JVC X3/X7/X9 Owners Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
It does seem that JVC UK has been hard done by in the first round.

Surprise surprise. Big corporates always look after other regions in preference to the UK. I'd love to know how many units were destined for the US? Infact I'd love to know the inside scoop on how many units were dispatched to each region per capita. I'm sure given the population of the UK we must have the highest number of preorders per head.

X3 preorder guy passing the time checking this forum as I have no PJ :(
 
PS. Jon

can I ask you to post what settings you`re running in 3D please as well if you wouldn`t mind

So far I have just been running using the dedicated 3D preset which has colour compensation for the glasses and of course opens the iris fully. However the default sharpening is set to 30 which at first makes everything look rediculously crisp until you also notice the sharpening artifacts as well. So I turned that down to 15 for the moment and will probably lower it to zero. I was trying to figure out why JVC chose such a high sharpening default.
 
i am just wondering, about the 3d viewing being pretty dim - if a curved screen would help?. Or would a curved screen screw up the 3d effect.
 
i am just wondering, about the 3d viewing being pretty dim - if a curved screen would help?. Or would a curved screen screw up the 3d effect.

It would not help at all and I don't know what it would do for the 3D effect. To improve the brightness a higher gain screen material that preserves polarisation would be the best way of handling this.

The output of the new JVCs are horizontally polarised. Similarly the glasses have a horizontal polarisation filter. Most screen materials will "scatter" the light meaning that the polarisation of some of the light reflected off the screen is no longer horizontally polarised. This will not make it through the filter in the glasses reducing the light output further.

Depending on the desired screen size though, a higher gain screen may be all that is needed. To get up to sizes like 140" diagonal then a polarisation preserving material will help some more.

As I mentioned earlier with my 80" diagonal, currently with the new bulb, the image is brighter than the Acer H5360 and brighter than I need it to be. I feel that after the bulb settles down it will probably be just fine, but for how long for? And I realise my screen size isn't that big. HOwever my material is only 0.95 gain (Vutec Greydove)
 
Some additional observations.

Digital noise: This has been discussed in great depth on AVS when certain people previewing preproduction units observed digital noise even on the built-in test patterns. It is believed this may be a form of PWM or dithering just like that seen on plasmas. However JVC also state in their marketing that they don't do spatial dithering (is that the same as temporal dithering?).

I can confirm that there IS still digital noise present on a production unit. This is most obviously visible on a grey ramp test screen with certain shades along the way obviously causing the effect. HOwever even on a full screen colour swatch you can catch it in certain parts of the screen which surprised me if it was indeed dithering.

I want to emphasise that on my screen size and viewing distance it is NOT visible at all from the viewing position. I have to go up towards the screen to see it. However, with some people who like very large screen sizes and very close seating positions, could this become an issue? We don't normally sit there examining static screens with such scrutiny so perhaps not. Nevertheless I wanted to bring this topic up because it had been brought up previously on AVS.

Although this is not a problem personally for me at all and I want to keep it in context, it is odd that the new JVCs have this where previous ones have not. There are always choices to be made in design and it could be that JVC have favoured this over motion contouring which has been a problem previously, and for which I have not seen at all yet with the new JVCs.

As far as I understand the X range does use a new panel design vs previous models.
 
Focus & Convergence: I mentioned earlier that the convergence is good but not perfect. I have analysed this in more detail. Out of the box, vertical misconvergence was almost non-existent with just a small amount of blue mis-alignment in the bottom left corner. The focus on blue also deviates ever so slightly in the same area so this may indicate the optics rather than the panels.

Overall though this projector does better than my previous 950 in maintaining focus on all 3 primaries across the image. The HD1 I had could only properly focus on one primary. I focussed it on Green which then got it acceptably close in Red and Blue. With the 950, it focussed perfectly on green in the centre, good on Red, and okay on blue. The 950 was not quite as good in the corners as centre but overall the linearity was impressive. With the X7, you can consistently and clearly make out the individual pixels in all 3 primaries anywhere on the screen.

