JVC NZ800 Review – A Knockout Blow for Both Epson and Sony

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Changes

• [1] Under Motion Resolution, I added information about improvements made to the DILA chips that affect motion.
• [2] iRobot picture under SDR viewing
• [3] Under light recycling, I added that it doesn’t seem to increase as you lower the window size below 10% on the NZ800. While it does a tiny bit, nothing like with the NZ8. This is probably a good thing as it would be very difficult to account for in software, so the NZ800 is more of a reference display in this regard. Also added that light recycling previously could be as high as 17% at 10% window size, but again could be unit dependent on measurement error.
• [4] Under features, I tested 8K input scaling.
• [5] Added a comparison to the NZ900 under “Compared to Other Projectors” section

Introduction

My career in IT made me cynical – not only about marketing claims, but about what engineers tell me. Half my career was spent governing and auditing the work of some of the brightest engineers in their fields.

The kind that the Australian Defence Force calls up when they need their IT security apparatus rebuilt, and nobody else in the world can fix their aging machines. The kind that keep our banking infrastructure ticking along, and our monies secure, the kind that keep our water flowing and our stock exchanges ticking. I needed to be a cynical bastard to outsmart such people and check their work, then tell them how far, how long and how quickly.

The reason I’m telling you this is not to brag, but to drive home the point: I have learnt not to give praise out easily. So when JVC’s marketing brochure came along to tell us about the improvements to the NZ800 and NZ900 projectors, I was more than a little skeptical to be frank.

While not a perfect score, as there’s always room for improvement – more on that later in the article – JVC’s effort with the NZ800 is so profound that I decided to bring forward my conclusion, and put it in the title. But I encourage you to read the full review, as the devil is in the detail – pun intended!

Conclusion

The NZ800 improves on every single issue we mentioned in our NZ8 Review. All the small improvements add up to one thing: the image the NZ800 produces is class-leading, no ifs or buts. In fact, the production NZ800 sample I have here trumps not only the NZ8, but also the NZ900 pre-production sample I have here in all image quality aspects. Now that’s saying a lot.

I came into this reviewing thinking that the NZ800 will be the tock in tick – tock: just a small version upgrade! However, I soon realised why JVC didn’t name it the NZ80: from everything I see on the screen this is a truly generational leap forward.

While in my previous reviews, I thought Epson or Sony did significantly better in certain areas, I came away feeling the opposite this time around.

• It is a knock-out blow for Sony in terms of image quality and value.
• It is a knock-out blow for Epson in pure image quality terms, but not yet value. Let’s hope the NZ700 or equivalent can change that as well. Epson should be very afraid indeed.

Read on to find out why I came to this conclusion…

If you’re in the USA, get this projector at our trusted partner www.ProjectScreen.com. If you’re in Australia, you will get the best service from www.projectorscreens.com.au (Oz Theatre Screens).

Projector Specifications

I will quote JVC here…

JVC’s DLA-NZ800 features the new Gen2 8K/e-shiftX with 8K Scaling Engine to display pixel-perfect 8,192 x 4,320 images. It also boasts the BLU-Escent Laser light source combined with Gen3 native 4K D-ILA devices to deliver 2,700-lumen brightness, and 100,000:1 native contrast and infinite dynamic contrast for impressive projection even on large screens. Turn on the Gen2 Frame Adapt HDR with Theater Optimizer, Deeper Blacks, DML and more to get the most out of HDR content. For stunning home theater projection, give the DLA-NZ800 a closer look.

KEY FEATURES

• Proprietary, Gen3, 0.69-inch Native 4K D-ILA Devices (x3)
• 2,700-lumen BLU-Escent Laser phosphor light engine
• Pixel perfect – Gen2 8K/e-shiftX with New 8K Scaling Engine featuring 4-way, multi-axis shift yields 8,192- x 4,320-pixel projection
• 100,000:1 native contrast, ∞ (infinite):1 dynamic contrast ratios delivers images brimming with reality
• 101-step Laser Light Control by slider adjustment
• 65 mm All-glass Lens with 2X zoom, 80% vertical, 34% hori- zontal shift
• High-contrast Optical Block
• Two 48Gbps HDMI/HDCP 2.3 inputs – 8K/60p and 4K/120p
• Gen2 Frame Adapt HDR dynamic tone mapping with Theater Optimizer
• New Deep Black function extends dark tones with far greater contrast
• HDR10+ compatibility
• DML (Display Mastering Luminance) adjusts/sets the dynamic range for better HDR experience
• Picture mode “Vivid” for projecting animated works and game CGs in SDR format
• Wide Color Gamut with Cinema Filter (over 100% DCI-P3) • Built with hand-selected components
• Installation Mode with 10 customizable presets
• ISF Certified, plus JVC Auto Calibration
• Clear Motion Drive for the smoothest video
• Multiple Pixel Control (MPC) for increased sharpness and detail
• Low Latency Mode effective when displaying high frame-rate gaming content
• Controls: Control4 SDDP, LAN, RS-232C, IR, 12V screen trigger out, 3D sync out

[4] 8K Input scaling: One feature that wasn’t clear to me was whether the unit could scale 8K native input sources, because the NZ8 could not. If you had a UHD 8K source (7680 × 4320), it was displayed in its native 16:9 aspect ratio and you couldn’t zoom it to the full width of the panel. I have now tested this: a UHD 8K source can be scaled to the full panel width AND JVC says you can also input the native resolution of the eShiftX system (8192 × 4320). This is important, because consumer 8K, when it does come, is going to have a 16:9 aspect ratio. The JVC NZ800, like the NZ8 before it, has an aspect ratio of 17:9, so wider than the HDTV and UHD standards. This is why it was important to test scaling: some people’s throw ratio means that you must use the Zoom function to fill your screen. It also allows you to use more of the light output. This is not going to be an issue with 8K sources anymore.

Projector Installation

The NZ800 has the same chassis, lens system and weight as the NZ8, so installation is exactly the same. Please refer to my NZ8 Review for more detail here.

The only thing I will mention for installation is that the unit is quieter than the NZ8, so you may be able to install it closer to the seating locations in your home theatre. Additionally, you do have better screen uniformity and contrast in certain installation modes so you may want to consider that – a longer throw and using lens shift will both give you more contrast, but also reduce light output, so be aware to balance these two.

I installed both the NZ800 and the NZ900 pre-production sample on the ceiling at the back of my theatre. Please see the gallery below for some pictures. I have the NZ800 installed at minimum throw for the 120″ 16:9 screen, and the NZ900 at almost minimum throw, but enough to zoom the image in a bit further to fill the 16:9 screen without using the full panel width.

