-->The Official JVC - 1080p HD-ILA - HD-XXFH96 Owners Thread<-- - Page 18

Please look at my posts earlier on PC connection over HDMI. Lots of pictures too. When you feed the set a 1080p via HDMI, the FH96 informs the Nvidia card (in my case) that 1080i (30Hz) is the max it can handle. The video card then pulls back to 1080i (30Hz) and displays a glorious 1080i picture as per Powerstrip software. It overscans slightly and the Nvidia driver has a cool GUI which allows you to step down each axis until it fits perfectly. In my case the custom resolution is "1840x1028" if I recall.

So no true 1080p, but 1080i plays fine over HDMI. I have my Comcast STB set to 1080i out fed in to the 1st HDMI input and a Toshiba DVD player also outputting 1080i in to the 2nd HDMI input.

Jury's back for me at this point.

In addition to setting the video status to "theater", the "theater pro" button also seems to set the color temperature to "low."' It does not seem to have any effect on other settings like color management, dynamic gamma, or smart picture.

Oh, and with the color turned all the way down to -30, no colored blotches were visible on my 61FH96. I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for, so maybe I'm missing it, but I didn't see colors.

Actually, I think what was proven is that while the PC display board is set to 1080P, the handshake between the PC and JVC establishes that the JVC will only accept 1080i. This forces the PC to change it's input signal from 1080P to 1080i. See post #224.

Good point. I wonder if the HP DLP set that claims to accept 1080p will accept HDMI 1.3. Right now MS has said that Vista won't support Blu-Ray so the only test will be a set-top player.

The copy protection/copyright scheme for Blu-Ray requires handshakes in a computer between the player, the OS, the chipset on the MB, the video card and finally the display device.

The 56 inch set does accept 1080i over HDMI (or component) from my Samsung 841 player and 1080i over HDMI from the Sony 715 DVD Recorder. The set also outputs a 480i of the cable card on the s-vhs monitor out connector that the Sony can record.

Once TimeWarner get their restock of HD STB in, I'll be able to watch one HD channel and recorder another from the STB to the Sony.

Yes... they are certainly bright enough for a sunlight room. My great room has HUGE windows and no problems with day time viewing. However, same as other TV's, probably not that good if the sunlight shines directly on the screen.

I agonized over the 1080p question too. Now that I have the TV, in my opinion all that worry was a waste of time. The reality is that the vast majority of available content is really terrible and certainly not anywhere close to 1080p.

I can tell you that 480p from a DVD player looks very good and if you can find a clean 720p or 1080i feed (there are a few) then the TV looks spectacular. Right now I'd be very happy if all feeds were clean 480p, 720p and 1080i with high quality source material. My guess is this is years away. I'm no longer worried about 1080p. Probably be onto my next TV by the time this is a broadcast standard.

I've noticed I get a better picture if I get my PVR to upconvert 480p to 1080i versus feeding 480p to the TV and letting it upconvert. So now I'm shopping for an upconvert DVD... probably an Oppo. With Blu-Ray etc I expect the 1080i output will look amazing on this JVC.

Previously posted screen shots of HTPC hook up looked more than acceptable to me... I'm not too concerned about the ongoing debate of wether it's 1080i or 1080p 30, 60 etc... it looks good... it is good !

No permanent fix yet. I have the same problem as you, but for some reason, I don't get it on overcast days. Today is bright and sunny, so I'll see if it happens today. Also, I put a piece of cardboard between the vents on the back right of the TV and the window and have not had problems since.

-J.

Actually, this set performs *very well* with direct sunlight. You may need to come out of Theater Pro mode during times like this, but there's enough power behind this set to cut through direct sunlight.

When I bought my house, one of the main things I wanted was a wide open floor plan and plenty of natural light. This, unfortunately, is exactly what you don't want for a theater room. Once I left the closing, I knew my dreams of a front projector were lost. The 70FH96 has helped me lick my wounds

-J.

The specs talk about a new 3-step optical iris system and dynamic gamma. Does anyone know how these work, I know they are both supposed to help with black level? Do they relate to Theater Mode or any of the other video modes?

thanks,
rich

I assume you did not block the vents... so can you explain a little more. Where exactly is the cardboard?... I'd like to try something like this.

