JVC D-ILA DLA-G20U User manual

JVC’s Fixed Panel
Imaging Device
The essential ingredient for creating a movie
theatre experience in the home is the visual
impact of a really large picture. Something
magical happens when the picture is taken out
of a box and transferred to a 7-foot or wider
screen that not only fills one’s field of vision,
but seems to dominate the entire viewing room.
The ability to produce really large-screen
images is exclusively the domain of front pro-
jection systems. For years, CRT projectors were
the only products that delivered really high-qual-
ity front projection images, but the inherent light
output limitations of CRT technology restricts
viewing to totally dark rooms. Even then, image
brightness and color vividness fade rapidly when
movie enthusiasts try to push screen widths to
eight feet and beyond. The solution for bigger
and brighter pictures are fixed-panel front pro-
jectors that use high-output projection bulbs as
light sources. These projectors must also have
high-resolution (mega-pixel) imaging devices or
pictures will be bright, but otherwise poor quality.
The D-ILA Solution
The JVC DLA-G20U is a powerful, high reso-
lution, D-ILA™projector designed for the largest
home theatre screens. It uses three of the same
SXGA resolution (1365 x 1024 pixels) D-ILA
(Direct-Drive Image Light Amplifier) devices that
are used in the popular JVC DLA-G11U and JVC
DLA-G15U projectors. To produce more light
output, it incorporates a brighter 550 watt Xenon
bulb in a high-efficiency optical system that pro-
duces a rated output of 2000 lumens and a
350:1 contrast ratio. That’s about two times the
specified peak-light output of most CRT projec-
tors, and you will instantly be aware of the difference.
The D-ILA technology is a proprietary JVC
development; a reflective LCOS (liquid crystal
on silicon) chip that packs 1.4 million pixels on
a 0.9-inch diagonal, 4:3 (1.33:1) aspect ratio
device. The pixels are spaced on a 13.5-micron
pitch with a minimum of space between them.
This produces the lowest light loss of any matrix
device and provides a smooth, silky projected
image without a pixieated screen-door effect.
This sleek stylish projector is about 20 inch-
es wide, 15 inches deep, 11 inches tall and
weighs only 38 pounds. Although larger than
its less powerful relatives, it is small and light
when compared to the smallest CRT projectors.
Its smooth off-white colored case will blend unob-
trusively into most surroundings. Facing the rear
of the projector, the AC power cable and two
cooling fans are located on the left side, and all
input connections are on the right. Six buttons
are located on the top panel to allow operation
of most projector functions. All projector functions
are easily accessible using the supplied remote
control, and an RS-232 input is provided for home
theatre controllers.
Inputs And Memories
The projector has five inputs: Video (compos-
ite), Y/C (S-video), YPbPr (component video),
Computer 1 and Computer 2. BNC jacks are
provided for all video inputs except for the usual
4-pin mini-DIN connectors for S-video, and a
standard HD-15 computer monitor connector for
the Computer 1 input. Computer 2 supports
NTSC and HDTV formats with YPbPr and RGB
inputs. Separate buttons toggle between the
three video inputs or the two computer inputs.
These controls are provided on both the top
panel and on the remote.
Each input and scan rate combination has a
unique memory that is automatically selected
when that input and scan rate is used. No user
selectable global memories are provided, but I
found the memory system to be fully adequate
and capable, and felt no need for additional
memories.
Virtually all world television standards and all
computer formats are supported. Selection can
be either automatic or manual. A 4:3 (1.33:1)
or 16:9 (1.78:1) display mode can be selected
JVC DLA-G20U D-ILA
A Powerful , High-Resolution Projector For Widescreen Home Theatre
BILL CUSHMAN
Issue 43

for each input except Computer 1, which is al-
ways 4:3. Horizontal scan rates from 15kHz–82kHz
and vertical frequencies from 50Hz–75Hz are
supported.
Picture adjustments change according to
the input signal. Video inputs allow control of
Brightness (black level), Contrast, Color, Tint
and Sharpness. The Computer inputs allow
control of Brightness, Contrast, R-gain, G-gain
and B-gain. When the computer input receives
an NTSC or HDTV signal, the choices are the
same as for the Video inputs. The picture ad-
justments are available on the remote only. They
are not available from the projector’s top panel.
Light Output
This projector produced the highest light out-
put that I have measured. With 15 hours on the
lamp, I conservatively obtained 1700 lumens in
the 4:3 mode and 1275 lumens in the 16:9 mode.
Absolute maximum output in 4:3 mode was about
1850 lumens. Output measurements were re-
peated at 98 lamp hours. Color temperature re-
mained unchanged, but light output decreased
by about 12 percent. This is normal and char-
acteristic of Xenon lamps.
