New Products

At a time when TV screens are getting bigger by the day and fast approaching projection screen sizes, JVC remains undeterred and continues to push high-end projection TV with a focus on improved dynamic range and contrast. The company today announced two D-ILA laser projectors designed to input and display images at 8K60p and 4K120p resolutions.

Slated to ship in June, the new DLA-NZ900/DLA-RS4200 (shown, $26,000) and DLA-NZ800/DLA-RS3200 ($16,000) projectors are hailed as “vastly improved” over current JVC projectors, boasting a new brighter version of JVC’s proprietary Blu-Escent laser light engine and a new 4K D-ILA device said to improve native contrast and greatly extend dynamic range over what is possible with its current top projectors.

JVC says it has optimized its Blu-Escent laser engine to achieve a rated 3,300 lumens of brightness on the DLA-NZ900/DLA-RS4200 and 2,700 lumens on the DLA-NZ800/DLA-RS3200, both from a blue-laser diode light source with a life expectancy of 20,000 hours. “Brightness per effective wattage” is almost twice (1.9 times) that of the first-generation DLA-Z1 laser projector, according to the company.

Further bolstering performance is a new third-generation 0.69-inch native 4K D-ILA device said to achieve sharper images and a native contrast that is one-and-a-half times higher than the current flagship DLA-NZ9 projector. Rated native contrast ratio is 150,000:1 for the DLA-NZ900/DLA-RS4200 and 100,000:1 for the DLA-NZ800/DLA-RS3200.

The improvements in contrast are attributed to better “alignment control of liquid crystals and enhanced flatness of image pixels” in the D-ILA device. Advances in the manufacturing process have also resulted in improved screen uniformity, according to JVC.

Other technical improvements over previous generation JVC projectors include better dynamic light source control. When combined with higher native contrast, the ability to control laser output according to the brightness of the video scene is said to create “images that are closer to human perception.” Unlike conventional aperture control, the laser diode contributes to the instantaneous control of light output to enable dynamic brightness control with little or no latency, according to JVC. A dynamic contrast level of ∞:1 (infinity to 1) in scenes with pitch blackness is achieved by turning off the light source.

JVC’s laser diode also features a more precise control algorithm, and the number of light-source control steps has been increased from three steps to 101 steps, which “helps make fine adjustments to meet or exceed critical SDR and HDR environments.”

The ability of both projectors to input full 48Gbps 8K60p signals and correctly display them is made possible by the adoption of advanced LSIs that enable information four times larger than a 4K input to be instantly processed from input to the D-ILA device, according to JVC. Also, the ability to input 4K120p with low-latency mode is said to make both projectors effective for high frame-rate gaming.

The new DLA-NZ900/DLA-RS4200 and DLA-NZ800/DLA-RS3200 projectors employ JVC’s second-generation 8K/e-shiftX technology, which is said to improve their ability to reproduce 8K (8192 x 4320 pixels) display resolution. In addition to applying “ultra-resolution processing,” the proprietary system effectively doubles 4K resolution by shifting each pixel by 0.5 pixels in each of four directions: up, down, left, and right.

Features Galore and Solid Build Quality
In addition to supporting HLG, HDR10, and HDR10+ high dynamic range (HDR), the new JVC projectors are capable of reproducing BT.2020 wide color gamut with 10-bit gradation and feature JVC’s proprietary Frame Adapt HDR Generation 2 technology; a proprietary algorithm analyzes the maximum brightness of HDR10 content frame by frame and adjusts dynamic range in real-time to ensure the optimum range for video projection.

JVC has also “reexamined” it tone mapping algorithm to achieve higher definition HDR images in a scene or frame. The proprietary algorithm for tone curve selection has also been improved to reproduce HDR images that are “brighter, more colorful, and have a wider dynamic range.” Also new is a Deep Black function for the company’s Frame Adapt HDR process, which uses an algorithm to extend dark tones.

Filmmaker Mode is included in the new DLA-NZ900/DLA-RS4200 and DLA-NZ800/DLA-RS3200 projectors. When the mode is engaged, it turns off picture quality adjustment functions such as frame interpolation and noise reduction and sets the color temperature to D65 (6500K) in an effort to bring viewers closer to the director/filmmaker’s artistic intent

Both projectors also employ cinema filters to enable a wide color gamut that is equivalent to DCI-P3 and BT.709 in addition to JVC’s original Clear Motion Drive, which is designed to help reproduce smoother moving images; JVC says it has improved the motion algorithm to enhance accuracy in the periphery of intersecting objects.

In terms of build, both of the new models use an all-glass lens. The DLA-NZ900/DLA-RS4200 has an 18-element, 16-group 100-mm lens featuring a full aluminum lens barrel designed to “project high-resolution 8K images to every corner of the screen while securing wide shift ranges of 100% vertically and 43% horizontally.” The new flagship also incorporates five extra-low dispersion lenses calibrated for differences in the R/G/B refractive index to reduce chromatic aberration and color fringing when lens shift kicks in. The DLA-NZ800/DLA-RS3200 uses a smaller, 17-element, 15-group 65-mm glass lens.

Even though TV screen sizes are growing by leaps and bounds, the DLA-NZ900/DLA-RS4200 and DLA-NZ800/DLA-RS3200 projectors still have a big leg up with their ability to project images up to 300 and 200 inches (diagonal) in size, respectively — an ability that, of course, carries a substantial premium.

Amid a changing home entertainment landscape that has seen a massive shift from disc-based video content to subscription-based streaming, JVC sees great potential for 8K in the future: “8K video content is expected to increase with the launches of 8K streaming services like YouTube and the release of 8K-compatible game titles [and] development of enhanced graphic cards in the gaming industry.”

For more information and detailed specs on the new DLA-NZ900/DLA-RS4200 and DLA-NZ800/DLA-RS3200 projectors, visit jvc.com.