Exclusive AVForums Event: Experience the new line-up of JVC projectors

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Hope it's not too late???
 
Damn, got back early today, so I could have carried on down the M4 and got to this by 4pm, perils of my job that I sometimes don't know if I'll be back early or late.

Looking forward to the feedback, especially from HD350 owners. :thumbsup:
 
Looking forward to some initial impressions and comparisons between old and new pjs. :smashin:
 
It's on till 9 kelvin! Head over. I'm en route sitting in traffic.. Getting there around 7:15pm.
 
Looking forward to everyone's thoughts!

Wish I was further down south so I could attend.. Oh we'll maybe next year :).
 
Got there fairly early (2.30 ish) and enjoyed a demo of both X35 and X55 on 2D and 3D and have to thank JVC, Musical Images as well as Phil/Steve for setting this up.

First I have to say that it was difficult to get a direct comparison between the 2 models as the same material wasn't used on each PJ unfortunately so couldn't assess the eShift in a back to back comparison. (Probably should have insisted on an AB demo despite the switching delay between the PJ's).

I should also say that I'm not an existing PJ owner so am commenting purely on the quality of image I perceived in this demo. Others will no doubt be in a better position to give a view against their own projector, JVC or otherwise.

I did attend the Sony event recently though so can comment on impressions against the HW50 so can get the comparison out of the way first. I'll be honest and say I was a bit underwhelmed when attending the Sony event re the HW50. On that short demo, the colours didn't seem that natural to me and appeared too yellow at times (I know it was out of the box). While Reality Creation looked effective, one overriding memory was motion blur which i was disappointed with.

I was much more impressed with both X35 and X55 today (both shown out of the box without calibration):

X35 was on first playing Casino Royale, opening scene. I couldn't detect any motion blur, colours looked good, natural and overall a nice cinematic look to the picture. Also saw Helms Deep section of The Twin Towers which looked great - very good blacks and a clean looking detailed image.

X55 was put on showing TDK, night scene (bat bike and Joker) - blacks were excellent, very clean images and really did impress. Don't remember the Sony 1000 looking any better than this. Also saw excerpt from Prometheus - again extremely clean detailed images with excellent blacks and perceived dynamic range.

Also on the X35, saw the Imax "Under the Sea" in 3D and this was very impressive - no discernible crosstalk that I could see and some of the fish you could reach out and touch - very good. Tin Tin wasn't as impressive though still very good - not that it was particularly any worse than other 3D content but, as I feel with a lot of the 3D I've seen, looks a bit "cartoony" and gimmicky but then this probably wasn't the best example to watch and I'm not really a 3D fan anyway and prefer watching films without glasses with a more conventional cinematic image.

Overall, from this initial view, if I was looking to buy a PJ now (and I am pondering for next Spring), I'd be very interested in either X35/X55 and while the eShift probably gives the X55 the edge, I'd be happy with the X35 from this showing at the lower price (though an extended demo would be of course be necessary before a final decision).

Finally, a word on the speakers and sub. Speakers were KEF R series R700/300 and 600 centre with Velodyne SPL Ultra 800 (8"). Very impressive all round sound quality and was surprised at the speed and depth of the sub for an 8" unit. Really contributed to the whole experience.

Screen was 6 foot Vutec with 1.3 gain.
 
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I'm afraid I'm not au fait with all the technical aspects of this or any other projector. I'm just a simple bloke who enjoys watching movies on his JVC 750 at home. So this is gonna be a simple review!

I just came back from the event. We were in a demo room in Musical Images, with only room for 2 people at a time on a couch, smallish room, 90 inch projector screen. Totally different to the sony event recently.

We saw the X35 and X55, in 2D, and I think just the X35 in 3D before we ran out of time and had to give the room up for the next couple of people.

Saw opening action scene of Casino Royale (the foot chase) on the X35, then the scene with the storm cloud rushing towards the ship in Prometheus on the X55, then a quick 3D demo of some kid's cartoon involving a kid flying a dragon around on the X35.

The 2D picture was excellent, though I didn't notice any improvement on my 750. The 3D scene on the X35 surprised me, as I found it easy on the eye compared to others I've seen, and the brightness was fine.

