JVC either desperately or cleverly targets dSLR owners with new display
(Credit:
JVC America)
Having trouble moving your small, overpriced HDTVs? Toss them on the bandwagon of one of the few growing product markets, dSLRs, and hope they fly off the shelves. That seems to be the reasoning behind JVC's marketing of its new Xiview LT-42WX70, a $2,399.95, 42-inch, tunerless TV.
I can't figure out exactly what this thing is appropriate for, especially at its price. On one hand, the specs on the display seem imaging friendly. It's rated at 96 percent Adobe RGB gamut coverage and 100 percent sRGB, with lots of controls for tweaking gamma and individual colors. It has a 12-bit processor, so in theory it would be able to handle the necessary wide-gamut support from a graphics card.
JVC's press release states:
This [array of connectors] allows the user to easily perform various operations such as checking images by connecting directly to an SLR camera compatible with HDMI or component connector, editing stills on the large 42-inch screen by connecting it to a PC via a D-sub 15-pin, or even do a round of onscreen checks in accurate colors prior to outputting images to a high-resolution digital photo printer and thus save on expenses.
But it doesn't have a DVI input, which is necessary for communicating with the graphics card for accurate wide-gamut color reproduction. (VGA output on graphics cards is only 8-bit and color-matching profiles don't operate with HDMI or component.) And at 42 inches, it's clearly not intended for daily computer use--unless you sit more than 5 feet from your desk. And pro imaging displays don't bother to put all that color intelligence in the monitor because all the color matching should be controlled by software anyway.
It also integrates a lot of TV technologies for making motion look better on an LCD, including , 8/10-bit to 12-bit color upconversion, and noise reduction. Those are fine in a TV, but not for editing and proofing video where you need to see the artifacts.
With the exception of the missing DVI, its specs match more reasonably sized wide-gamut displays like the NEC MultiSync LCD2690WUXi2, Eizo CG242W, HP DreamColor LP2480zx Professional Display, and Samsung XL24, though all of those cover more of the Adobe RGB gamut.
Maybe for a photographer or videographer to hang in the office to display a portfolio running off a Blu-ray player? I could see that, but not for $2,400. Or am I missing something? Is this really a brilliant move on JVC's part that I just don't get? If so, please enlighten me.
Senior Editor Lori Grunin has been covering digital imaging for two decades, but her memory's kind of sketchy on the details. You can hear about it every week on Indecent Exposure, the podcast she co-hosts with Matt Fitzgerald. 
In other words, this unit does seem like a bit of a sham. It is marketed at a market segment that (should) know exactly what they want/need, and judging from the specs, it is just not quite there. Anyone super serious about "photo-grade" displays won't go for a JVC TV. They will go for a MONITOR, and one with a more trusted track record.
In other other words, JVC is just using the "SLR" name as another acronym to throw at people. The more fancy words most people don't understand, the better, right?
I looked on the JVC website at the technical specs, and see the color space is adjustable to sRGB or Adobe RGB (or a couple of others). It also does internal wide color pixel processing. Offhand, this is much MORE oriented toward digital imaging uses than many other 42" HTDV's. From the DVI specs, it says you need dual-link DVI to get more than 24-bits/pixel, although HDMI 1.3 supports 48-bits/pixel over a single link. This suggests matching an older DVI video card (dual-link) with the new HDMI monitor (single-link) might not get you 48-bit color. MANY DVI cables aren't dual-link anyway, so you will ONLY get wide color on DVI if the video card, cable, and monitor all are coordinated. From what I read, you don't get wide color video output from Windows until Windows 7 anyway, so all this talk of 48-bit color may be bogus on current Windows versions (see http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-7-High-Color-Support-98741.shtml).
I'd like to know WHY somebody is labeling this as bogus for digital photography use. I offhand see no evidence in the tech specs to support this, and see lots of things in the tech specs to support that it is oriented toward wide gamut color use. The $2000 24? monitors designed for critical color use offhand have technical features, like HP?s tri-color LCD backlight, that may give them an edge over the JVC, but the twice as large, and not much more expensive, JVC looks like it comes very close (for example Adobe RGB coverage on the JVC is listed as 96% and as 97% on the Eizo).
It?s VERY interesting that the HP manual states you don?t get 30 bits/pixel over the DVI interface. This also points out the difference between ?wide gamut? and ?wide pixel depth?. You can have 24-bit wide gamut color, or 48-bit color depth without a wide gamut. I also found wide gamut CRT monitors using analog RGB connectors, so that kind of shoots the ?must be DVI? argument (although DVI/HDMI can display many more pixels sharply). Analog RGB has DDC also to read the monitor EDID info.
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I have no affiliation with JVC, and am a highly experience software developer (and have been a serious photographer for 40 years), with a nose for bogus claims. The only bogosity I smell is claiming this display, because it lacks DVI, is inherently not capable of wide color. Only careful testing will determine how accurate its color is compared to other displays intended for digital image editing. All of those displays are not 42".
The wide gamut claims of each monitor listed in the article are:
JVC LT-42WX70 - Adobe RGB 96%
NEC MultiSync LCD2690WUXi2 - Adobe RGB 97.5% (read the fine print on the specs)
Eizo CG242W ? Adobe RGB 97%
HP DreamColor LP2480zx - Adobe RGB 100%
From HP manual "True 10-bit drivers in the LCD panel itself, and the ability to support true 10 bits/color (30 bits/pixel) video through the DisplayPort 1.1 and HDMI 1.3 inputs?, notice NOT from the DVI input
Samsung XL24 ? didn?t seem to say
Older Mitsubishi RDF225WG Wide Gamut CRT ? Adobe RGB 97.6% over analog DB-15 connector
This was all research I did from the comfort of my computer, with no hands on testing with sophisticated color measurement equipment. Offhand, I uncovered more about the truth than the article writer did, they are supposed to do this kind of research for a living.
- by amadensor May 29, 2009 5:22 AM PDT
- VGA is only 8 bit?!?!?!? VGA is an analog signal. My video card uses a 24 bit color (23 bits of color plus one bit of gamma) to pick what to send, but ultimately, this is not dependent on it being VGA at all.
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