Barnes and Noble introduces the NOOK
- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 17 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
5.0 stars
"cnet lies, it does have individual input setting memories"
Pros: Fabulous picture, two true HD inputs, good anti-reflective coating, reasonable angle of view
Cons: JVC's traditional hateful non-direct input selection process
Summary: Unfortunately, CNET goes not all for .5 ratings, or I would have rated this 9.5 deleting the .5 for the tedious input selection method.
After having lived with a two-generation-older JVC 52-inch 720p for a year, I was pretty certain I wanted to stay with JVC, but I did research and look at everything I could.
As it turned out, nothing in the world of RPs came close to this in color fidelity and clarity (all sets have some color issues, with JVC it's green), but I'm more concerned with skin tones than grass, and JVC has the best skin tones in the biz (you can also almost disappear the green issue by going into the service menu and turning the green drive down from 124 to 118 or so.)
The only set I saw close to this in performance was the 50-inch Panasonic industrial plasma (I don't need speakers or a tuner), which prices out stripped at only $100 or $200 more than the JVC.
Unfortunately, stripped is really stripped and by the time you add HDMI ports and a stand you're looking at about $600 more than the JVC and a smaller screen and 720p resolution.
Personally, I think, given the nature of available content, the resolution issue is bogus sales bilge and plasmas have that glorious ability to deliver the exact same color and brghtness at any viewing angle.
Also plasmas have glass screens that can be cleaned with Windex and such, RP's plastic screens -- including JVCs -- cannot be scrubbed.
However, my wife hates watching TV in theater-like darkness and the very glass that makes plasmas cleanable makes them reflection pigs -- thus the decision to go with the JVC RP.
I also like the fact that you can restore full brightness on an RP just by changing the bulb. All TVs get dimmer as they age and on a plasma it is uncorrectable.
Anyway, the JVC picture is superb -- no block noise like RP lcds and no rainbows like DLPs.
The biggest (and most pleasant) surprise so far is the separate per-input color setting memories. Both CNET and most other reviewers have criticized JVC for not including the in the FN models apparently because earlier models (like my old 52-inch set) did not offer it.
However, the owners manual for the FC, FN, and FH series clearly states that this feature is available and I verified it by using different settings for the HDMI 1(DTV PVR)and the HDMI 2 (Oppus DVD) inputs and checking to make sure they were both retained in memory.
One other thought, if you own a surround sound system and don't plan on doing your email or other computer tasks on the TV, you can save a few hundred bucks and get a free stand if you can find an FC unit left at Costco or other big box stores. The three models (FC, FN and FH) are identical except for some cosmetics and the addition of a center channel speaker and PC input to the FN and the center channel speaker, PC input and gold connectors to the FH.
However
