JVC XV-S500BK Progressive-Scan DVD Player , Black

• Plays DVD-Video, CD, CD-R/RW, VCD, SVCD, MP3-CD formats and displays digital stills (JPEG images on CD-R/RW)
• Digital Direct progressive-scan output
• High-bit/high-sampling (10-bit/54MHz video D/A converter for stunning picture quality
• Component-video, S-video, and composite-video outputs
• 1-bit P.E.M. D.D. converter with 192 kHz/24-bit audio resolution for spectacular sound with movies and music

I'd heard a great deal of buzz about JVC's new XV-S60BK DVD player much of it revolving around the low list price and the anticipation that it would deliver artifact-free progressive-scan images. Buzz aside, the player looked unassuming enough when I removed it from its box. The sleek front panel has only the most essential control buttons, plus an indicator that lights when the player is set to its progressive-scan mode.

The back panel is equally streamlined but has all the usual outputs. The component-video jack is switched to progressive mode by pressing the Progressive Scan button on the remote and holding it for a few seconds. In a new and very welcome trend that saves you quite a few bucks, JVC packages a set of component-video cables with the player.

The JVC's remote control felt substantial, with large buttons I could easily locate by touch in the dark. The controls you'll use most often are on the lower half. Directly above them are buttons for less used functions like picture zoom and shrink, Digest (displays a grid of images from each chapter on a DVD), and picture-quality presets. The remote can also be configured to control your TV.

Pressing the On Screen button near the bottom of the remote during playback shrinks the movie to a quarter-screen window and fills the rest of the screen with a control panel. Several functions can be accessed from this panel, including repeat modes, time and chapter search, and selection of soundtrack and subtitle language or camera angle. It also includes bar graphs indicating elapsed time and the disc's data-transfer rate. When you're playing a CD, a similar onscreen control window is available to set up repeat modes or program track order if you don't mind turning on the TV.

The JVC's 2x fast-scan mode delivered smooth, fluid playback. Another neat feature is aspect ratio control, activated by selecting the 16:9 Normal setting in the setup menu. This will prove useful if you have a widescreen HDTV that locks into a 16:9 or "full" display mode when it receives a progressive-scan signal (a number of them do). Set to its 16:9 Normal mode, the JVC player formats standard 4:3 images so they'll appear on widescreen displays with correct geometry instead of being stretched out to fill the screen.

Like the Marantz changer, the JVC effortlessly sailed through my progressive-scan torture tests. Scenes with fine horizontal lines combined with moving cam erawork all came through without any artifacts. Colors, too, looked solid, with no combing visible in either the bright reds of Yellow Submarine or the catcher's orange chest protector in For the Love of the Game.

When I switched to another reference DVD, the Hitchcock classic North by Northwest, I thought at first that the JVC came up somewhat shy on picture detail. Checking the sharpness control in the player's Normal preset, however, I noted that it was a notch below maximum. Bumping it back up let me clearly see both the texture in Cary Grant's impeccably cut gray suit and the details in the intricate furnishings of James Mason's library. Setting sharpness to maximum added slight ringing artifacts to the lines in the resolution pattern of Ovation Software's Avia test DVD, but I didn't notice any with movies.

The JVC XV-S60BK is an all-around excellent progressive-scan player that's also very reasonably priced. Having finally gotten my hands on it, I can attest that it more than justifies the buzz.

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The previous review discusses about the picture quality. Here I adds on the MP3 part.

It is very hard to find (I can't find one) an MP3 player that is designed specifically for a home entertainment system. As a result, I look for a DVD player that can play the MP3 the best. I brought a CD-R MP3 disk to Best Buy and test every compatible DVD player there. I found that this JVC XVS500 is the best, mainly it allows you to play the whole disk or just a directory. You can navigate from directory to directory and also from song to song. However, the display on the DVD shows only the numerical order-no text. All text info are displayed on the TV monitor. The sound is very good.

Two things that make it 4 stars rather than 5:

1) To change from directory to directory, one must use the remote. It would be nice if the player also has bottons for this purpose.

2) The Display on the DVD is too bright and the font is not "pleasant" to the eyes.

Furthermore, if the directory name and song name are also shown on the DVD displayed, it would give it 6 stars.

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This player didn't work for me. I had problems playing longer movies. It seemed to get just past 1 hour of play then start hanging up. The picture would get "blocky", frames would be superimposed, and it would stop... then sometimes eject the disc. The discs would play without problems in my two year old computer DVD drive.

Another annoyance.. the recommended file resolution for jpeg playback is 640x480. With this resolution it renders in perhpas 3 or 4 seconds. If you have files at 1500x1000 or so, it'll take more than 10 seconds to display.

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I bought this after returning a Philips DVD724AT that was defective. I'm very glad I made the switch as the JVC unit has more features and is built better. I had a non-progressive scan JVC DVD player for years before this that has always been very reliable.

The only downside is the JPEG file viewing is so slow it's not worth bothering with. On the other hand, I didn't buy this unit for the JPEG feature anyway so I don't really mind.

I purchased this DVD player after doing some research -it is highly rated by Consumer Reports. When I got to the store, I compared this player with a Sony model and two Toshibas which were equally well-rated. I purchased the JVC because I have a JVC TV, the price I paid was reduced and it had all the features I wanted. The picture is crystal clear, the sound terrific and set-up and installation was simple. At this price, this is a terrific machine and a good value.