JVC True Black DLA-HD1 review

Performance
Once you've got the HD1 fully set up the thing that really impresses is its super high-contrast ratio and astounding black levels. Most projectors in this price range use a dynamic iris that quickly closes down to reduce the amount of light coming out of the projector during darker scenes. This improves black levels, but it also reduces the intensity of brighter areas of the picture, so essentially it's a bit of a fudge.

The HD1 doesn't have to resort to such trickery. Instead it's able to achieve really deep blacks without the need for an iris, thanks to the balls-out contrast performance of its three LCoS panels (or D-ILA in JVC speak) and some clever tweaking of the lens assembly. This was especially evident when watching the opening scene of the original Star Wars movie via Sky HD. As the bright Star Destroyer cruises across the dark background of space, neither is compromised. The space ship remains bright and vivid while the space background is rendered as full black rather than a very dark shade of grey.

The HD1 is fairly bulky and heavy, but it's finished in a sleek piano-black coating with a stylish silver stripe down the centre

But it's not just the contrast performance that's impressive -- the 'Full HD' resolution also means you get super-smooth images. If you feed it a good source, such as movies from a Blu-ray player or Sky HD, you'll be gobsmacked by the amount of detail in the picture. On some projectors, you can see the individual pixels on the picture, but not on this one. Instead you get velvety images that look remarkably similar to film.

This combination of amazing picture detail and rich contrast adds up to a home cinema experience that's unbelievably close to the real thing. When we were watching Saving Private Ryan and the original Star Wars trilogy via Sky HD, we weren't sure we'd ever seen these moves looking so good -- even in a proper cinema.

But for all its plus points, there are also a couple of negatives. The HD1 lacks a bit of oomph in the brightness department, so to get the most out of it you'll need to use it in quite a dark room.

Also, although the pictures are very detailed thanks to the 1080p resolution, they're not quite as sharp as some other 'Full HD' projectors we've seen. It's not hugely lacking in this area, but the images were definitely a touch softer than on Optoma's HD81 or Panasonic's PT-AE1000.

Conclusion
There's no doubt that the HD1 is an impressive projector for the price. Its contrast and black level performance is absolutely top notch and really helps it to produce extremely rich-looking pictures. In fact we'd go so far as to say that it's one of the most cinematic projectors we've seen.

It's a big and bulky machine, though, so it'll be hard to place in the average home, and it's not as bright as some of its rivals. As the images aren't quite as sharp as those on some similarly priced 1080p machines, it doesn't quite get the full thumbs up.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Kate Macefield