The horizontal convergence is not quite as good however as I had with my 950. Out of the box it was about 0.8 of a pixel out on most of the left side of the screen with red. By shifting the red horizontally one pixel, it is now very good until the right 1/3 of the screen where it deviates reaching approximately 0.6 pixel deviation at the edge of the screen. As you can see this is not linear across the image which may suggest the panel is slightly slanted.

However, overall convergence issues are not visible at all from a seating position or even when I get close to the screen. Why? It is important to understand that the effects of misconvergence are directly tied with focus and lens abberations. If the pixels are not perfectly in focus, then they will also be bigger (due to blur/blooming) making the deviation more obvious and causing visible fringing. As the focus is held so well to the edges, the misconvergence is not visible from any normal viewing distance.

While it would be nice to see misconvergence levels down to 0.25 pixel deviation maximum, it is a non-issue for me with my X7. I say "my" X7, because every projector varies and some could be better, and some could be worse.
 
Last edited:
I'm eagerly awaiting some X3 owners in the field. The only one I've read so far (well it's an RS40 actually, but whatever) wasn't calibrated ideally in the greyscale, so IMHO the colour gamut performance isn't truely known at this point. Interesting feedback from Jon on the X7, thanks for posting.:thumbsup:
 
So far I have just been running using the dedicated 3D preset which has colour compensation for the glasses and of course opens the iris fully. However the default sharpening is set to 30 which at first makes everything look rediculously crisp until you also notice the sharpening artifacts as well. So I turned that down to 15 for the moment and will probably lower it to zero. I was trying to figure out why JVC chose such a high sharpening default.

We didn`t get that far whilst we were getting it ready for the first bunch of people to arrive but what I did notice and this is maybe the reason why.

Christmas Carol movie was probably the crispest (if thats a word) film i`ve ever seen, i could see the dirt under Ebenezers finger nails lol, whereas How to train your Dragon was indeed very good but didn`t seem as sharp, just natural if an animated movie can be called natural.

I did also see in the background of HTTYD some very very slight ghosting but only if you looked for it, if you just got on with watching the film it was fantastic to say the least.

looks like i`ll have to go every saturday afternoon now just to wet my fetish for 3D :D until I get one for myself.
 
Last edited:
Digital noise: This has been discussed in great depth on AVS when certain people previewing preproduction units observed digital noise even on the built-in test patterns. It is believed this may be a form of PWM or dithering just like that seen on plasmas. However JVC also state in their marketing that they don't do spatial dithering (is that the same as temporal dithering?).

I can confirm that there IS still digital noise present on a production unit. This is most obviously visible on a grey ramp test screen with certain shades along the way obviously causing the effect.

Jon, out of interest do you have the AVS test pattern disc? Petri who posted on here and over on the other one said that the home screen on this was particularly noisey on his pre-pro unit, wonder if it just happens to map to one of the levels of grey which it doesn't like...
 
Jon, out of interest do you have the AVS test pattern disc? Petri who posted on here and over on the other one said that the home screen on this was particularly noisey on his pre-pro unit, wonder if it just happens to map to one of the levels of grey which it doesn't like...

I do have the disc and can see it with that shade of grey, but not from seated. Also, when you go to the lens adjustments, it puts up a green grid with a grey box in the centre. The grey box also shows the "dancing dots".
 
Perhaps 'Sharper' gives a better 3D effect?

You are right, it does actually seem to do that. But it also increases ghosting slightly as well as a result. I will have to play more with this adjustment.
 
I do have the disc and can see it with that shade of grey, but not from seated. Also, when you go to the lens adjustments, it puts up a green grid with a grey box in the centre. The grey box also shows the "dancing dots".

Jon I sense considerable self control on your part or could it be reluctance to applaud the replacement for the 950. 'Dancing dots' does not give me the warm fuzzy feeling that all is well with the new design!
 
Some additional observations.

Digital noise: This has been discussed in great depth on AVS when certain people previewing preproduction units observed digital noise even on the built-in test patterns. It is believed this may be a form of PWM or dithering just like that seen on plasmas. However JVC also state in their marketing that they don't do spatial dithering (is that the same as temporal dithering?).

