JVC has long been a player in industrial-grade video front projectors, with its D-ILA (JVC's variant of LCoS technology) models finding their way into plenty of boardrooms, digital movie theaters, and other commercial venues. But in late 2006 the company also made a big splash in the consumer market with the introduction of its then $6,300 DLA-HD1 — a 1080p-rez model that got an enthusiastic reception in this magazine (reviewed May 2007). The DLA-HD1 was an easy candidate for my 2007 Editor's Choice list of the year's best products. That is, until it got unceremoniously bumped at the last minute by JVC newest D-ILA projector, the DLA-HD100.
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The Short Form
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| Price: $7,999 / jvc.com / 800-252-5722 |
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Snapshot
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| JVC's successor to its standout DLA-HD1 costs more money, but on several fronts it's a better front projector. |
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Plus
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| •Crisp high-def picture •Exceptionally punchy contrast •Accurate out-of-box performance •Low fan noise |
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Minus
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| •Colors can look overly vivid •Limited aspect ratio control for HDTV programs •No VGA input |
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Key Features
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| •1080p resolution •2.0x zoom lens •Accepts 1080p/24 input signals •Motorized zoom, focus, and lens shift •Custom global and R,G, and B gamma adjustments •V-stretch display mode for 2.35:1 screens •200-watt UHP lamp •Inputs: 2 HDMI, component-, composite-, and S-video; RS-232C •18 x 7 x 16.5 IN / 25.5 LBS |
At $8,000, the DLA-HD100 commands a sizeable price premium over its predecessor. Looking over the projector and its spec sheet, that price jump caused me to wonder: the HD100's physical dimensions and weight are the same, as are its 200-watt lamp, 2.0x zoom lens, and high-performance Gennum video processor. Come to think of it, lots of things about this projector are the same as last year's HD1, with the exception of its powered lens controls, HDMI 1.3 inputs, and V-Stretch (Vertical Stretch) display mode, which lets you pair the projector with an ultra-wide 2.35:1 screen without shelling out extra for an outboard video processor. And then there's one key performance spec that we'll get to shortly. All in all, that's a good-size list of improvements, but is it worth the extra money?
At 25 pounds, the HD100 is fairly hefty by today's lightweight standards. However, the all-black case and whisper-quiet fan lend it a stealthy quality — mount it on the ceiling and you'll barely notice the projector is there. A basic set of control buttons for switching inputs and navigating onscreen menus is located on the top half of the case. The JVC's manual lens shift gives you a wide offset range (34% horizontal and 80% vertical from the center of the projected image), which helps to make initial setup a snap. And once that's been completed, the powered zoom and focus controls let you dial in those lens settings via remote control. As with the HD1, there JVC eschews any manual or automatic iris controls to pump up perceived picture contrast: what you see is what you get. You do get a choice of Normal or High lamp power modes, however. These settings affect the overall brightness of the image, with High being the choice for brighter rooms and Normal for a light-controlled home theater. According to JVC's manual, opting for the High mode won't shorten the projector's specified 2,000-hour lamp life.
Inputs on the JVC include two HDMI ports and component-, composite-, and S-video jacks. Unfortunately, there's no DVI or VGA input for PC hookups — a standard feature on most other front projectors. On the plus side, JVC's remote control has basically every control button you could wish for laid out on its surface. The keypad is also fully backlit, which is something I always like to see in a front projector remote. The controls are clustered logically: direct input buttons for switching video sources at top; a set of buttons to select various Image Profiles (picture presets) directly beneath; and controls to directly tweak color, contrast, and brightness (as well as switch between gamma and color temperature presets), one step further down. Once I had finished my initial setup, the easy access to direct picture adjustments afforded by the remote's keypad meant I barely had to revisit onscreen menus.
You switch display modes (aspect ratios) on the JVC by hitting the Aspect button. With standard-definition (480i- and 480p-format) programs, you can choose between 4:3, 16:9, and a Zoom mode that blows up standard 4:3 images to fill a 16:9 aspect ratio screen. With high-definition programs, the JVC's aspect ratio modes are limited to 16:9 display (a specialized V-Stretch option is also available when using the projector with an anamorphic lens and an ultra-wide 2.35: 1 aspect ratio projection screen).
Setup
I set the JVC up for testing approximately 13 feet away from an 80-inch wide (92-inch diagonal) Stewart GrayHawk RS screen in my light-controlled, medium-gray home theater room. With the Normal lamp setting selected, overall screen brightness proved to be a bit lower than with JVC's previous model, although it compared favorably here to other DLP, LCD, and LCoS-based projectors I've tested over the past two years. A fair amount of color fringing was visible on crosshatch test patterns during setup. These could be adjusted for somewhat by using the projector's horizontal and vertical Pixel adjust feature, which lets you separately adjust the red, green, and blue display in single-pixel increments. But the global nature of these controls meant that I could only get the center part of the image perfectly solid — alignment remained slightly off at the sides, although the issue was mainly visible only on test patterns.
The HD100 has a large selection of what JVC calls "Image Profiles" to store custom picture settings for quick recall via direct access keys on the remote. There are three presets: Dynamic, Natural, and Cinema. Each one of these can be customized to taste and stored using the projector's Profile Memory menu, and there are also three User profiles that provide an empty slate for you to store your full range of picture settings.
