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JVC XV-D723,
Around £500
So far JVC DVD
players have all been reasonably well specified with some useful extras but it
has really gone to town with the XV-723; if there was room for a kitchen sink
there’s little doubt it would have one of those too…
It’s a handsome
mid-range machine, JVC has yet to follow Sony, Panasonic et al into trendy
slim-line cabinets but the front panel design has been carefully thought out
with what looks like an extra wide display that artfully swallows up a lot of
the empty space. Inside the box there’s Dolby Digital and dts 5.1 channel
surround sound decoders, and this is the first player we’ve seen with a DVD
Audio decoder as well, though since the format has only recently been ratified
there’s precious little to play on it. It could turn out to be a major
development in hi-fi, but until there’s a worthwhile selection of software
we’ll have to concentrate on it’s DVD Video capabilities. However, it’s the
abundance of widgets and gizmos that grab your attention. There’s nothing
particularly new but there’s lots to play with and some interesting variations
on familiar themes.
It’s a long
list so we’ll dive straight in with picture zoom. It’s not just any old picture
zoom though, this one swings both ways as it were and reduces picture size as
well as magnifies, with 1/16x, 1/8x, 1/4x and 1/2x sized picture; then it goes
on to 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x, 32x, 64x, 126x, 256x, 512x and a quite absurd 1024x
magnification; the image area is controlled with the cursor buttons on the
remote handset. In fact the picture descends into a pixellated mush once you
get past 32x and virtually all detail is lost from then on, but it’s quite
amusing, for a few minutes.
The Digest
feature is similar to the ones on previous JVC machines. This creates a
multi-picture display (3 x 3 sub screens) that can be filled with a sequence of
still shots or the lead-ins from chapters but it’s quite cranky and despite our
best attempts we couldn’t always get it to work properly. It also did odd
things as well, like superimpose a grid of still frames over a full-frame
image; admittedly ours was a very early sample and there might be some bugs in
the control software, which might explain its eccentric behaviour.
VFP or Video
Fine Processor provides an unusually wide range of picture adjustments, the
default settings are Normal and Cinema, but it’s the two User settings that are
of most interest; the picture parameters covered are brightness, colour,
contrast, tint, sharpness, Y-Delay and Gamma. The last two you may not have
come across before: Y or luminance delay has the effect of shifting the picture
side to side, whilst gamma alters the contrast balance, handy when the movie
contains a lot of dark scenes, where detail can be lost in the shadows and
gloom.
3D Phonic
virtual surround is a little more versatile than on previous models with 3
modes (action, drama, theatre), with the depth of the effect manually
adjustable in each case, though why anyone would want such a thing after paying
a premium for full-blown 5.1 surround on tap must remain a mystery. Trick play
modes are plentiful and easy to use, via the jog dial on the remote handset.
Picture search speeds are 2x, 5x, 20x and 60x in both directions, and in slomo
there’s 1/32x, 1/16x, 1/4x and 1/2x normal speed, again in both directions.
One very useful
feature carried over from other recent players is the excellent on-screen
display system. When the button is pressed the picture shrinks to around one
quarter normal size to be inset on a simple to use menu and status display
page. The remote handset is a multi-brand type that can also control the fain
functions on a number of TVs from other manufacturers.
On paper the
multi-speed replay facility looks quite promising but the reality is somewhat
different, even 2x normal speed, which should be fluid, is just a sequence of
jerky jump frame images. Picture quality is satisfactory but it’s not as
revealing as earlier machines, colours can look a bit heavy handed and the
picture lacks the almost clinical attention to detail of some of its rivals,
including one or two that sell for appreciably less. That’s offset to a certain
extent by the manual picture adjustments, in particular the variable gamma
connection setting, which does wonders for dark and moody movies. Processing is
also very clean and it copes well with grubby discs moreover layer change
happens reasonably quickly in less than a quarter of a second.
Both the 5.1
and dts decoders do a good job of extracting effects and locating them within
the soundfield. The channels sound crisp and well balanced and there’s lower
than average levels of background hiss on the analogue mixed stereo output,
efficient but unremarkable just about sums it up. We’ll let you know about DVD
Audio as and when we have something to play on it.
The price is
unremarkable, especially when you look at what’s on offer for £50 to £100 less
from other leading brands. Nevertheless there’s plenty to like about the D723,
not least the array of manual picture adjustments but we have some doubts about
all of the effects and tricks; we suspect that most users will tire of them
fairly quickly and given a choice between a 14-mode zoom and a smooth picture
search, say, would probably opt for the latter. We are glad that JVC dare to be
different but this one is just a bit too gimmicky for our taste.
Contact JVC 020
8450 3282, www.jvc-europe.com
BOX COPY 1 –
REMOTE VIEWING
Until now JVC
has had a pretty good record with remote handsets but they’ve blown it with
this one. It’s the old problem of too many small buttons and iffy labelling.
The cursor controls and transport keys are lost in the confusion and you need a
magnifying glass and tweezers to use the TV/DVD function switch…
BOX COPY 3 –
AROUND THE BACK
Whilst the D723
is occasionally out of whack with the rest of the market the back panel is an
oasis of conventionality. The single SCART connector can be configured for
S-Video or RGB output via a pair of switches; a single three-way switch would
have been easier but where’s the fun in that? Over on the left hand side there
is a bank of six gold-plated phono sockets for the mixed stereo and 5.1 channel
outputs, two more gold phonos are used for the coaxial bitstream and composite
video outputs. The optical digital output is in the capable hands of a standard
TOSlink socket and the S-Video output is on a 4-pin mini DIN. The two mini jack
sockets marked ‘Compulink’, next to the composite video output phono are for
JVC’s proprietary remote control system, so the player can be integrated with
other JVC AV products. Rear panel labelling on DVD players is getting truly
bizarre, and this JVC machine seems to have more than its fair share… What, for
example are the ‘Confidential unpublished works’, and what does ‘licensed for
limited viewing uses only’ infer, we should be told…
THE HARD FACTS
M/M
OUTPUTS
SCART Y
S-Video Y
RGB out Y
Component N
Optical digital Y
Coaxial digital Y
5.1 decoder Y
EXTRA FEATURES
Region 2,
PAL/NTSC replay, Dolby Digital & dts 5.1 decoders, DVD Audio decoder
multi-speed replay, 14-mode picture zoom/reduce, chapter viewer, strobe, 3-mode
spatial sound, VFP picture control & user presets (sharpness, colour,
brightness tint, gamma, Y-Shift), multi-brand TV/AV remote
GOOD POINTS
Useful picture
adjustments, lots of toys to play with
BAD POINTS
A nasty case of
buttonitis on the remote handset
Ease of use 4
Picture 4
Sound 4
Features 5
Overall 5
BUYERS GUIDE
EXTRA INFO
Price £500
SCART 1
S-Video 1
Digital out coaxial, optical
Decoder Dolby Digital & dts
Good Points
Useful picture
adjustments, lots of toys to play with
Bad points
A nasty case of
buttonitis on the remote handset
Rating
4
---end---
Ó R. Maybury 2000, 0506
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