JVC HD56FH96 - 56" Rear Projection TV User manual

ELECTRONICALLY REPRINTED FROM

Not long ago (Issue
64), I reviewed
the HD-52G786,
JVC’s 720p HD-
ILA RPTV. I liked the
high brightness of that
model, but I didn’t find it
to excel in any other
areas, though it was a
generally competent per-
former. On the down-
side, its blacks were not
good and really held the
entire set back.
Enter the 1080p ver-
sion, and what a differ-
ence! I’ll tell you right up
front: This one’s a differ-
ent animal and a real
contender for the best
RPTV on the planet.
Since many features
are the same, I won’t
dwell on the similari-
ties—only the differ-
ences. Check out Issue 64
(www.avguide.com) for
details about the earlier set’s features
that also apply to this model. Like the
vast majority of 1080p sets this year,
the HD-56FH96 upconverts all scan
rates to 1080p, but it can’t actually
accept a 1080p signal (not that you
could find one except perhaps from a
very high-powered home-theater PC).
Features
Like its sibling, the HD-56FH96 is a
true high-end RPTV with digital
tuner, PC input, and CableCARD
slot, but this model has two HDMI
inputs instead of one. There is no
media card slot (for viewing digital
photos); you’ll have to get the 70-inch
version for that.
Like the 720p set, this model also
has HD EZ F
ILL to assure a full
screen with any broadcast, four video
presets, a signal-level indicator for
tuning digital stations (important),
and a button to select either digital or
analog off-the-air channels, prevent-
ing them from mixing when channel
surfing. These are neat and useful
features often missing from other
sets. Advanced audio features are
missing from the audio menu and can
only be accessed with the S
OUND but-
ton on the remote.
One new feature that seems useful is
called V1 SMART INPUT. If you plug
your various component and S-video
sources into your surround receiver
and connect the receiver’s component
and S-video outputs to the set’s
Component 1 and S-video 1 inputs,
respectively, the set will detect which
connection has a signal as you switch
sources with the receiver.
More technical features include a
true 1920x1080 pixel structure with
an HD-ILA light system, fifth-genera-
tion scaler, 5-point color management,
and (hurrah for JVC) a 3-step iris for
improving black level. There are four
different noise-reduction circuits,
operated, in part, by the DIGITAL VNR
and MPEG NR controls in the user
VIDEO REVIEW ❘Randy Tomlinson
JVC HD-56FH96 1080p HD-ILA
Rear-Projection Television
What do you get when stepping up from 720p RPTV to a 1080p model?
To subscribe to The Perfect Vision, call 888-475-5991 (US), 760-745-2809 (outside US) or visit www.theperfectvision.com. $42 for six issues in the US; $45 Canada, $75 outside
North America. Posted with permission from Absolute Multimedia, Inc. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication of this article is strictly prohibited.
For more information on reprints from The Perfect Vision, contact Wright’s Reprints at 877-652-5295.

MARCH / APRIL 2006 ❘www.theperfectvision.com
menu. The clock sets itself automati-
cally with a signal embedded in the
PBS broadcast signal.
As with the 720p set, I found the
owner’s manual to be sketchy and the
remote cluttered. To its credit, the
remote is backlit (though the LIGHT
button is impossible to find in the
dark), and the buttons used for typi-
cal operation (except changing
inputs) are intuitive and fairly easy to
find. Changing inputs was a royal
pain in the neck, requiring sequential
button pushes and long waits to
scroll through the list.
One serious drawback is in the
video-memory design. Most inputs
don’t have separate memories for user
video settings (COLOR, TINT, etc.).
Change settings on one input and
you’ve changed them on most others.
The component inputs do have a sepa-
rate memory, but the tuner and both
HDMI inputs must share. To work
around this, you can assign the
THEATER picture mode to your DVD
player (component connection) and
set-top box (HDMI), then assign
STANDARD mode to the tuner to get
independent picture adjustments.
