JVC DLA-X70R Performance 2

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Art Feierman

Post-Calibration Brightness

Color Temp over IRE Range (Post calibration) User 1:
20 IRE	6662
30 IRE	6336
40 IRE	6403
50 IRE	6434
60 IRE	6502
70 IRE	6532
80 IRE	6586
90 IRE	6452
100 IRE	6528

Average gamma= 2.20

DLA-X70R Best mode- User 1: 748 lumens @ 6528

Average gamma= 2.19

JVC Gamma Control:

Although the gamma, in the Normal setting is low (brighter in the mid-ranges). The JVC offers extensive gamma custom controls, as well. A Custom Gamma was set up by Mike. Otherwise, note: Gamma setting A, lifts the very dark regions of an image. When engaged, it seems that the very dark shadow detail is improved, but in reality, it's really just lifting that which was already there, making it far more obvious (and too much).

Art's NOTE: The JVC X70 R doesn't exhibit the slight blue shift in the very dark regions that the RS45 had.

Mike's NOTES: Grayscale calibrated very well, with an average Delta E of only 0.9 (same as the HD250). As Stage (the brightest mode) is only 12 lumens more than THX mode, there’s no need for a quick cal of a “bright” mode. Unfortunately, THX mode cannot be calibrated and has too much blue in the RGB balance. I see that the projector has an ISF designation, so presumably it could be calibrated in a service menu. Gamma was too low in any of the presets (Normal was the high with an average gamma of 1.96), so I used the custom gamma.

JVC changed things again with a variety of color profiles (ie: gamut). They all vary mostly by how much green is oversaturated. The THX and Standard color gamut (see CIE charts) are the best. One oddity which doesn’t really show up much in regular viewing is that if you put up a 100% blue screen in anything but THX color profile, it looks like a bluish magenta. Something’s not right there.

The Calibration page provides the settings we used. That includes basic settings as well as gain and offset.

Sharpness

The JVC DLA-X70R starts out "typically sharp" for a 3 chip or 3 panel projector. All else being equal, single chip DLP projectors have a sharpness advantage as they don't have to align and converge separate Red, Green, and Blue light.

But this is JVC with their "4K" e-shift technology, which I discussed on the first page of this review. While I don't buy into their marketing of 4K, e-shift does bring things to the party.

For most viewing, the DLA-X70 seems to be at least as sharp as any other 3 panel/3chip type projector I've seen, at least if we exclude some many times the price 3 chip DLP projectors (with optics that probably sell for more than this projector). The Epson 5010 I have here for reference for black levels, seems to be very sharp for a 3LCD projector, and at no point, did the JVC not seem every bit as sharp. Overall, I'd say the JVC is a tad sharper than the Epson. It will take a good DLP to look visibly sharper/crisper.

JVC DLA-X70R

Runco LS-5

Epson Home Cinema 5010

Panasonic PT-AE7000

Optoma HD8300

Bottom Line Sharpness

Overall, very good sharpness (better than some in the corners), for a 3 chip device. A number of competitors are slightly sharper, or "sharper still", as I like to say, and that includes several DLP's as well as a few 3 panel based projectors.