nuvision lucidium

I agree. I have been wanting to buy one of these and can't find anything on them.
To buy one now or wait for LED backlghting, that is the question.

Nice to see another Nuvision thread, but it will most likely be ignored like all the previous ones.

They are difficult to find (custom installers sell them instead of the big chains) and from what I have seen are never discounted or sold online. I really wish this would change.

Their first generation, two years ago, got good reviews in magazines and online but last years models flew under the pro reviewers' radar for some reason. Maybe they will send some samples out for review this year.

I am beginning to think that they don't exist......

I just installed a 42" Friday and have another one scheduled in 3 weeks.
One of the best displays I have seen in a long time.

Can you give us more info? Black level? Viewing angle? Naturalness of skin tones?

Thanks.

The black levels look outstanding. The off axis viewing from side to side isn't the greatest but it isn't bad enough to stand out. Skin tones look very realistic. I need to get some more time in viewing the tv. Owners just recently got their dish hooked up and they still haven't got a blue ray yet.

I will keep you updated if you are interested. I have one more 42" to install and have two 32" ordered and should see those in two weeks.

Please do; it's great to finally hear from someone who has actually seen a Nuvision.

I wandered into my local Magnolia (one that is not part of a Best Buy) with the intent of buying a Samsung UN55B8500. The sales guy was showing it to my wife when I looked over to see what had taken over the prime display spot since less than a month ago that was where the 8500 was. There stood the 55" NVU55FX5LS. What a beautiful display.

Apparently Magnolia has been trying to become a NuVision reseller for a long time and finally managed to work out a deal. They will only be sold in the standalone Magnolia stores and the prices are _not_ negotiable. They can't even include freebies on the same invoice.

After 2 hours of demoing various things on the 8500 and the FX5, I ended up taking the FX5 home. That's right, they had it in stock and ready to go. It certainly isn't an inexpensive display, but the picture quality is amazing. Their calibration guy requires a 100 hour burn-in period, so I'll be doing some serious usage to get through that. In the meantime, I'm doing what I can to adjust it with the Spears and Munsil disc that came with my Oppo BDP-83.

If anyone is interested, I can provide pictures and do some experiments.

After nearly two years someone finally has provided some added perspectives on NuVision tv's. I have been checking this forum on occasion since I first saw one in a A/V store hoping to get some opinions from owners, and I was about to give up when I read the post by kc8apf. One question I have is that the models I saw were the Fx5's, not the new Fx5LS (LED edge-lit) models, which I have not seen yet, and are significantly higher in price. If anyone who has viewed both and could provide some descriptive/comparative comments on the picture quality, it would be appreciated.

I had been considering the 42Fx5, and am disappointed that it's LED replacement is now reduced to a 40" model. At any rate, thanks kc8apf, for sharing your NuVision experience, and I will be checking back on occasion with the hope of seeing more NuVision feedback.

this is an LCD based display is it not? very strange that they are requiring a burn in period on it, sounds to me like he calibrates alot of Panasonic and pioneer plasmas and just thinks its a plasma or something because I've yet to hear of an LCD that needs 100 hour break it period, their colors do no change with time because there are no phosphors used that can degrade over time like plasma and CRT displays have

I agree. It's strange. They mentioned that they needed to get paperwork started when I paid for the calibration, so they may be using the "burn-in" period as a tactic to avoid mentioning how long it takes to the get the unlock code for the ISF modes. Just a theory.

I was a bit surprised to see the lack of information and discussion on NuVision on here as well. On the other hand, I hadn't seen a single NuVision TV in any of the 5 or so boutique shops I've been frequenting in the San Francisco bay area, nor had I even heard of the brand until this past weekend. Given the exclusiveness of the brand to small retailers, I guess it is possible that there just aren't enough of these owned by people who would bother with commenting on a forum.

As to the 42" vs 40" issue, it seems that they tried to align their displays with the more popular screen sizes for the FX5 LS (40", 46", 55"). I was looking for a 55" anyway, but given the sizes available, I'd move up to the 46" if you want the FX5 LS. It isn't _that_ much larger, but it might not fit in some cabinets, etc.