Unfortunately, STANDARD mode ex-
hibits nowhere near the accuracy of
THEATER. Its color temperature, even in
the LOW setting, is over 14,000K (way
bluish), and because it has “enhanced”
contrast, the detail in darkest grays is
missing. An ISF calibration can correct
STANDARD’s color-temp idiosyncrasy
(though you’ll still have some contrast
enhancement); calibration can also
perfect the THEATER mode by removing
a slight greenish tint.
Performance
The 720p version of this set nearly
knocked me off the couch with light
output when I first turned it on. The
HD-56FH96 is still the king of light
among 1080p sets, but it’s not quite
as bright as the 720p model. Initially,
it starts up in DYNAMIC mode; I could
find little use for that. STANDARD
mode was still bright enough for
viewing on the surface of the sun but
didn’t look nearly as cartoonish. It
might be okay for view-
ing in bright environ-
ments, but this mode
exhibits a very bluish
color temperature and
crushed blacks, although
edge enhancement and
noise are far less evident
than with the 720p set.
THEATER mode’s color
temperature is close to
the D65 industry stan-
dard (sometimes with
just a bit of a greenish
bias). It also lowers the
overall light output some
and adjusts the iris to its
most closed position for a noticeable
drop in black level. If you think it’s
not bright enough, you can increase
CONTRAST up to +6 with no white
crush and only a shift toward blue in
the brightest whites. Turning it down
significantly, however, is sometimes a
problem. Black-and-white movies in
a dark room often required setting
CONTRAST to minimum, and even
then it was too bright. THEATER mode
might not impress you when you first
switch from STANDARD, but give your-
self some time to get over STANDARD’s
excesses of brightness and bluishness.
I usually disable any video-
enhancement circuitry, but they
weren’t objectionable on this set.
With last year’s model, SMART-
PICTURE, which changes contrast
according to the average picture
level, could make enormous changes
in light output. On the HD-56FH96,
its operation was subtler; still, it
sometimes caused small but notice-
able fluctuations in picture level. I
left it on anyway. DIGITAL VNR
(video noise reduction) was highly
effective in its AUTO setting and only
slightly softened the picture.
The whole video-setup procedure is
very much like the 720p model. With
broadcast material, COLOR often had
to be reduced to about -5 (though test
patterns measured perfectly at 0), but
other user controls were very close to
ideal at the default 0 position. DETAIL
could sometimes be run as high as +15
with no objectionable artifacts, espe-
cially with 1080i sources. Once it was
set up properly, I was impressed with
the picture of the HD-56FH96.
HD on this set is undeniably strik-
ing. The Voom HD channels from my
DISH 942 receiver/DVR have never
JVC HD-56FH96
The HD-56FH96 is
the king of light
among 1080p
sets, but it’s not
quite as bright as
the 720p model.
Resolution
Poor Good Excellent
Technical Ratings
102345678910
Black Level
Grayscale Tracking
Color Accuracy
Video Processing Quality
Overall Picture Quality (HD)
Overall Picture Quality (SD)
Features
Poor Good Excellent
Practical Ratings
102345678910
Connectivity
User Interface
Viewing Angle
Tolerance of Ambient Light
Val ue
Cool Factor
Recommends
Note: Some physical inputs must share
selectable video inputs; lacks separate
memories and program guide; input selection
via remote is poor; brightest RPTV you can buy;
among the most expensive RPTVs you can buy.
Note: Color decoder best I’ve ever tested;
video noise reduction best I’ve ever seen;
clean, smooth, artifact-free picture held
back mostly by black level; THEATER mode
grayscale flawed only by slightly greenish
dark grays.

The Perfect Vision ❘MARCH / APRIL 2006
looked better. Even black-and-white
movies looked superb with stunning
smoothness and (in THEATER mode)
very little color tint due to grayscale
inaccuracies. Overall color balance
was excellent. Colors themselves
were mostly excellent with unusually
vibrant blues. Greens were good for
a modern display, meaning they were
less offensive than most.
HD with JVC’s built-in digital tuner
was equally impressive. Blacks always
fell somewhat short of “inky black”
despite JVC’s new iris, but they were
dark enough to make CSI and other
darker network HD programs look
excellent; in fact, the blacks were
80% lower than the JVC 720p set
reviewed earlier. They were also 67%
lower than the 55-inch Hitachi
55HDX61 plasma but still significant-
ly higher than the Sony KDS-
R60XBR1 SXRD RPTV reviewed in
Issue 64. Of course, sports looked
spectacular, in part because of this
set’s remarkably high light-output
capability and the fact that it doesn’t
make playing fields either squirm with
video noise or scream with dreadful
lime greens.
