JVC XVBP1

A complete home system consists of many components that work together to deliver the best possible movie experience and since the visuals and sound depend on the TV and speakers respectively, it is important to get the best TV and speaker configuration available. If budget is a major concern, there are some brands like JVC offering high definition TVs that support the 1080p specification for a low price. Getting a matching set of speakers should make the system setup easier and the quality should remain decent.

However, watching your favorite movies on a standard DVD player won’t maximize the full potential of your large screen and it will fail in delivering the best sound quality experience that theaters can bring. Only a Blu-ray player can take advantage of the capabilities of the TV and will make sure that every speaker is used to create a surround sound experience better than DVD titles can. The JVC XVBP1 Blu-ray Player is a good performing Blu-ray player to try out if the budget is tight and it can match any JVC home theater setup nicely.

JVC XVBP1 Blu-ray Player

Design

For its low price, JVC did pretty well with the design of the JVC XVBP1 Blu-ray Player which has a nice black finish and a simple layout of buttons found on the right side where it has a brush metal finish. The tray can be found on the left side with the power button alone on the bottom left. Five other buttons that have a blue glow can be found on the right side serving as the basic playback functions for people that do not want to use the remote and the “Open/close” tray button. A small panel with a USB logo is found on the bottom right which protects the USB port.

Actual user review:
“This is one of the greatest buys you can have when selecting a Blu-Ray player. Those in the know will know that the Oppo BDP 83 is currently regarded as the top dog in the Blu-Ray market for its picture & sound quality as well as a versatile universal player in SACD and DVD-A playback. For those who do not need SACD and DVD-A, the JVC XV BP1 offers almost the same performance at less than 50% of the Oppo’s price. First off, the picture quality of all Blu-Ray players are almost identical. The only difference is in their loading time. The JVC’s loading times are comparable to both the Oppo and the PS3. No other players come close. As for compatibility with the BR titles so far, I believe that to date, the only title which JVC cannot play is 12 Rounds. Oppo also suffered from similar issues. Only PS3 managed to play this without problem. Operations wise, it is simple and straight forward without the need to dwell in the manual. The player can also play media in Divx, MKV, VOB and AVCHD in USB thumb drives or hard drives so long as they are formatted in the FAT32 format. For DVD playback, I would rank the JVC close to the Oppo, beating the PS3 soundly. The JVC can upscale the DVDs to 1080p and the scaler in the player is very good. It plays almost all the DVDs I throw at it. In this part of the world where I bought it from, the DVD playback is code free. The only downside is probably the lack of tweaking options for the HT enthusiasts. It is a player whereby you load and play without too much settings as compared with the Oppo. It will certainly serve as an excellent choice for those looking for a second BR player at home as well as those who want a player as good as the Oppo but at half the price. I strongly recommend this player !!! “ – A.Tan (USA)

Features

The JVC XV-BP1 Blu-ray Player clearly looks like the player is more on the simplistic and minimal side, but it is fairly new to the market being released early 2009 which means that it squeezes more features than the average budget Blu-ray player without sacrificing features. It starts off strong with BD Profile 2.0 support which means that it can play any of the Blu-ray discs that are BD Live ready. When connected to the Internet via Ethernet cable, users can download extra content depending on what BD Live features are offered for the disc including special trailers, subtitles, and other interactivities. Although the Internet connectivity is limited, firmware updates can still be downloaded to the player.

Through the HDMI 1.3 cable, Blu-ray titles can be played back in full 1080/24p with support for both x.v.Color and Deep Color. There are also component and composite video outputs along with optical, coaxial, and analog audio outputs if an HDMI cable isn’t available.

The JVC XVBP1 Blu-ray Player also supports the codecs that are often implemented in the latest titles including Dolby Digital True HD and DTS-HD Decoding to make the Blu-ray titles sound a lot better than DVD titles.

DVD playback is still supported and all DVD movies can be upscaled nicely to 1080p along with some fine improvements to the color and contrast quality. It also has some zooming options to make DVD titles that are not enhanced for 16:9 ratio to make them better fit on the screen. There is also support for many other formats including BD/DVD Hybrid formats, Audio CDs, and any optical discs that contain MP3, WMA, JPEG, or AVCHD files. Those that own the JVC HD Everio can connect the digital camcorder directly to the player for playback.

Performance

One of the best things about the JVC XVBP1 Blu-ray Player is its overall performance when playing Blu-ray titles. After the Blu-ray disc is placed into the tray, the movie loads in less than 30 seconds which is remarkable for its price. The BD Live features isn’t as quick, but the remote is responsive and the menus are very easy to navigate.

Bottom Line

The features of the JVC XVBP1 Blu-ray Player are just enough for people to get a decent experience out of Blu-ray technology in general. It doesn’t offer any special online networking features, but the support for BD Live is welcome and the quality for both BD and DVD playback are great. Priced at around $230, the XVBP1 is excellent at the basics and the fast disc load times make this a real pick for the budget consumer.

Average User Rating:

• “I replaced a 1080p upconverting Pioneer DVD player with the JVC to acquire Blu-ray compatibility. I wasn’t disappointed. The upconverting 1080p function of the JVC is equal to the Pioneer and it’s Blu-ray play quality is excellent. Sound reproduction much better with Blu-ray disks, and the fuzzy audio of many standard DVD movies is gone. Blu ray load time is also short, 15 seconds or so. Almost as fast as a standard DVD. A real bonus is the player’s ability to randomly play mp3 music files on a DVD having 650 or less tracks. The JVC has good versatility, and will play several other formats. Highly recommend at the Amazon price.” – N.Birndorf (OR,USA)
• “I bought this Blu-ray player specifically because it was capable of playing MPEG4 content. It did not disappoint. Put in a DVD or USB drive with videos, music or pictures on it and it handles them all very gracefully. Standard DVDs are unconverted very nicely, leaving almost no visual artifacts. HDMI, component, and optical and coax SPDIF audio outputs will let you connect it to nearly anything out there today.” – M.Walsh (IL,USA)

Click Here for Latest Offer on JVC XVBP1
Enjoy Free Shipping & Secure Shopping