Viewing Impressions

The projector arrived with production firmware 1.03. I did my viewing by hanging the unit on both projector mounts to test it closer to screen centre and closer to the ceiling, only then did I hang the NZ900 as well.

SDR

I switched the unit to Natural, then put the unit to 70% laser, Balanced Laser Dimming, 2.4 gamma, CMD on Low and eShiftX to High Res 1, MPC to 5. This was to mimic my own NZ8, but also take advantage of the new scaling – hence High Res 1 for eShiftX.

Then I started watching content on Apple TV+ and Stan. The first thing that struck me was how sharp the unit appeared. The second thing was the contrast.

I kept thinking that this looks so much better than my NZ8, and my golden sample X7000, and everything else I had seen up to this point. I was wondering if I was high from lack of sleep or something. I came back three days in a row thinking maybe I will find it less exciting this time, and that I was seeing things. Each time I came away with the same feeling: this projector looks like Sony and JVC had a baby and then some. Just a stunning image:it almost had a 3D look to it as if you could climb into it.

I also did some viewing by closing the iris down to -8 then putting on The Expanse. The contrast looked absolutely phenomenal, and better than my own NZ8, which has been recently recalibrated as well and looks excellent.

This feeling increased once I calibrated the unit: while the brightness and contrast were still exceptional, the colours became even more vibrant and accurate at the same time. The amount of detail in the black areas of the image was sensational, whether there were bright objects on the screen or there weren’t. My own NZ8 tends to blur a lot of this detail when very bright elements are on the screen with deep blacks. Not the story with the NZ800.

As you’ll find out later on, there is a contrast increase at my throw, but there are other things at play such as the new – and may I say excellent – laser dimming, some new enhancement algorithms that include contrast-adaptive sharpening, as well as the improvements made to inter-pixel contrast and contrast uniformity across the panel.

In terms of upscaling, I judged this with the Blu Ray I am most familiar with: Alien. I could not believe how good the detail looked on this movie. It’s as if I was watching this Blu Ray for the first time. It honestly looked 4K. This projector will breathe new life into your Blu Ray collection! I can finally let go of Darbee on my Oppo 103D. This looks so good!

HDR

I did my viewing with Frame Adapt HDR 1, Filter on Wide, Brightness on Auto (wide), Laser at 100%, Laser Dimming on Balanced, iris wide open and Deep Black On initially. All other settings like for SDR.

I chose Avatar on UHD first. Avatar already had some edge enhancement applied for the UHD release, and I quickly realised that having the MPC on 5 was overcooking the image. This was also true of noisier material. Pulling the MPC setting down to around 2 – 3 was much better, but even 1 – 2 works incredibly well.

I then proceeded to view scenes from Passengers, LIFE, Alien, Alien Covenant and Prometheus. For the first time on a projector, I felt like HDR looked like HDR. Brighter scenes had more depth and dark scenes oozed with more detail than I remembered even from the X-series days while still having those rich blacks only the X series was known for. This was some seriously good-looking image.

One scene I was especially impressed with was when John Hurt goes down into the egg chamber in Alien. As the camera cuts to display the bowel of the ship with thousands of eggs in the background, you can also see the hundreds of eggs in the foreground which are usually shrouded in either black crush or grey soup on lesser displays. I saw more detail in the image than I ever saw on the X series, but while still keeping the black floor low and the contrast in the image truly impressive.

At this point, I started toggling Deep Black on and off. It makes such a massive difference to how HDR looks, but still JVC’s excellent gamma processing elevates this to the next level with bags of detail kept in the image: not a hint of black crush. My jaw kept dropping to the floor, frankly. This was some serious image-processing.

Then I thought to myself… There are a few movies that I have NEVER seen being played to reference on a display: not by a JVC, not even using a freaking Lumagen – apologies Jim. These are the movies where the director decided to emulate the celluloid look using digital mastering, by lifting the black floor*. Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Jurassic World: Dominion are prime examples of this, so in the player they went! While they didn’t all of a sudden transform into a shiny digital transfer, they finally took on the correct near-black tone and contrast, while still keeping the director’s intent. Can we please have a round of applause for JVC? This is now reference-quality playback, no ifs, no buts. Bravo, bravo, bravo!!!

* Btw, if you’re a director who loves doing this, and you’re reading, please for heaven’s sake, stop! We didn’t pay good money for these ultra-high contrast displays – and that includes my OLED too – so you can $h1t all over them. Thank you so much! 😉

The second thing that was striking was the brightness and colour. This is partly due to the 8% increase in brightness, but also due to the Balanced laser dimming mode which seems to keep the image brighter and keep better contrast. The image just looked punchier with much better colour and contrast than my own recently re-calibrated NZ8. The improvement in the brightness and colour rendition was very obvious, especially if you were using Laser Dimming 1 on the NZ8. If you were using Laser Dimming 2 or 3, then maybe this aspect would be less pronounced. In those cases, you will see a more accurate picture or better black floor, respectively.

The third thing I noticed was the sharpness and detail in the image, even more so than on streaming. Now JVC can put that 8K badge on the projector without hesitation. While I felt my NZ8 was ever so slightly lacking in sharpness, I have no such qualms about the NZ800: this projector should easily resolve the detail in even 8K media. It feels like a quantum leap in image detail and absolute sharpness. Credit where credit is due: JVC’s engineering has paid off in spades here.

Projector Performance

Now let’s tackle each performance characteristic in more detail. I will start each area with some commentary based on JVC’s engineering notes where appropriate and then go into detail about what the NZ800 unit I have here shows.

It’s not all roses however, and I will go into the areas that JVC would need to focus on to eek even more performance out of the unit, as I think going that extra 5% effort is going to create something very special, if JVC is up to the task!

Brightness

JVC has increased the efficiency of the laser module by upgrading the laser assembly. Additionally, the DILA pixels should direct more of the light to the correct place, which also helps efficiency, as some of this would be wasted. We’ll talk about this more in detail later on. All this adds up to the efficiency of the light engine going up from 6.9 lumens per Watt on the NZ8 to around 7.5 lumens per Watt on the NZ900. The NZ800 is a bit below that.

JVC says that the NZ800 has an 8% light increase as a result – from 2500 lumens to 2700 lumens. The NZ900 receives a 10% brightness boost from 3000 lumens to 3300 lumens.

So in a way, the NZ800 is only 300 lumens – or 10% – short of the previous generation’s top projector: the NZ9. That is incredibly close!