In short, both projectors very nice, and I was pleasantly surprised by the 3D, of which I'm not usually a fan. Part of that might have been to do with the screen size etc. Not sure. Glasses weren't too heavy either.

:thumbsup:
 
The 2D picture was excellent, though I didn't notice any improvement on my 750. The 3D scene on the X35 surprised me, as I found it easy on the eye compared to others I've seen, and the brightness was fine.

Interested to read this as the contrast ratio is claimed to be the same, though in theory the X35 should be brighter so could run with the iris closed down a bit more, though the increase in contrast perhaps isn't so apparent (maybe side by side, but via memory obviously not). What did you make of the motion as I noticed an improvement when I saw the X7 launch over my HD350. Though the motion doesn't bother me I did notice when it was better if you follow?

I guess Jagdeepp isn't back yet, but I'll be very interested to hear his take on the X35.
 
Interesting with the two comments above in regards to motion blur. One said the new pjs seemed blur free while another said the new pjs were similar to his HD750, which had noticeable blur. Even the X3/X30 has motion blur to a degree.
 
Raine said:
Interesting with the two comments above in regards to motion blur. One said the new pjs seemed blur free while another said the new pjs were similar to his HD750, which had noticeable blur. Even the X3/X30 has motion blur to a degree.

I've had x3 and hd750 and both had motion blur, nothing I couldn't live with but there all the same. I'm running a Sony hw10 at the minute which is a bit better for blur so interesting that the new models are better than Sony hw50 for motion handling.
That said, I understand the Sony demo screen was large and the jvc demo screen was relatively small so this could be a factor, as well as relative seating distance.
I'm intrigued that it was 1.3 gain screen and quite small- you would expect a very bright image with this set up. Anyone care to comment on brightness?
Lack of crosstalk comments are very positive too, that's numerous times I've heard that mentioned so looks like jvc have made real improvements this year.
Would also like to hear more about eshift 2 please guys :)
 
soupdragon said:
I've had x3 and hd750 and both had motion blur, nothing I couldn't live with but there all the same. I'm running a Sony hw10 at the minute which is a bit better for blur so interesting that the new models are better than Sony hw50 for motion handling.
That said, I understand the Sony demo screen was large and the jvc demo screen was relatively small so this could be a factor, as well as relative seating distance.
I'm intrigued that it was 1.3 gain screen and quite small- you would expect a very bright image with this set up. Anyone care to comment on brightness?
Lack of crosstalk comments are very positive too, that's numerous times I've heard that mentioned so looks like jvc have made real improvements this year.
Would also like to hear more about eshift 2 please guys :)

True about the differ screen sizes between the JVC and Sony demos could play a bit/big factor. Sony was pretty large while the JVC was pretty small or very small in relation to the Sony size.

And each to their own in regards to motion blur. Me personally, I found the HD750 motion to be a bit off putting while others don't.
 
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I'm just having my dinner. Had a great evening! Will post my views in around 30 mins. Cheers!
 
And if the X35 is the dogs digglings, I might hv to question myself "Do I really need two kidneys?" :laugh:
 
I've had x3 and hd750 and both had motion blur, nothing I couldn't live with but there all the same. I'm running a Sony hw10 at the minute which is a bit better for blur so interesting that the new models are better than Sony hw50 for motion handling.
That said, I understand the Sony demo screen was large and the jvc demo screen was relatively small so this could be a factor, as well as relative seating distance.
I'm intrigued that it was 1.3 gain screen and quite small- you would expect a very bright image with this set up. Anyone care to comment on brightness?
Lack of crosstalk comments are very positive too, that's numerous times I've heard that mentioned so looks like jvc have made real improvements this year.
Would also like to hear more about eshift 2 please guys :)

Unfortunately there was no demo of eshift on/off like there was with the Sony RC at the Sony dem so not as useful for assessing this feature. Could only comment on the overall picture with eshift on and separately on the X35 but took time to switch between the two so somewhat reliant on my visual memory!

It was one of the MI guys that mentioned the 1.3 gain screen so took his word for it. The images did look plenty bright.
 
Ok, my turn..

Firstly, 2 fingers up to the warden who gave me a parking ticket that i will robustly appeal!

