Value Electronics Chooses JVC 8K Projector in Shoot-out
Value Electronics is well known and recognized in the display community for hosting well-run shoot-outs on TVs and projectors to try to decide the best units available in the market from an image quality standpoint. In December, the firm held a shoot-out that looked at Ultra Short Throw (UST) and long throw projectors. In the top category of $25,000 to $30,000 units, the winner was the 8K JVC DLA-NZ9 which scored 9.5/10 against 9.1/10 for the Sony VPL-XW7000ES. The JVC unit was rated at 9.7/10 for detail/sharpness, which was well ahead of the 4K Sony’s 8.6.
The JVC unit, which uses a 4K D-ILA (JVC’s version of LCOS) imager with pixel shifting to give 8K, also scored higher than the Sony on other parameters. The Sony unit won the ‘head-to-head’ on only two of eight categories, for bright content and for HDR tone mapping.
In the shoot-out, the panel also looked at products in the $4,000 -$7,000 and $11,000-$16,000 categories, with the JVC DLA-NP5 and JVC DLA-NZ8 winning, giving JVC a clean sweep of the long throw competition.
In the 4K Ultra Short Throw (UST) category, the LG HU915QB was significantly better than the others, scoring top marks for nine of the fourteen aspects that were judged.
The full results are here. There’s a 40-minute video about the event (see below). In the video, Robert Zohn of Value Electronics, said there had been considerable improvements in projection picture quality in the last year or so. This is partly because of the rapid drop in price and increased availability of laser light sources. That is combined with intense competition among projector makers and much more HDR 4K content becoming available to deliver better results.
The JVC DLA-NZ9 was the only 8K projector in the shoot-out. The event really highlighted the challenges in making 8K projection systems, and over on our sister 8K Association site, we have had a look at the technical challenges for projectors which often lag the progress in flat panel displays in terms of resolution.
With Samsung launching a new 8K projector at CES and likely in the same price category as the JVC, competition should heat up in 2023.
