 5 stars. Well, it looks like people bought this player, played one DVD and automatically assumed it was a wonderful player. Well, its not. I had this DVD player for ONLY 5 days and I have experienced a number of problems.
Day 1, this player played fine. I played a few DVDs and was very happy with the picture and the performance. Day 2 was a bad day. I played a few DivX videos and it kept on skipping. So, I ejected and put the disk back in and it played fine. So, I was like, ok, just one problem, no biggie. A few hours later, I play a DVD. Then when Im finished with the DVD player and turned off the machine. Well, it didnt shut off. The darn thing froze. So, I had to unplug and plug the DVD player back in. So, the DVD player went back to normal after I plugged it back in. Day 3, there werent any problems so I was starting to feel happy again. Day 4, I play a DVD and when I tried ejecting the disk, the tray wouldnt come out. So, I tried playing around with all the buttons and it finally came out. Day 5, I played a DVD and it was skipping. And in case youre wondering, the DVD is SCRATCH-FREE and it played flawlessly on my other players. So, I ejected and put the disk back in and it played fine. This is similar to my DivX situation. Apparently, this DVD player gets jinxed very easily. So, now Ive had it and Im off to the store to return this item for a full refund.
Im annoyed not because of these problems, but because everybody before me, wrote such a wonderful review about a product that isnt so wonderful after all. Ill be sticking to Sony DVD players as Ive never had problems with those. Ive had an old Sony player for 9 years and NOT ONE problem occured with that. I just wanted to upgrade to a new DVD player that is progressive scan and can play DivX and MP3. Oh well, I guess I wont be upgrading anytime soon.
UPDATE (December 5, 2007)- I bought a Sony DVP-NS77H a week ago and it is a much better player. I highly recommend that player over this one. The picture is way better and most importantly, it doesnt fail. One downfall is that its not DivX compatible, but since it doesnt break down, Im willing to make the sacrifice. Sony never fails me, but JVC does.
On: 2007-11-09
I now have a stack of four black JVC products
and a black television on top.
Receiver, tape deck, CD recorder and now DVD player.
I can listen to sound through TV to a/v receiver
using HDMI cable while watching a DVD "movie"
or have the sound through normal phono cables
for a different equalization using DVD MULTI input that I use for music.
Playing MP3 files is quieter now cuz i dont have the computer on.
Imagine having a CD with 26 hours of music.
The unit is slim so it only lifts my new 26" television up about an inch.
by: macdadi80 On: 2007-08-29
Easy-setup, looks nice, small/light form factor, great playback with quick load times. My only complaint is that the digital display on the front is very small, so from across the room, it is hard to tell which chapter you are on. Its a small gripe, but it can be a hassle when youre watching a multi-episode CD.
Otherwise, an excellent little player.
On: 2007-07-12
I burn quite a lot of movies and I have found this DVD Video Player is great on playbacks.
On: 2007-06-17
HDMI to a 32" LCD and Digital Optical to the HT work perfectly, great quality on both. Decent remote. Ejecting and closing the tray as well as disk boot time is pleasantly quick. My only gripe is that the disk tray is flimsy at best.
On: 2007-06-16
HDMI to a 32" LCD and Digital Optical to the HT work perfectly, great quality on both. Decent remote. Ejecting and closing the tray as well as disk boot time is pleasantly quick. My only gripe is that the disk tray is flimsy at best.
On: 2007-06-07
This was given to me as a replacement to my old Sony model. We have played 3 films in it and it played flawlessly. I am also happy with the quick load time; no need to wait around forever for your disc to load. There is one thing about this machine though that just drives me bonkers; the color!!! Why do they make these things black??? Not only that, the actual tray is black. We had to move the whole unit near to the rear of the shelf in our entertainment center so that the cords could reach where they needed to go without them being taut and strained. As a result, when ya want to put your disc into the tray, ya better bring a darn flashlight because you wont be able to see the markings in the tray to properly load a disc in. You could of course turn your lights on high in order to see; but for cryin out loud. I actually ended up causing a minor scratch tonight to one of my wifes discs because I couldnt see the markings on the tray. Also, the round impression where the disc would sit is set a little too far back. As a result, when I put the disc in, I ended up missing the round impression where it should sit. It needed to be further out. ughhhhhhhhh. Despite the fact that the color is a detriment, it does play very well. If one is careful while placing a disc in the tray and brings a flashlight along, you should have no problem.
On: 2007-06-07
This thing has great overall picture and sound. It does its job. Ive had this player for over a year and have had no major problems with it. I used to work for a tv production company and I tend to see things that the average viewer wouldnt. I dont know if its specific to my player or if it does it with all of these but on occasion there is a minor hiccup in playback thatll appear once or twice with any disc you watch in it. I asked my wife if she saw it to make sure I wasnt goin crazy and she said that she also saw it. I can only describe it as a minor yet noticeable jump during playback. I am fine with it so im not returning it. The sound is pretty good but seems to have a slight strange hiss in the background; but that could just be my equipment. The load times are interesting. Sometimes they are lightning fast while other times youll wait 20 seconds or longer for a load. The eject wait is also long. Other than that, its fine. Hope this review helped. :)
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