JVC LT-42P300

Formats (9.5)

The JVC LT-42P300 is a full 1080p television, which is a step up from the JVC LT-32P679, which sported only a 720p resolution. This is great because it means the HDTV can natively handle the highest quality of HD content available. It can also upscale lower resolution content. The HDTV can also convert content to give it a film-like quality when necessary using the 3:2 pulldown process, although you do need to turn on the Natural Cinema feature to enable this. You can also view native 24fps content.

Photo Playback (5.0)

The JVC LT-42P300 allows you to view photos from both a connected USB device and an iPod or iPhone connected to the HDTV via the built-in dock. Using the USB connector you get an on-screen display of the file structure of the USB device when it is connected. From here you can browse to the folder that has the photos you want to see. When a folder with photos is opened you get thumbnails of the images in two rows of five images. Press the center select button to view a photo full screen. Once in this view you can rotate, zoom and pan around the photo, with clear instructions for the controls at the bottom of the screen. You can also play back a slide show, and you can control the interval between photos on the slideshow in the menu.

Viewing photos from the USB card gives you thumbnails in a folder-like interface.

With an iPod attached to the JVC LT-42P300 you can play back photos, but just as we saw on the JVC LT-32P679, the process is annoying. Once the iPod/iPhone is connected to the television you then need to press the PCON button, which allows you to navigate your content using the device interface rather than JVC's on-screen interface. Once you do this you can navigate to your photos and play back a slideshow, which will appear on the HDTV. Obviously this is an annoying way to go about things, we don't know why JVC didn't just include access to the photos in their iPod menu system as they do for music and video.

Music & Video Playback (10.0)

With a built-in iPod dock the JVC LT-42P300 is capable of playing back music and videos from any iPod or iPhone device. Like their previous generation of iPod capable televisions the LT-42P300 allows you to control playback functions via the televisions remote, but they have improved the interface and given users access to more features. Once you have opened the iPod dock in the front of the TV and inserted your device you then hit the dedicated iPod button on the remote to enter this interface.

JVC have significantly improved the iPod/iPhone on-tv menu system.

From here you can access your music and videos as well as a couple of settings and the option to just start shuffing all of your music. You'll note the lack of photo access, see above for the cludgy workaround you'll need to access photos from your iPod/iPhone. Entering the Music Play or Video Play menus will give you the additional options that were missing from the previous generation of JVC's televisions.

The music menu gives you access to all your playlists and other sort options.

In the Music Play menu you can view your music by playlist, artist, album, title, genre or composer. You can also view your audiobooks and podcasts separately. When music is playing you see the title, artist, album and genre information on screen. Unfortunately the album artwork did not appear in our test. Another unfortunate feature is that you can't back out of a playing song to go browse the rest of your music, going back to the menu pauses the music you are playing. The Video Play menu lists the various video types such as Movies, Music Video, TV Shows, Video Podcasts and even Rented Movies.

Videos can be viewed by type, including movies rented from the iTunes store.

Another interesting feature of the LT-42P300 and other JVC iPod equipped televisions is the abilitiy to use it as a dock to synchronize with a computer. In order to accomplish this you'll need to connect a USB cable from your computer to the dedicated Sync port on the back, a cable that is not included with the HDTV.

The TeleDock folds down from just beneath the bezel.

Overall we very much appreciate the improvements in iPod/iPhone playback that JVC's newest Teledock televisions. The improved interface is a big step up and the addition of sync to a computer is a thoughtful extra. What does annoys us is the fact that music stops playing when you go back out to the menu and the lack of support for album artwork. These are relatively minor issues, however. Of course if you don't own an iPod or iPhone you're plum out of luck, but as ubiquitous as the devices are we don't think this will be much of a problem.

Streaming Playback (0.0)

The JVC LT-42P300 does not support streaming video content from online sources like Youtube.com.

Additional

Media (0.0)

The JVC LT-42P300 does not have a built-in DVR, DVD player or other media features.