With an interlaced component con-
nection, DVD showed just how good
the component inputs are and just
how well JVC’s scaler performs. Star
Trek: Insurrection can look really bad
with poor deinterlacing, edge
enhancement, and 3:2 pulldown, but
it was clean and impressive on this set.
Vanilla Sky was rendered with
absolutely no false contouring. Its
dark scenes had acceptable (but not
particularly exceptional) detail. Cruel
Intentions was displayed with an
unusually good mix of detail and
smoothness. Flesh tones were particu-
larly convincing. This DVD is not for-
giving of excess red, either in a set’s
grayscale or color decoder.
Finally, the HD-56FH96 scored bet-
ter than most on regular old low-res
cable. This was due in part to good
scaling and excellent noise filters.
In THEATER mode, I noticed occa-
sional shifts in color temperature from
nearly ideal to noticeably greenish.
Measurements were made with the set
on its best behavior. This may have
been a problem with my review set.
Conclusion
I wasn’t completely enthusiastic about
the 720p set, but I am very enthusias-
tic about this one. Finally, JVC has
found black levels to complement the
excellent light output and great color
rendition of the earlier model. Vdeo
noise and artifacts have been reduced,
and the overall picture has detail with
a certain smoothness that’s undeniably
beautiful and totally involving.
I wish I still had the Sony SXRD
set I raved about as “the best you’ll
see this year” for a direct compari-
son. But even lacking such a compar-
ison, I feel confident that this JVC
can make a picture that’s just as com-
pelling except on the darkest pro-
gram material (where it’s still not
bad), and it can go a whole lot
brighter if you really want it to. Plus,
it doesn’t have tacky speakers on the
sides making it larger than it needs to
be. So now I have to say, “these
sets—both the Sony and the JVC—
are probably the best RPTV pictures
you’ll see this year.” This one, except
for a few important operational
caveats, is mostly right up there.
Randy Tomlinson is an independent ISF-
certified calibrator in the Atlanta area and
can be contacted via his Web site at
www.advancedtechservice.com.
JVC HD-56FH96
• Brightest 1080p picture available
• Very good color rendition
• Smooth, noise-free picture
• Some inputs must share user
video settings
• Selecting video sources via
remote is agonizingly slow
• Black level is somewhat short
of the best
The Last Word
Specifications
• Technology: HD-ILA (LCoS) rear-projection
• Screen Size: 56”
• Pixel Resolution: 1920x1080
• Contrast Ratio: 5000:1
• Max Light Outout: 900 cd/m2(265fL)
• Video Inputs: 2 HDMI, 2 component,
3 S-vdeo, 4 composite, VGA (DB15),
2 FireWire, 2 RF
• Dimensions: 52” x 38.1” x 17.1”
• Weight: 95 lbs.
• Warranty: 1 year (parts & labor) in-home
• Price: $4999.99
JVC
[phone]
www.jvc.com
Manufacturer Information
Measurements
Peak white level
Full screen
100 IRE window
Black level
Contrast ratio
Peak
ANSI
(checkerboard)
Horizontal resolution
HDMI/DVI
Component
77fL
84fL
0.0036fL
2333:1
141:1
1920 lines
1920 lines
Note: Measurements taken in THEATER
mode, which produced the best picture;
Standard mode is much brighter, useful
in high ambient light. Horizontal
resolution exhibits slight HF rolloff.
Grayscale Tracking
D65
KEY
Note: Measurements taken in
THEATER mode.
0.3000.275 0.325
0.300
0.325
0.375
0.350
0.350
0.262 0.287 0.312 0.337 0.362
0.287
0.312
0.337
0.362
0.387
Color Accuracy
0 0.1 0.2
0.1
0
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Note: Red a bit orangish, green and
blue slightly oversaturated.
D65
ATSC-specified
primaries
Measured
primaries
D65
KEY