JVC DLA-X70R review

The finest sub-£10,000 projector you can buy Tested at £7000

What Hi-Fi? Verdict

Innovative and hugely impressive; the finest sub-£10,000 projector you can buy

Pros

  • +

    Staggering image quality, with excellent levels of detail, contrast and colour

Cons

  • -

    Its resolution isn’t all it seems

  • -

    the technology doesn’t work with 3D

Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test.

Resolution isn’t the only measure of picture quality, especially with projectors. Other factors play a part too, such as optical quality and picture processing.

All the same, there’s nothing quite like a headline grabbing statistic to, er, grab the headlines. Hence the furore surrounding the new JVC DLA-X70R, the first comparatively affordable ‘4K’ projector we’ve tested.

Why the inverted commas? Two things: first, the JVC isn’t a 4K2K (4096 x 2160) design, unlike a forthcoming Sony model. In fact, its resolution is a ‘mere’ 3840 x 2160, or precisely four times the overall pixel count of a standard 1080p picture.

Second – and this is the really important bit – the JVC doesn’t actually have a native 3840 x 2160 display panel at all.

Packed with processing power

So what gives? Essentially, the JVC relies on its powerful upscaling technology, dubbed e-Shift, to process the original 1080p picture, scale it into a 3840 x 2160 image, and then display said image as two 1080p ‘subframes’, shown in rapid succession, with the first slightly offset (by 0.5 of a pixel) relative to the first.

It doesn’t work on 3D (because that, too, relies on displaying twin images in rapid succession) and yes, it’s massively complex, but, it must be said, it’s astonishingly effective too.

Even familiar Blu-rays appear razor-sharp, with textural variations and low-light details you’ll seldom see on other projectors.

In fact, we doubt you could better the JVC’s image quality with anything less than a £30,000 SIM2: it really is that good.

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What Hi-Fi?

What Hi-Fi?, founded in 1976, is the world's leading independent guide to buying and owning hi-fi and home entertainment products. Our comprehensive tests help you buy the very best for your money, with our advice sections giving you step-by-step information on how to get even more from your music and movies. Everything is tested by our dedicated team of in-house reviewers in our custom-built test rooms in London, Reading and Bath. Our coveted five-star rating and Awards are recognised all over the world as the ultimate seal of approval, so you can buy with absolute confidence.

Read more about how we test