JVC DLA-X70R and RS55 Projectors: Physical Tour
03/27/2012 - Art Feierman
|
|
 |
JVC DLA-X70R Physical Appearance
This DLA-X70R projector, and its identical twin, the DLA-RS55 projector (except for the color of the trim ring around the lens), is the second generation in this larger box. The projector is definitely a size larger than my own JVC RS20, and almost all other under $10,000 projectors.
Everything is motorized, which means zoom, lens shift and focus. The 2:1 zoom lens is center mounted, and recessed, The otherwise shiny black piano finish of the projector is only interrupted by the gold trim ring around the lens, gold lettering, etc. Elegant looking, though large compared to most projectors that pass through here.
The JVC DLA-X70R's indicator lights are on the top front to the left of the lens (if you are facing the projector). In addition to the lens, the front also houses the front Infra-red sensor for the remote control. (There's a second one in the back.)
Four screw thread adjustable feet are located on the bottom of both the X70R and RS55 projectors.
As to connectors, there's a pair of HDMI 1.4a inputs, and a LAN connector on the top row. Below is an RS232 serial port for command and control. Next over, three color coded RCA jacks for component video, and then a DIN S-video jack. On the third row, the left hand side has the Din connector for the provided 3D emitter. An analog PC input (HD15) is next. (The lower cost X30 and RS45 lack a dedicated standard computer input.) Further over are a screen trigger, and a jack for hard wiring the remote control. That's it but for the power receptacle.
There is, of course, a control panel on the projector. Instead of on top, where a majority of projectors have their control panels, JVC has placed the control panel for the DLA-X70R (and the other new RS and X series projectors) in the center of the back panel of the projector. That's right next to the inputs and other connectors. For most, that's just fine. If you are shelf mounting, however, with minimum rear space on your shelf, getting to the control panel will be essentially impossible, so don't misplace the JVC X70R's remote control.
Control Panel
The X70R and RS55's control panel are located on the back of the projector, in the center, just to the right of the inputs and connections area.
At the top, is the Power button, with the usual press once for On, press twice for Off. Note: The JVC also has a hard power switch by the power cord.
The Input - source selection is next, followed by the OK, the Enter key.
Then comes the four arrow buttons in a diamond shaped arrangement. It would have been nice to have the OK button in the center, instead of above.
Lastly, side by side, are the Menu, and (menu) Back buttons. 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. Especially buried on the back.
JVC DLA-X70R and DLA-RS55 Projector Input/Output
All of the JVC projector's connectors are located on the back left side. The top row starts with a pair of HDMI 1.4a connectors. There's also a LAN connector, and an RS-232 serial port for possible updates and other uses.
Next up, are three RCA connectors for the component video input. There are no composite or S-Video inputs. The rear IR sensor for the remote, is to the right of the component video (and hard to see in the image above.)
The bottom row has the sync port (a DIN connector) for the external 3D sync device. Finally, there is a 12 volt screen trigger for controlling a motorized screen or masking system, and a hard wire for the remote control should the projector be where it can't "see" the IR signal from the remote (usually a rear screen setup).
Probably far more disconcerting to buyers than the lack of those "lower quality" composite and S-video input connectors, is the lack of an analog computer input. JVC has never put a standard PC interface on this series of projectors - going all the way back to the RS1. Only the higher end models (starting at over twice the price) have a computer input.
A few years ago, that would have driven many of us crazy. It's less of a challenge today. I can feed an HDMI signal MacBook right in through one of the HDMI ports. Unfortunately many PC desktop and laptop owners don't have an HDMI port. There are work arounds, of course, but they will cost some money, and are generally a nuisance. Especially with the lack of an HD15 (analog computer) input, it would have been nice to have a 3rd HDMI connector.
JVC DLA-X70R and DLA-RS55 Menus
JVC has modified the menu of the X70R, compared to last year.
There is now a Picture Mode, and below it a Color Profile. JVC has added a Dark Bright level control, and a Picture Tone.
Unlike the lower cost X30 and RS45, this X70R has a THX mode, which is discussed elsewhere.
Besides the usual Brightness, Contrast, Color Saturation, etc., the Picture menu has a Gamma sub menu, and and Advanced sub-menu.
The Advanced menu shown here, offers control of sharpness, noise, full color management, the lenses manual iris, and lamp power, and, I almost forgot CFI for smooth motion, which JVC calls Clear Motion Drive. I wish I could tell you what MPC stands for, or what it does, but the manual seemed to overlook this feature. I can say different modes have diffrent defaults, and it does seem to add some edge sharpening, but what it really is doing, I'm not sure. I don't believe it is part of e-Shift, but I'm still trying to find out, with a request into JVC.
This menu is the Color Temp menu for doing the basic grayscale adjustments. The DLA-X70R, lacks a full CMS - Color Management System. (The more expensive JVC's, as well as all of the direct competition, do offer a full CMS.)
Not only can you adjust the gamma of white, but also you can do each primary color separately. Further, the JVC X70R 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. (This image to the right is from the JVC RS45, I did not reshoot for the X70.)
I also like the grayscale provided on the screen (lower right), 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.
Moving to the second main menu - the Input Signal, you'll find options for the HDMI 1.4 input ports, the ability to picture shifting (Picture positioning - digitally move the image up or down (useful for some with cinemascope movies on 16:9 screens, in case you want all the letterboxing to be at the top, and the movie, flush with the bottom of your screen).
