JVC NZ700 Review – JVC’s Compact Native 4K Powerhouse Projector

If you are into high-end home theater, check out our Display and Audio Calibration Guides to maximize your experience.

We would like to thank JVC Kenwood Australia for supplying Simple Home Cinema with one of the world’s first NZ700 review samples. However, please note that this is not a sponsored review.

• [1] added in P3 filter as difference between NZ500 and NZ700, and also refer to the Gen2 / Gen3 chip discussion later on in the article.
• [2] we have received word from JVC: the NZ500 definitely uses Gen2 panels.

Introduction

JVC has certainly been rather busy lately. The NZ800 and NZ900 were billed as small upgrades to the NZ8 and NZ9 projectors, but turned out to be more than just spit and shine. JVC has now presented us with a brand new projector design in the NZ500 and NZ700 projectors, engineered from the ground-up.

JVC Kenwood Australia has lent us one of their first NZ700 pre-production samples. Without giving away too much, we were more than a little surprised by its performance. So strap yourselves in, as this NZ700 review will be quite a ride.

In fact, the technical improvements presented here don’t only get us excited about the NZ700, but also about what the future holds for JVC’s DILA technology going forward.

Projector Specifications

We could think of the JVC NZ500 and NZ700 projectors as the first direct 4K follow-ups to the X-series units. The reason for this are many-fold, which I’ll get into throughout this article. But I wanted to start with the specifications publicly available first. We will then tease out what these mean in the following sections using JVC’s internal specification documents, and testing done by us.

NZ700 Specifications – Expand to view

Device

• D-ILA Technology – Yes
• Chip Type – 3rd Generation 0.69-inch 4K D-ILA device
• Native Resolution – 4096 x 2160
• Number Of Chips- 3
• Display Resolution- 4096 x 2160

Light Source

• Laser – Yes
• Type – BLU-Escent Laser Diode
• Life Time (Standard Mode) – 20000 hours

Picture

• Brightness – 2300 lm
• Dynamic Contrast – ∞ : 1
• Native Contrast – 80000 : 1
• Dynamic Light Power control – Yes
• Modes – Low,High,Balance,Off
• Manual Aperture – Yes
• Range – -15 (stops down) to 0 (opens up)
• DCI-P3 Color Gamut – Yes
• 100% REC 709 – Yes
• Color Bit Depth – 12 bit
• ISFccc Certification – Yes

HDR

• HDR10 – Yes
• HDR10+ – Yes
• Frame Adapt HDR – Yes
• HLG – Yes
• Mastering Info Display – Yes
• Info data – MaxCLL, MaxFALL , DML
• Deep Black Tone Control – Yes

Lens

• Zoom – 1.6 x
• Throw Ratio – 1.34 – 2.14 (16:9) AND 1.26 – 2.01 (17.9)
• Diameter – 80 mm
• Build – 15-element, 11-group
• Lens Shift – Yes
• Range Horizontal – ± 28 %
• Range Vertical – ± 70 %
• Motorized Zoom – Yes
• Motorized Shift -Yes
• Motorized Focus – Yes
• Projection Display size (diagonal) – 60 – 200 inch
• Memory Function – Yes
• Number of user presets – 5
• Lens Cover – Yes (manual)

HDMI

• HDMI – Yes
• Number of Inputs – 2
• Data Rate – 32 Gbps
• HDCP Version – 2.34
• K60P signal input – Yes
• Video Signal range – 480p, 576p, 720p 60/50, 1080p 60/ 50/ 30/ 25/ 24, 3840 x 2160p 60/ 50/ 30/ 25/ 24, 4096 x 2160p 60/ 50/ 30/ 25/ 24
• PC Signal range – 640×480, 800×600, 2048×1080, 1600×1200, 1920×1200, 2048×1536, 2560×1440
• Input Level Adjustment – Auto / Standard (16-235) / Enhanced (0-255) / Super White (16-255)
• Color Space Range – Auto/ YCbCr444 / YCbCr422 / RGB
• EDID Modes – Standard, Option1 , Option2  (older hardware may need to use Option1 or Option2 settings)

Connections

• LAN – Yes
• Connector – RJ45
• Service – Yes
• Connector – USB (Type A) for firmware update or backup

Picture Settings

• Picture Modes – Natural, Cinema, Filmmaker, Vivid, Frame Adapt HDR1,Frame Adapt HDR2, HDR10+, HLG, FilmMaker, 4 User modes
• Color Temperatures – Xenon 1, Xenon 2, 5500K, 6500K, 7500K, 9300K, High Bright, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, Custom 1, Custom 2
• Gamma Processing Depth – 12 bit
• Gamma Adjust – HDR (Auto), HDR(PQ), HDR(HLG), 2.2, 2.4, 2.6, Cinema 1, Cinema 2, Vivid, 3 Custom modes
• Color Management – 6-Axis adjustable CMS
• MPC – Yes
• Filmmaker Mode – Yes
• Low Latency Mode – Yes
• Auto Calibration – Yes
• Installation Mode – Yes
• Number of modes – 5
• Included settings – Lens Control, Pixel Adjustment, Mask, Anamorphic on or off, Screen Adjust, Installation Style, Keystone, and Aspect
• Anamorphic Modes – 4 Modes (A, B, C, D)
• Control4 SDDP – Yes

