Official JVC HD-xxFH97 HD-xxFN97 HD-xxFC97 Owners Thread

Here we go:

Flat out- The most gorgeous, detailed, lifelike TV picture I have EVER seen. This is what HD is all about. There is "Very Good", "Great" but this is "Oh my God, That's what a 'TV" can do!"

For Starters- Tuned to an HD program on Time Warner Cable in Columbia SC, Star Wars - The Revenge of the Sith was playing. This really is the Crown Jewel of Lucas's cinematography. In some of the space battles there is an intense commotion of high energy action in the foreground, midground, all on a background of intricate planet surface detail. In the fight scene on the lava, you could almost feel the heat. The range of reds that were displayed was breathtaking. The JVC conveyed the images colors detail motion and blacks in such a superior way that my family was absolutely drop-jawed.
You will be absolutely blown away by the Picture Quality (PQ for those videophiles) on these units. If one of these is in the screen size and price range that you are looking for, you cannot go wrong. There may be technology coming (SED for one) that may eventually be better, but this is truly the State of the Art in Q3 2006.

PQ is top concern, but for many, the way the unit handles sound is also important. Many will hook this up to a good quality audio surround system and immerse themselves in a sea of rich sound, but for convenience, of for some necessity, the sets internal sound is very important.
The current trend, especially in large screen HDTV's is to put the speakers below the screen, in the spot where the typical Home Theater setup puts it's center "dialog" speaker. (more on that later). This really does help to make for a smaller set that allows you to fit a much larger screen into an allotted space, or to at least give the set a little less of a room dominating quality.
While it doesn't rival our surround setup, it surprized me with depth of field, range clarity and deep bass. A couple of times I turned my head towards a voice behind me, only to jolt my self back to reality as I saw my living room wall. Spaital sound placement was very believable. The Star Wars sound track even on the internal speakers helped to put us in the action. I can't wait to get this thing hooked up to the audio system.
O.K. On that center dialog speaker thing. JVC has solved a problem for home theater setups in a really cool way. If you want to run the sound thru your Surround system, the "Center Channel" output from your Amp plugs into an input on the back of the TV. When you do this, it converts your optimally positioned internal TV speakers into center channel speakers for the surround system. Is that trick or what?

Bottom line: Drop dead gorgeous PQ, very satisfying internal sound, smallest package possible for the level of technology delivered. Five Star Baby!

For Future use

User guides for For those who asked, combined user guides for the FC, FH and FN series in 56, 61 and 70 should now be available here

http://books.jvcservice.com/booklist...D-56F&x=28&y=4

HD-56FC97 HD-61FC97
HD-56FH97 HD-61FH97 HD-70FH97
HD-56FN97 HD-61FN97 HD-70FN97

One of the first things we did was tune to some SD stations. Now one KEY thing in our market with Time Warner Cable is knowing that any station above 13 is simulcast in analog for direct cable input to the TV and Digital for any output from a Digital Converter or DVR. We have an HD DVR.

This set replaced a Toshiba 720P 52HM95. Hard to do a direct comparison, BUT, I think that the Digital channels on the HD-56FN97 are almost as good as the HD channels on the 52HM95.

FC97 serise 56" 61" Black Cabinet Black bezel straight speaker grille w/10cm round speakers (see HD-70FH97 picture for detail*) No PC input, no RS232C input, no center channel input .Has A.T.C. tone correction instead of Voice Enhancement feature

FH97 56" 61" 70" Black Cabinet Black bezel, quarter round illuminated JVC logo on speaker grille w/12.5cm oval speakers 56" and 61" only(see HD-56FH97 picture for detail*) Black Cabinet Black bezel straight speaker grille w/10cm round speakers 70" only (see HD-70FH97 picture for detail*) PC input, RS232C input, center channel input, Has Voice Enhancement feature
instead of A.T.C. tone correction, Gold plated connectors.

FN97 56" 61" 70" Black Cabinet Silver bezel, quarter round illuminated JVC logo on speaker grille w/12.5cm oval speakers (see HD-56FN97 picture for detail*) PC input, no RS232C input, Center channel input, Has Voice Enhancement feature
instead of A.T.C. tone correction.

In short (relationship to the mainstream FN97 series):

The FC deletes the PC input and center channel input, different speakers and sound managemet feature, All black cabinet.

The more expensive FH97 series adds a RS232C input, has gold plated connectors, and an all black cabinet. The 70" only shares some cabinet detail and speakers with the FC97 series.




*See JVC website for Photos of different models http://www.jvc.com/product.jsp?produ...502&pathId=125

Each input has its own setting assigned to it.

I searched the owners guide and it did not show this, but when I set input to a particular input, did some adjustments, they were remembered for that input. If I selected another input, I could also make specific adjustments for that input, and they would stick.

Also you can assign a different setting to a HD 1080 signal vs a SD Digital signal one the same input.

That's one that only an A/B comparison will do. I do not have a preexisting separate center channel speaker to do that comparison on. One note though. Once enabled as a center channel speaker, the center channel speaker has separate volume control from the standard setup.

vga input

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The following Resolutions are supported on the D-SUB PC IN:

640 x 480 (VGA)
Vertical Frequency 60.6 Hz Horizontal Reequency 31.5 Hz


or

1024 x 768 (XGA)
Vertical Frequency 60.6 Hz Horizontal Reequency 48.4 Hz

These are the only Resolutions that are supported.

Apple Macintosh is not supported.

Actually no...or maybe that depends!!! The FC is the only series that does NOT have the center channel input. If you already have 5:1 or 7:1 high quality speakers, then yes the FC will do. If you do not yet have a high quality center channel speaker, or just do not have a good location for one, then the FN or FH are a real solution for you.

NOTE: The center channel feature can be engaged if needed. If not needed, the speakers can be turned off entirely if you already have a good Surround 5:1 or 7:1 system