I'm still amazed by the deep blacks they've achieved with edge-lit LED. They are easily as good, if not better than, the Samsung 8500.

Specs for the FX5 LS series:

Sizes: 40", 46", 55"
Video Processor: NiDO IV
Color Depth: 10-bit
Automatic Backlight Day/Night adjustment
Inputs: 1 component, 1 composite, 4 HDMI 1.3, 1 VGA
Outputs: 1 coaxial audio, 1 stereo RCA
Power: 130W (40"), 150W (46"), 195W (55"), <2W standby

More details as I play with this set and do some rough calibration:
- In a dark room, some flashlighting. I'll try to get a photo.
- Also in a dark room, black isn't perfectly black. In this setting, perhaps not quite as dark as the 8500, but still quite dark. I'm still playing with the backlight settings, but even with it turned all the way down, the screen is slightly grey and can be differentiated from the bezel.
- Sharpness is _very_ good. I still see this as the strongest point of this display. Watching a 720p TV show upscaled to 1080p (via a receiver) is quite amazing.
- Still working on tuning motion compensation settings. Sometimes it is a bit soap-opera-ish, others it isn't.

I'm going to work on doing some adjustments with the Spears and Munsil disc after the baby goes to bed.

Everything you describe sounds like a set not up to the standard of a good local dimming set (B8500, Sony XBR8).

Keep in mind that I have had the set for exactly 1 day and my initial statements were against the out of box settings. I went through the S&M calibration disc and did what I could by eye.

Some notes from the process:
- Black and white crush is happening. I tried all sorts of adjustments and settings (Deep Color off/30-bit/36-bit) to prevent it, but it was clearly not willing to display anything past the reference values. Given how low contrast needed to be set and the presence of white-crush, I suspect that there is a setting hidden in the ISF modes that is clamping everything to reference. I'll need to wait for the calibration to know for sure.
- After getting the brightness and contrast set appropriately, the flashlights are gone.
- A black screen is still distinguishable from the bezel, but it is better than what the DLP that it is replacing was capable of. It is still to be seen if there are more adjustments that will improve this in the ISF modes.
- Also on a black screen, there is a little bit of cloudiness. Nothing excessive, but noticeable.
- Color is very vibrant and life-like.
- Sharpness is still the big advantage of this set. The test pattern for sharpness was extremely crisp without the typical problems of oversharpening. I ended up leaving the sharpness control at the default.
- Motion compensation took a bit of time to get right, but now everything from Planet Earth to TV is smooth without the soap opera effect.

Without ISF calibration, this set does not have quite the depth in black that local dimming sets have. It _is_ considerably better than the Samsung 8000 series, however.

When I was doing the comparison between the 8500 and FX5 LS in store, the FX5 was much more life-like and brought you into the movie. The 8500 felt more detached. So far, the FX5 continues to have an uncanny realism to the picture even with the lack of extremely deep blacks.

I've taken some photos, but I need to get them off the camera and convert them to JPGs. I'll post them as soon as I get a chance.

Don't get me wrong - I think it's a good analysis for such a short ownership.
As the manufacturer isn't present in Germany (to my knowledge) I'll follow your experiences with the set!

Taking pictures of a set in a dark is a fair challenge. These were taken on a Canon 20D w/ a 17-40 f/4 lens in full manual mode. They don't quite accurately reflect the sharpness, clarity, and depth of the picture. The blacks are a bit grey, but the colors on this set are very rich and life-like.









This last image deserves a bit of explanation. I took a number of shots to try to capture the flashlight/cloudiness that shows up on a pure-black screen. Most of the shots couldn't distinguish the screen from the bezel. So, this shot was a 2s exposure at f/8. It exaggerates the amount of flashlight/cloudiness a bit, but more clearly shows the pattern. Just keep in mind, that this is basically overexposed by a bit and when sitting in the room, it isn't this noticeable.

