JVC DLA-RS25 Physical Tour
11/6/2009 - Art Feierman
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JVC DLA-RS25 Physical Appearance
Clean lines, black piano finish and a little gold trim make for a physically very attractive projector. The motorized lens is recessed, and mounted slightly offset to the left of center. An infra-red sensor is just to the left of the lens. The control panel is on the top toward the rear (toward the right side if looking from the front), and the inputs are located low on the right side (looking from the front). 
Watch out! The IR sensors on the front and back are covered by some almost clear plastic. It's almost impossible to notice the plastic. If you don't remember to remove it, it definitely harms the range of the remote control.
The projector can be shelf or ceiling mounted.
The total depth is just under nineteen inches and it is about fourteen and a half wide. Its height is just over six and a half inches. A motorized door keeps dust off the lens, by closing when the JVC RS25 is powered off. There are adjustable front and rear feet.
The inputs are located on the right side (viewing from the front), just above the bottom. This is a plus for many who shelf mount as they don't need a few extra inches for connectors and cabling coming out of the back. For those ceiling mounting, well, I guess it depends which side of the projector faces people with the lights on.
The lamp gets replaced from a removable panel in the center of the back of the projector. So there is no need to unmount the RS25, if it is ceiling mounted (unlike a number of projectors who have their lamp doors on the bottom, which would be covered by a ceiling mount).
Control Panel
The RS25's control panel is located on the top. In the image on the right, you are viewing the panel from the back of the projector. The three indicator lamps are closest to the front of the projector. They are: Warning, Lamp, and Standby/On.
Further back is the first button, the Power switch. It's the usual press once for on, press twice for off. Next is the Input button, followed by a Hide button to black out the image.
Then comes the four arrow buttons in a diamond shaped arrangement, with a larger Enter button in the center.
Lastly, side by side, are the Menu, and (menu) Back button. Pretty standard stuff. Of course, we all primarily rely on the remote control, and probably only use the control panel during initial setup, if at all.
Input/Output
There seem to be no changes this year, in terms of I/O - inputs and outputs. Located on the side, from front to back, first there are two HDMI 1.3b compatible inputs. Next comes an analog PC input (standard HD15 connector), which the original RS1, and also the RS10 did not offer. (I'm not sure if the new RS15 has a PC input, but we'll address that when it's reviewed.)
Next up, are three RCA connectors for the component video input, followed by another RCA connector for basic composite video. Next is the S-Video input, followed by the RS-232 connector for controlling the projector directly from a computer or room controller. Finally, there is a 12 volt screen trigger for controlling a motorized screen or masking system.
Add all of them up, and you have a fairly standard complement of inputs and outputs, with no surprises. As with all home theater projectors, I'd still like to see three HDMI ports, but I've only seen that on a couple of 1080p projectors so far.
JVC DLA-RS25 Menus
JVC has a very well designed menu structure. And that's coming from someone who's been living with it for a couple of years. In the past, though, using the menus was a pain, because the remote control had such poor range.
With JVC solving the remote control issue (see below), life is now good, and it's easy to find the logically laid out controls in the menus.
Most of the image goodies are found on the Picture menu, which is the first main menu in the top right when the main menu is open.
Besides the usual Brightness, Contrast, Color Saturation, etc., the Picture menu has a Gamma sub menu, and and Advanced sub-menu which has sharpness, and the all important CMS (color management system).
This year we have the addition of CFI - creative frame interpolation, which JVC calls Clear Motion Drive, as shown on the Picture Adjust, Advanced menu on the right. JVC has placed those choices in the Advanced menu, off of the Picture menu. That's a good place for it.
The Pixel Adjust menu allows the JVC to digitally shift the red, green, or blue, data by one pixel up/down/left/right. This means that if a JVC projector has any pixel misalignment greater than 1/2 pixel diameter (it can be corrected to less than that).
This menu is the Color Temp menu for doing the basic grayscale adjustments. Sorry, I have no image to show you of the CMS, although it's fairly typical in capability.
Our final menu is the gamma control menu, which is extremely flexible
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Not only can you adjust the gamma of white, but also you can do each primary color separately. Further, the JVC RS25 comes with Normal, and 4 additional gamma presets, plus it allows you to save three of your own custom settings. Note also, that when doing so you can adjust each IRE point separately.
I also like the grayscale provided on the screen, which gives you a good idea if you are crushing blacks or whites too much, or expanding them the way you want. A great Gamma control.
JVC DLA-RS25 Remote Control
JVC has a new remote control for this year's models. Outstanding! Not that it's new (but Outstanding!), in that I really disliked the one that came with my RS-20. Layout was fine. Buttons were decent (not the very best "feel" but fine), but the range was abysmal.
I could rarely get a bounce off of my screen with the remote. Even turning around and pointing to the projector up on its rear shelf about 12 feet away wasn't bulletproof.
By comparison the RS25 has tons of range. I had just set the RS25 up on the table in my large theater (with my own RS20 up on a shelf), and I grabbed the remote, and pointed toward the front screen, barely paying attention, and bingo. Both projectors fired up. So I grabbed the old remote, and decided I'd see what it took to turn the two projectors off from the same spot, with the old remote. 10 minutes later, they were both on. So I picked up the new remote, pressed Off twice, and they both shut down.
Outstanding - great range. The layout is just fine, although it is re-arranged from last year's remote control. The backlight does a nice job - not too bright, not too dark.
JVC's decision to replace the old remote may be the biggest single improvement that everyone can appreciate.
DLA-RS25 Lens Throw
The JVC RS25's 2:1 aspect ratio zoom lens provides plenty of placement flexibility to either ceiling or shelf mount. To fill a 100 inch diagonal, 16:9 aspect ratio screen, the front of the projector can be as close as 9 feet, 11 inches, or as far back as 20 feet, 2 inches. Using these measurements for 100 inches, you can figure out the range for any other screen size. These are the same as with last year's JVC projectors.
DLA-RS25 Lens Shift
The RS25 has lots of lens shift too, and it's motorized. For that same 100 inch screen, the projector can be placed anywhere between 15 inches above the top of your screen surface, to 15 inches below the bottom of the screen surface. Those are approximates, JVC doesn't have exact numbers in its manual, but likely it's 14 inches and change above and below.
There are some projectors with a bit more lens shift, but that's pretty good flexibility. The horizontal lens shift allows a maximum of about 30 inches to the left or right of the center point.
Remember, that the two "work together" the more vertical you use, the less horizontal is available, and vice versa. If you have maximum vertical, there is no horizontal lens shift, and so on.
Anamorphic Lens
JVC offers an anamorphic lens and motorized sled for the JVC DLA-RS25, and HD950. JVC uses a Panamorph lens, and sled. If you buy it from JVC, instead of Panamorph (through your dealer, either way), you'll get a custom mounting plate for the sled, instead of a "universal" one with lots of different holes to support many projectors. It's your call. It's possible you can save money using the generic. If you are going through a local dealer, you'll spend less money on the mounting, with the JVC custom version, which might offset the higher cost. If you are doing it yourself, well, a custom plate is easier, obviously, but if you have talent with such things, I'm sure the generic plate will serve you just as well, even if it takes a bit longer.