A massive thanks to the guys for organising the event. I arrived at around 7:30pm. The venue was a relatively large Hi-fi shop with 2 enclosed rooms/theatres. The larger of the rooms had damp issues so we were given the smaller room consisting of a 2 seater sofa 2 PJ's (x35 and x55), humongous speakers and a retracted 16:9 matt screen which looked to be around 1.6 or 1.8 mtrs wide. The backing wall was a deep red but the side walls and ceiling of this fairly small yet 'cosy' room were..... white :eek: . To be fair its a room in which speakers are exhibited. Given my experience of a fair number of JVC PJ's i was able to appreciate that the environment wasn't ideal to show off the magic these PJ's could pull off. I did mention this to Steve of JVC and he agreed that a treated room would have been better but not everyone has batcaves to be fair.

The beauty of being the last member to arrive on scene was that I got to spend as long as I wanted with Steve. I was kindly led into the room and spent alot of uninterrupted 1 to 1 time with Steve who answered any and all questions I asked during the viewing.

I viewed the following:

JVC X35 -
Quantam of Solace - opening scene
Valkyrie - ad hoc scene

JVC X55
Batman Dark Knight (various scenes) with Eshift OFF and ON.
Avengers Assemble - 3D final battle sequence
3D underwater sequence

I also had a Q&A with Steve who was so insightful. It was both wierd and quite exciting as I was used to watching Steve Withers and Phil Hinton firing questions during the exclusive video productions.

I was then interviewed on tape by Phil and Steve about my experience. Following on from this I have to say it was really great to have a chance to geek with the pair who are so massively knowledgeable and honest with their views of the various PJ's past and present. I could have stayed and chatted all night to be honest!

Ok, impressions... Of course these are subjective. You also have to appreciate that the viewings were not done in a remotely treated room. The screen washed out in brighter scenes but I was here to see e-shift, the general brightness of the PJ's, 3d, motion etc.. The rest didn't really matter and i was able to analyse the relevant points without issue. Steve was even happy for me to walk right upto the screen and ask for scenes to be paused randomly.

I'll keep the impressions brief as i was interviewed and covered most points there.
JVC x35: FACT .. for me anyway.. a MUCH better colour pallete than the HD350! JVC have listened. Don't get me wrong, the HD350 is excellent, it really is. My one gave excellent colours but there was a slight push on the reds. I was able to adjust through my HTPC but it was there. The x35 i saw hadn't been calibrated per se. It had been gently adjusted. The colours were clean and the image was sharp. QOS was good to watch but has quite a gritty, grainy and noisy opening so wasn't able to really show off the image sharpness. It was very good. Seriously. Better than the HW50E? I can't comment on the blacks as they were grey in this room. But, JVC machines are the best with blacks and I know blacks would be better at home or in a living room. Also, the models seen today are pre-production. The final model i'm told will be 10-15% better!

I didn't watch any 3d material on the X35... sorry! But, if the question is whether the x35 is an improvement, the answer has to be yes. It's obviously brighter. I can say this as a matter of fact. I mean, I only spent 400 hours watching a HD350 and could probably tell the difference :p

Did I find this to be a better PJ than the Sony? Hard to answer as the Sony was played in a treated room. Motion issues? I noticed them, slightly.. but hey, I notice motion at the Odeon on an 8k system so thats probably just me. I love the JVC blacks. Period. Who doesn't? This isn't a better PJ. It's on par. I really enjoyed the hw50e. They are falling into the same price bracket as I understand it. The Sony has reality creation on its side which certainly makes a difference. The X35 has the better blacks but just.

JVC X55: The Dark Knight was awesome. Ok, again I can't comment on the blacks as they didn't look great in this particular room. But I know how good they will be in a larger room without bright white walls and ceilings only 3 mtrs from one another. The sharpness of this machine was on a whole new level, thats all I'll say for now. I covered alot of this when I spoke to Steve and Phil on camera so I'll leave much of it for that.