When working with the JVC, I found that its Cinema preset delivered a very satisfying, punchy picture with natural-looking color. Other settings that I selected during setup included Standard HDMI Input level, Auto HDMI color space, Low color temperature (changed to Custom later on during calibration), and Normal Gamma (this mode worked very well for a wide range of programs). The JVC gives tweakers numerous options to customize its gamma curve (the linearity of the intermediate gray steps between black and white) and store the results. When in Custom mode, you start out by choosing a reference gamma correction value between 1.8 and 2.6, and then make adjustments to the curve using an onscreen graph. And along with a global adjustment, you can also separately adjust the projector's red, green, and blue gamma curves.
Picture Quality
The main claim to fame for the HD-1, JVC's previous projector, was its stunning native picture contrast. When watching movies with dark scenes, the blacks had truly cinematic depth. And because the projector didn't use an iris control to manually or dynamically modify the level of light coming from the projector's bulb, white highlights in the picture retained a consistent level of brightness across a range of scenes. With the HD-100, overall picture contrast proved to be even better than with the HD-1 — measurably better. Watching a reference scene from a Blu-ray disc of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the black of outer space was a deep, velvety tone, while the white highlights of both the Jupiter Mission ship and the myriad star clusters in the background gave the image very satisfying punch and depth. But the JVC's performance here wasn't just a matter of black and white: Watching an earlier scene where the proto-Human Apes cling to each other in a cave, there was plenty of lighter gray shadow detail visible in the creatures' dark fur, as well as in the rock outcroppings that they huddled against.
Switching from sci-fi to historical drama, I next watched an HD DVD of director Joe Wright's take on Pride and Prejudice. This movie offers up stunning widescreen vistas of the English Countryside where the story takes place. Watching a scene where Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) rests beside an ancient tree during a journey to visit North Country relatives, the JVC's crisp display brought out all of the details in the tree's deeply furrowed bark and the carpet-like moss blanketing its roots. Skin tones in this scene and others looked natural — Elizabeth's slightly yellow, buttermilk complexion easily came through. Colors on the JVC generally looked well saturated, uniform, and clean. That said, in another scene where Elizabeth walks alongside a brook with a soldier, I thought that the soldier's red coat and the green fields in the background appeared somewhat too rich; I was forced to reach for the remote and knock the color control down a few steps.
Bottom Line
JVC's DLA-HD100 offers a definite edge over its previous standout D-ILA model, the HD-1, in one key performance area: picture contrast. And it does so without the use of an iris control — something that must have the rest of the industry scratching its collective head. Whether or not the boost in contrast ratio — along with extra amenities like powered zoom and focus, and HDMI 1.3 jacks — is enough to justify the $8,000 price tag of JVC's new projector will ultimately be a matter of personal taste and budget. But if you're the kind of film fanatic who demands crisp, punchy pictures with endlessly deep blacks from your front projector, the HD100 will most certainly do the trick.
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Color temperature (Cinema Image Profile/Low Color Temperature before/ Cinema Image Profile /Memory Color Temperature after calibration):
20-IRE: 6,719 K/6,574 K
30-IRE: 6,616 K/6,494 K
40-IRE: 6,520 K/6,485 K
50-IRE: 6,405 K/6,498 K
60-IRE: 6,481 K/6,508 K
70-IRE: 6,570 K/6,565 K
80-IRE: 6,569 K/6,557 K
90-IRE: 6,472 K/6,499 K
100-IRE: 6,301 K/6,411 K
Brightness (100-IRE window): 16.0/15.0 ftL
Primary Color Point Accuracy vs. SMPTE HD Standard
| Color | Target X | Measured X | Target Y | Measured Y |
| Red | 0.64 | 0.76 | 0.33 | 0.29 |
| Green | 0.30 | 0.30 | 0.60 | 0.69 |
| Blue | 0.15 | 0.12 | 0.06 | 0.02 |
The JVC's Cinema picture preset with Low color temperature selected initially delivered the most accurate color reproduction. Grayscale tracking was ±219 degrees K of the 6,500 K standard from 20 to 100 IRE — very good performance. Adjustments made to the red, green, and blue controls in the Memory Color Temperature and Image Offset submenus improved grayscale tracking to an exceptional ±89 degrees K from 20 to 100 IRE. Color decoder tests revealed zero red and green error for both the HDMI and component-video inputs. As compared to the SMPTE HD specification for digital TV colors, the set's red, green, and blue primary color points showed relatively high levels of oversaturation — a situation that could be remedied to a degree by using the separate red, green, and blue adjustments in the Custom gamma setup menu.
The JVC's 15.0 ftL post-calibration brightness was about average for a projector in its price range. In my room, I measured native contrast ratio at 14,980: 1 — the highest number I've seen since I first started doing contrast ratio measurements on front projectors. Overscan measured 0% for 1080i/p-format high-definition signals with the Overscan Off mode selected. The JVC displayed 1080i/p and 720p test patterns with full resolution on both the HDMI and component-video connections. And picture uniformity was excellent: black and white fields showed no sign of uneven brightness, while gray field patterns were free of color tinting.
As with other displays I've tested that use a Gennum video processor, the JVC passed all the tests contained on the Silicon Optix HQV high-def test disc with the exception of Film Resolution. I saw no ill effects from this on any of the high-def reference discs that I use for testing, however, and the projector's upconversion of DVDs and standard-definition TV programs was crisp and artifact-free. The projector's video noise reduction processing worked well at the lower range of its settings, but it visibly reduced picture detail on both standard- and high-def programs when boosted beyond the mid-point.
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