From what I've been able to learn about NuVision, they only sell within the USA. They also only sell via small shops and intentionally keep the number of units sold per year low. One of their press releases claims they only need to sell 10,000 sets to break even. When I searched for resellers in the San Francisco area, exactly 2 showed up: one retail, one custom installer.

For anyone interested in this set, it may be _very_ hard to locate in your area. At least to me, it does have a significantly better picture than anything Samsung, LG, et al have to offer. The only downside, so far, is the lack of truly deep blacks due to the edge lighting.

Just a few comments for those following along. This set doesn't really target the mass market. It doesn't include any of the extras that have shown up on the newer sets from Samsung, LG, et al. It has no Internet-related functionality, no media slots, no picture viewers. It is strictly a TV (includes a tuner, but some might liken it a monitor since it lacks cablecard).

It also trails the bleeding-edge of technology by a bit. The model I own was released in December 2009. It uses edge-lit LED backlighting and suffers from many of the same problems that all other edge-lit sets had. While those problems are present, they are not as apparent as they were on the sets from the mass market manufacturers. NuVision seems to have waiting for the technology to mature a bit and learned from the problems that showed up on the forerunners.

Where this set truly excels is in color reproduction, sharpness, and clarity. Everything feels extremely realistic. Watching a movie changes from a passive experience to an active one. The camera and actor movements are smooth and you feel engaged in the scene. Watching something like the fly-over above the forest in Planet Earth's Seasonal Forests brings on the feel of being in a helicopter.

those flashlights/clouds lead me to think they are using S-LCD made S-PVA panels like the sony and samsung TV's they are the only sets that widely have this problem and it looks exactly like that, even my 32" S-LCD made panel in my sony 32xbr6 has small flashlight in the top left corner of the screen

also the bigger the panel the more often and more flashlights/clouds these panels tend to get from all the various complaints I've read on these forums for other sony and samsung owners

Since these do not go on sale, can someone post what the retail price on one of these sets is? 46" and 55". I've never heard of them.

I don't have any details on exactly which panels they are using. They are very clear that the set does full 10-bit color which is something that most panels are not capable of. Now, it could be that this is the same technology as used in the Sony and Samsung sets, but a higher-end panel capable of more colors. I don't really know, but there is certainly a visual difference between this set and the Samsung 8500.

Just in case the forum admins are looking, NuVision enforces a contractual obligation on their retailers and installers to only sell these sets for the MSRP. There is zero chance of price comparisons or finding a good deal online. The 40" is 3499, 46" is 4499, 55" is 5999.

I can see now why they only need around 10,000 sets to break even...

Have tried to input 480i via a DVD player through a s-video to RF to simulate the analog TV/NTSC and judge how good is the built in processor is?

Cheers, Wizard

No, I haven't done that. I don't even have an s-video to RF adapter. I _could_ hook up my cable TV directly to the set, but I'd be somewhat at the mercy of the content.

I _have_ watched DVDs on my Oppo BDP-83 where the 480i material was sent directly the set. The upscaled results were quite amazing. You could tell it wasn't blu-ray, but it was very close.

About the only things that I have that can do RF are an Atari 2600 and an old VCR/DVD combo box. I probably can't do anything with it tonight, but I'll see what I can do.

That is almost sony xbr8 original pricing. I don't see how a small company would have the resources to make an edge-lit lcd with superior processing and image than sony or samsung. Unless perhaps Sony engineers defected to them... Otherwise, it sounds like a Sharper Image deal going on...slapping their name on an spva panel and charging more.

A small company can build superior products in a few ways:
- fewer models allow more focused products and more attention to detail by engineers
- small quantities and price premiums can be used to demand higher-quality components from vendors (spend more to get the top 1% of panels or similar)
- no pressure to be first to market lets them spend more time making a higher quality product and learning from those who did rush to be first
- no pressure to cram features in means more work on core functionality

Typically, the highest-end gear, regardless of industry, is provided by boutique companies that specialize in a specific niche. You don't have to be a large company to make a high-quality product.