The filter is still introducing a 30% light penalty, but that penalty doesn’t seem as steep now that you have almost 10% more light. Let’s review what that means with regards to the specs…

	Normal Filter	Wide Filter (P3)
High (Laser 100%)	2700 lumens 2565 cal lumens*	1890 lumens 1795 cal lumens*
Medium (Laser 46%)	2160 lumens 2052 cal lumens*	1512 lumens 1436 cal lumens*
Low (Laser 0%)	1620 lumens 1540 cal lumens*	1134 lumens 1077 cal lumens*

* Calibrated Lumens (cal lumens) for real-world content: In terms of calibration, the unit should lose around 20% with calibration, however the light recycling means that actual content under 10% APL gets a 13% boost in brightness. So the majority of actual content should only be around 5% less bright than the quoted lumens.

The NZ8 had about 2300 lumens with real-world content. The NZ800 will have around 2565 lumens, which is a 265 lumens increase after calibration.

Brightness and Iris Position

I wanted to do an in-depth measurement of the iris positions as well for the NZ800 as I wanted to rule out that JVC was clamping the iris down more to aid the specifications. Since I did most of them for the NZ8 review, I pulled those over as well. I measured all the positions for the NZ800 more accurately and also noted in the table how much the lamp (back iris engages).

The conclusion is that JVC is NOT manipulating the iris more, so this suspicion can be put to bed.

Iris Position	Lamp Iris Engagement*	% Brightness NZ800	% Brightness NZ8
0	None	100%	100%
-1	1	90%	–
-2	1	82%	–
-3	1	77%	–
-4	2	75%	–
-5	2	70%	65%**
-6	2	65%	–
-7	3	64%	–
-8	3	58%	–
-9	3	52%	–
-10	4	47%	45%
-11	4	44%	–
-12	4	40%	–
-13	4	33%	–
-14	5	32%	–
-15	6	26%	25%

**One outlier here is the -5 iris position. I wonder if this was a publishing error on my end for the NZ8 review. In any case, the new numbers are more granular and accurate.

Cooling & Noise Profile

Since this is very closely related to brightness, I want to tackle it here. The new laser diode has re-engineered cooling. Now this could be used to increase the lifespan (20,000hrs to half brightness) by using the same cooling speeds, or it can be used to reduce fan speeds and noise.

JVC has opted to do the latter. The NZ800 is noticeably quieter than the NZ8 at all laser levels. In fact, it is so quiet that it can be used in 100 laser even in smaller rooms without much fanfare – see what I did there? 😉

JVC has also implemented 5 fan profiles – instead of the previous 3 – so that the fan speeds are less at all laser levels compared to the NZ8, achieving an even quieter operation. Honestly, noise is no longer a problem even in a small space. I could also increase SDR laser to 66 and have a very quiet projector. I would still run HDR close to 100% laser and use the colour filter and not be bothered by the noise at all.

Fan Profile	Laser Level
1	0
2	1 – 46
3	47 – 66
4	67 – 85
5	86 – 100

Additionally, eShift is now pretty much silent. Maybe I can very faintly hear it if I put my ear to the projector, but otherwise not at all. But maybe I’m just imagining hearing it faintly up close as I was subjected to that noise for years. Let’s put it down to eShit PTSD and call it silent then, as it is silent from the seating positions even under the projector.

Contrast

My NZ8 sample was very good with regards to its on/off contrast performance and met its specs easily. Funnily enough, the NZ800 sample I have came in smack bang on these numbers as well when set up with NO LENS SHIFT. However, once installed on the ceiling with quite a bit of vertical lens-shift, just like the NZ8 before it, the story changed completely. Both uniformity and contrast improved even further!

My NZ8 could already meet the 80,000:1 contrast ratio specifications in high-bright, 100% laser, max throw, and this NZ800 sample does as well and goes beyond the NZ8 to meet the claimed 100,000:1 specifications or close to it dependent on installation mode. Now this might be a good sample, in that the unit has around a 13-15% contrast increase across the iris positions when set up the same way compared to my NZ8 in its calibrated picture modes – please note this is supposed to rise to around 25% in high bright according to spec and it bears out here. The issue is, my NZ8 was a sample that was already performing above average, so expect a 25% increase across the board, as the average NZ8 sample performs around 23,000:1 to 24,000:1 which is exactly at the 20-25% improvement mark! I have thus included the average-performing NZ8 numbers in the table below as well.

Consider that I have a pre-production NZ900 sample with me as well, and this NZ800 wipes the floor with it in almost all image quality aspects. So I think it’s important that everyone waits for reviews of PRODUCTION UNITS, not pre-production samples, because the difference even between these two samples is large. Although, who knows where this NZ900 been so I’ll leave it there…

Iris Position	NZ800 On/Off and (ANSI)	My NZ8 On/Off and (ANSI)	Average NZ8 Sample
0	29,000:1 (350:1)	26,000:1 (330:1)	23,000:1 (315:1)
-5	39,000:1 (320:1)	35,000:1 (NM*)	31,000:1 (310:1)
-8	45,000:1 (295:1)	40,000:1 (NM*)	NM*
-10	51,000:1 (285:1)	44,000:1 (NM*)	39,000:1 (285:1)
-15	80,000:1 (280:1)	69,000:1 (NM*)	53,000:1 (280:1)

You may say that it still doesn’t reach JVC X-series levels. However, there’s another trick up the sleeve of the NZ800 – like the NZ8 before it, and that’s light recycling. Light recycling happens because some of the rejected light is directed back into the optical path to be reused at lower APLs (Average Picture levels).

This means around a 13% boost in both brightness and contrast at 10% APL and below, and unlike the NZ8, this doesn’t increase much with smaller window sizes so that’s all you seem to get [3]. Previously we measured light recycling around 15-17% for the NZ8, so this is either measurement error/variance or light recycling has reduced a bit. I did theorise that light recycling SHOULD reduce as more of the light is getting to the correct place and this would back that theory up.

In any case, we can measure light recycling with a 10% window size. Please see below for the reference numbers at 13% light recycling.

Iris Position	NZ800 On/Off and (ANSI) 100% window Size	NZ800 On/Off and (ANSI) 10% window Size	X7000/9000 On/Off and (ANSI) Both at 100% and 10%
0	29,000:1 (350:1)	33,000:1 (350:1)	40,000:1 (220:1)
-5	39,000:1 (320:1)	44,000:1 (320:1)	58,000:1 (Approx. 180-200:1)
-8	45,000:1 (295:1)	51,000:1 (295:1)	NM*
-10	51,000:1 (285:1)	58,000:1 (285:1)	80,000:1 (NM*)
-15	80,000:1 (280:1)	90,000:1 (280:1)	110,000:1 (Approx. 140-150:1)

Since the X series units don’t get such a boost to their brightness and contrast performance, the gap is now made that much narrower for on/off contrast. In fact, if you close down the manual iris on the NZ800 to -5, you are practically at the same contrast level as the X-series, but with more brightness. Except, the NZ800 has 1.6 to 1.8x as much ANSI contrast which brings up the curve across the whole APL (Average Picture Level) range.

