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JVC DLA-X70R – The Pros and Cons

Posted on March 27, 2012 By Art Feierman

Pros

There sure are a lot of Pros!

  • Extremely good color post calibration
  • Best black level performance and dynamic range – no iris, none needed
  • Good CFI – while some CFI modes have some issues, plenty to choose from (3,4)
  • Above average brightness in “best” movie mode (748 lumens) for movie viewing
  • Very good dark shadow detail, expecially considering the dark blacks
  • 2D->3D works – try it with some of your 2D videos from your camcorder or…
  • Lens Memory – allows movie fans to go with a widescreen – such as 2.35:1 cinemascope
  • Zoom, Focus, Lens shift, are all motorized
  • Supports anamorphic lens
  • Wide variety of color presets
  • Extensive gamma and custom gamma controls
  • Very good menu layout
  • Excellent remote control
  • Reasonably good documentation
  • Excellent placement flexibility
  • Reasonably quiet projector – fairly quiet at full power, essentially silent at low power
  • Physically fairly large, but atttractive (if the “wife” let’s you hang a projector, this one should be OK)
  • Good warranty – 2 years parts and labor
Click Image to Enlarge

Cons

  • Documentation, though not bad, needs better feature explanations (MPC isn’t even in the manual), nothing on e-Shift, either
  • Just below average in “brightest mode” (less than 1000 lumens)
  • More crosstalk (ghosting) in 3D than most competitors
  • No 3D adjustments relating to glasses/timing, to reduce the ghosting
  • Needs to be brighter for 3D – stick to smaller screens or high gain ones
  • A 3rd HDMI input would be nice (always)
  • Warranty 2 years parts and labor is average, but several competitors are offering 3 years
  • Lamp life – with 3000 hours claimed at low power, we estimate 2000 at full. That makes its lamp life one of the shorter durations
  • On the expensive side – $9995 MSRP, street of $7995
  • Only a good warranty, not a great one: Sony, Optoma, Epson (6010) offer a 3rd year warranty

This projector earns our Hot Product Award.The JVC DLA-X70 is one of the great projectors and projector values out there, assuming you purchase it for what it does best (2D movies). If you need a more well rounded projector, however, including 3D viewing, then the JVC drops down to being one of a number of very good expensive projectors, each with some real strengths, and a weakness or two. Still, 3D notwithstanding, hard to go wrong with this JVC projector. This X70R projector will be slugging it out for our Best In Class award in the over $3500 price Class, in our upcoming Home Theater Projector Report.

JVC DLA-X70R Review Summary 2
JVC DLA-X70R Specifications