Why You Can Trust CNET JVC LT-46DZ7 review: JVC LT-46DZ7
JVC's first 'Full HD' TV, the 46-inch LCD LT-46DZ7, is a success with exceptionally pure picture clarity, eye-catching colours, great picture processing and audio quality. An 'invisible' speaker system also ensures that the set won't take up more living room space than it needs to
If you want to be taken seriously in the LCD TV world these days, you've got to have a few 'Full HD' models in your range.
JVC LT-46DZ7
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
So JVC's Full HD debut, the surprisingly affordable £1,500, 46-inch LT-46DZ7, really couldn't have come too soon.
Strengths
You warm to the 46DZ7 as soon as you look at it, thanks to the way it employs an 'invisible' speaker system so that it can occupy just about as little of your precious living room space as a TV with a 46-inch screen ever could.
Its Full HD resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels also warms the heart -- especially as this is backed up by a mode for showing HD sources on a perfect, pure pixel by pixel basis, with no overscanning processing.
We're pleased to say, too, that you'll get great pleasure while watching what the 46DZ7 can do with high definition sources.
The set employs JVC's 'DynaPix HD' picture processing engine and this works absolute wonders in making sure that you get every last pixel of high definition clarity from pristine sources like Casino Royale on Blu-ray. To our mind, maybe the only other brand able to show HD pictures quite so sharp right now is Philips, with its Pixel Plus 3 HD models.
The HD picture is also unusually stable by LCD standards, thanks to some strikingly well-saturated colours and terrifically subtle blends -- delivered thanks to the pixel density afforded by its Full HD resolution -- that at times make objects look almost three-dimensional.
DynaPix HD also helps standard definition sources look sharper than usual. But the 46DZ7 certainly isn't only about the pictures. For its 'invisible' speakers seemingly controvert the laws of physics by producing one of the biggest, boldest and basically most visible audio performances we've heard from a flat TV to date.
Weaknesses
Although the 46DZ7 generally does pretty well when it comes to features, it does lack a pretty significant one for a Full HD TV: 1080p support. This means that it can't take in 'pure' 1080p/24fps feeds from the handful of HD disc players able to output them, with the result that such HD sources have to go through the TV's processing engine whether you want them to or not.
Similarly, although the 46DZ7's pictures are generally winners (to the point where at times they're little short of sublime), they are also let down against the very best rivals by: black levels that only rate as good rather than excellent; some rather overt video noise while watching digital tuner sources; and colour tones that occasionally slide slightly 'off message' during dark scenes.
Conclusion
There's certainly room for improvement with the 46DZ7, especially when it comes to black levels and holding down the noise with standard definition sources. But at £1,500, it's still a very likeable Full HD debut by JVC and one which suggests the brand really has the potential to do something quite special in the not-too-distant future.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Jon Squire