However, that’s not the whole story as there are 5 other elements that play into this, which we’ll talk about in a moment, but just know that they more than close the gap. I can tell you categorically, that the NZ800 looks better than my golden sample X7000 in all respects. This is the first projector that doesn’t make me miss the X-series JVCs – dynamic iris or no dynamic iris – and anyone who knows how important contrast is for me, knows that is saying a lot.

In terms of ANSI contrast, which measures intra-scene contrast at 50%, the NZ800 measures higher than the NZ8 and the NZ800 keeps its ANSI contrast higher across the full panel. If I were to adjust for the room’s ambient light level at the measured distance, which is a trick I like to use to get as close to the projector’s ANSI performance as possible, just for my own entertainment, the NZ800 likely has ANSI contrast in the range of 400:1 at the lens. But I don’t have a sensitive enough instrument to measure that close to the lens or an absolutely perfect room, hence I use the “ambient method”. So just know, the NZ800 is very capable and seems to have improved its ANSI even further beyond the NZ8.

In any case, I wanted to measure the ANSI contrast curve for this review, because some people aren’t aware that ANSI contrast drops as you click down the iris. This isn’t true for all technologies as some DLP light engines can actually INCREASE ANSI as the iris is closed, but the JVC light engine does the opposite. So you trade some ANSI contrast for on/off contrast. This does affect the whole contrast curve – with on/off on one end and ANSI on the other end. However, the NZ800 still has much higher ANSI at -15 iris than an X series at 0 iris: in fact considerably more!

Of course, your room can severely limit the ANSI contrast on your screen: as we say, the blacker the theatre, the better the image.

The below is an updated image (illustration only!) from my Display Calibration Guide and explains how these two contrast metrics relate, along with how the three major projection technologies perform relative to each other as an illustration – not necessarily 100% accurate – illustration only! But you can see how the contrast curve might change as ANSI or on/off changes. A bit more explanation is found in this article if you’d like to know more.

However, the above doesn’t paint the whole story, as there are 5 other elements we need to consider, which make the NZ800 look much better contrast-wise in spite of the same raw numbers:

1. The hardware changes that JVC made to the DILA panels that affect local contrast.
2. How much of the panel has higher contrast affecting panel uniformity.
3. Laser-dimming modes are keeping the image brighter which can result in our eyes perceiving the image as having more contrast due to less sensitivity / pupils closing down more. They also keep intra-image contrast higher while still remaining accurate.
4. Deep Black in HDR mode is a game-changer for contrast, and the near-black gamma seems to be more refined on the NZ800 in both SDR and HDR modes.
5. Image processing is actually using contrast-adaptive detail enhancement and sharpening, and does this very effectively, improving contrast of individual objects and object definition within the scene.

All of these elements add up to the NZ800 having an almost 3D-like image that looks a couple of steps above the NZ8. While we could measure ADL contrast with Laser Dimming, especially the new Balanced mode, I could not do this in time for this review – maybe as a follow up. However, let’s discuss each point in detail as they are important.

New 4K DILA Panels (Gen 3)

JVC has improved their 4K DILA panels and they call these Gen3 up from Gen2. JVC says they have done two important things:

1. Improved how the LCD crystals are facing
2. Each pixel has a flatter surface

Think of the LCD crystals as little tunnels and the back area that is smoother is actually a mirror surface (a reflective polished metal electrode) that bounces light back through the tunnels. You get light scattering both if the mirror surface is uneven and also if the tunnels are not oriented the same way. This wastes both light and also pollutes the image with scattered light – affecting both contrast as a whole and inter-pixel contrast, which actually affects pixel definition and local contrast within the image. I mentioned this issue in my NP5 review at the time and theorised that it could have been the lens. Well, it turns out, it is the DILA chips.

So then, by having a smoother mirror surface and aligned LCD crystals:

1. Brightness is optimised
2. Contrast is optimised
3. The pixel grid should be more visible – so we will talk about this under sharpness as well, but I can confirm it looks better even if the pixels are so incredibly tiny, you need a very good eye or magnifying glass to see them.

This also bears out with content: you can see black detail even if there’s very bright highlights on the screen. While with the NZ8, these details would be washed out, not on the NZ800.

I kept taking double-takes watching Alien on Blu Ray, not even UHD, thinking firstly, OMG this looks like 4K and secondly, look at all that detail as they are walking around in the ship with their flashlights, or under the Nostromo with the bright spotlights. I’ve seen that Blu Ray a million times and I saw detail I didn’t think was even there. Just a phenomenal improvement to image detail and black detail. Stunning! Have a look at the following gallery – black levels are lifted because of the exposure to show all the detail visible in the image. Yours eyes see these details a LOT darker. But you get an idea.

I also included a shot from Terminator: Dark fate that is very low APL but still was full of rich detail which the camera captured as well – albeit much more lifted than on the projector.

New Manufacturing Process – Panel Uniformity

JVC also says that they have better black-field uniformity and more of the image surface now has higher contrast. For our reference, JVC says that LCOS panels have an + shaped “luminance contour” with higher contrast inside the + sign and lower contrast outside. This is actually because of how polarisation occurs: polarised light must hit the panels exactly perpendicularly (at 90 degrees) for the DILA panels to be able to extinguish light – and therefore display black effectively. This is where the high contrast of DILA comes from.

The issue is that this is incredibly difficult to achieve across the whole panel’s surface because light needs to pass through the pre-polarisers, the wire grid polarisers and then strike the DILA panels perpendicularly. JVC has improved their manufacturing process to achieve this across more of the surface area and reduce the obviousness of this “luminance contour” as much as possible.

What’s more, the new panel pixels being flatter and LCD crystals being better aligned means that more of the surface should be hit perpendicularly, improving both contrast and uniformity.

So does this bear out in practice? The answer is absolutely. Have a look at my NZ8 versus NZ800 below. The exposure might be ever so slightly different, but the NZ800 looks darker by eye and has less obvious brightness fluctuations / and more uniform contrast.

However, there’s a bit of a caveat. The uniformity changes with lens shift. There is an improvement in ALL scenarios but certain installation modes will give you more improvement. So in my case, I first set up the NZ800 on the lower mount which is more closely aligned with the centre of the screen, so not as much lens shift was needed. In this mode, I could see about a 20% improvement to image uniformity (estimated by eye).

However, as soon as I put the NZ800 close to the ceiling where my NZ8 was hanging before, uniformity took a good leap forward. Look at the below image … very very heavily overexposed – and slightly different exposure – also more noise because of the lower black floor. But the image does have a more uniform look to it.

