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Dec 6, 2007 JVC guru     Source: Sound & Vision mag JVC is perhaps best known in the TV world for LCoS...

My Experience: Source: Sound & Vision mag

JVC is perhaps best known in the TV world for LCoS-based
projectors, but the company also has some impressive flat-panel
LCDs. The last one reviewed in Sound & Vision, the 1080p-rez
LT-46FN97, earned an S&V Certified and Recommended stamp.
So I was more than ready to have a look at the new 47-inch LT-47X898.
Two key features make X898 Series LCDs stand out against earlier
JVC models: Clear Motion Drive II (CMD II) processing and In Plane
Switching (IPS). CMD II combats LCD motion lag by displaying
images at a 120-Hz refresh rate — double the speed of typical
HDTVs — and it uses sophisticated motion interpolation to fill in the
gaps between frames when displaying standard 60-Hz video
sources. IPS, meanwhile, is a technology that causes the liquidcrystal
molecules in the panel's cells (pixels) to rotate parallel to the
screen surface when deflecting light from the set's fluorescent
backlight. (In a standard LCD cell, liquid-crystal molecules twist in
perpendicular formation in response to current from adjacent
electrodes.) Without getting too techy here, the net effect of IPS is a
greatly improved viewing angle, with no drop-off in contrast,
brightness, or color saturation when you watch from off-center
seats.
The all-black 47X898 has an appealing, understated look. A thin,
11/2-inch gloss-black bezel surrounds the screen, and a slightly
wider strip containing the set's speakers runs along its bottom. The
TV comes with a matching stand, and various wall-mounts are
available from JVC online. Basic controls are located on the TV's
side, including buttons for power, volume, input selection, and menu
browsing.
Inputs galore can be found on the JVC's back panel. Along with
three HDMI 1.3 jacks are two component-video connections, a VGA
port for a PC, and the standard composite- and S-video inputs.
Unlike the HDMI jacks on a number of other new 120-Hz LCDs, the
JVC's won't accept a 24-frames-per-second signal from a high-defdisc player; your 1080p input options are limited to 1080p/60.
The remote control is decidedly on the bulky side, but it has a fully backlit keypad and a clean
button layout. Direct-input buttons near the top let you easily switch sources. Pressing the Aspect
button lets you choose from Slim (4:3), Full (16:9), Panorama zoom, and Cinema stretch; there's
also a no-overscan Full Native mode for 1080-format programs. One minor glitch to report: When
switching between high-def formats on the same input (toggling back and forth between the 720p
ESPN-HD and 1080i HBO-HD cable channels, for example), you'll need to reselect Full Native
mode. The option doesn't automatically become active after you return to viewing 1080i-format
programs.
Setup
JVC's onscreen TV menus could definitely use an update. Moving from one adjustment to the
next requires that you skim through every item in that particular submenu with the arrow keys — a
frustratingly slow proc-ess. The TV has four picture presets (Standard, Dynamic, Theater, and
Game) and two Custom picture memories, all of which can be modified, and the set stores your
adjustments. However, the Theater preset is the only one that comes anywhere close to providing
natural-looking pictures, and it's a global preset that can't be independently tweaked for each of
the TV's inputs.
Along with basic settings in the Picture Adjust
menu, an item labeled Energy Saver Mode
lets you adjust the TV's backlight level to
achieve deeper blacks. And when the set is
in Theater mode, a Theater Pro II submenu
provides access to an extended range of
adjustments not available in the other picture
presets, including red, green, and blue color
temperature, as well as separate horizontal
and vertical sharpness adjustments
(indispensable for reducing edge
enhancement during setup). Turning on the
TV's Color Management setting also gives
you additional controls to tweak the level and
hue of red, green, yellow, and cyan
separately from the main color and hue
adjustments. But with the exception of the
red level adjustment, I found these controls to
be largely ineffective, and JVC's manual
didn't shed any light.
