|
The Short Form
|
| $4,199 (without stand) / NUVISION.COM / 877-738-7641 |
|
Snapshot
|
| A fine LCD that should make custom installers — and their customers — very happy |
|
Plus
|
| • Excellent, natural colors • Good sound quality • IR pass-through system |
|
Minus
|
| • Only two HDMI connectors • Noise reduction doesn't help poor-quality standard-def signals • Price $4,199 (without stand) |
|
Key Features
|
|
• 1080p resolution • 1080p/24 input compatibility • Backlit remote • Built-in IR pass-through • Optional pedestal stand ($299) • Inputs: 2 HDMI 1.3; 2 component-, 2 composite-, and 1 S-video; VGA • Outputs: Coaxial digital audio; composite video with analog stereo; headphone; NuControl • 50 1/4 x 35 1/2 x 4 1/2 in (12 1/2 in deep with stand); 79 1/4 lb (90 lb with stand) NUVISION.COM :: 877-738-7641 |
For a new TV company, NuVision is pretty savvy. Rather than get caged in the mixed-martial-arts ring of today's HDTV mass market, it focuses on high-performance sets sold mainly through custom installers. Its 52-inch LED-driven DLP rear projector reviewed last July (recently discontinued) was one of the best-looking HDTVs I've seen. So I was curious: What could NuVision do with a high-end LCD flat-panel — a much more challenging technology?
The 52-inch NVU52DCM is part of the Lucidium series of high-def LCDs that runs from 22 to 65 inches — a thoughtful attempt to give installers the option of stocking every room in the house with TVs that share the same IR codes. In another nod to installers, there's a NuControl port for an RS-232 connection to an advanced control system or, via an adapter, a Cat-5 connection to NuWire plug-and-play modules for IR control, distribution, or amplification. Built-in IR pass-through allows control of other components via the TV's IR sensor; you only need to point your universal remote at the screen to get full system operation.
The set's high-gloss black frame and the optional plastic pedestal stand ($250) offer clean, modern styling and quality fit-and-finish. The speakers sit below the screen behind a sculpted grille that gives the flat facade a bit of panache.
Basic control buttons are on the right edge of the frame. There are no up-front convenience jacks, but one of the TV's two rear jack packs is set behind the left side of the screen and can be tapped with a short reach-around. While most recent TVs offer three HDMI 1.3 connectors, the NuVision has two, which could be a problem in some setups.
The buttons on the compact remote are too small and too close, and some legends are confusingly straddled by two rows of buttons. But backlighting illuminates not only the labels on the remote's body but also a symbol imprinted directly on each rubberized key.
There are keys for input and aspect-ratio selection, and inputs can be relabeled. Display modes for high-def signals include Full Screen (16:9), Zoom, and 4:3. In Full Screen mode, overscan (the amount of picture area cut off at the edges of the TV's screen) can be set to default to 0% (in other words, pixel for pixel) or a modest 2%. Standard-def options via HDMI include only Full Screen or 4:3.
SETUP
The NVU52DCM offers four picture presets — Normal, Bright, Soft, and User — as well as Day and Night modes that alter contrast when you hit a button on the remote. The out-of-box setting, Normal/Day, defaults to the set's preferred Warm color-temperature option. Even so, Normal looked too bright and oversaturated with the Day or Night options selected, causing reds to look orange and faces to look pink and lose skin-tone definition.
Selecting the User preset and Night mode resulted in a much more natural picture in our darkened lab, and only the brightness control needed to be adjusted for basic calibration. Grayscale — the color temperature of individual gray steps increasing in brightness from the darkest black to the brightest white — was remarkable even for an LCD, but it tracked a bit toward blue. A service-menu calibration resulted in nearly spot-on tracking to the industry-standard 6,500-K neutral gray.
 |
Once tweaked, the NVU52DCM was free of the hyped-looking color that mars so many HDTVs. Whites were bright without noticeable tint, greens and especially reds looked unusually natural, and blues were vivid. This TV easily revealed the quality of the source signal. As I watched a well-shot episode of Dr. Danger on the Mojo HD channel, in which Dr. Bob Arnot traipsed around the African tundra with some colorfully costumed hunters, the lushness of the varied greenery was striking, as were the bright red and vibrant blue wraps worn by the locals. The screen's 1080p resolution was sharp, and I was taken by the beautiful blue sky behind Dr. Bob's bush plane, and by the sheen of the sun striking the metal bullet-cap at the center of the plane's prop. On many HDTVs, these details would scream at you in a punched-up, look-at-me way, but here they were reproduced naturally and were well integrated with the rest of the picture.