Then there is what your eyes actually see. If you look at the following image, this is what the camera sees on a black frame without laser dimming. Now as your eyes adjust, you might see more than this, but while the bright corners are immediately obvious on my NZ8, they take a lot longer to see on the NZ800 if at all dependent on installation mode. Please also note, the camera will pick up how the screen bounces the light back more than any uniformity issues even, they were so negligible at this exposure.

Now this particular aspect is going to be unit / sample-dependent. However, I can only go by what I see here: there are improvements and they make viewing the image more enjoyable and much less distracting than they did with the NZ8. In fact, on the NZ8 I couldn’t have laser dimming off, while on the NZ800 I can without getting distracted by black field uniformity or bright corners. Well done JVC!!!

Laser Dimming Modes

There are three laser dimming modes on the NZ800 (and NZ900). I have described them in the following table.

	JVC’s Description	Simple Home Cinema’s Comment
Low	“Controls to suppress visual discomfort caused by differences in brightness and darkness depending on the scene while maintaining peak brightness. Light source control is minimized to reduce black floating in extremely dark scenes, such as during blackouts.”	Use this for daytime viewing or when there’s any light pollution in the room. The black floor doesn’t go as low so it won’t cut content as much. However, JVC made this mode for those people that feel uneasy sitting in a fully pitch black room during blackouts. Mmm.
High	“Controls to optimize contrast across all scenes while maintaining peak brightness. [Use it for] content such as starry skies and night scenes that have high brightness information even on a dark back-ground.”	This works like LD Mode 3 on the NZ8 and NZ9, but it can shut off the laser completely during black frames. Recommended when gaming or viewing TV, or if you don’t get along with Balanced mode.
Balanced	“Based on the brightness of the entire screen, bright and dark scenes are appropriately adjusted to reproduce images that match human perception. The peak brightness may drop depending on the scene, so it is ideal for movies that are generally dark.”	This mode is incredibly good, actually. It’s a mix of LD Mode 1 and LD Mode 2 from the NZ8 / NZ9, but without the major drawbacks / artefacts. JVC did an excellent job here. The laser can shut off on black frames but if there’s any above black information, it won’t, or fade ins / fade outs that are long it might not do it.

The new Balanced mode especially is very very good. Since I like a low black floor, I was worried that not having LD Mode 1 from the NZ8 (review here) would be sorely missed. But I was wrong. The image retains excellent contrast and black level in all scenes without any major damage to highlights or image integrity. During my viewing I couldn’t see any pumping either, even on end credits pumping is kept to a minimum and looks better to me than any of the modes on the NZ8. Excellent work.

However, I actually don’t care for the other two modes, apart from viewing with the lights on and wanting to get maximum brightness while still having some sort of laser dimming active. I’ve listed some improvements for JVC for laser dimming under the Suggestions for Improvement section in this article.

For example. I do wish we still had the old LD Mode 1, though, for those occasions where we want the ultimate black floor without worrying about contrast. I would give up the LOW mode for it.

Deep Black

I have been talking about the fact for a while now that HDR handling on projectors – DTM or no DTM – was still not perceptually correct. On a lower luminance projector, or any display for that matter, lifting blacks to the same degree will affect contrast and look much worse than on a high-luminance display. This is because our eyes become a LOT more sensitive when less light is hitting the pupils.

So ultimately, in my book, neither the Lumagen nor a JVC was handling things correctly. Sony kind of had the right idea and the new Sony XW5000, XW6000 and XW7000 implements the correct perceptual curve near black BUT with a lot of black crush. Unfortunately, this isn’t ideal, as I talked about this in my article on comparing the (dynamic) tone mapping solutions.

Now I was thinking that a dynamic mapping of black level would be needed before we could get the correct output perceptually. But JVC came up with a simpler and more elegant solution. After analysing a lot of HDR10 content, they mapped the near-black content of each and then analysed the data to understand whether a higher gamma near black (coming out of black slower) could do the job. The answer was yes. Deep Black basically comes out of black slower, and makes the JVC play that part of the tone-curve to reference – while the rest of the tone-curve is sliced up and dynamically mapped (using multipliers) like before (as part of DTM).

The result is that the NZ800 combines the best of the X-series’ deep blacks, Sony’s perceptually correct tone curve and the insane gamma-precision of the precious projectors, to get something that looks truely sensational.

There is a richness to blacks in ALL scenes while still retaining a lot of detail. I cannot express how much this lifts HDR performance. What’s more, titles that didn’t look anything like being played on a reference display, such as Jurassic World: Dominion, are finally taking the correct look – for lack of a better word.

This is a game-changer and along with the other improvements – a knock-out blow to Sony. Again, I have to congratulate JVC on the work done here. I do have one suggestion, which I mentioned under Suggestions for Improvements.

Contrast-Adaptive Sharpening

The last part of the contrast equation is contrast-adaptive sharpening. While this should be discussed under Image Processing, since it impacts contrast a lot, I’ll mention it here.

JVC’s engineering notes don’t really mention this, but it is obvious by eye if you use High Res 1 or Standard MPC modes on the JVC NZ800, that there is some contrast-adaptive sharpening happening to define objects better. This even makes black detail a lot easier to see and looks really good. I am actually wondering if JVC is using this to bring out a bit more detail in dark areas of the picture without lifting blacks.

Screen Uniformity

We talked about black field uniformity under the Contrast section, so I won’t repeat myself here. However, I wanted to talk about White Field Uniformity, Grey Field Uniformity and Colour Uniformity under this section.

While I didn’t notice any obvious grey field or colour uniformity issues, White Field Uniformity is still not a 100% score, it is still about the same as the NZ8. I could see a very faint green corner in the upper left hand side. While it was not at all obvious when watching content, I could see it on a fully white field. We do need to cut some slack for JVC as most display technologies – whether direct view or projection – suffer from this – except for DLP.

As far as I understand, JVC is able to improve this by programming either the mainboard or one of the sub-boards of the unit – at least in the USA currently. So if your unit has this issue, please contact JVC.

I would actually like to see JVC implement Screen Uniformity calibration either in the Menu or in the JVC Autocal software. Epson has this function on their LCD projectors and this would be very much welcome. While we appreciate hardware improvements in this regard, some viewers will be a lot more picky around this stuff (myself included) than others, so it is worth investing into this to get that last few % of uniformity issues knocked on the head.

Sharpness

Lens Sharpness

In my NP5 review, I felt that the lens was not adequately sharp and that inter-pixel bleed was likely adding to the issue. While there is variance with these lenses, I feel that the lens looks sharper because the light scatter has been greatly minimised. I am at the shortest throw, which is the worst scenario for lens sharpness, so I don’t necessarily have edge to edge focus and CA (chromatic aberration) perfection. In spite of this, I never felt the NZ800’s lens was the limiting factor here. In fact, this is the first projector I have seen from JVC that deserves the 8K badge. Now if I could fix the NZ900 lens on my unit to test it out that way, I would, as the NZ900 lens seems sharper optically. After all, I’m not at its very limits for my throw. But zone panel alignment is very effective on the JVC and will do the rest.