Performance
With the 47X898's Theater mode optimized
for my Blu-ray Disc player, I took a look at the
recent release of A Few Good Men. I'm not a
fan of courtroom dramas, but this disc's crisp,
eye-popping picture held my attention when
screened on the JVC. In the scene where Lt.
Kaffee (Tom Cruise) and Lt. Cdr. Galloway
(Demi Moore) first plead their case opposite
Capt. Ross (Kevin Bacon), each actor's skin
tone looked natural and also showed subtle
variations in hue. Overall, the colors in both
this movie and other programs I watched
looked vivid. Too vivid, as it turned out: I
needed to adjust the set's red level in the
Color Management menu to tone down the
red stripes on the courtroom's American flag,
which bordered on garish.
From my normal 8-foot seating distance, the
TV's 47-inch screen proved to be on the
small side for fully appreciating 1080p
pictures. Even so, its crisp resolution brought
The Short Form
Price $3,300 / jvc.com / 800-252-5722
Snapshot
JVC's top-shelf LCD offers solid 120-Hz pictures
that will look good from any seat in the house.
Plus
•Crisp HDTV picture
•Deep blacks and strong shadow detail
•Solid standard-def program upconversion
•Very wide viewing angle for LCD
Minus
•Limited picture-setup options
•Colors can appear oversaturated
•User-unfriendly menus
Key Features
•1080p resolution
•Built-in HDTV tuner
•120-Hz display
•Picture-in-picture with split-screen mode
•Inputs: 3 HDMI; 2 component-, 3 compositevideo;
S-video; VGA; RS-232C; RF
antenna/cable
•44.25 x 30.5 x 11.75 in; 77 lb (w/stand)
Test Bench
In Theater mode/Low color temperature, the
JVC's grayscale tracked ±178 K of the 6,500-K
standard from 30 to 100 IRE — very good
performance. Adjustments in the Theater menu
improved this to ±148 K and compensated for a
slight green deficiency. Color-decoder tests
revealed a relatively high -20% green error on
the HDMI inputs, and —5% red on component
video. Red, green, and blue color points showed
fair to high levels of oversaturation, though Colorout details like individual strands of hair in
Bacon's buzz cut (ouch!). In all of the
courtroom scenes, I found the depth of the
black uniforms worn by Kaffee's legal team to
be striking. Not only did they look solid, but
lighter black shades were readily apparent in
the folds and creases. And the JVC's fully
fleshed-out shadows also held up in a dark
scene where Lt. Col. Markinson (J.T. Walsh)
surprises Kaffee when he's driving downtown
at night.
Standard-def DVDs and cable TV also looked
very good on the JVC — a testament to its
solid deinterlacing and upconversion.
However, I noticed that the set's Natural Cinema mode needed to be switched from Auto to On to
reliably upconvert 1080i high-def programs. Picture uniformity was outstanding for an LCD model:
There was no sign of uneven screen brightness on dark movie scenes, and pictures showed
equally strong contrast and consistent colors at 45° off-axis as they did when viewed head-on.
Bottom Line
JVC's LT-47X898 delivers great-looking pictures with both standard- and high-def sources and an
exceptionally wide viewing angle — the best of any LCD set I've yet tested. My only reservation is
its limited options for picture adjustment, which fall short compared with other high-end TVs on
the market. Even so, this is the first LCD I've used that proved virtually free of all the technology's
shortcomings (motion lag, shadow-depth weakness, picture non-uniformity, you name it). If that's
not high praise, I don't know what is.
Management adjustments made the reds more
balanced.
Overscan measured 0% for 1080i-format highdef
signals in Full Native mode. The set
displayed 1080i/p and 720p test patterns with full
resolution on both HDMI and component video,
although some noise was visible on the latter
input. Screen uniformity was excellent when the
set was viewed from off-center seats up to 45º
— the best off-axis performance I've seen from a
flat-panel LCD. Both black- and white-field
uniformity were also excellent, with no sign of the
tinting, streaking, or uneven screen brightness
typically seen in LCD TVs.