Power & Environment

• Power Requirement – AC100-240V, 50/60Hz
• Projector in Use – 280W
• Standby – Eco-mode: 0.3W
• Network Standby – 1.5W (LAN)
• Eco Mode – Yes
• Standby Timer – Yes
• Operating Temperature – 5°C to 35°C
• Operating Humidity – 20% to 80%
• Installation Angle – Horizontal +/- 10 degree / Vertical +/- 10 degree
• Installation Height – Below 2,000 m

In the box

• Remote Control – Yes, RM-MH27
• Quick Guide – Yes
• Power Cord – Yes
• Batteries – Yes, 2 x AAA-size batteries

Dimensions & Weight

• Product Dimensions (WxHxD) – 17-23/32 in x 7-5/32 in x 18-7/8 in
• Product Weight – 32.6 Lb

The NZ500 specifications are only different in the following areas:

• The brightness is only 2000 lumens as opposed to 2300 lumens on the NZ700
• The contrast is specified at “only” 40,000:1 versus 80,000:1 on the NZ700.
• The NZ500 lacks a P3 filter [1]
• The NZ500 is said to use Gen2 4K DILA panels in customer-facing documentation, but there’s some confusion around this that I’ll cover later on [1]

There is no 3D on either of these new units. This was one of the features that had to go in order for JVC to get laser down to a lower price point. Ultimately, if you want 3D, it’s better to upgrade to a brighter projector like the NZ800 or NZ900 anyway, which retain the 3D feature.

Pricing

NZ500’s US RRP is $5,999.95 USD, while the NZ700’s RRP is $8,999.95 USD.

In Europe the NZ500 will cost 5.999 Euro, while the NZ700 will cost 8.999 Euro, matching the USA pricing, at least in numbers.

We also have word on the Australian pricing for the NZ700, which will come in at AUD14,999, with street price being somewhat less hopefully. The NZ500 pricing is yet to be announced, but we expect it to be under AUD10K.

If you’re in the USA, we recommend you visit our trusted JVC-authorised dealer at www.ProjectorScreen.com for latest pricing and launch date. If you’re in Australia, you will get the best JVC-authorised service from www.projectorscreens.com.au (Oz Theatre Screens). Read about our Preferred Partners here.

Projector Installation

The NZ700 is the first brand new design since the NX5 / NX7. It uses a brand new chassis, lens system and internals.

Size

The chassis is almost as small as the X-series chassis, and if you include the legs in the measurements, then the NZ700 is exactly the size of an X-series unit, even a bit smaller. This makes the NZ700 the world’s smallest 4K native projector, if we don’t count pixel-shifting DLP projectors.

• X-series measurements (with legs installed): 455x179x472(mm) leading to 0.0384(m3) volume
• NZ700 measurements (with legs installed): 450x180x472(mm) leading to 0.0382(m3) volume

This is around 5-10% smaller than Sony’s offerings. However, the NZ700 is heavier at 17kgs compared to the X-series’ 15kgs and Sony XW5000’s 13kgs.

What this means in practice is that tabletop / shelf installation will not require any changes on your part, apart from making sure the shelf can take the added weight.

However, since the volume is calculated with the legs on, and the new legs are tiny, you need to make sure you have a bit of extra space under the projector if your current X-series unit has little clearance in its ceiling-mounted installation. This is probably very rare, but mentioning just in case. I know some people mount their units upside down in a hush box, for example.

The mount holes are in exactly the same place as before, and can even take long screws, just like the X-series.

The chassis come in both black and white.

Throw

The issue with JVC’s previous 4K units was that the throw distance was off for people upgrading from the X-series if the projector was at minimum throw. In such a case, they either had to upgrade to the NX9 / NZ9 / NZ900, or use the full 17:9 panel with the Zoom function, and cut off the top and bottom for 16:9 content.

JVC has fixed this. Now you can project a 16:9 image at pretty much the same minimum throw as the X-series, which means you can put this unit closer to the screen than the previous N and NZ series units and still fill a 16:9 screen.

However, please note that the new lens has only a 1.6x zoom, which means it cannot be placed as far from a screen, as the NZ800 and NZ900 projectors, which have a 2x zoom lens.

Lens Shift

The lens shift range is a bit smaller than the NZ7 / NP5 / NZ800 but not by much. Please see below table for the exact numbers and the below image for illustration.

	NZ900	NZ800	NZ700
Lens Size	100mm	65mm	80mm
Lens Zoom	2x	2x	1.6x
Lens Shift Range	V100% H43%	V80% H34%	V70% H28%

Viewing Impressions

SDR

I started my viewing in Natural mode at 66% laser, Laser Dimming on High and Balanced, with High providing better brightness overall.

The picture was bright and stable with superlative contrast. I was taken aback by the rendition of colour and dimensionality no matter the content. Bright colours popped off the screen and there was a depth to the picture the X and N-series units can’t quite produce.

SDR content at times looked more like HDR due to bright highlights looking suspended in the black of space and having an etched out quality to them. Black areas in brighter scenes also looked blacker than I remember from JVC’s previous offerings.

1080p content looks great on the NZ700. Its 1080p upscaling makes content look clean and detailed with excellent contrast. Yes, the NZ800 and NZ900 can do even better upscaling for 1080p content, but that is to be expected considering the 16x upscaling to 8K.

HDR

HDR viewing was done in Frame Adapt HDR with Deep Black on. I have switched between Auto Normal and Auto Wide tone-mapping levels. The projector has a P3 colour filter, which was also used for some viewings.

The projector felt bright enough in HDR at max laser even when zooming in to fill my 120″ 16:9 “IMAX” screen (with top masking). I didn’t feel like it was in any way dim compared to my 2600 lumens NZ800 projector, as brightness was still plenty.

Surprisingly, the black floor didn’t seem to be worse in HDR mode than in SDR mode, a bit of a throw-back to the X-series for me. There is certainly a bigger gap on my NZ800, I thought.

Bright highlights pop even more in HDR mode. There’s a sense of contrast at times that neither competitors or JVC’s other offerings can quite match.

High laser dimming seems even more transparent here than on my NZ800, and kept the image bright and punchy at all times, while still providing an excellent black floor in dark scenes.

Compared to the X series, the NZ700’s Frame-Adapt HDR mode is a revelation. HDR looks just right for 99% of content, and for that 1% that’s badly mastered, e.g. The Meg, you can adjust the settings to your liking.

In terms of sharpness and detail, the NZ700 is finally a native 4K unit, and will provide a noticeable uptick in detail. Compared to the eShift processing on the X-series, you are getting a doubling of the effective resolution, and it does show here.

With MPC on Low and Enhance on 5, images pop with excellent detail. JVC’s 8K projectors take this up a few notches considering 4x the number of pixels, but this is excellent performance from a 4K projector, and I never felt sharpness was lacking for 4K content.

Projector Performance

Brightness

Laser Life

The NZ700 is rated at 2300 lumens. For those still worried about laser life, I wanted to calculate how much this would drop after the first year (approx. 1000hrs) and after 10 years (approx. 10,000hrs). The formula for calculating this is as follows:

Final Lumens = Starting Lumens – ((Starting Lumens / 2) / 20,000) * (Number of Hours of Use)

	NZ700	NZ7	NZ8	NP5	X7900
0 Hours	2300	2200	2500	1900	1800
1000hrs	2243	2145	2437	1425	1350
10,000hrs	1725	1650	1875	*665	*630

The NZ700 will drop to half-brightness very slowly over 20,000 hours (approx. 58 lumens every 1000hrs). Generally people watch between 600 to 1000hrs on a projector a year. At 10 years, the NZ700 will have around 1725 lumens left, right where an X-series unit starts from.

Calibrated Brightness

The NZ700 seems to have been tuned for wide colour gamut, as there’s only a 15% loss of brightness for calibrating with the filter in place, as opposed to 30% with the rest of the laser units. This is exceptional performance, and should make using the P3 filter much easier to stomach.

	No Filter	P3 Filter
NZ700 High Bright	2300 lumens	1730 lumens (–>25% loss)
NZ700 D65	1680 lumens	1430 lumens (->15% loss)

Brightness Compared to Other Units

I wanted to compare the calibrated brightness across all the previous units people might be upgrading from, as well as my own NZ800. SDR brightness matches or exceeds brightness for NZ7, NP5 and the X-series. While HDR brightness with the P3 filter matches even the NZ8 more or less, and is equal to the previous X-series.

The good thing about the NZ700 is the you can increase the laser for SDR, which is what I ended up doing. Because the NZ700 is a quiet projector, having the laser at level 75 is still as quiet as having the laser at 66 on the NZ800.

For HDR with the P3 filter in place, the NZ700 is:

• 210 lumens short of my own NZ800 with the P3 filter
• as bright as the NZ7 and NP5 without the P3 filter
• almost as bright as the NZ8 with the filter

	NZ700	NZ7	NZ8	NZ800	NP5	X7900
Specifications	2300	2200	2500	2700	1900	1800
D65 without P3 filter	1680	1500	2000	2300	1450	1550
D65 with P3 filter	1430	N/A	1500	1640	N/A	1400

Brightness and Aspect Ratio

There’s exactly a 10% brightness difference when using the full panel (17:9) and the Zoom function, versus projecting at 16:9. This isn’t a huge deal, but you have the option if you are short on brightness. Scaling between the two aspect ratios isn’t as good as on the NZ800, so you will lose a bit more sharpness. However, MPC can make up for some of that sharpness loss. This is because the NZ800 has a lot more pixels to scale with, so entirely expected.

You can re-calculate the above tables for 16:9 if you want to match the X-series and N/NZ series numbers. You simply need to reduce the N/NZ series numbers by 10%.

However, please note that the laser units also get a 10-15% boost in brightness due to light recycling under 10% APL, which is where most of the content is, which the lamp units don’t have. I confirmed and the NZ700 follows this trend, so it’s ultimately a wash in terms of brightness matching between aspect ratios between lamp units in 17:9 and the NZ700 in 16:9.

Cooling and Noise

The unit is quieter than the NZ series of projectors, including my own NZ800. In fact, I was surprised how quiet the unit was overall. The fans can ramp up if the room is hot, though, just like any other projector, so make sure to keep your room cool.

I would estimate the noise at 100% laser at around the same level as the X-series units in high lamp mode.

The unit doesn’t put out excessive heat. It uses a 165W laser diode compared to the NZ800’s 240W, so around 32% less at full tilt. This makes the brightness matching for SDR and HDR content even more impressive!

The projector itself uses only 240W, instead of the NZ800’s 440W and the JVC X9900’s 380W. That is considerably less power than either previous generations and results in less heat in the room.

Contrast

The unit exceeds its quoted specs (80,000:1) and lands in at 88,300:1 which is measured in high bright, laser at max, throw at max and manual iris at -15.

However, this is not the full story. The NZ700’s real-word contrast performance is better than any other JVC laser projector I have measured, and this is where manufacturer specifications don’t necessarily mean a lot in real-world use.

On/Off Contrast

When I saw these on/off contrast numbers, I had to sit down. The unit matches my own NZ800 with an open iris. The only difference is that the NZ800 can reach higher contrast numbers as the iris is closed down to its minimum. The NZ700 really tops out at around -10 iris beyond which there is negligible difference in contrast, while brightness drops further.

This means that for iris positions people are most likely to use: 0 to -10, the NZ700 matches the NZ800 more or less, although the contrast curve is a bit different. That’s either measurement error or more likely due to the new optical block / lens system.

Iris Position	NZ700 On/Off	NZ800 On/Off	NZ8 On/Off	X7000/9000 On/Off	Sony XW8100ES
0	29,000:1	29,000:1	26,000:1	40,000:1	20,000:1
-3	31,000:1	NM*	NM*	NM*	N/A
-5	37,000:1	39,000:1	35,000:1	58,000:1	N/A
-8	47,000:1	45,000:1	40,000:1	NM*	N/A
-10	51,000:1	51,000:1	44,000:1	80,000:1	N/A
-13	54,000:1	NM*	NM*	NM*	N/A
-15	57,000:1	80,000:1	69,000:1	110,000:1	N/A

I also wanted to measure the contrast difference between 16:9 and 17:9 aspect ratios at minimum throw. The difference was only around 300:1 so 29,000:1 becomes 29,300:1 as you zoom out to use the full panel. It’s negligible enough not to worry about.

It would be impressive if we stopped here at on/off contrast! But there’s much more!

ANSI Contrast

When I saw the ANSI contrast numbers, I almost fell backwards. JVC has produced DLP-level ANSI contrast from a DILA chip. These numbers are not manipulated in any way, but raw from the sensor. If I was to use my room-correction formula, ANSI contrast is around 600:1 at the lens. This is a ridiculously high level of performance for an LCOS projector, and completely unexpected.

I have put Sony’s latest and best Bravia 9 projector into these tables for comparison. The JVC now bests Sony for on/off contrast as well as ANSI contrast. Sony’s lower-level offerings only reach to around 420:1 ANSI, so those don’t even compete in this race. This is clearly class-leading performance, and leaves both Sony’s and JVC’s other offerings in the dust.

Notice how ANSI even at -15 iris on the NZ700 is higher than ANSI at 0 iris on the NZ800! Simply exceptional performance.

Iris Position	NZ700 ANSI	NZ800 ANSI	NZ8 ANSI	X7000/9000 ANSI	Sony XW8100ES
0	530:1	350:1	330:1	200:1 – 250:1	470:1
-5	520:1	320:1	310:1	NM*	NM*
-8	NM*	295:1	NM*	NM*	NM*
-10	510:1	285:1	285:1	NM*	NM*
-15	450:1	280:1	280:1	150:1 – 170:1	NM*

ADL Contrast

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new king. The NZ700 has the best ADL contrast of any current or previous LCOS-based projector.

By improving ANSI around 2.6x compared to the X-series, the whole range is pulled up to the point where the X-series’ advantage for on/off contrast starts to fade even in concrete terms. What’s more, the ADL contrast of the NZ700 completely trashes Sony’s flagship, the Bravia 9 (XW8100) projector. Now that is a comeback and a slap down in one! Especially note the 1% APL numbers.

Please note that I synthesised scores for under 1% ADL. While they are slight over-estimations, they give you a comparison between the different units. LD Mode 2 on the NZ8 could produce a multiplier of around 2.7x for 0.5% stimulus so I included those numbers as well. The new Balanced and High modes should be even better, but these are yet to be measured. In any case, 0.5% numbers are there for entertainment purposes, don’t take them as fact.

APL	NZ700	NZ800	NX7 (Dynamic)	JVC X7000 (Dynamic)	Sony XW8100ES
50% (ANSI)	530:1	330:1	170:1	200:1	470:1
30%	NM*	700:1	255:1	425:1	860:1
20%	1700:1	1100:1	400:1	750:1	1300:1
10%	3600:1	2300:1	1000:1	1600:1	2500:1
5%	6000:1	4000:1	2500:1	2800:1	4200:1
2%	11,500:1	8000:1	5500:1	6400:1	7300:1
1%	17,000:1	14,000:1	8400:1	11,000:1	9600:1
0.5% (synth**)	23,000:1 (62,000:1 LD)	21,500:1 (58,000:1 LD)	54,000:1	55,500:1	14,800
0%	29,000:1 (Inf LD)	29,000:1 (Inf LD)	100:000:1 250,000:1 (D)	100,000:1 250,000:1 (D)	20,000:1

I was also interested to see how much the ADL contrast changes as the iris is pulled down to -5. Here are the numbers for comparison. As you can see, not a huge change above 1% ADL but we can expect more under 1%. Since our eyes – and our rooms – are less sensitive to higher ADL contrast, this is generally a good trade-off. Notice how little ANSI contrast changes, which means the room and measuring equipment is the limiting factor here, even as we measure from the lens.

APL	NZ700 0 Iris	NZ700 -5 Iris
50% (ANSI)	530:1	520:1
20%	1700:1	1500:1
10%	3600:1	3300:1
5%	6000:1	5600:1
2%	11,500:1	12,000:1
1%	17,000:1	18,200:1
0.5% (synth**)	23,000:1	26,600:1
0%	29,000:1	35,000:1

Gen3 4K DILA Chips

The NZ700 uses the latest-generation (Gen3) 4K DILA chips, also included in the NZ800 and NZ900. You can read about the new chip design and what it brings to the table in our NZ800 review.

[2] We have received word that the NZ500 will use Gen2 panels. This means that the NZ500 will have slightly lower on/off and possibly ANSI contrast, and the brightness difference can also be attributed to the panel change, and possibly slightly different colour tuning.

Gamma Processing

Gamma processing on the new units has a 12-bit resolution, while the higher-end NZ800 and NZ900 units process gamma at 18-bit resolution. Unfortunately, this is not reflected on the spec sheets, but JVC put out a press-release when Frame Adapt HDR was introduced. I don’t know if this is reflected on the new units, but I felt the NZ800 had a bit more delineation near black.

If you are coming from an X-series, you need to be aware that under 1% stimulus, the gamma is elevated on all JVC 4K units – to varying degrees. This is likely JVC trying to improve shadow detail. Some people like this, others don’t.

Having said that, the NZ700’s native contrast performance makes this less of an issue, unless watching very dark content such as The Expanse. The beginning of Series 5 Episode 6 comes to mind where this is clearly visible as the elevated black of space in the background. Once fixed, these scenes play much closer to what I remember from the X-series.

Since most people found the X-series to be crushing some shadow detail, 99% of people should be happy with this behaviour. However, if you find your darkest Sci Fi shows to have ever-so-slightly lifted blacks, then correcting for this will pay dividends.

To correct it, you’ll need an external tool that you can find here to create a custom gamma curve and upload it into the JVC, after having pulled under 3% stimulus down. It is a change I made on my NZ800 unit and it makes these units behave much more like the X-series units.

Laser Dimming

Laser dimming has 3 modes, just like on the NZ800 / NZ900, and they are the same on these new units, as below:

	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 really good. 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.

While on the NZ800 I preferred the balanced mode, on the NZ700 I preferred the High mode. This is because High mode retains more image brightness and punch in the image, while it plunges into deep blacks for dark scenes when called for, and there are no bright highlights on the screen. I found that this worked quite well with the NZ700’s high native contrast and even more transparent than with the NZ800.

High laser dimming also seems to be the closest approximation to how the dynamic iris works on the X-series units, with the added benefit of shutting the laser off on a black frame. That is, as long as that black frame was not preceded by fading out in the content. If there is a fade, the laser will stay on at its minimum to stop the jarring effect of having an above-black frame be followed by complete darkness. While I think this works really well on the NZ700, you also have the balanced laser-dimming mode, which will follow the content’s APL more closely.

Deep Black

Deep Black is included on these new lower-end units, which is great, and helps HDR performance to look very convincing indeed for dark scenes. Read our NZ800 review to learn more about Deep Black.

Black Field Uniformity

Black Field Uniformity is as clean as I saw with the best of the X-series and actually much better than my own NZ800, which was also much improved from the NZ8. Ultimately, the NZ700 has more contrast than my own NZ800, and has it across the full screen, as opposed to being ever so slightly lighter in the corners on my own unit. The new chip design certainly shines in the NZ700’s new optical block.

Sharpness

JVC has designed a new 80mm lens for the NZ500 and NZ700 projectors. This is the first new lens design since the NX9, and the first lens design for lower-end JVCs since the X3!!! That’s a long time in technology.

JVC has opted to use a plastic lens this time, and I fully support this decision. To reduce variation in a glass lens requires re-tooling that is incredibly costly. To reduce variation for a plastic lens, only the high-precision moulds need to change, which can then be re-used again and again to produce better precision and consistency.

So I think we need to get away from the idea that glass lenses are better per se. They aren’t if the unit to unit variation is large. The main aim with this new lens design is to provide optical sharpness than’s better than the NZ800-class projectors, but not as good as the NZ900’s lens.

To achieve this, JVC has increased the lens diameter and will no doubt work on improving the moulds over time to drive up optical sharpness across the whole zoom and lens shift range.

For this pre-production model, on the whole, the lens is as sharp as my own NZ800, which is no slouch. The only exception to this is when the lens is at its minimum throw and horizontal lens shift is maxed out. This is a very difficult scenario for a lens, and my own NZ800 doesn’t quite pass it either. My recommendation: if you are at minimum throw, only use the vertical lens shift if you can.

In any other scenario, the lens looks really sharp.

Image Processing – MPC

MPC is on board, with Low and High settings. The Low setting seems to help image sharpness and do little damage to the image. However, the High setting needs to be used very judiciously, as it applies heavier edge enhancement, which can give the image a harder processed look quickly. Thankfully, both are available to cater for different tastes.

	Processing Resolution	JVC’s Guidance
Low	4K	Performs enhancement processing suitable for 4K resolution content (UHD).
High	1080p	Performs enhancement processing suitable for 2K or lower resolution content (DVD, Blu-ray).

My favourite setting was MPC on Low and an Enhance setting of 6.

It needs to be noted that these MPC settings seem to have been newly developed for this lower-end platform, and are not on the same level as the ones on the excellent NZ800 / NZ900. Upscaling and detail retrieval is a generational leap ahead for the high-end offerings, but that is to be expected, and is really the differentiating factor between the low-end and high-end now.

	Active For	Purpose
Enhance	High Frequencies	Enhance detail
Smoothing	Low Frequencies	Smooth detail / banding

MPC Smoothing is also available, and it’s a throw-back to the X-series. It aims to reduce banding if there’s some in the content.

Image Processing – CMD

A more curious choice is the omission of a proper CMD – aka frame interpolation – mode. While CMD is present in the menu, with Low and High options like on the X and N/NZ-series units, it is not the same CMD as before. It is black-frame insertion and it works for 60Hz content only. I couldn’t get it to work for 24Hz, 30Hz or 50Hz material.

This is an interesting choice, and I am unsure if it is because JVC’s engineers have not had time to implement it on the new platform, or it was a calculated feature cut to keep the price lower for these units.

I personally tried these new modes for 2 minutes then turned them off. I don’t find that they aid in motion as much as make flickering worse, and for 60Hz content that doesn’t really need much help in appearing fluid.

Having said that, while I missed CMD for movie content initially, my eyes adjusted back to not having it. The native motion on the new NZ700 is better than the X-series, so it’s entirely possible this feature won’t be missed by most people. But be aware if this is a feature you use today.

Motion Resolution

Sharpness in motion looks excellent. However, due to the lack of 8K eShift, it is somewhat lower than on the NZ800. I still felt that sharpness was retained in motion better than the X-series, or even the NP5, which tended to blur more. JVC has clearly done some work on native motion on these units. When using the motion resolution tests from Spears and Munsil, I could resolve the lines to 1080p easily, and I could even see the 4K lines somewhat, although I wouldn’t call that a pass. In any case, that is exceptional motion resolution performance, especially for an LCOS based machine and without CMD.

The fly in that ointment is of course CMD. CMD on Low tends to help motion resolution even more, although JVC could argue that native motion is good enough here.

Gaming Performance

I tested the NZ700 with an XBOX Series X in 4K 60 mode – both in SDR and HDR. The NZ700 was very responsive and looked great in motion. The lag was also much lower than the NZ7 / NZ8 / NZ9, especially with laser dimming and Frame Adapt HDR on. This is a massive leap forward in performance as the older units lagged like crazy previously with laser dimming and Frame Adapt on.

I didn’t see a dedicated low latency mode on the NZ700, like we have on the NZ800. Since I don’t have a way to measure latency, I have to assume JVC has done some additional work to reduce lag here beyond the NZ800’s normal mode (without low latency on). We’ll have to wait for some official tests on this, however.

Colour Performance

The NZ500 and NZ700 have a 300 lumens difference in output at 2000 versus 2300 lumens. Beyond any chip differences, this could also come down to different colour tuning. It is possible that the filters in the NZ500 will provide a slightly wider gamut out of the box.

According to JVC’s documents, the NZ500 will match Sony’s offerings at 83-85% coverage of P3. Sony tends to quote it at 93% but the actual measurement is closer to 85%.

The NZ700 reaches the full REC709 gamut without the colour filter and the full P3 gamut with the colour filer.

Vivid Mode

Vivid mode is on board as well, and it is excellent for watching with some ambient light in the room. Read more about it in our NZ800 review.

Controls and Usability

Start up and Shut Down Speed

The start-up speed of the NZ700 is only 30 seconds, which is quicker than my own NZ800 by a good margin (around 50 seconds). This makes the NZ700 a lot more easy to recommend as a media-room projector, and brings it in line with Epson’s offerings.

HDMI Switching Speed

The HDMI switching speed is massively improved from all previous generation JVCs. I never had to wait long for the picture to re-appear. It was a revelation of using a projector that syncs in literally a couple of seconds. It is a massive leap forward in performance form the X-series which takes 8-10 seconds to sync at times, and is also improved from my own NZ800.

Brand New Menu Design

JVC has designed a new menu system for the NZ500 and NZ700, likely because of the brand new platform.

The Picture Mode, Installation and HDMI settings are separated into their own menu system, and you have to choose which menu you want to be displayed. The idea behind this is that you generally wouldn’t touch the HDMI and Installation menus after setup so those settings can be put out of sight.

For normal day to day use, you would set the unit up and then put the remote to the side. In that regard, it’s probably not a bad thing. However, for installers and power users, the new menu system might take a bit longer to set things up with.

Frame Adapt HDR – DML Value Usage

DML value usage for Frame Adapt HDR is back – like just on the NZ800 / NZ900. It allows the JVC to know the mastering display’s max luminance, which can help if other meta-data are missing. Read more about it in our NZ800 review.

Fan Direction

JVC has chosen to reverse the exhaust direction on the NZ700 compared to the previous models. This allows the unit to vent to the back of the room, and therefore not have the heat disturb the projected image. This can be an issue with the current units, dependent on ambient temperature, where the hot air exiting the unit refracts light differently, creating “ripples” in the projected image. While this was never bothersome or noticeable in day to day use, the issue is now resolved with this new projector design.

Another issue is knocked on its head showing that JVC is paying attention and listening to user feedback, no matter how minor.

Build Quality

Overall

The build quality of the NZ700 is excellent. It weights a heavy 17kgs and feels solid. I would say it is built better than the X-series units were. The only interesting change is the small feet, which have been reduced in height to make sure the NZ700 is only a hair taller than the X-series.

The NZ700 is a good-looking compact projector that feels like a quality piece of equipment. It will look great both in a home theatre and an entertainment room.

Optical Block

It’s worth mentioning that JVC’s new optical block doesn’t only knock black-field uniformity on its head, but also helps streaking which has become a hallmark of JVC’s DILA technology.

The high native ANSI results in a reduction of pretty much 100% of vertical streaking. I could only see a hint of horizontal streaking with one line of text on screen, and it was much reduced compared to even my own NZ800.

The new optical block is again paying dividends here. This is the best quality optical block JVC has ever produced.

Brightness Uniformity

JVC has also improved brightness uniformity across the screen. However, I didn’t have time to measure it for this review. I would say that by eye this looks to be true. The image is bright and pops edge to edge.

Conclusion

JVC has done an amazing amount of engineering with the NZ700, all of which add up to a projector that throws a stunning image and is a joy to use. Let’s recap!

Pros:

• The new optical block improves on/off contrast, ANSI contrast and ADL contrast, putting it way ahead of the competition in all these metrics. In fact, ANSI is now so high that we’ll have to put JVC’s projectors against DLPs in heads to heads soon. Impressive stuff!
• Exceptional black-field uniformity.
• Brightness has been balanced so that the unit can almost be brightness-matched to the NZ800 for both SDR and HDR, due to the P3 filter penalty having been halved.
• The new lens improves sharpness and will reduce unit to unit variance over time.
• The unit turns on, off and handshakes in seconds. Finally you don’t have to sit in the dark for 5-10 seconds at a time. This is almost as good as having HDMI’s QMS (Quick Media Switching) implemented.

Cons:

• CMD is only black frame insertion and can’t be used outside of 60Hz. We hope this can be remedied with a future firmware update.
• NZ800-class projectors are sharper still. But this is only a con if you have a friend’s to compare against. On its own, the NZ700 is plenty sharp.
• No 3D, but let’s face it, 99% of people won’t miss this!

Suggestions for Future Improvement

JVC has done some stellar work here, but there’s no such thing as a perfect product, so let’s go through some suggested improvements.

1. Image Processing – MPC: if there’s any short-coming with the NZ700, it is its MPC and CMD modes. While we don’t expect NZ800-level performance, it would be helpful to implement MPC modes that split out detail enhancement, edge enhancement, etc into their individual settings so we could fine tune these further. If JVC is able to implement detail enhancement for low and high-frequency detail, even better. This point was suggested under the NZ800 review as well, and would elevate these projectors even further above the competition.
2. Image Processing – CMD: while I understand some cuts had to be made, this one is probably the one that hurts most. This is because CMD can increase motion resolution, and give proceedings a more fluid feel. I hope JVC can re-introduce the old CMD modes with a firmware update. However, I did note that native motion is excellent and I was surprised that I didn’t miss CMD as much as I thought I would.

I’m finding it hard to find other issues to be honest. I’m excited what the future holds for JVC, and what pairing this new optical block with the processing of the NZ800 could bring to the table in a future projector maybe?

As Compared to Other Projectors

JVC N Series

• The JVC N-series has much lower ANSI contrast (170:1 versus 530:1 and up on the NZ700).
• There is better intra-image contrast for pretty much all content on the NZ700.
• The NZ700 will likely appear sharper because of the better contrast – once MPC is set to Low, Enhance on 5 – 6.

JVC NZ Series (NZ7 / NZ8 / NZ9)

• Performance is comparable for contrast, but the NZ700 will have higher on/off and much higher ANSI contrast (320:1 to 530:1 upgrade). Dependent on the unit, this can result in better contrast perception.
• There is better image processing on the NZ8 / NZ9 so those are able to retrieve more detail from the content when put into MPC High Res 2, Enhance on 10 and eShiftX on.
• NZ7 to NZ700 upgrade is an easier one, because the NZ7 doesn’t have the high-contrast optical block of the NZ8 / NZ9, and now the NZ700. The NZ700 will look much better overall than an NZ7, even though the NZ7 has better image processing.
• CMD is missing on the NZ700, so those that must use CMD might have to weigh this up. However, native motion on the NZ700 is better than the NZ7.

JVC NZ800 / NZ900

• Image processing is much better on the NZ800 / NZ900 including the ability to upscale to 8K.
• MPC settings are much more effective on the NZ800 / NZ900 and bring out a lot more detail
• 1080p upscaling is second to none on the NZ800 / NZ900, besting the NZ700 by a large amount. Whereby 1080p content looks 4K on the NZ800 / NZ900, it still looks just 1080p on the NZ700, maybe a bit better. But it could be that I’m now too used to the high-end performance of my NZ800, and everything else looks low-res.

JVC X Series

• NZ700 has 2.6x the ANSI contrast leading to better intra-image contrast in pretty much all scenes.
• HDR performance is leaps and bounds better on the NZ700.
• Sharpness is better on the NZ700 as it is a native 4K projector
• Brightest and colour stability is much better on the NZ700.
• HDMI handshake is not even comparable. The X series is terrible, the NZ700 syncs in 2 seconds. Gargantuan leap forward in usability.

Epson LS12000

• JVC has much better contrast for both on/off and ANSI besting Epson by a long shot.
• Epson has frame-interpolation, while JVC does not. Epson also has better super-resolution processing than JVC’s MPC on the NZ700. However, the Epson is a pixel-shifting machine while JVC’s machine is native 4K.
• With all things considered, the NZ700 is the much better machine.

Sony XW6100 / 8100

• Sony’s machines have higher brightness and better image processing.
• NZ700 has much better contrast across the whole range.
• The Sony 8100 is the better machine when all things considered, but it would be a more difficult call with the Sony XW6100, because JVC trumps it on contrast by a very very long shot. The NZ700 is therefore the better machine.

Autocal and Calibration

The NZ700 we received was a pre-production unit with pre-production firmware, so no chance of using Autocal with it. However, we calibrated for D65 whitepoint, and it only needed small adjustments.

In Closing

I would like to thank JVC Kenwood Australia for letting us use their NZ700 pre-production unit.

If you’re in the USA, our recommended JVC-authorised dealer is www.ProjectorScreen.com. They are only 5mins from our US office, and have great customer service. Tell them you were sent by us.

Also thanks to Richard at www.ProjectorScreens.com.au (Oz Theatre Screens) who is Simple Home Cinema’s preferred JVC dealer in Australia. Richard is always helpful and is a pleasure to work with.