JVC XV-D701BK DVD Player
A fabulous DVD player, but...
I have owned this model DVD player for a little over a year now, and for the most part I have been quite pleased with its performance. The video output is sharp and detailed, and I have had no problems with digital artifacts crawling onto the screen during playback or the use of the rewind/fast-forward functions. As I do not own a HDTV or widescreen model, I can't vouch for its performance on those screens, but it did a fine job on my 20\\" JVC.<br />The audio performance was terrific, and was one of the primary reasons I selected this player in the first place. I have a Dolby Digital COMPATABLE receiver (Yamaha), but needed a decoder onboard to get the benefits of 5.1 sound. When I finally had the sound decoded through this DVD player, the sound was stunning.<br />Perhaps you've noticed I'm writing this in the past tense. About two weeks ago, I began experiencing a problem I've had on occasion with this player: every now and then, as a movie would progress, it would skip, making the movie jump frames and eventually sputter to a halt. Because this happened infrequently, I always attributed it to a dirty disc. (And most of the time, apparently coincidentally, this would work on the second or third try...and if it didn't, I would skip past the problem-causing scene.)<br />However, two weeks ago, this occurred, the movie sputtered to a halt -- and so did the player. I re-inserted the DVD and the player refused (and continues to refuse) the disc as readable. Now the player does not recognize discs of any kind, rendering the entire thing inoperable...