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Product Article: JVC's New Projectors and TV Underline its CI Transition (1/10/2008)

By Larry Sadoo, JVC

When JVC launched its DLA-HD1 home theatre projector at the start of 2007, it transformed the traditional ‘high street’ brand into a serious custom install proposition pretty much overnight. Now the D-ILA technology at the HD1’s heart is back in a second generation of projection products - complete with new improvements and considerably more dedication to the custom install cause.

The two new D-ILA projectors are the HD350 and step-up HD750. As with the original HD1 and the higher-end HD100 which followed, the single most eye-catching attribute of the latest D-ILA offerings is their ground-breaking contrast claims. The HD1’s 15,000:1 contrast ratio was arguably the thing that most caught the custom install world’s attention, yet the HD350 reckons to double that figure to 30,000:1, while the HD750 ups the ante to a huge 50,000:1.

JVC's premium D-ILA home theatre front projectors offer brighter images, deep true black levels, ease of use and flexible adjustment.

Making these figures even more remarkable – not to mention reliable - is the fact that, unlike the contrast ratio figures quoted for many rival projector technologies, they do not depend on any sort of automatic iris adjustment, where the amount of light coming out of the lens is continually reduced or increased depending on how dark or light a particular shot is. As a result, dark scenes on the HD350 and especially the HD750 should look completely, cinematically black without having to suffer reduced brightness, resulting in a much more dynamic and stable final image that is ideally suited home cinema.

Revolutionary black levels are not the only benefit of D-ILA technology, but it is undoubtedly the D-ILA contrast benefit that gives JVC’s new projectors their ‘headlines’ in appealing to the custom install trade.

The arrival of D-ILA

The arrival of D-ILA as a custom install force has been sudden. As recently as December 2006, in fact, just before JVC launched its DLA-HD1 projector, the home cinema projection marketplace was pretty limited. Once-respected CRT projection technology had pretty much died out, leaving only two real alternatives: DLP and LCD, both of which come with their own particular problems: black level and visible pixellation with LCD, and motion noise and the ‘rainbow effect’ with DLP.

In other words, at the end of 2006 there was clearly a gap in the market for a new technology that didn’t suffer with such problems. But it is still a surprise that this gap ended up being filled by JVC’s Direct Drive Digital Light Amplifier (or D-ILA for short).

For prior to the launch of the HD1, D-ILA – essentially a refinement of LCOS technology – had, to be frank, been considered something of a B-lister in home cinema terms. Its undoubted talents in terms of resolution, freedom from video noise/artefacts and visible pixellation had won it contracts from the likes of NASA and the military, but problems with getting it to produce convincing contrast and colour tones had always damaged its movie credentials.

So what was it about the HD1 that changed this view, winning it rave reviews from all quarters of the AV press?

First of all, JVC had developed a new ‘ultra-smoothing’ manufacturing technique for its D-ILA chipsets that substantially reduced irregularities in their liquid crystal alignment layer. This considerably reduced the amount of contrast-spoiling stray light bouncing around the optical system.

Three 0.7-in (16:9) full HD D-ILA devices.

Even more significant, though, was the new Wire Grid Optical Engine. This proprietary innovation critically replaced the usual inefficient multilayer and glass prism polarising elements from LCOS-inspired projectors with a totally new device, comprising an inorganic reflective polarising plate with aluminium ribs resting on a flat glass substrate. The ribs on this revolutionary device form a wire grid that reduces the angle dependency of polarised light, leading to an even greater reduction in the amount of contrast-ruining ‘accidental light’ leaking into the projector’s optical path.

The HD1 ushered in other more minor improvements to the D-ILA system too, such as improved liquid crystal materials and enhanced alignment technology to reduce the gap between the separate liquid crystals to practically nothing. But it was the smoothing technology and Wire Grid Optical Engine that accounted for the bulk of the difference.

The surge in interest from the custom installation market raised by the HD1 rather seems to have caught JVC by surprise. For while quite easy to set up and very much a home-oriented machine, the HD1 didn’t have the sort of flexibility in terms of connectivity and picture adjustments that a good installer needs.

Happily the new HD350 and HD750 models are much more on the custom install case. Both carry RS-232C control ports for easier system integration, for instance, and the HD750 also has a 12V trigger for driving a motorised screen or anamorphic lens.

Both also have exceptionally flexible x2 motorised optical zooms courtesy of new low dispersion lenses, plus new motorised lens shifting and digital keystone adjustments. And perhaps most significantly of all, both offer far more control over such key elements as gamma and colours, to the point where they can be professionally calibrated by an Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) engineer.

The new high-resolution x2 zoom extra-low dispersion lens of the DLA-HD350 and DLA-HD750 features an efficient large-diameter, all-glass lens assembly with 15 groups using 17 elements arrayed in the aluminium body. High density, high modular transfer function optics further reduce chromatic aberration and abnormal colouration – chromatism – to the minimum possible.

Another installation benefit of the new projectors is their remarkably low running noise, rated at just 19db. This makes it easier for them to be sited near a viewer’s seating position without the need for sound-damping furniture or shields.

Also potentially beneficial to installers is the increased brightness of the new projectors, hitting 900 Lumens with the HD750 and 1000 Lumens with the HD350. As well as making images look even more dynamic, this extra brightness could make it easier to use the projectors with larger screens (60-200" recommended).

Graphic showing brightness against chroma saturation and colour phase.

The LT-42DS92 Ultra Slim TV

The relationship JVC is forging with custom installers on the back of its D-ILA projectors is starting to expand into other areas too. Particularly notable in this respect is the LT-42DS92 TV – a new white version of the brand’s renowned LT-42DS9 Ultra Slim LCD TV, being made exclusively available through custom install channels.

The new JVC LT-42DS92 ultra slim LCD TV.

The 42DS9 recently won the ‘European Green TV’ award from EISA for the environmentally friendly way it is constructed and the way its depth of just 34mm (in parts) means it takes up less shipping space.

The JVC LT-42DS92 TV was awarded best product in the EISA European Green TV category.

The 42DS9 has also enjoyed positive reviews on its picture and sound quality from numerous consumer magazines, and so the white version should make an extremely attractive addition to a custom install portfolio.

Conclusion

JVC's new projectors and TV prove that the company is showing the custom installation market a lot of respect this year. And the quality of these new products makes it likely that this respect will be far from a one-way street!

Larry Sadoo is the New Business Development Manager, Marketing JVC (UK). JVC (UK) provides distribution of consumer electronics products throughout the U.K., Channel Islands, Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland (Eire).

www.jvc.co.uk