My NZ800 WITHOUT zone alignment still looks sharper than my NZ8 with zone alignment that I spent hours on. This is to do with the rest of the elements below, more than the lens.

Inter-Pixel Contrast

Because of the panel improvements mentioned under contrast, inter-pixel bleed has been minimised. I can finally start making out the pixel grid faintly, which was not the case with the NZ8. There is definitely less bleed and more definition here, which aids in sharpness. It isn’t a massive difference but it is there.

Image Processing – eShiftX Gen2 Scaling

JVC has re-engineered the eShiftX scaling algorithm to retrieve more detail from the image. JVC did two things to achieve this:

• Previously, high-frequency detail was sometimes blurred by the scaling. With this new algorithm, JVC has changed where and how the image is sampled, which improves high-frequency detail.
• A new super-resolution algorithm is now part of eShiftX to convert 2K and 4K sources into 8K-equivalent sources. This brand new algorithm is dedicated to how pixel-shifting works, and runs in parallel to the scaling algorithm.

Basically, an 8K image is produced by simple upscaling, then multiple 4K images are produced using super resolution for each of the pixel shift positions. The two are then merged to produce an 8K picture that has a lot more detail and can be displayed using an 8K pixel grid.

You can see how the new scaler performs by turning on Filmmaker Mode, which disables MPC processing, and only leaves the new scaler in place. It is sharper than the NZ8 on High Resolution 2 MPC cranked up to 10. This is no joke. The NZ800’s scaling is simply phenomenal, and can boldly claim 8K processing now.

Image Processing – MPC & Noise Reduction

MPC itself has changed. There are still three modes, but the functions of these have changed somewhat as below:

	NZ800	NZ8
Standard	New scaling engine Image enhancement in 4K Strong edge enhancement, contrast-adaptive sharpening and detail enhancement.	Image enhancement in 1080p Strong edge and detail enhancement
High Resolution 1	New scaling engine Image enhancement in 8K Edge enhancement, contrast-adaptive sharpening and detail enhancement.	Image enhancement in 4K Slight edge and detail enhancement
High Resolution 2	Previous Scaling Engine Same as on NZ8 Reproduces the look of optical media using an incredibly smooth picture.	Image enhancement in 8K Slight detail enhancement No edge enhancement

Let me just say that my favourite is the High Resolution 1 mode, as it processes the content at a higher resolution and seems to add excellent detail to proceedings. However, I find that the range is only usable between MPC 1 and MPC 5. I like a sharp image but anything more – even with completely pristine signals – just overcooks the image.

However, even just adding one click to MPC / putting it to 1 brings amazing detail out in all material without adding noise. I think that along with the new scaling, this is as good as Sony’s Reality Creation, with one caveat: noisy signals. And this is where one of my criticism of this new algorithm lies:

As soon as you turn MPC up to 3 and above, image noise is greatly increased especially if the content is noisy with a lot of film grain. This is where I think Lumagen’s sharpening algorithm does better: it gives you the option of how much you want to sharpen the high-frequency and mid-frequency detail so you can isolate the noise and only sharpen the detail. It is simply brilliant in that regard.

If you have noisy content, you have to manually turn on noise reduction which helps. But it will also remove some of the high-frequency detail.

I would really urge JVC to give us finer control of MPC settings as follows:

• Detail Enhancement: High Frequency Detail
• Detail Enhancement: Mid Frequency Detail
• Edge Enhancement
• Contrast-adaptive sharpening

Alternatively, turn the settings down a bit for MPC ranges 1 to 5 so that 5 to 10 also becomes usable for real-world content. I feel this is where Epson and Sony are still a little ahead as they have more usable range and you can save your own presets with more detailed settings – at least on the Epson.

However, neither Sony or Epson have an advantage in image sharpness anymore. Again, this is a knockout blow for both Sony and Epson.

Sure, Sony’s RC with its AI-driven approach may still produce more consistent results, but I dare you to put these two side by side and tell me which looks better. I doubt Sony’s approach is that much better, and other image quality aspects will start to dominate.

Motion Resolution

With the NZ8 (and NZ9), the best motion resolution was achieved in two setups:

1. eShiftX OFF + MPC on High Resolution 1
2. eShiftX ON + MPC on High Resolution 2

Any other setting introduced blur, and only the second option really gave excellent motion resolution. Anything else was rather average or even headache inducing for fast-moving content. This was regardless of CMD settings.

With the NZ800, all modes of eShift and MPC feature excellent motion. While it’s true that more pixels will allow you to have better motion resolution, and switching eShiftX to ON is still desirable, you no longer have to choose between more sharpness (High Res 1 processing) or better motion (High Res 2). Both modes are excellent motion-wise.

Since this was one of my big bug-bears with the NZ8, I am so glad to see it resolved here.

[1] There was an engineering drawing in the pack I received which I didn’t fully get until now. The drawing had these misaligned waves for the previous chip and aligned waves for the new DILA chips, right over the aligned LCD crystals.

Then it dawned on me: of course, light existing the LCD crystals at slightly different angles means the photons don’t just hit the screen at slightly different places causing spacial blur (within the same frame), they also travel slightly different distances. This introduces a temporal (time-domain) blur as well: instead of the pixels and sub-pixels switching on and off all at the same time (more like going through the same transitions as it’s not instant on/off), they will do this at slightly different rates on the screen (not at the DILA chip).

So the better aligned LCD crystals impact motion even beyond just the eShift changes. I wasn’t 100% sure how much of the improvement I was seeing was purely software or also hardware. Detail in motion looks much better at times and I was wondering if this was because the higher baseline detail or also hardware. It turns out, there is improvement in the hardware that enables this, and certainly there is an element to the JVC’s motion that looks more like Sony’s SXRD, Epson’s 3LCD or dare I say starting look closer to a DLP. I don’t think we’re fully there yet, LCOS may never become a DLP from a motion perspective, but this is a large step towards that.

In fact, I think this is what I’m seeing when I say the unit seems brighter at times than the 8% improvement would indicate. This could very well be because of the contrast improvement but I think these transitions hitting the screen all at the same time might also have something to do with it. The probes we use average data across many frames so this effect wouldn’t be captured, but our eyes are a lot more sensitive. It looks like each frame of video is better defined, sharper and brighter even at the same brightness on the screen.

Colour Performance

Since the perceived contrast is higher, the colours also look richer. Additionally, the added brightness brings a richness and pop to colours in HDR that look phenomenal.

