JVC XV-D723GD Progressive-Scan DVD Player, Gold
Excellent DVD for 16X9
I own 3 DVD players.  A Toshiba SD-3109, a Pioneer DV-434 and this JVC XV-D723GD.  This is by far the most functional DVD I've ever own.  I agree with all the words spoken of by the Editor's Review.  I can add a little more input by saying that I have the JVC XV-D723GD on my 1999 model Elite (Pioneer) 65\\" Widescreen High Definition TV.  The JVC DVD player replaced my Toshiba.<br />  The audio is better than the Toshiba.  I am a audiophile however, my wife and mother are not who also noticed a difference as they mentioned it first to me before I commented on it.  I liked the five analog connections for the audio in the back and the player translated the audio with theater like fidelity.  I have a 5 speaker setup (2 front, 2 rear, 1 center) but no subwoofer attached to a pretty decent Onkyo Receiver you can find today for around $....  My Toshiba wasn't bad with the audio setup, but I had to disperse the sound in all five speaker to get the clarity I wanted in contrast with a true 5 speaker setup.  On the JVC, I just needed to set the speakers in the menu in expert mode (easier than you think and explained in the manual) and the focus of the Center speaker meshing with the front & rear speakers became as good as if I was sitting in a new AMC Theater.  One thing I did not like is that if I put in a pair of head phones to my receiver, the player didn't adjust to \\"headphones\\" but stayed on a 5 speaker setup.  This made voices and sound to distant and indiscernible.  I had to stop the DVD, go to setup and change audio to 2 speakers, then restart with scene selection on the DVD movie.<br />  The Video quality are the best colors I've seen on DVD.  In fact, with \\"progressive scan\\" on (you must use the three Composite Video Cables *not* provided in the retail box on a Widescreen TV to get \\"progressive scan\\"), the picture got rid of all the \\"jaggies\\" (round shapes that are not smooth looking on the screen).  For instance, the movie Mulan shows many \\"jaggies\\" clearly seen on many of the characters shoulders and heads when \\"progressive scan\\" is not used.  The JVC XV-D723GD removed these to be not visible nearly all the time.  The fidelity is so clear, it took me several hours to get used to the blacks or shaded scene shots.  It took the clarity of this JVC DVD player to notice that some movies are more gray scaled in black.  Mulan for instanced is much more shaded in it's blacks than Tarzan (Disney).  I thought it was foggy at first, but it became apparent that it only had this affect on me on the more faded black and shaded movies.  A good contrast on this point for me to tests this was with the movie \\"X men\\" (excellent brilliant blacks and shades) and the movie \\"Finding Forrester\\" (very gray scaled blacks and shades).  After putting in over 20 different types of DVDs it became apparent that it pick up the Blacks \\"more true\\" than the Toshiba did.  The only drawback I have not like on the JVC XV-D723GD is that the player takes over my Elite Widescreen TV.  After setting the control of the DVD menu to see a \\"16X9 auto\\" display, it would play a \\"standard format\\" or 1:33 to only show up in \\"Full\\" mode on my TV.  For those without experience with a 16X9 TV, this means people and objects on the screen become a little oval due to the wider screen.  We remedy this by changing the TV mode to \\"Natural Wide\\" however the DVD would lock me out from doing this task on my Widescreen TV.  I simply set the DVD control panel to see a 16X9 normal (or fixed) Display and the  standard format or 1:33  DVD movies would play with black bars on both horizontal sides instead of top and bottom.  No biggie to me on a 65\\" widescreen, but it may bother some for various reasons which is why I am  pointed it out.<br />  The remote is very well thought out in \\"terminology\\", colors and grip, however, it is small.  On my Toshiba DVD, the buttons were far enough apart with infrequent buttons hidden in a slider compartment.  This meant that in a dark room, I could just grabthe controller and easily learned to feel my way to the \\"pause\\", \\"enter\\", \\"play\\", \\"next\\" \\"menu\\" or \\"stop\\" buttons.  The remote on the JVC player is not like that at all.  I don't believe I can master this remote in the dark, but will have to turn on the lights most times when trying those task.  On a good note, the \\"round speed dial\\" is big enough to grab the remote quickly in order to back track (for those, \\"what did he say moments\\" in a movie) simply by turning the dial.  This feature will act like a VCR's forward or backtrack.<br />  OK then, to rap up, everything worked for me out of the box and I am thoroughly delighted with this product.  I can live with the minor flaws that are happening with my personal home audio/video system as they really don't get in my way enough to bring much frustration to me.ust grab the controller and easily learned to feel my way to the \\"pause\\", \\"enter\\", \\"play\\", \\"next\\" \\"menu\\" or \\"stop\\" buttons.  The remote on the JVC player is not like that at all.  I don't believe I can master this remote in the dark, but will have to turn on the lights most times when trying those task.  On a good note, the \\"round speed dial\\" is big enough to grab the remote quickly in order to back track (for those, \\"what did he say moments\\" in a movie) simply by turning the dial.  This feature will act like a VCR's forward or backtrack.   <br />   OK then, to rap up, everything worked for me out of the box and I am thoroughly delighted with this product.  I can live with the minor flaws that are happening with my personal home audio/video system as they really don't get in my way enough to bring much frustration to me.