Using my Da-Lite High Power screen with a
gain of 2.8, I observed some interesting prop-
erties. Screen surface brightness was about 105
foot-Lamberts, but I didn’t perceive this as signif-
icantly brighter than my reference projector that
achieves about 50 foot-Lamberts. The ability to tol-
erate room light was much better, however. I could
turn on most lights in the room without significant-
ly affecting the typical bright scenes of most tel-
evision programs. Only on dark movie scenes was
the effect of room light really significant. Results
with lower gain screens will be different.
Bear in mind that the bulb life is 1000 hours and
the projector software prohibits operation be-
yond that point. The bulb price is over $1,000,
or a little over $1 per hour of use.
Black Level
A limitation of all fixed-panel projectors is the
inability to achieve a total absence of light. A
black signal still produces some residual amount
of “unwanted” light, in this case 3.9 lumens for
a full black 1.78:1 screen. As a result, the on-off
contrast ratio was 330:1. This is much better than
a typical LCD projector, but not as good as the
best DLP projectors. The G20 delivers reason-
ably good blacks, but don’t expect the jet blacks
of a CRT projector or you may be disappointed. On
the other hand, contrast on bright scenes was
excellent and much better than most CRTs.
I experimented with neutral density filters in
an effort to achieve a darker absolute black
level. I used a 0.4 neutral density Kodak Wratten
filter over the front of the lens. This reduced the
light output to 40-percent of its original value.
With 1275 lumens available in the 16:9 mode,
510 lumens is still available using the filter. Un-
less you have a projector with such high light
output, you couldn’t consider giving up this
much light. Although this improved the absolute
blacks, I preferred the higher brightness picture
on most scenes.
If you want to experiment with this technique,
there is an extremely simple way to do it. A
neutral density filter can either be placed over
the projector lens or over one’s eyes. It’s easy
and effective to use a pair of Ray-Ban sun-
glasses to see the effect that a neutral density
filter would have on a projector that doesn’t pro-
duce totally dark blacks. The Ray-Bans pass
about 20-25 percent of the light and have only
a small effect on color. If you have a pair, the
cost to experiment is zero and you can easily
take them on and off to see the effect on differ-
ent scenes. Don’t laugh. Try it; it works. [But
beware of someone snapping a picture of you
watching movies in a totally dark room while
wearing sunglasses!—Editor]
There is a gray frame that is visible surround-
ing the image. This is probably a remnant of
the mounting frame that is part of the D-ILA
panel. This characteristic is annoying and should
be masked better in future products. You can mask
the unused edges of the screen with curtains
or other non-reflective materials to minimize
this problem.
Color Temperature
And Calibration
The G20 does not have a service menu.
Calibration is only possible using special facto-
ry software. For this reason, it is important that the
factory calibration is accurate, which fortunate-
ly it was. This unit had near-perfect gray scale
tracking and color temperature.
Color temperature was 6500K (degrees Kelvin),
+/- 100K from 25-90 IRE. It was 6500K, +500K/
-300K from 5-100 IRE. Although the color tem-
perature was correct, the color coordinates were
just slightly off the D65 standard value. The total
color error was about 13 color difference units.
All of these values were measured using the Medium
color temperature. When set to High, color tem-
perature increased to about 11,100K. When set
to Low, the color temperature was about 4450K.
Results were similar on all inputs.
Flat field uniformity was average to good. Only
on a full black screen was color non-uniformity
noticeable. The left and right sides of a full black
screen were tinted just slightly green and ma-
genta. Gray and white fields were much better,
with only the slightest hint of any coloration.
Color Gamut And
Gamma Correction
The green and blue primaries are outside
both the HDTV and SMPTE color triangles. The
green primary is significantly different, which
produces more deeply saturated greens. I person-
ally find this characteristic desirable. The red
primary was slightly orange-red.
Gamma is the relationship between screen
brightness and video signal level. It should
have a value of 2.2. Special circuits must be
provided in fixed panel projectors to provide
gamma correction. CRT projectors have no
need for these circuits because their display
tubes provide a natural gamma characteristic
close to the correct properties. Gamma values
were somewhat low, which slightly reduced con-
trast in high brightness scenes. But overall, the
gamma performance was fine and showed
excellent shadow detail.
Fan Noise
The cooling fans in the JVC DLA-G20U pro-
jector produce quite a bit of noise, similar to a
noisy slide projector. This may be a problem
for some viewers. I measured 53 dBA at 1 meter
in front of the projector and 56 dBA at 1 meter
from the side of the projector containing the
fans. The spectrum of the sound was relatively
flat and smooth, with a slight rise in the 250Hz
to 400Hz region. The sound is basically a dif-
fuse wind sound with just a slight hint of any
tone or pitch.