To clear up any speculation.. E-shift 2 did NOT soften the image. I actually asked Steve from JVC to zoom out fully with both PJ's because i wanted to see the image maxed out. I then focussed on the actual screen area and look for pixelation/structure/screendoor/softness when turned on and off. It didn't soften the screen an iota. I walked right up to the screen, my nasal hairs an inch of the screen. No softness at all. The whole talk about a Darbee complimenting the X55 and compensating for e-shift softening is in my now 'learned' opinion total and complete garbage. E-shift I found cleaned the image up. Thats it. I didn't see a night and day difference when turning on or off. I saw a great difference with the Reality Creation but in many ways i saw artefacts too with RC that i didn't see with E-shift. I also note that e-shift levels are adjustable. I didn't play with this.

3D on the X55 was good. I got a slight headache but i guess it takes getting used to. I didn't get a headache with the Sony.. But, to be fair i was sat quite away from the screen when watching the Sony. I noticed motion on Avengers but was totally blown away by the deep sea sequence that Steve put on. 3d doesn't massively interest me.

I'd also say this.. Sony 1000 or X55? The X55 any day of the week!

Again, thanks so very much to Steve (JVC), Phil Hinton and Steve Withers. Lovely chaps.

AVForums events are great. Seriously. Though I didn't meet any forum members (my fault, I arrived late) it was great meeting the 3 experts!

The chap who runs the venue was also really helpful. I'm sure we'll be speaking again very soon!

I had a chat with Mooro73 on the way home and we agreed that it would be great to host events like this in dedicated theatres of Forum members. I'd gladly have allowed the guys to pop the x55 or x35's cherry in my cave which is 'treated' and could have accomodated around 8-10 members comfortably. Oh well, maybe next time?

Equally, it'd be great to host a forums get together at some point. You'll all have seen my face by now as I'm making a second appearance in an AV video. I actually had a shave this time to make myself a little more presentable compared to the Sony video where i attended with a messy 5'o'clock shadow .. not that I'm vein, it's just not very easy being this sexy ..;)
 
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Great write up!

It's definitely given me food for thought :).

I'm still torn between the X35 and HW50 though..

Looking forward to the video too.

Stuart
 
It's definitely given me food for thought :).

I'm still torn between the X35 and HW50 though..

Don't go by my word.. I'm colour blind :laugh: [Kidding]

Nothing beats a demo dude. Hopefully AVF will organise an event near your neck of the woods. Else, i'd wait for both to be released then check them out. Phil Hinton's reviews are generally excellent. I found his write up on the HD350 to be totally 100% spot on.
 
I shared the same demo as djshrubs, echo his comments, although I didn't notice motion blur, at least like I do on my X30 with footie. Sorry I missed you iDbrunt!

Phil and Steve confirmed the screen was 1.3 gain and white with a 90 inch diagonal measurement. Room conditions were very different to the Sony event, a dark screen wall (Dulux Mulberry I think) while the walls and ceiling were white. It was an enclosed room so no light straying from windows. The Sony PJs were in a cinema. What Musical Images have gone for (I believe it was recently decorated) is a room like most ordinary lounges.

So you have a screen size/room environment disparity between this JVC event and the Sony. I'm still getting to grips with my X30, but the X35 looked nice and bright and 3d train your dragon looked plenty bright, I personally did not see crosstalk. Moving to the X55, it was very smooth with eShift2 applied. This gives you different settings for picture types and three levels of adjustment, but no opportunity to adjust or compare A/B comparisons on/off in the demo. It's a very nice machine indeed and IMHO looks the pick of the JVC range. The RF glasses worked very well, and the glasses had good size lenses, but felt light and maybe better than their older IR models.

Not sure the X75/95 would work so well in the light room, but if you're in those price ranges chances are you will have a bat cave anyway. The X35 looked good so Kelvin, I wouldn't sweat too much over your preorder! And if you lose the pj faith, I want dibs on your ISCO!!! Just bear in mind that as a rough rule of thumb you don't get huge leaps in performance unless you jump a number of iterations of product.

The Pioneer Receiver/BD and Kef Velodyne set up had a great sound as mentioned.

A big thank you to Musical Images, Steve Carter from JVC and of course Steve and Phil.
 
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jagdeepp said:
Don't go by my word.. I'm colour blind :laugh: [Kidding]

Nothing beats a demo dude. Hopefully AVF will organise an event near your neck of the woods. Else, i'd wait for both to be released then check them out. Phil Hinton's reviews are generally excellent. I found his write up on the HD350 to be totally 100% spot on.

