Amazon.co.uk Review
The XV-S302 is JVC's stab at the budget market and despite the attractive price it stacks up very well against its rivals. It looks pretty workmanlike, although the metallic finish is rather swish. The remote control is a nice comfortable shape and there's a good set of connectors including a SCART socket wired for RGB output.
The picture quality is one of the JVC's strong points. The brightness and contrast is good, delicate tones are a trifle muddy in places but overall the quality belies the price. Sound is up to the mark and it certainly makes a decent enough go at playing audio CDs to double as a CD player. The ability to play discs of MP3 files is a useful extra too. The range of DVD scanning speeds is impressive, from multiple slow motion speeds to super fast in both directions, something not all players are capable of.
Like most modern DVD players it'll cope with most types of CD disc and, despite the documentation, will play DVD-Rs and DVD+Rs too. It can also cope with playing NTSC discs on PAL televisions. JVC's Scene Digest makes it easy to navigate through DVDs without proper scene selection by displaying the first frame of each chapter. Other goodies include a virtual surround sound which attempts what is perhaps the impossible, but it is worth experimenting with. There are a few other touches too, such as a display you can dim. All in all the XV-S302 comes across as a player that should cost more than it does, which is always nice. --Miles Berkeley
Manufacturer's Description
This JVC XV-S302 introduces a new slim design for an "all-in-one" player that people are looking for. Not only does it play DVD and CD; it also plays the new CD-R/RW recordable CD formats, SVCD, VCD and MP3 formats. Don't let the slim design fool you, the XV-S302 is packed with many exciting features such as three theater positions, 3-D Phonic sound, variable and slow search, zoom, digest and strobe play, angle list and resume function. Coaxial digital audio outputs with Dolby Digital and DTS pass-through are provided for easy connection to any system.