Focus Enhancements
Quadscan Pro
The G20’s internal scan converter produced
a tolerable picture, but artifacts were frequently
seen on both moving and still images from
JVC DLA-G20U
CIE Colorimetry RGB Input
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
x
y
SMPTE C
DLA-G20

video or film sources. The predominant artifacts
were flicker, shimmering, interlace twitter, seg-
mentation and jaggies. A much higher level of
performance can be achieved by using an ex-
ternal scan converter (scaler). I used a Focus
Enhancements Quadscan Pro, a reasonably
priced scaler ($2,195) with excellent performance
and special features tailored to D-ILA projectors.
It allows this fine projector to perform brilliantly
without suffering from the limitations of its inter-
nal scan converter.
The Quadscan has some features that make
the G20, or any D-ILA 4:3 projector, work well
with a 1.78:1 screen. It has an SXGA output
mode, especially designed for D-ILA. The JVC
projector should be set to SXGA3 when using
this mode. The Quadscan has three outputs,
designated 16:9a, 16:9b and 16:9c that allow
a 16:9 image to be placed at the top, middle
or bottom of the projector’s 4:3 pixel array. Any
of the three choices project perfectly on a 1.78:1
screen, which is favored for most home theatres.
The input select button on the bottom of the
Quadscan remote then permits selection of a
16:9, 4:3 letterbox or 4:3 mode to use with 16:9
enhanced (anamorphic), 4:3 letterboxed (non-
enhanced letterbox) and full-frame 4:3 DVDs,
respectively. The latter mode places a 4:3 picture
within the center of the 16:9 frame. This allows
the 4:3 D-ILA projector to behave exactly like it
was a 16:9 projector with 1365 x 768 resolution.
Occasionally, the Quadscan/G20 combination
exhibited a quirk. When first turning the unit on
or when changing inputs, the display lost sync.
Cycling through the Quadscan inputs or aspect
ratios usually cured the problem on the first try.
I never identified a reason why this occurred.
I strongly recommend the Quadscan as a
necessary addition for anyone considering the
JVC G20 projector. Some other popular-priced
external scan converters will significantly degrade
the video performance of this fine projector.
Test Signal Performance
Black level stability and near-black detail
were essentially perfect on all inputs. Absolute
black is limited by the on-off contrast ratio of
the panels.
When feeding the projector an RGB signal
using the Computer input, all performance char-
acteristics were excellent. Frequency response
and chroma decoding were essentially perfect.
Without the Quadscan, the YPbPr, S-video
and video inputs exhibited about 15-percent to
20-percent red push because of color decoding
inaccuracy. Flicker, shimmering and interlace
twitter were evident on DVD menus, zone plates
and resolution patterns. The S-video input had
far superior chroma response as compared to
the composite video input, and chroma delay was
satisfactory on all inputs. Chroma smear was
clearly evident on composite video, but signifi-
cantly better using S-video, and good using
YPbPr. The video and S-video inputs had severe
ringing to the right of black vertical lines on a
white background.
With the Quadscan, YPbPr performance was
nearly perfect except for slight color smear. De-
lay was fine, chroma decoding was accurate,
and virtually no artifacts were visible. S-video
and composite video were quite good through
the Quadscan. Color saturation had to be re-
duced slightly, but chroma delay and color de-
coding were fine. Luma frequency response was
almost gone by 6.75MHz, but chroma response
was excellent to almost 1.5MHz. Color smear
was quite low on S-video and moderate on
composite video. The Quadscan comb filter
appeared to be a typical 3 line, 2D type. There
was some picture softness apparent, and no
Sharpness control is available on the Quadscan
or on the projector when fed by the Quadscan’s
RGB output.
All inputs on the projector exhibited extrane-
ous noise on low-level signals, but this was
never a problem on normal pictures. Very slight
vertical lines appeared throughout the picture,
much like the image was projected on corduroy.
This was visible on pictures containing large
solid areas of the same color and was easy to
see on a light blue sky. A minor misadjustment
of the eight D/A converters driving the D-ILA
panels is probably responsible for this effect.
Picture Performance
I evaluated the projector with a 104-inch x
51-inch Da-Lite High Power screen which has
a retro-reflective surface containing 10-micron
diameter micro-glass beads embedded below
the smooth, washable surface. This screen works
superbly with the G20, providing extremely bright
images that tolerate a large amount of room
light while still maintaining good contrast.
Because of the high-density pixel array, cau-
tion should be observed when choosing a
screen. Micro-perforated screens and screens
that contain coarsely ground particles should be
avoided; otherwise moiré patterns may be ob-
served because of interference between screen
micro-features and the pixel array.