I've also wondered about speaker cloth over the vents.

Correct - the cardboard is about 4-6 inches off the vents and cut in a trapezoidal shape to fit the contours of the TV. I'll send a pic this weekend.

-J.

Spartan2005; No. It's meant for OTA (below 800 MHz) and satellite (above 1 GHz).

Well said grider. I've certainly arrived at your conclusion. BTW my upconverting DVD player is the new Toshiba SD-6980 which can be had for $150. Excellent image IMHO. Have not looked at the Oppo. Google for the tosh to read some reviews.

I wonder if the "light leak" is around the cable card area. I think I lost my HDMI inputs when the cable installer first put in and took out the cable card and used a flash light. The second cable card (there has to be someone home at the cable headend to authorize the card which was the problem with the first one) worked and then I reset the HDMI inputs.

The second one went out, the repair man pulled the card with the set off, left it rest for 30 seconds and re-installed. He could re-authorize through his cell phone link to the headend and the card came back to life and the HDMI inputs still worked.

Try a cover over the cable card slot and see if that helps. The senor has to be on that input board and it's hard to believe that stray light from the lamp vents would be able to trigger it. I'll bet JVC will have a fix on this in the next run of sets. Although you might want to wait until HDMI 1.3 is released before you get a warranty repair since we don't know if 1.3 will be a chip change or a firmware flash.

John

John,

I'd bet that the flashlight is the culprit.

I agree and I think you explain something that has been bothering me from reading personal experiences of new owners in this and the other thread.

I can't recall anyone saying anything but that the JVC was spectacular playing DVD's, yet there have been complaints of fuzzy/blurry images, edge issues, color bleeding, etc. I can't believe that the TV is the reason that any of those owners are suffering those problems. It's source. If you put good quality source into this TV you will get exceptional quality output. That is all you can ask from it. If your picture is blurry, then call your cable/satellite service and upgrade/replace and if that doesn't fix it change out all your cables going to the back of your set.

When 1080p source is available I believe that there will be a way for this set to accept it (serial port in back), till then feed it only the best and you will have no complaints.

You're looking for pure, sparkling black and white with no trace of color, however faint it might be.

Well, bit the bullet and placed my order today for the 61FH96... won't have it in time for the Bowl games, but definitely in time for the Super Bowl. The price was incredible, my total, including shipping, tax, and a 3-year extended Mack warranty (which covers bulb replacement too!) was less than what Costco is selling this set for retail. Not too shabby!

These sets I guess are on backorder from JVC, maybe a week or so, but since it will ship directly from JVC in San Diego, I shouldn't have to wait more than a day or two at most to get it!

If you want to know where I got it from, which was not a Brooklyn scamtailer, PM me.

Anyways, will post many pics when it arrives. Now I gotta sell my 42" Samsung, and start earning some extra cash with wedding photography to pay for this baby. Also have to be extra nice to the gf now, since she wants something round and shiny. I told her, just wait until you see how BIG rings look on the screen of a 61" HD set! Unfortunately, I dont think she's going to fall for that.

thanks!



Hmmm... there's a thought. Cablecard is not used in Canada so there's nothing in that slot... just a hole. I'll cover it and see what happens tomorrrow.

I'm posting in this thread because I am leaning heavily towards purchasing a 56" JVC 1080P set...until a few hours ago...

I stopped by Fry's to take a third look at the 56" JVC they have set up. All the TV's were tuned to ESPN HD and the Independence Bowl football game was on (I assume broadcasting in HD). I was comparing the following sets:

JVC 56" 1080P
JVC 56" 720P (because it was beside the JVC 56" 1080P)
Mitsubishi 62528 and 52628 (because they were side by side)
Sony 60" SXRD (which I won't buy due to width problems, but it was good to compare)


The two JVC's were in a dark corner away from the other sets. The two Mits were side by side near the middle of all the sets. The Sony was "out front" in the TV area, which means it was in the area with the most ambient light.