The NZ800 reaches the full REC709 and P3 gamuts for SDR and HDR respectively. The use of the P3 filter is still needed to get a full P3 gamut, but because of the added brightness, it doesn’t feel like the use of the filter darkens the image too much. In fact, I find the NZ800 a bit too bright on my 120″ screen now and use the filter for all HDR content. Yes, a red laser addition will be welcome to get rid of the filter, but I’m sure JVC already has such a projector in its labs and it’s coming.

The new HDR tone-mapping Gen2, which was also deployed to the NZ8 / NZ9 and NP5 / NZ7 is still on show here and looks even more effective with all the added improvements, especially Deep Black. HDR looks simply stunning on the NZ800, much more so than the NZ8. It is truly a generational leap in performance.

Vivid Mode

JVC has introduced something called Vivid mode, which competes with Epson’s Dynamic Mode. It basically

1. Raises the colour luminance values from reference to make the colours pop more
2. Lets more green / blue energy through which raises colour temperature but also makes the image brighter.
3. Changes the gamma curve to “Vivid” which is doing the same as Epson is doing: compressing highlights to give the rest of the image more room on the luminance curve. This further raises the perceived brightness as 80% of the actual content in the image is indeed that much brighter, so uses the light better.
4. Changes laser dimming to High so that bright content isn’t dimmed.

All of these add up to a very bright and punchy image, and it is a welcome addition. After all, Epson is quoting its brightness and contrast numbers in Dynamic mode, which give it a very punchy image.

The Vivid picture mode is bright and punchy, cut through ambient light very well, and is a very welcome addition that makes the NZ800 a lot more flexible.

However, the Vivid picture mode isn’t meant to be accurate. If you wanted to watch movie content and you needed more perceived brightness, I would recommend you switch to Natural picture mode and switch the gamma to Cinema 2. It is basically doing a very similar thing: compressing highlights but in addition it is deepening blacks to give the midrange more space and brightness along with it, without hurting contrast. So you have that option as well without messing with colour accuracy.

Gaming Performance / Processing Lag

I decided not to game on the NZ8 after the initial testing for my NZ8 review. This was because of the lack of sharpness and really laggy controls if laser dimming or Frame Adapt HDR were enabled. I simply decided to move to my QLED. This actually left the NZ8 unused for a lot of my content as we only watched movies on it.

The NZ800 fixes pretty much everything about the NZ8’s gaming performance:

1. Images are incredibly detailed
2. Motion looks excellent: no blur even without CMD on
3. Laser Dimming AND Frame Adapt HDR have massively reduced lag and you can actually play games with them ON if you are not playing competitively. This is a massive leap forward when playing story-driven games.

Lag is reduced so much that I could even enable CMD without introducing really laggy controls. I was absolutely blown away. I think what’s happening here is that JVC stopped processing in series and is now parallel processing laser dimming, Frame Adapt and CMD. It is a massive knock out of the park.

The NZ800 is a great gaming projector, period, and what sealed the deal for me to say that it’s a knock-out blow for Epson, even if not in value… yet!

Controls and Usability

This has not changed since the NZ8, and is still excellent. However, there’s a few things I want to mention:

Frame Adapt HDR – DML Value Usage

Frame Adapt had an update which makes use of new meta-data called DML (Digital Mastering Luminance), which makes note of the mastering monitor’s maximum luminance capability in nits. This allows JVC to check this data against another meta-data value which records the maximum luminance contained in the content (MaxCLL). If the MaxCLL value falls above the DML value OR if the MaxCLL value is missing then JVC will fall back on the DML value to set the tone curve.

I watched quite a bit of HDR content on the JVC NZ800, and kept checking the values on the info screen for both meta-data elements. It seems like JVC has mostly fixed the issue of content being too dark. The tone curve just looked right for every content thrown at it. This isn’t the case with the NZ8, which can at times default to a too dim curve and needs a nudge up. So this now makes the NZ800 much more hands off than before.

MPC

I feel like the new MPC settings are only hands off if you back off the MPC value to around 1 or 2. Anything higher and you either have to change it back for noisy content or you need to enable noise reduction – neither of which is ideal.

I suggested some options to fix this under Image Processing. But this is a small niggling issue and the workaround is to keep MPC at 1 or maximum 2 while in either Standard or preferably High Resolution 1 modes.

Build Quality

The build quality of the NZ800 is very good. I love how it looks and it’s almost exactly like the NZ8. One change I noticed are the front LEDs. They are a little bit smaller in size, and look a bit sleeker. I like the change!

While I love the finish, I do feel like it’s a bit more easily scratched than the X-series. So be mindful not to drag anything on the case, as even my nails were at risk of damaging the finish so I trimmed them before installation. This was the same with the NZ8 / NZ9. The case otherwise is built like a tank.

I do feel like JVC needs to introduce better dust control for the optical block. While the fans on this new series will run lower, dragging much less dust into it, I feel this is still not enough for some rooms. I’ve put a suggestion to improve on this in the next section.

Suggestions for Future Improvement

I wanted to summarise the improvement suggestions from the article for easy reference, and also expand on ones I didn’t mention in detail. While I think the NZ800 is an exceptional product, much more so than the NZ8 before it, there is always room for improvement. Otherwise what is JVC going to do until the next firmware update? 😉

1. MPC Changes either:
   • Dial back Standard and High Res 1 to give more range of possible settings – currently 5 and above are not that useful.
   • Create more granular settings – especially to separate high and mid frequency sharpening so we can isolate noise from actual detail. An noise isolation sharpness setting like on the Lumagen would be welcome.
   • If more detailed settings are allowed, allow settings to be saved into presets like Epson allows (not as critical)
2. Introduce Deep Black for SDR content
   • I think this would be icing on the cake as it would allow us to emulate the X-series without having to edit gamma.
   • ALTERNATIVELY: add a gamma item to the current 3 that mainly changes content below 1 or 2% to achieve the same thing. The current Dark Level option is a bit broad, we would need a Near Black item basically.
3. Offering Deep Black to NZ8 and NZ9 customers: If I have one criticism for JVC, it is that Deep Black was not offered to existing customers. While I understand to want to keep this little gem for this generation, but JVC could offer software updates for a fee for older models, once a new generation has been in the field for 6 months for example. After all, those users are unlikely to upgrade, so why not sell the update to them, make money and have everyone happy.
4. Laser Dimming:
   • Have a custom option where a particular mode could be customised better such as:
     • how much the laser dims (multiplier)
     • at which APL does the laser dimming starts / what % input is affected
     • whether there’s laser shut-off on a black frame
   • Bring back LD Mode 1 from the NZ8. This was a personal favourite. (Personal wish, can ignore.)
5. Screen Uniformity Controls in the Menu or in Autocal to allow users and installers to refine this further in the field.
6. Expert Mode: Create “Expert Mode in the Firmware” where more of the options are exposed and could be tested and configured by calibrators and installers – such as for laser dimming, MPC, etc. This could be an alternative instead of littering the menu by default, and enable installers to create and customise user presets for these deeper settings. for example, customise the MPC levels and what is dialled up to what level.
7. Introduce the option to add better intake fan filtering with firmware support: for better dust and grime control for those who would be ok with higher fan speeds and noise this would introduce (HEPA + Carbon would be ideal, but HEPA at the minimum).

