CEDIA 2018

Apart from a single consumer projector, the laser-driven DLA-RS4500, JVC’s native 4K offerings were all pixel shifted, or e-shifted, designs using 1080p chips with clever and effective technology to provide more than a taste of true 4K resolution.

But now they’ve moved on. At this year’s CEDIA EXPO JVC launched six projectors using its latest native 4K D-ILA imagers. Not only that, but at the top of the new range, the NX9 uses JVC’s 4K chips with pixel shifting to produce a semblance of 8K—an echo of its use of 1080p chips with pixel shifting to approach 4K.

But there's a catch. As is usual for JVC, there are really only three new projectors in two lines, named and distributed differently but basically identical model for model. The three models in the Procision Series are the DLA-NX9 (the 8K e-shift model), the DLA-NX7, and the DLA-NX5. The Reference Series models are the DLA-RS3000 (8K e-shift), DLA-RS2000, and DLA-RS1000.

The 8K e-shift models use all glass, 18-element, 100mm lenses. The other models use 65mm glass lenses. The projectors also employ an automatic tone mapping function to optimize HDR performance (HDR10 and HLG) based on how the material was mastered.

All of the new models are lamp-lit via a 265W ultra-high pressure mercury lamp, with a new filter said to achieve color beyond the P3 gamut.

Pricing will be $18,000 for the DLA-X9, $8,000 for the DLA-NX7, and $6,000 for the DLA-NX5 (with equivalent prices for the parallel Reference Series models). All are slated to ship in October.

A brief demonstration left us anxious to get our hands on review samples.