THE FRONT LINE: DECEMBER 18, 2006
JVC’S Latest D-ILA RPTV Goes On A Diet
JVC is the latest company to roll out a thin RPTV and compete with the plasma and LCD onslaught. There’s a new, lower-cost JVC 1080p front projector, too.
On Thursday December 14, JVC unveiled two new HDTV products. The first is intended to compete with flat-panel HDTV sets, but actually goes them one better. It’s an all-new D-ILA rear-projection set with 1080p resolution, and will be offered in 58-inch and 65-inch sizes.
The HD-58S998 ($3,299.95 MSRP) will debut in January of 2007, and has a footprint of just 10.7 inches. It uses the latest .7” 1920x1080 D-ILA LCOS panels; a 120-watt UHP lamp, and its bezel (the frame around the RP screen) is only .39 inches thick. That’s a fraction of the typical two-inch and three-inch frames found on plasma and LCD HDTVs.
Figure 1. JVC’s new slim-line HD-58S998 1080p D-ILA HDTV — Yes, it really is that skinny.
According to JVC engineers, the frame is fabricated from aluminum to maintain strength and rigidity while reducing overall weight. Aluminum is not a bad choice, but as a relatively soft metal, it can warp under temperature extremes and dents easily, so only time will tell how durable the bezel will prove to be.
The 10.7” depth was achieved by using a concave mirror in the projection engine. It’s not a new idea, but concave mirrors bring their own problems to the table, such as brightness falloff and uneven focus — both of which could hamper sales of an RPTV.
The sample I saw had neither problem — the test HD images were acceptably crisp and detailed in the corners of the image, and image brightness appeared to be within one f-stop (50%) from the center to the corners.
Figure 2. Here’s how JVC cut out the extra inches. (Illustration courtesy of JVC)
The HD-58S998 and its 65-inch sibling, the HD-65S998 ($4,199.95, March 2007) both use a new 5th-generation Genessa image processor and claim a 10,000:1 contrast ratio by using a new optical iris system. Dynamic gamma correction, extensive color management, and several noise reduction modes round out the features.
Next door, JVC demonstrated the DLA-HD1 ($6,299), a 1920x1080 LCOS front projector that was shown privately at Cedia Expo 2006. It’s intended to go head-to-head with Sony’s VPL-VW50 and VPL-VW100 SXRD designs, and (for now) will be sold through custom dealers only — no distribution is planned.
The DLA-HD1 uses a unique wire-grid dichroic filter system that is supposed to cut down on light scattering and refraction, two things that kill contrast and black levels. In the demonstration, movie clips from Blu-ray were shown simultaneously on the DLA-HD1 and Sony’s VPL-VW50, and the JVC projector appeared to have better black levels and more contrast “punch,” not to mention higher color saturation.
Of course, there’s no way of knowing how the projectors were set up for the demonstration, so I’ll reserve judgments on the efficacy of JVC’s wire-grid system until I can test a DLA-HD1 for myself.
Figure 3. The DLA-HD1 is about as large as JVC’s DLA-HD10K,
but won’t set you back nearly as many $$$.
Figure 4. Here’s the rear connector panel on the DLA-HD1.
From an engineering standpoint, the concept is intriguing — light scatter and refraction is inevitable within multiple glass surfaces. By eliminating most of them in a dichroic filter — which itself refracts and reflects light based on bandpass/band-reject filter principles — the problem should be minimized.
The DLA-HD1 uses Gennum’s latest VXP video processor, which I saw at Cedia Expo and which works very well. This particular chip, the GF9531, offers fine edge correction (anti-aliasing), detail enhancement combined with noise reduction, full multi-axis 1080i/1080p motion interpolation, and 10-bit color processing with upsampling.
The projector has two HDMI inputs, one YPbPr component interface, and the usual composite and S-video connections. There aren’t any RGB or DVI interfaces, which could be problematic for folks with older video scalers.
Rounding out the package are a 2:1 zoom ratio with 80% vertical and 34% horizontal lens shift, and an all-new Fujinon 16-element lens design. It’s good to see more manufacturers moving to longer-throw lenses — the typical 1.2:1 or 1.3: ratios for some HT projectors aren’t very useful in custom theater installations.
The big question is how long JVC can offer this product through a limited network of dealers, avoiding the temptation to move it into distribution. With an SRP of $6,299, it’s priced just above the distribution threshold and will compete with other custom brands like Runco, Vidikron, and SIM2.
According to Mike Holmes, VP of the Consumer Display Division for JVC, the DLA-HD1 “…needs to be demonstrated and explained,” which is why it’s heading to custom retailers. Look for it to hit the shelves in February 2007.