I hope JVC could look at some of these issues for the yearly firmware updates for these units, and also that these units will get at least another two rounds of firmware updates like the previous generations, as this continues to build trust with customers.

While I could argue that some of the improvements on the NZ800 are software-only changes, I tend to agree that all these new features are so much more effective with the fully realised hardware changes.

As Compared to Other Projectors

JVC N Series

• The JVC N-series has much lower ANSI contrast (170:1 versus 330:1 and up on the NZ class projectors), which will impact brighter scenes even at lower APLs.
• The N series is not nearly as bright, especially as the lamp loses brightness beyond 500hrs. So brightness stability is a huge thing.
• Sharpness is a big area of the upgrade. The N series is soft by comparison, it’s a different class of projector.

JVC NZ Series (NZ7 / NZ8 / NZ9)

• The NZ800 is a big leap forward in sharpness, gaming performance and perceived contrast.
• You might not get a large native contrast increase, as it is sample dependent, but I’d say it’s still worth the gamble after having experienced the NZ800. This is because initially I set up the NZ800 so that its contrast was equal to the NZ8 and the picture still looked much higher contrast, and better in all respects. It is likely to be worth the gamble.

JVC NZ900

• [5] The main reason you should be looking at the JVC NZ900 is due to wanting higher brightness or wanting to shoot from a closer distance. However, be aware that you are trading some contrast for brightness. This is because both units use the same laser power. So in spite of the actual specifications, open iris contrast is lower on the NZ900 at the same projection distance as it is on the NZ800 (around 23,000:1 versus 30,000:1).
• However, once you brightness match the two units, by closing down the manual iris, contrast between the two models should be roughly identical. We could argue that this makes the NZ900 more flexible. However, you do lose a bit of ANSI contrast as you do this.
• The other benefit of the NZ900 is a slightly sharper lens. So if that is important to you, then the NZ900 does deliver.
• Lastly, uniformity seems to be even better on the NZ900, so if that’s also important to you then the higher-end unit is worth it.

JVC X Series

• The NZ800 is the first projector that trumps my X-series unit bar none. Until the NZ800 graced my home theatre, an X-series projector + Lumagen combo could still make me go wow. The NZ800 is better in every respect.
• This is the time to upgrade form the X series class of projectors. If you’ve waited this long, you are very lucky. While the N and prior NZ class projectors left something to be desired with regards to contrast or sharpness, the NZ800 does not.

JVC HD Series

• I put this in as a joke, but if you’re still rocking the old HD series, it’s time to move on grandad. You will find the NZ800 will meet the quality and even the excellent black floor of those units.

Epson LS12000

• The LS12000 is a great choice for users who love mixed content, but especially gaming on a budget.
• Before the NZ800, the LS12000 at half the price simply did HDR gaming better, but I cannot say that anymore. While the LS12000 may still be an excellent choice for value, the NZ800 has a much better image for obviously more than twice the price, without any reservations like I had with the NZ8.
• In terms of brightness, in spite of the same 2700 lumens spec, the NZ800 has the advantage because of light recycling.
• Contrast is obviously much better on the NZ800. While the native contrast on the LS12000 is around 4500:1, the NZ800 has a minimum of 26,000:1 but likely better based on installation mode.
• The only advantage of the Epson was Super Resolution processing and sharpness. That is no longer the case. The NZ800 has both better detail and more sharpness.

Sony XW6000

• The advantage of the Sony was Reality Creation / Sharpness. This is no longer the case: the NZ800 is now its equal and likely more than equal dependent on the sample. The 8K upscaling is very very good on the NZ800.
• The NZ800 has a usable contrast advantage that is at a minimum 2x that of the XW6000, but likely 2.5x.
• NZ800 has the brightness advantage as the Sony only has 2500 lumens and does not have (much if any) light recycling.

Sony XW7000

• While the Sony XW7000 is in competition with the NZ800 in Australia, it is in competition with the NZ900 in the US.
• The NZ900 will be an obvious choice due to better overall image quality with the new JVC changes, especially in terms of contrast and now with 100 lumens more brightness than the Sony (3300 vs 3200 lumens).
• However, the NZ800 is still a good competitor if the extra high brightness is not needed (2700 versus 3200 lumens). The difference could be made up with a high-gain screen and image quality would be better.

Autocal and Calibration

I will cover NZ800 Autocal and calibration details in another article. What I will share here is that the NZ800 came with a bit of green push and a bit of blue deficiency out of the box, while still meeting the the 6500 colour temperature (but not white point). This is actually not visually distracting AND it aids in both brightness and contrast to push those even further. So I decided to balance the picture using High Bright as a starting point, and arrived at a stunning image that still looked bright with high contrast.

The colour gamuts looked very close to reference so didn’t need touching. This is probably the most linear I’ve seen a JVC out of the box for gamut. Autocal can get this closer, but I didn’t want to do that for this review as that can mess things up if there’s a bug so will need to cover this in another article. I think I can eek even more performance out of this unit with Autocal however.

In Closing

I would like to thank JVC Kenwood Australia for allocating the first NZ800 production unit in Australia to Simple Home Cinema, and for lending us their NZ900 pre-production unit. Also for JVC Japan and JVC Kenwood Australia for allowing us to have a look at their engineering notes on each area of improvement. I wish I could share some of the excellent diagrams with you, but they are confidential. Just believe me when I say: LCOS is difficult to work with and JVC has done some serious engineering work here to move things forward to arrive at a generational leap. Bravo!

Also thanks to Richard at www.ProjectorScreens.com.au (Oz Theatre Screens) who is Simple Home Cinema’s preferred JVC dealer. Richard is always helpful and is a pleasure to work with. If you’re in the USA, our recommended dealer is www.ProjectorScreen.com. The two retailers are not related, but both have excellent customer service in their regions.

Finally, while there have been some reservations about JVC Australia over the years from both customers and dealers, I am certainly seeing a change of tone from them over the last 6 months and things continue to improve. Considering such an amazing product, I would encourage dealers to re-connect and chat to the new team. I think they might well be pleasantly surprised.