The JVC 1080P set had an "effect" that bothered me quite a bit and was very noticable. When the camera was zoomed out enough to show both teams, you could still see quite a bit of detail in the grass. However, when the camera moved (panned left or right, or zoomed in or out a little), the grass seemed to lose a lot of its detail, sometimes almost becoming a "monolithic" green if the movement was fast enough. Is this SSE? Also, if the camera panned quickly, the grass almost seemed to "lay down" in the direction of the panning, again losing a lot of the detail. As soon as the camera movement stopped, the detail came back.

Since the sets were not all side by side, it was hard to compare them. However, after about an hour, I came to the conclusion that the Sony and the Mitsubishis displayed this "effect" about equally, with the Mitsubishis maybe showing it a little less (where less is good in this case).

However, the Sony and the Mitsubishis all showed this "effect" much less than the JVC's. I was surprised that the JVC 720P set didn't show it any worse than the JVC 1080P.

Is this "effect" a calibration issue? a setup issue? or a technology issue? If it's the latter, why are the Mits and Sony both way better than the JVC, even though the JVC and Sony are closer in technology?

Thanks,
Ira

Ira,

Thanks for the review.

As to the blur during fast motion, I'd say that the JVC can't process motion as fast as the others. This would really show up on a hocky game. Where's the puck??

Hi all. I have been reading this thread with interest as my 70" is due to arrive on Thursday. I have a Picture-in-Picture question.

I have a ComCast Hi-Def DVR STB (Motorola) that I will be hooking up via DVI-HDMI. I was planning on using the COmCast remote to power on the TV and control the channels and volume (and DVR function), but I definitely want to use the PIP. So, how would you suggest I hook things up? Maybe in addition to the DVI-HDMI, also hook up the component in order to get a second source for PIP? Has anyone tried the PIP with a STB? I appreciate your help on this. PM me if you don't want to pollute the board. Thanks much.
Ken

Ira,

The first thing you should do in Fry's is check the source. With the JVC remote hit the display key (+i) and see what the source is. They could easily be feeding a ntsc channel 14 signal to all the sets on the floor from a sat receiver. If it's from a channel and it'll tell you which one and if digitial you should see more information (on my set it'll show if it's 1080i or 720p or 480i, etc) if it's an analog signal then the old display will show in the lower part of the screen with the channel number in yellow and the timer and clock in blue.

If it's from a video input then you'll see video 1, 2, 3, 4, or digitial 1 or 2--again a giveaway if you're really watching a HD feed or not.

This is one reason why it's so difficult to compare these sets in stores. In older threads, some members took their own source material (D-VHS in one case) in to view on the sets.

I'm really gun shy of the sources at Fry's since I've never seen a good looking set there although some members have said that the newest stores are doing a better job of signal distribution (Thousand Oaks, CA for example).

John

Chris,
Did you compare the cost VS the spec differences between the Theater Pro and the Pro? my research so far shows that for the $400 difference the Theater Pro is the way to go. What are you thoughts on this?

Ira - all I can tell you is you can't trust the feed or the connections to any of the sets in a store. I was at a number of stores shopping around and at one of the HHGregg's they had the FH96 sitting next to a JVC 720P model and the Mits. The picture was on the same link but there was something not right about the picture (both other sets looked better than the FH96 - including the 720p). All the sales guy could say is - there is a connection problem somewhere even though all the sets share the same link.

I have the P61R1U and it's gorgeous. My friend has a Sony SXRD and it looks great also. I don't think you can go wrong with either set. I do think the Sony's colors are a little too vibrant - not quite right. It initially makes the set pop compared to the others but I'm watching the LSU - Miami game on my JVC 1080p and I'm in heaven.

I didn't check the setup (or any other settings) on any of the sets at Fry's I was looking at. Since this is my first foray into HD, RPTV, etc. (my 15 year old 35" Mits is finally giving up the game), I haven't gotten into the "operational" aspects of these sets yet. I do know that the JVC has been on the floor the least amount of time (they set it up last week at my request), so maybe no-one has taken the time to tweak it at all.

Am I correct in thinking that the consensus here is that what I was seeing was a installation/setup/feed problem that can most likely be eliminated, as opposed to a problem inherent with the JVC 1080P technology itself?