Thanks for the great write up, with humor added! :smashin:

Would I be correct in saying, for starters, between the X35 and the HW50 is... slightly better blacks for the X35 versus the slightly better motion of the HW50? And which one do you think generally impressed you the most can you say? Thx!
 
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Nice impressions jag. You mentioned about the sharpness of the X55. Was it sharper than the X35? How about the brightness of both projectors? Nice and bright? Is e-shift2 worth the price premium in your opinion? Also, can you elaborate on your comment that the X55 is better than the VW1000? I'm really looking at buying the X55 and I'm trying to see if that is the best choice (for movie watching) compared to other competition. Thanks! Cheers!
 
Got to shoot off to Cardiff shortly, but thanks to Jagdeepp and Steve for the reviews. Sounds like I should be a happy man when my X35 arrives. Had I realised I'd have got back so early I might have made the effort to come over, but to be honest I probably would have fallen asleep after such a long drive to work yesterday. :blush: My thought was that I've waiting a few generations so would hope to see some improvement, though I did sell a small improvement over the HD350 with the old HD750 in my room, back when I had a smaller bat tent, so if the X35 matches that, plus the lens memory and other improvements it will be worthwhile for me.

Can't wait until it arrives now. :smashin:
 
Thanks for the opinions. I'm looking for a new PJ and considering the Sony HW50, JVC X35 and Panasonic AT6000.
We need an event up north with all 3 running in a half decent set up before Xmas please :D
I personally would go for better motion as my VT30 plasma has motion issues but the Panasonic projector didn't (AE3000) so looking forward to some roper reviews soon.
 
Sed Rules: the x55 was sharp, but to be fair I watched IMAX scenes out of The Dark Knight which are perhaps some of the cleanest sequences you can watch.

I think just knowing that the JVC has provided the closest clean up and improvement possible of a 1080p image means a buyer can be assured that this is as good as it gets without a native 4k image.I've also seen a 4k machine upscaling the same material and to my eye there was zero difference. To that end alone I would say there is no benefit in the Sony 4k pj over the x55. That's just my opinion. I've seen both. Someone else could totally disagree and I'd respect that.

I didn't get to perform any foreplay personally on the x55 and it's e-shift 2 settings. But there are a plethora of tweaks to satisfy any geek. I saw it switched on and off. The difference was subtle but as I say with a little tweaking a lot more could be achieved.

I'll leave it there for now. Back to work!
 
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I shared the same demo as djshrubs, echo his comments, although I didn't notice motion blur, at least like I do on my X30 with footie. Sorry I missed you iDbrunt!

Phil and Steve confirmed the screen was 1.3 gain and white with a 90 inch diagonal measurement. Room conditions were very different to the Sony event, a dark screen wall (Dulux Mulberry I think) while the walls and ceiling were white. It was an enclosed room so no light straying from windows. The Sony PJs were in a cinema. What Musical Images have gone for (I believe it was recently decorated) is a room like most ordinary lounges.

So you have a screen size/room environment disparity between this JVC event and the Sony. I'm still getting to grips with my X30, but the X35 looked nice and bright and 3d train your dragon looked plenty bright, I personally did not see crosstalk. Moving to the X55, it was very smooth with eShift2 applied. This gives you different settings for picture types and three levels of adjustment, but no opportunity to adjust or compare A/B comparisons on/off in the demo. It's a very nice machine indeed and IMHO looks the pick of the JVC range. The RF glasses worked very well, and the glasses had good size lenses, but felt light and maybe better than their older IR models.

Not sure the X75/95 would work so well in the light room, but if you're in those price ranges chances are you will have a bat cave anyway. The X35 looked good so Kelvin, I wouldn't sweat too much over your preorder! And if you lose the pj faith, I want dibs on your ISCO!!! Just bear in mind that as a rough rule of thumb you don't get huge leaps in performance unless you jump a number of iterations of product.

The Pioneer Receiver/BD and Kef Velodyne set up a great sound as mentioned.

A big thank you to Musical Images, Steve Carter from JVC and of course Steve and Phil.

Cheers Steve. Glad you enjoyed the dem too. Pure luck again I was in London on day of a dem and had a couple of spare hours so thought be interesting to see following the Sony event. Hope you're enjoying your X30.
Ian
 

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