The G20 is capable of producing a truly
DLA-G20U Gray Scale Tracking
IRE Color Temp Degrees Kelvin
100 6221
95 6315
90 6418
85 6440
80 6401
75 6486
70 6536
65 6463
60 6460
55 6442
50 6538
45 6524
40 6485
35 6516
25 6580
20 6679
15 6792
10 6998
5 6949
JVC DLA-G20U D-ILA
Pre Calibration
Post Calibration

Conclusion
The JVC DLA-G20U, in combination with the
Focus Enhancements Quadscan Pro, is one of
the finest performing video projectors available
today. It is one of only a few units capable of doing
justice to high-definition sources. Its high-resolu-
tion and extreme brightness make it an ideal pro-
jector for home theatres with the largest 1:78:1
screens. DVD movies look great and HDTV pictures
are truly sensational. When combined with a
superb multichannel sound system, you can re-
create the movie theatre experience at home. ■■
superb picture from HDTV sources. Random
Hearts in high-definition was really sensational.
It was extremely sharp, with high-resolution and
beautiful color. Fall landscapes displayed a
wide range of colors, and facial tones looked
realistic and natural. Saving Private Ryan on
HBO-HD from DirecTV was also extremely sharp
and detailed. The Matrix looked really good in
high-definition. I watched many hours of HDTV
using the G20. Once you get used to really good
HDTV, DVD doesn’t begin to compare.
Erin Brockovich and The Cider House Rules
both looked great on DVD. I watched North By
Northwest, The Sound Of Music and Terminator
2on DVD, which were also impressive. The
opening scenes in North By Northwest show a
line drawing of the United Nations building in
New York City which morphs to a natural shot.
This scene was perfect using the Quadscan,
but loaded with annoying artifacts when the
Quadscan was bypassed. The inverse-telecine
processing of the Quadscan delivered essen-
tially perfect deinterlacing from film sources
displaying the problem images on Titanic and
Armageddon without artifacts. Difficult sections
of The Fifth Element were also rendered artifact-
free. The Video Montage on Video Essentials
constantly switches from film to video sources.
The Quadscan again performed extremely well
with the G20, detecting film sources and switch-
ing to inverse telecine without glitches or problems.
DVD and HDTV images are bright, colorful,
and have good contrast. HDTV sharpness is
extremely high, producing an image that is
amazingly clear. Most people have never seen
such a bright, sharp, clean image and find it
hard to believe that this quality of image is
available today.
This review has been reprinted in its entirety from Issue 43 of
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Specifications:
Manufacturer: JVC Professional Products
Company
Imaging Device: 3 D-ILA (0.9-inch diagonal)
Direct Drive Image Light Amplifiers
Brightness: 2000 ANSI Lumens
Uniformity: 85% (Edge to Center)
Contrast: Greater than 350:1
Graphics Resolution (HxV): 1365x1024 (Native)
Video Resolution: 1000 TV Lines
Digital TV Compatibility: 480i, 480p, 720p,
1080i
Horizontal Frequency: 15–82kHz
Vertical Frequency: 50–78kHz
Color Reproduction: 16.7 million colors
Light Source: 550W Xenon Arc Lamp
Lamp Life: 1000 Hours
Projection Lens: Motorized Zoom with
Motorized Focus: 2:1-3:1
Lens Shift/Offset: Fixed 50% Vertical
Throw Distance: 8.2 feet–65.5 feet (2.5m– 20.0m)
Screen Size (width): 2.8 feet–34.7 feet
(0.9m–10.6m) at 4:3 (1.33:1) Aspect Ratio
Audio: Built-in stereo speakers (1W + 1W
stereo)
Inputs: PC (mini D-sub 15 pin) x 1, RGBHV
(BNC) x 1, Y, PB/B-Y, PR/R-Y (BNC) x 1,
Composite
Video (BNC) x 1, S-Video (mini DIN 4 pin) x 1
Outputs: PC Monitor (mini D-sub 15 pin) and
stereo audio (mini plug)
Communications Ports: RS-232C x 1 and
Stereo mini plug x 1 for remote/switcher
control
Power: 100-120 VAC, 50/60 Hz, 850W
Dimensions (HWL in inches): 10.4x19.9x15.3
(26.4cm x 50.5cm x 38.8cm) excluding
lens
Weight: 38.1 pounds (17.3 kg)
Accessories Included: Operation Manual,
Wireless Remote Control, Cables &
Adapters for PC & AV Connections, AC
Power Cord
Price: $17,995
Manufactured In Japan For:
JVC Professional Products Company
1700 Valley Road
Wayne, New Jersey 07470
Tel: [phone]
www.jvc.com/pro/