The X70R offers Masking, which I favor over overscan, as it maintains 1:1 pixel mapping, if you have to eliminate to fringe noise around the edge of your signal (not uncommon with TV).
The 3D settings are also located on this menu. Including a choice of Off/On, 2D to 3D conversion, and a control for reducing crosstalk (ghosting) which I never spent enough time with to get the hang of, but it doesn't seem to do a whole lot in terms of improving existing ghosting.
Installation settings:
The Lens Control menu is extensive. You've got the ability to control motorized focus, zoom, and lens shift. There's a black and green lined test pattern that comes up when adjusting.
The Lens Memory allows you to set up the projector to project two different sized images from the same physical location. The assumption here, is that you use a "Cinemascope" wide screen, such as my 2.35:1 aspect ratio screen.
With one setting of Lens Memory, the projector fills my 124" wide screen (2.35:1). In the other setting I "set up", the image gets smaller, and fills the height of my screen with a 16:9 image, leaving the letterbox on the left and right. Without zooming out (smaller), 16:9.
The menu to the right is the Lens Control sub-menu. Here you can access the individual controls for Focus, Zoom and Lens Shift. (or you can do that from the remote with the Lens Control Button which toggles you through those three controls.
The Lens Memory controls to save, and select are near the bottom. You can also assign names to the Lens Memories, such as 2.35:1 Movies, or Sports, or whatever "floats your boat".
There is also a Lock feature that's handy, and prevents casual changing of the settings.
The Pixel Adjust menu allows the JVC to digitally shift the red, green, or blue, for better alignment (no image shown).
The Sharpness sub-menu offers both Sharpness and Detail Enhancement controls which are discussed elsewhere in this review.
CFI - Creative Frame Interpolation - called Clear Motion Drive by JVC, offers a number of settings. 1 and 2 seem to have a lot of judder or shake on 24fps movies. Ultimately I found the 3 and 4 settings to be the most usable. I didn't find any CFI that I really liked for movie viewing, but I left the Clear Motion Drive on 3 for a lot of March Madness basketball!
The Display Setup menu is pretty boring compared to the others, and mostly very obvious features that I won't need to cover!
To the right is the Function menu. This allows you to set up the Screen Triggers (or for controlling an anamorphic lens sled) The command and control serial port, a simple timer (One to four hours) - I don't believe it is smart - that the projector will shut down for lack of an input.. I'm used to setting most projectors to shut down if they don't have an input. Unfortunately I put a bunch of extra hours on the lamp, one late night, forgetting to shut off the projector after shutting off the sources.
About 16 hours later I was ready to fire up the JVC, only to realize it was still running.
As is pretty much standard on home theater projectors, lastly is an Information menu, (not shown here), which displays items such as resolution, which port is being used...
JVC DLA-X70R Remote Control
I love the feel (and operation) of the JVC remote control for the DLA-X70R - and DLA-X30.
This one is a bit different than the remote from my own RS20, a remote design they had used for years. This one has a nicer case feel to grip, a "perfect" backlight, (when it comes to not being too dim, or too bright), good range, and a well thought out layout.
Basically:
Two power buttons near the top. On on the right, and Off to the left.
Then come two rows of buttons, the first row of three, offers the primary inputs, your HDMI 1 and 2, and a Component video. That's great, as few will be using other inputs, so not really a need, say, for S-video on the remote.
Next row - two small round buttons, one is a Hide feature, the other is the backlight button.
Then comes the arrow keys and navigation in a round configuration, with a center OK (Enter) button. Below the ring, are Menu and Back, two more small round buttons.
Further down, are nine more buttons in 3 rows, each sporting a different Picture preset like THX, User, or Cinema, and also CMD (CFI for smooth motion).
That leaves only the last four buttons at the bottom of the JVC DLA-X70R, and, from left to right, they provide direct access to controls for:
Gamma, Color Temperature, Color Profiles, and Picture Adjust, which toggles you through all the usual controls like brightness, contrast, sharpness...
Despite the claim of only 7 meters (about 22 feet) max range, we found the X70R remote to do much better, even beating a 30 foot total range, including a bounce off of my Studiotek 130 screen. Nice!
Remotes don't get much nicer than this. Looks good, feels good in your hand, balances well... Love it!
DLA-X70R Lens Throw
The JVC X70'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, 1 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-X70R Lens Shift
The X70R 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-X70R. JVC recommends a Panamorph lens, and sled.
A motorized sled is optional as there is a second anamorphic mode designed to let you watch 16:9 and 4:3, with the anamorphic lens set permanently in front of the lens. This saves on the expense of the motorized sled.
Note, still another way to enjoy the benefits of a widescreen for movies, is with a lens memory feature. With this feature, you can own a 2.35:1 or 2.4:1 screen, and at a touch of a button, fill the screen with your movie, then, one more touch later, and the projector zooms in, and reshifts to fill the vertical of the screen with your 16:9 content, with the letterbox to the left and right. Three ways to choose, but with lens memory, no expensive extra accessories. (Actually, using an anamorphic lens does provide higher actual resolution).
Of particular note, the JVC supports use of an anamorphic lens in 3D mode. That's a nice touch that most others have skipped. It's not a really big advantage as it won't come in handy very often. Seems very few 3D movies or other content come in 2.35:1 (or one of the other Cinemascope aspect ratios). Of my collection of perhaps 35 3D titles, I think only Monster House, and one other is widescreen, the rest, all 16:9. Well, in case the movie Hugo comes out in 3D Cinemascope shape, that alone will be great for those using an anamorphic lense.