We have a review of the JVC HD-61FN97 61" 1080p HDTV we also have a discussion on home automation that the home owner can program. Well sort of.
News from EHX Spring
2007
Control4 Gives Users more Control
As it turns out customers, the ones who actually use the fancy automation
systems put in by custom home theater installers, want a little more control of
their own control system. At least according to Automation company
Control4. They announced the release of their new product, Consumer Home
Edition at the Spring EHX show last week. Until now Control4 has gone the
traditional route of requiring a custom installer do all the setup, maintenance
and re-configuring of a customer's automation system. But with Home
Edition, the home owner will now be able to allot of the programming on their
own.
So what's the benefit? Obviously the person using the system will know
more about how they want it to work than anyone else. If they have to keep
going back to an integrator for every little change they'll either get
frustrated and stop calling or just not use the system. Either way they
don't have the product they wanted and they aren't too excited about upgrading
it or getting a new one should they ever move. As for the installer, they
don't have to worry about constant support calls when the customer wants
something tweaked, or they add a new DVD player or something. It allows
them to get the system up and running and then transfer ownership and control to
the user. It's a win/win.
Control4's Home Edition moves in that direction, but doesn't take it all the
way. The new version is a stripped down copy of the full version, Composer
Pro, which is only available to the dealers. Home Edition doesn't allow
the user to do everything they might want, it just allows them to tinker a
little. They can't even add a new device to the system. So while it
begins to move in the right direction, it could produce even more frustration
than before. Why couldn't a homeowner buy a new HD-DVD or Blu-ray player
from somewhere - perhaps online - and then just add it to their system?
That seems like a perfectly reasonable use of the software. But that would
cut into product sales that could have gone back to the original dealer, and we
wouldn't want that.
So while we sit around waiting for an automation system with the power of AMX,
Crestron or Control4, that we with technical know-how can install and program
ourselves, Control4 gives us a little carrot but whacks us with the same old
stick. Home Edition has to be purchased from a custom installer, who also
sells all of the Control4 hardware components. Then any upgrades have to
come from them as well. So we're right back where we started. It
sounded like a good plan. We'll have to wait for some of the media center
based software vendors, companies like Exceptional Innovation, to come through
for us. Oh wait, they're only sold through certified dealers also.
Then there's Zigbee, Z-Wave and INSTEON. Ok, so maybe that's a bit
fragmented - I knew that sizable investment in X10 wasn't a mistake!
JVC HD-61FN97 61" HD-ILA HDTV Review
(
Buy now)
Features
- True 1080p 2 Million Pixel Structure 3-Chip DILA System (1920x1080)
- ATSC/QAM and Digital CableCard Capable (Digital Cable Ready)
- 5th Generation D.I.S.T. 1080p (Digital Image Scaling Technology) + GENESSA Picture Processing
- Advanced Super Cinema Mode (Optical Iris System)
- Intelligent Noise Reduction Circuitry
- Contrast ratio of 10,000:1
We've talked about the
JVC HD-ILA rear projection
HDTVs for a long time. In fact way back in
Episode 11, on June 9 of 2005, we picked a 720p
JVC as our favorite in a shootout between
JVC, Mitsubishi and
Samsung. Those were the days. TV technology has come a long way since then, but
JVC
is still a very solid performer, and one of our favorites. In fact,
Ara has mentioned that his brother has a couple of them. We finally
got one in our HT Guys testing facility - also know as our family rooms
- to test it out for ourselves. But would it live up to our
expectations?
Out of the box the picture looks OK. There's a dedicated
button on the remote called 'Theater Pro' it switched you over to the
"Theater" mode, and away from the default "Dynamic" mode. This was a
huge improvement and actually looked pretty good. It seemed to lean a
little on the yellowy side, but after calibrating the TV, everything
looked great. Black levels are what really set this TV apart from many
others. It can produce some of the deepest blacks we've seen on a rear
projection set, and the contrast ratio is stellar. No detail is ever
lost in a dark scene; everything shows up with perfect detail. Which
leads us to the actually clarity and detail in the picture. With
HD content the TV looked
perfect, DVDs looked as good as any other micro display we've used and
standard definition held up pretty well. We weren't able to get the
colors calibrated to 100% using just the user menu options, but it was
very close. The green gave us a little trouble, but nothing a common
viewer would ever notice.
As far as features go, the numerous inputs gave us the opportunity to plug in anything we wanted. It has built in
NTSC/
ATSC and
QAM tuners as well as a cable card slot. The
HDMI inputs are fully 1080p capable and it has a bunch of analog inputs that we didn't really play with that much. The set also has a digital audio output, so that if you're using an
HDMI input and your receiver doesn't support
HDMI, you can just pull the audio from the TV. Very convenient.
The
remote is not very good and took a while to get used to. The factory
remote doesn't offer any way to select a specific input, so you have to
go the old-school route of scrolling though all of them to get to the
right one. That can be solved with a good universal remote, but
without it switching inputs is a real headache. It also takes quite a
while to move from one input to another. The menu system is clunky and
cumbersome to navigate. After a while you can get pretty familiar with
it, but it's not the greatest design. From an aesthetics point of
view the TV looks really nice. It has a small pedestal base with a long
speaker grill just below the screen - no big ears on this TV. The very
thin frame around the TV practically disappears when you're watching
something. It measures 55 3/8" x 40" x 19" (
WxHxD) and weighs a svelte 97 pounds.
What we liked
- Awesome HD picture
- Amazing black levels
- Great, real color
- Excellent detail
- Two HDMI inputs
- Price
What we disliked
- Remote control
- Menu system
- Input switching with the factory remote
Conclusion
The
JVC HD-61
FN97 is an excellent value. It looks great, does a wonderful job with
HD
content, a great job with DVDs and a pretty good job with standard
definition TV. Blacks are good, contrast is solid, colors are
excellent and detail is vivid. We try to look for great values to help
you (and us for that matter) get a little more out of each hard earned
dollar. You'd be hard pressed to find a better looking 61" TV at its
price. At an online street price of $2125 this is an awesome TV for the
money. It really helps bring the big screen home.
