If you don’t quite feel like spending $8,000 or more on native 4K projectors from Sony, or well over $10,000 on truly stunning but pricey HDR projectors with native 4K resolution, JVC has a much more affordable solution for you. The 4K is simulated but the projection quality is still great and the HDR10 support is very real indeed.
JVC is no slouch when it comes to making high quality projectors for the consumer home entertainment market. Their models consistently rank in the top five positions among CE Pro’s annual Top 100 Brand Analysis and from what we ourselves have seen with the older JVC e-Shift 4K projectors we’ve already reviewed, we can vouch for their high levels of quality.
Now, taking things even further while still keeping prices reasonable, JVC is releasing six new projectors in the aftermath of CES 2017.
These new models are all definitely on the pricey side but they remain for the most part considerably cheaper than their native 4K Sony counterparts. Furthermore, while all of the new projectors are designed for custom installation, they feature a whole pile of awesome improvements and top-shelf specs that previous JVC e-Shift models lacked. These include dramatic brightness enhancements, superior contrast ratios and a new low-latency auto-detection mechanism for automatically picking up HDR modes in projected content.
The specific model numbers for all six new devices fall under two categories. First, there is the Procision Series line which consists of the DLA-X970R, DLA-X770R and DLA-X570R models. Then there is the Reference Series line with its DLA-RS620, DLA-RS520 and DLA-RS420 projector models.
All of these projectors offer the improvements we’ve mentioned above and all of the new models also come with new 256-watt high-power bulbs for brightness levels of between 1,800 and 2,000 lumens depending on which model you go for.
In terms of their 4K and 4K HDR content display capabilities, each of the new models offers HDCP 2.2 on both of their HDMI inputs and as a result, all six projectors can handle two simultaneous 4K content feeds from two different devices with HDCP 2.2 –devices like 4K gaming consoles, set-top boxes and 4K Blu-ray players. Furthermore, these inputs offer support for 18Gbps data transfer for 4K video at 60Hz and with 4:4:4 color sampling as a bonus.
Moving on to their HDR chops, the new JVC e-Shift models all offer improved contrast for HDR levels of brightness and dynamic range as well as offering full HDR wide color gamut support as per HDR10 specifications for content and display devices. What’s more, as we mentioned above, all six new models come with an automatic HDR detection system that switches their projection settings to HDR picture specs as soon as any piece of content with HDR10 formatting is detected. Furthermore, the brighter DLA-X970R/RS620 and DLA-770R/RS520 projectors also offer support for the new Hybrid Log-Gamma broadcast 4K content standard that has been developed by the BC and will start to appear in broadcast sources of 4K content as well as streaming video formats sooner or later.
JVC has also given these new projectors a low-latency mode for more effective 4K and HD gaming and at least a couple of the new projectors will be coming with THX certification for content realism and color quality based on THX’s supposedly “strict” testing criteria. In other words, the video they deliver will render movies from Hollywood studios with the same accuracy and quality that was given to them in studio post-production facilities.
Finally, we have to mention that these babies are projecting with JVC’s e-Shift technology, which isn’t native 4K at all and instead shifts pixels to create a sort of simulated 2K image. It’s not the same thing as native 4K but for most consumers, the visual difference will be minimal or even unnoticeable and since the projectors do display full HDR10 specs in the right sort of content, the lack of full 4K is even less important for an impressive viewing experience.
JVC is selling the new models for prices that range from $4000 for the DLA-X570R/RS420 models to $10,000 for the THX-certified DLA-X970R/RS620 models.
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