JVC DLA-RS25 – Performance – 1

Close up of a computer monitor, from Space Cowboys (Blu-ray), left to right DLA-RS25, RS20, Epson Home Cinema 8500UB, and BenQ W20000. The DLA-RS25 holds its own against most, but not a few of the sharpest DLP projectors.

JVC DLA-RS25: Bottom Line Sharpness

click here to enlarge.  As the owner of the older JVC, I’ve always considered it’s sharpness, and therefore that of the RS25 as well, to be acceptable, but I have always wished it was a sharper, such as the old InFocus In83, and a few others I can think of. Quite honestly I don’t really notice a difference when watching typical film based movies. It’s when I have a great 1080 HDTV or 1080 Blu-ray source, with all digital material (an HDTV sports event, or programming like Discovery HD, Universe, Blue Planet, etc, where you are more likely to notice the JVC’s slight softness compared to the sharpest projectors.

I certainly considered it a fair trade-off, in exchange for superior color accuracy, and the best black level performance available.

Click Image to Enlarge

Light Leakage

JVC DLA-RS25 Image Noise

Nothing new here. For the 3rd generation, JVC has continued with higher end Silicon Optix for their image processing. They are still using the Silicon Optix Reon-VX (the lastest version no doubt). The Reon-VX is found in a number of excellent projectors. I’m not aware of any notable flaws in image processing. Mosquito noise is just visible, in normal amounts, without the Noise Reduction engaged. I don’t see a need to implement it, but that is personal taste. Performance on motion artifacts is very good. As you can imagine, the RS25 easily passes all the other related related tests on the HQV test disc, as that widely used test disc is put out by Silicon Optix.

The RS25 does offer a contrast enhancement feature. As would be expected, it does slightly increase the image noise.

DLA-RS25 Audible Noise

More than quiet enough. While there are quieter projectors the JVC RS25 is quieter than average, and claims a very impressive 19db noise level in low power mode. It’s probably still 25 db or less with fan and lamp running at full power. The pitch of the noise is fairly average, and lower than many. Overall, having owned the equally quiet JVC RS20, audible noise has been a non-issue. In fairness, my RS20 sits on a high shelf (just over 10 feet) and about 8 feet behind me, so it’s a lot further away than it would be in some smaller rooms or if ceiling mounting almost overhead. Still, while there are quieter projectors, this should satisfy all but the most noise adverse, and even those folks would have to have it placed close by before they might complain.