Other than the one problem I described, I do like the picture, and I like the Lcos technology better than DLP. In case it matters, I will be using two sources -- HD DirecTivo and HD OTA, mostly OTA for the major network channels when watching HD.

Thanks,
Ira

Am I the only one with a DOA set?
Both blotches on the screen, and HDMI that cxan not be resurrected by resetting.
Any others?

The motion blur you're describing does tend to happen if the noise reduction is set to maximum. When it's showing a closeup of a persons face for example, the detail will be very good while stationary. However, if they move their head even just a little bit alot of the detail will go away, or blur. Once they are stationary again the detail returns. This can also sometimes happen with the noise reduction level set to auto. I usually leave mine on either minimum or off depending on the amount of noise in the program.

For the first time tonight I hooked up both my JVC and my Loewe Aventos 30" direct-view CRT HDTV simultaneously to my D-VHS. There were a couple of results that really startled me.

First off, the JVC actually had better black levels than the Loewe. In scenes that had areas in dark shadow, the Loewe would be completely black whereas the JVC would show greater detail in those areas. At the point where both were completely black the JVC was very, very close in blackness to the Loewe. But the amount of detail lost in the Loewe made it lose hands down. I was really shocked by this result and did not expect it at all. Loewe has had a reputation for having some of the best image quality available in a direct-view CRT.

The other thing that startled me is that alot of the image was lost on the Loewe to either side. I don't have any overscan images to display, but I had the latest Frontline from PBS playing on both TV's. On the Loewe, the right side of the image ended immediately to the right of the PBS HD logo. On my 61" JVC there was about 2" to 3" of additional image to the right of that logo. It was quite a significant amount of image lost.

Now back to the JVC. I noticed something tonight that I'm wondering if other owners can take a look at. I've been watching my set in the TheaterPro mode for the past 3 weeks as I almost always watch in a very dark environment and the other modes were just too bright. However, tonight I decided to go through the other modes with my Avia disc to see what I could come up.

The thing that has me stumped is the black bars and half grey test. The only mode that I can actually see both black bars is the Theater mode. All the other modes the best I can achieve is a single black bar and even then I'm having to crank the brightness to around +15.

Can anyone else take a look at this with their Avia disc and post what your results are? It's possible that it could have something to do with my DVD player. I'm using the Sony NS70 via HDMI. I calibrated in both 480p and 1080i modes. I did not however adjust any of the black settings on the DVD player itself.

One other thing I noticed that was somewhat interesting. I calibrated the Standard, Dynamic, Theater, and Game modes in both 480p and 1080i. In all instances, the settings I came up with were almost identical in the Standard, Dynamic, and Game modes. The settings were always quite different in the Theater mode. I was under the impression that the Theater mode just basically stopped the IRIS down to it's lowest setting. However, it seems that something else is going on as all of the settings (tint, color, picture, brightness) end up being quite different when adjusted via Avia ( <-- ). Maybe someone who is more technical than I can determine what is going on there.

I can't get my Fusion HDTV2/nvidia 6800GT to work right connecting my PC
to either HDMI port on my 61FH96. I get an image at 1920x1080i, but the de-interlacing
appears to be off, I get scan lines that don't quite line up correctly. If I down res to
1280x720P, the artifact goes away, but of course the PQ suffers so not a fix.
At this point, I don't know if my particular TV is defective, or if this is the result
of a design flaw so that all xxFH96 are incapable of interfacing to a PC with an nvidia
card at 1920x1080i.
HAs anyone successfully connected a PC to either HDMI port at this resolution?

I think as others have said, you can't trust the image set up in any store. It's one of the failings of B&M that they can't afford on their mark-up to really display and staff the sales floor to really handle the current run of HD sets.

I don't think what you saw was indicative of the LCOS technology. Remember JVC developed this in partnership with Hughes almost 10 years ago as a technology for Cinema Projection--where it still competes with the TI triple DLP Cinema projectors. Of course those machines are in the $250,000 range, but it was that research that made these sets possible.

The set will tune your OAT HD local channels and you can run the HD DirectTivo into the HDMI port. What you find when you get better and better display devices is how much poor quality source material there is out there. Really poor NTSC (especially stuff that was time compressed and dates back to 1 inch tape) is still on the air and over cable and sat.

John