Like most small manufacturers, NuVision gets LCD panels from one of the major TV suppliers. But it's the extra engineering here and the final tuning that separates the NVU52DCM from your run-of-the-mill LCD. The TV performed remarkably well with test patterns (see "Test Bench") and displayed deep-black levels and a well-balanced contrast range that were excellent for an LCD. But I did have to play with the brightness (black-level) control often on different program material to find the right balance between deep blacks and shadow detail. The TV looked better overall at its default brightness setting, which delivered a punchy, contrasty picture but crushed the shadows somewhat. Using an industry-standard test pattern to properly set brightness resulted in good shadow detail but a more washed-out picture, so I ended up with a compromise position.
That setting proved effective for the dark submarine interiors on the Blu-ray Disc of Crimson Tide. In a scene where Lt. Commander Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington) is briefing the crew on a possibly imminent nuclear war, the camera sweeps along the shadowed backs of the sailors, and the NuVision nicely revealed the stripes and rumples in the dark fabric of their shirts. And there was good gradation of different skin tones as the camera tightened on their faces. I was also impressed by the color in a scene with Captain Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman) and his little Jack Russell terrier, whose fur (and urine stream!) looked unmistakably natural.
The NuVision did a good job of upscaling high-quality standard-def signals from DVDs. But it didn't do as well in suppressing mosquito noise on poor DVD transfers or on standard-def cable broadcasts, or even on some less-than-stellar HD broadcasts. Its menu options for 3-D noise-reduction and MPEG noise-reduction provided only modest relief, and at the expense of a bit of detail. On the other hand, the built-in stereo sound system, which uses SRS TruSurround processing to widen the soundstage and clarify dialogue, is about the best I've heard from any flat-panel TV. It won't replace a dedicated sound system, but it's fine for day-to-day use.
BOTTOM LINE
At $4,199 (without a stand), NuVision's Lucidium NVU52DCM isn't the cheapest 52-inch LCD around. But attention to detail and crafty tuning of the set has resulted in an impressive, natural-looking picture. Throw in sleek styling and some installer-friendly features, and you've got a well-engineered, well-built LCD. As I said last summer when I reviewed the company's rear-projection set, NuVision is one to watch.
 |
Color temperature (User Preset/Night Mode before/after calibration)
| 10 IRE: | 7,544 / 7,089 K |
| 20 IRE: | 7,310 / 6,710 K |
| 30 IRE: | 6,974 / 6,424 K |
| 40 IRE: | 7,021 / 6,517 K |
| 50 IRE: | 7,068 / 6,529 K |
| 60 IRE: | 6,777 / 6,379 K |
| 70 IRE: | 6,968 / 6,425 K |
| 80 IRE: | 6,978 / 6,555 K |
| 90 IRE: | 6,906 / 6,458 K |
| 100 IRE: | 7,066 / 6,617 K |
Brightness (100-IRE window): 28.9 / 29.6 ftL
Set to its User preset and Night mode, the NuVision’s grayscale tracked linearly but slightly blue across the brightness scale, closer to 7,000 K than the 6,500-K standard. Service-menu adjustment resulted in tracking that was just ±121 K off from 30 to 100 IRE — excellent performance. The red and blue primaries were close to dead-on, though green was notably undersaturated, an impression confirmed in our color-decoder test, which measured –5% and –20% errors on red and green, respectively. (These were never a problem in program material, which looked natural.) Gray-field uniformity — often a problem on LCDs — was among the best I’ve seen, and step/ramp patterns showed remarkably even delineation from dark to light.
The HDMI inputs fully resolved 1080i/p and 720p test signals, but the component-video inputs failed to do so with 1080i or 720p test patterns, which showed noise at the highest resolutions. The NuVision scored well on the upscaling and deinterlacing (jaggies) tests on the Silicon Optix Blu-ray and DVD test discs, though the noise test on the DVD version showed up the set’s less than stellar handling of noisy material . — R.S.