JVC HD-56G887 review

Out of the box and set to Theater mode and Low color temperature, the HD-56G887's grayscale came so close to the standard that it did not need calibration. We did run into one issue during setup, however: the black level with our standard-def source at the first HDMI input was different from the level for our high-def source at the second HDMI input, so we couldn't use the theater preset for both. We tried to get around this by using the standard preset for the second input, but that changed the grayscale dramatically for the worse, despite both modes claiming to be in the Low color-temperature setting. We ended up calibrating the grayscale in Standard mode, then fixing the black-level difference by using the DVD player's brightness control, but that's an inelegant solution generally not available to everyday users.

Black-level performance on the HD-56G887 was better than that of previous 720p models we've tested, although dark areas certainly weren't as deep as with the best DLP and LCoS sets. The JVC cannot resolve details darker than black, as any HDTV should. Our torture test for dark scenes, the beginning of Alien: The Director's Cut, also revealed some visible false-contouring artifacts and low-level noise, such as when the Nostromo is traveling through space in the opening sequence.

We had complained about uniformity issues on previous LCoS displays, but the JVC HD-56G887 was much better, very little discoloration in different areas of the screen.

Overall color accuracy was good, with excellent color decoding, provided Color Management is turned off. Grayscale tracking was linear, which will further improve color fidelity. Primary colors are a mixed bag in terms of accuracy (see the Geek box). The Fifth Element Superbit DVD revealed extremely natural-looking color and skin-tone rendition. Detail and clarity were also as solid as we'd expect from the DVD.

The JVC HD-56G887 delivers all the resolution from 720 HD sources via its HDMI input. HD from our Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player, set to 1080i mode, looked mostly excellent. The Chronicles of Riddick delivered superb detail and decent color saturation. There are a lot of dark scenes in this movie, and the JVC handled them reasonably well, with fewer artifacts than we noticed during DVD playback.