I can confirm that there IS still digital noise present on a production unit. This is most obviously visible on a grey ramp test screen with certain shades along the way obviously causing the effect. HOwever even on a full screen colour swatch you can catch it in certain parts of the screen which surprised me if it was indeed dithering.

I want to emphasise that on my screen size and viewing distance it is NOT visible at all from the viewing position. I have to go up towards the screen to see it. However, with some people who like very large screen sizes and very close seating positions, could this become an issue? We don't normally sit there examining static screens with such scrutiny so perhaps not. Nevertheless I wanted to bring this topic up because it had been brought up previously on AVS.

Although this is not a problem personally for me at all and I want to keep it in context, it is odd that the new JVCs have this where previous ones have not. There are always choices to be made in design and it could be that JVC have favoured this over motion contouring which has been a problem previously, and for which I have not seen at all yet with the new JVCs.

As far as I understand the X range does use a new panel design vs previous models.

This is not good news for those of us with 150" width screens and higher as it will clearly be visible from a normal seating distance :(

After reading Perti and ekkharts comments on this issue it was the only thing that was bothering me with these new designs, although I cancelled my RS50 (X7) and downgraded to an RS40 (X3) because of this reason I will wait and see for myself before selling it.
 
On this digital noise issue... Can i ask people on this thread the other PJ models they were considering? Just figured i need a safety plan if a) this digital noise issue is serious and b) jvc cannot get me stock by 22nd december.

I am upgrading from a £500 optoma 720p model. Has lots of digital noise which bugs me. Had no idea i could expect such an artefact from such a pricey PJ. Btw I have an x3 on order.

I was considering the Panny ae4000 but all those issues with dust blobs put me off. Plus i love the dila tech and not having a dynamic iris to boost contrast ratios. I see some people selling hd-550's new for around £2700. No idea if they have stock, but as someone who doesnt give a hoot about 3d my options are open.

So to recap, i am not putting a downer on the jvc, i just fancy having a backup plan if they lack of units getting to the uk affects my xmas! On a personal note i have 2 kids (the youngest 1yr) old, and i really need some me time with a PJ. Hence why i cannot wait even a month longer for the jvc to arrive, i.e. End of jan delivery. By then my 2 weeks off work at xmas will have transpired...
 
Hi All - new to forums and to pj's so please forgive a newbie if aI make a few errors! Been reading all the comments on this and the previous thread avidly,and would first like to thank all contributors for their sage advise and comments, of which most have prompted me to order an X3. I'm pleased to say that I have also ordered with Musical Images in Edgware, so after seeing that JonStatt is first out of the blocks with an X7 from the same supplier, things are looking fairly brght for my X3 next week! So my question is this Jon: Assuming that you would recommend professional calibtration on an X3, can you please suggest anyone is the local area for this? Any advise would be most welcome!
 
Hi All - new to forums and to pj's so please forgive a newbie if aI make a few errors! Been reading all the comments on this and the previous thread avidly,and would first like to thank all contributors for their sage advise and comments, of which most have prompted me to order an X3. I'm pleased to say that I have also ordered with Musical Images in Edgware, so after seeing that JonStatt is first out of the blocks with an X7 from the same supplier, things are looking fairly brght for my X3 next week! So my question is this Jon: Assuming that you would recommend professional calibtration on an X3, can you please suggest anyone is the local area for this? Any advise would be most welcome!

Welcome welcome!! I'm a complete amateur on these forums, and will let it to those prominent names to give you their professional advice. If you've just ordered an X3 congrats!! I (still) have mine on pre-order as of 6 weeks ago. Welcome to the waiting game :)

On the calibration note... you will want to get at least 100 hours on your projector lamp... if not 200 hours. So calibration will have to come some time after your PJ purchase and install. I've got Digital Video Essentials on blu ray and my friend is bringing in from the USA Disney WOW (supposed to be the best home calibration disc). The X3 has the rec 709 mode (google can explain this better than me)... nothing that an ISF calibration would do... but just FYI... I'm going to use that mode for the first 100-200 hours.
 
Thanks kc - will take your advice and get some hours under my belt first.
 
