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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"A ?smoothly clear? picture, I made the right choice."
Pros: Picture Quality with DVDs is great, lower cost than Sony
Cons: Bottom of case, only one ATSC tuner
Summary: JVC HD56FH96 (56?), It has a ?smoothly clear? picture, I made the right choice.
CNETs review is a little outdated as you can buy the JVC now for about $3000 including shipping, much less than the SONY. This set is loaded with features and the set-up was relative easy,
First off, the case of the JVC is nice, the dull black plastic looks rich and thick, not cheep. It looks ?mean?. The thin sides help keep the case small. The only thing I would change is the bottom of the case. It leaves a 2 inch gap under the bottom left and right sides. I guess I can place remote controls in this area.
The ?included? ATSC tuner was able to pick up 12 local HD stations using rabbit ears. (I live in Phx area about 45 miles from the towers). If the off-air HD signal is low, an on-screen indicator informs you. The local HD channels display look picture perfect. I have standard Cox cable connected to the NTSC input. The cable channels look pretty good event though they are not HD, but you can tell the difference.
The unit configuration is fairly easy. You can even configure the blue power indicator to half intensity or off, nice when watching movies. The back lit remote control is nice, but the ?light on? button is not in an obvious place, so if it is dark, it may be hard to find.
I have no HDMI devices. But I connected my Toshiba DVD player using component video with progressive scan. The result was very good. I could not tell the difference from HD channels to DVD content. The first movie I watched was Star Trek Nemesis. The planetary battle scenes were very realistic. The blackness of space looked real. The colors were natural and realistic looking. I was using the Theater Pro setting of the set. There were no noticeable display artifacts like I have seen on the Toshiba/Samsung DLP units. The JVC display seemed smooth and blended, there was no noticeable pixels seen, (I think this is called screen dooring). It has a ?smoothly clear? picture. Action scenes looked great.
When I purchased the unit over the internet, the sales people tried to push the $600 extended warranty, and when I did not go for it, that tried to sell a $200 HDMI cable. They said there is no other way to get HD display. But the component video looks just as good as the HD channels received through the ATSC.
I have been looking for quite a long time. I have looked at many HDTV displays. Another HDTV I considered was the Sony 3LCD. But the Sony 1080p set is much more expensive than the JVC from what I could find, and the Sony case is much wider than I like, but the display quality looks very close.
