JVC XVN 55SL

With the surge in popularity of DVD recorders, it is very hard to notice the humble DVD player nowadays and it comes quite low on the list of 'must-haves'. However, if you are in the market for a good DVD player that is packed with features, the JVC XV-N55SL would be worthy of consideration.

We have had ours a couple of years now, but last year it got relegated to the dining room when we purchased our DVD recorder. It is hooked up to a portable TV we have in there but it does not really do justice to the JVC in all fairness. But that's the way things go. If we had room in our lounge under our TV on top of the DVD recorder it would still be there, because it is by far the better player of DVDs.

When we got the JVC home as a Christmas present to both of us (from both of us) a couple of Christmases ago, we were amazed how light and slim it was - no thicker than three CDs on top of each other (better make that 4 to be on the safe side), and no wider or deeper than our Sony video recorder that we placed it on top of. We were fascinated by the bright blue lighting effect on the front panel when we plugged it in and switched it on for the first time. It looked really stunning and seemed to seduce us into putting a DVD into the drawer.

On the back are the connections… a scart (RGB) for connection to the TV, composite video output connector (phono) and an S-Video output connector - there is also a PCM coaxil digital out connector. For sound there are two output phono connectors to connect to a stereo device that can handle Dolby stereo. I must say it was excellent for watching music DVDs when connected to my stereo system that has Dolby capabilities.

The machine also serves as a CD player, playing music CDs, and if you are into home video and do not have a DVD burner on your computer, you can burn video to your CD writer as VCD (Video Compact Disk) or SVCD (Super Video Compact Disk) that gives you better quality than SVHS or VHS, and play them on this machine. If like us, you have hundreds of jpeg photographs on your computer, you can burn them to CD and the JVC will read them also - but you will need to make sure they are not large files as it will slow the reading process down on the JVC (72dpi seems ideal - not good for printing, but ideal for screen viewing). As you can see, this little machine is packed with features. The machine also has MP3 capabilities but that is something I have never tested on it.

All the facilities are accessed via the handset on the TV screen. On pre-recorded DVDs (that have been made with the ability to do it), you can select what language you want to watch them in, have subtitles on the screen for the hard or hearing - or so that you can watch it with the sound off if someone has fallen asleep in their armchair! That tends to be my trick!

Another excellent facility if you do not have a wide-screen TV like us, is that you can zoom in to get rid of those black lines at the top and bottom of the screen so you don't feel as if you are watching the picture through a letterbox! In fact, you can zoom right into somebody eyeball if you wanted to! You can also fast forward or fast reverse up to a speed of 60 times the speed of standard playback or skip from chapter to chapter through a DVD recording.

There is also what is called "Resume Play" - that is, if you want to go and make a cup of tea/coffee in the middle of a film, simply press stop and when you come back, press play again and it will take up playback from where it left off.

I know I am a Sony buff, but this little JVC DVD player has everything going for it and it has given hour after hour, day after day of faultless service playing both DVDs and music CDs. I don't think they're available in the shops any more but probably somewhere like Ebay will have a bargain for someone looking for a DVD player. We gave £130 for ours but prices have come right down now - but in my opinion, this machine reeks quality for what it is..

Thanks for reading.