It does seem that JVC UK has been hard done by in the first round.

Proportionately we actually did slightly better than we expected, It's just that there are are always initial glitches when starting a new production line and the numbers were a bit less then planned. They had to cut everyone's allocation back slightly, not just ours.
 
Heading down to JVC later this morning to view a production X7, will check out the reported noise issues and see how prevalent they are.

Also want to check out a couple of issues I noticed on the demo of a pre production model and hoping they are addressed :)

Will report back later :smashin:
 
2D impressions.

Sorry for the delay in posting this but I wanted to run through several films first. I know many people will want to know if I can see an improvement over my HD950. Of course to a large extent this will be subjective as I do not have them both for side-by-side comparison. Nevertheless I am confident there are differences and I will attempt to articulate them.

It was suggested I try and set the iris so that the output is similar to the HD950. The brighter image that results from an iris opened wider will appear more punchy and "pop" more which could confuse my comparison.

However therein lay my first problem. If I set black to match the black output of my HD950, the whites were clearly brighter. If I set the whites to match the HD950, then the blacks were blacker. This confirms that the on/off contrast difference is noticeable coming from the HD950.

I should point out that my room is not treated. My walls are not painted dark (although it is an ultra matt paint). There is no velvet on the walls etc etc.

Having set a compromise with the iris (-9), low lamp, and THX preset, I then proceeded to watch a film that I had watched through completely on the HD950 already, Robin Hood. This film is actually a challenge due to the wide dynamic range of some of the scenes. But also with the beautiful and detailed scenery comes the opportunity to evaluate aspects such as sharpness.

I bought this projector for 3D being honest. I did not buy it as an update for 2D as I was already very happy. So I don't a desire to see something that isn't there and then convince myself it is. However, I can honestly say, the picture is noticeably better than my HD950.

Firstly, as already confirmed with my setting the iris, the contrast is better and it can be seen. Despite my untreated room, watching Robin Hood which is not 16:9 and so displays borders top and bottom, the black borders are obviously darker. The dynamic range of the image appears increased and I felt drawn in to the image more. Robin Hood has many scenes where parts of the image are deep in shadow and other parts of the same scene very bright. Whereas on the HD950 I did not observe some of the shadow detail on some of those mixed scenes, it is better preserved on the X7. One way to describe what I could see, is ultra-realistic. I sometimes felt I could just walk into the screen and be in the countryside.

Sharpness improvements were the biggest surprise to me. The HD950 that I had was good for sharpness although as I mentioned in a previous note, I believe the X7 holds that sharpness a bit better towards the edges of the screen. However, the X7 image is visibly and obviously sharper again. There must be more at play here than just lens focus. Is it something to do with less pixel bleeding between cells? If so we would see ANSI contrast improvements I would have thought. But however it is done, again and again I was impressed with the sharpness. This is a really appreciable difference.

So we talked about the visible contrast improvement and sharpness differences. Let's move to the often talked about shadow detail.

I then played the most recent Batman movie. I was specifically told to examine the Hong Kong night skyline scene. This is one of those scenes on the blu-ray that switches to IMAX 16:9. I had played this scene recently on my HD950 before it left my home so I had some basis for comparison. I was surprised to see that there was an appreciable improvement in the shadow details such that the skyline felt rich and lush with much greater details visible to my eye. I apologise for being so non-technical, but I can only describe the image as silky smooth. I am not referring to the motion, but it just seemed so real and non-digital as if I was observing it with my own eyes. My HD950 was calibrated but I never quite managed to achieve this.

I played various other materials to confirm my findings and it was consistent across the 10 or so other titles/scenes that I tried.

The big question for many, is, would you upgrade for 2D alone? From an HD1, I would say absolutely, but then I found a significant upgrade from the HD1 to my HD950 already. Would you upgrade from an HD950 to an X7? There is most definitely an easily noticeable improvement in contrast and sharpness, as well as other benefits in shadow areas. It is visible even in my untreated room. But it is an evolutionary and not revolutionary step. However if you have even a remote interest in 3D, then I personally believe the upgrade is well worth it.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom