JVC DLA-HD100 review

When we first reviewed the HD100, the retail price was £4500. However, having done a new shop-around, it seems the figure has shifted towards the £4800 mark.

Now, we're not saying that £300 is an insignificant sum, but it's certainly not enough of a price-hike to put us off this truly exceptional projector, even when up against some top-notch competition.

Of the three products on test, this is the only one that's not a DLP design: instead it utilises JVC's own D-ILA technology. Now, we could go on for pages about how this differs to DLP, but we reckon that would be a bit of a waste of time, as what you really want to know is how it performs.

So, with no further ado, we spin-up our Blu-ray copy of Ratatouille. The Full HD picture is a real treat for the eyes, offering stunning detail and razor-sharp edges.

Colours are also deftly handled, with the JVC displaying an excellent combination of vibrancy and subtlety, and the fast motion scenes are stable and smooth.

Switching to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street on Blu-ray proves that the HD100 is just as exciting with live action as it is with animation. The detail that it digs up is very impressive, and it also proves capable of producing very decent deep blacks while offering excellent levels of insight.

Excellent detail and skin tones
The DVD of Training Day offers a very stern test for picture performance, yet the JVC handles the movie confidently. The neutral colour palette is carried through to the screen without a hint of washing-out or over-exuberance, and the detail found in the lead characters' faces is excellent.

There is the merest hint of jagginess evident during movement, which seems to come from the on-board deinterlacing (feed it a 576p image instead of 576i and the problem is diminished), but were it not for the astonishing stability of the Marantz, this wouldn't even bear mentioning.

It's fair to say that the JVC is a scintillating performer then; but what's it like to live with? Well, it's a rather hefty unit so will definitely need to be a permanent fixture.

It's very straight-forward to use, whether using the buttons on top of the unit or those on the cheap-looking, but fairly intuitive, backlit remote.

Two HDMIs is also the maximum you seem to get on a projector at this price.
We're not often blown away by a JVC product, but in the HD100 it's created something genuinely fantastic.