JVC LT-42WX70 LCD HDTV Review |
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Published on June 16, 2009 Comment on this |
Front
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Stand/Mount The stand of the LT-42WX70 is rather unusual; the television is connected to a central pillar that runs the entire height of the screen by two hooks, secured by screws. This means that the screen rotates pretty easily, and, with the removal of a couple of screws, the height of the screen can be changed to any one of three positions. The stand itself felt pretty secure, and the base is wide enough to prevent the screen from falling over. However, it is way too easy to rotate the screen when using the touch controls on the front. This stand can also be removed, and there are standard VESA mount screwholes on the back for using a wall mount instead of the stand.
Controls The physical controls of the LT-42WX70 are located on the bottom left corner of the front bezel. These are touch controls, and the screen gives out a reassuring beep to let you know they have been pressed. However, the single connection to the stand and the buttons being near to the edge of the screen means that it rocks slightly when you press them.
Remote Control The remote control is a long, thin device with a large number of buttons. However, most of the buttons are designed to control an optional TV tuner: they don't control the display itself.
In The Box (4.0) The LT-42WX70 comes with a pretty standard set of accessories; there is the speaker bar, the manual, the remote control, a VGA to analog video cable and an analog audio adapter cable. There is no HDMI cable included. The speaker bar is something of a pain to install; to mount it, you have to hold it in place and put two screws through a hole in the stand. Unless you happen to be an Octopus, it's a two person job. Aesthetics (6.0) The brushed metal stand has a clean, simple design, but it is rather spoiled by the cheap leather-look plastic around the bezel and the overly large blue LED glowing power indicator on the front.
[page title="Calibration"]
Calibration
In the above list, we only feature controls that are altered from their default settings in the Standard mode. Because the LT-42WX70 offers more access to advanced controls than many HDTVs we looked at, our set of calibrated settings is a bit more extensive than most. In particular, we had to tweak several controls away from their default values to get the best performance, such as the color space option. The Auto option on this menu defaults to using a wider color gamut than the standard one, which produces oversaturated reds and greens. So, we set the display to the Normal setting. We also found that the closest we could get to our preferred white balance point of 6500K was to use the Warm2 setting, which was at about 7000K; the others were significantly cooler. This is partly a question of personal taste, but we calibrate all of the HDTVs we look at to around the 6500K point.
Video Modes As befits a sophisticated display, the LN-42WX70 has a number of preset modes for various situations
That's a good selection of presets that should cover most uses. In addition, there are 5 memory modes that can be user controlled to hold any collection of settings, so there are plenty of opportunities for customization. [page title="Blacks & Whites"]
Black Level (8.0) The lower the black level, the deeper the black will look on screen. The LT-42WX70 had decent performance here; we measured the depest black at 0.1 cd/m2. That's about the same as the Sony Bravia KDL-52V5100, but is somewhat better than the other JVC we have reviwed, the LT-42P300. Deeper blacks means a wider contrast ratio and more dramatic images, so this is a good thing to see.
Peak Brightness (8.23) At the other end of the scale is the peak brightness; the brightest white that the display can manage. The LT-42WX70 managed a very creditable 331 cd/m2 here, which is one of the higher numbers that we have seem. This would be particularly advantageous if you were watching TV or looking at photos on this screen in daylight; the brigher the screen, the better it will look.
Contrast (8.23) The ratio of the darket black to the brightest white is the contrast ratio, and the bigger this is, the better the on-screen images will look. We found that the LT-42-WX70 had a contrast ratio of 3317:1, which is in the middle of the pack. It's not the best contrast ration we've seen, but it also far from being the worst, and it means decent image quality.
One thing to note here: our numbers differ from the ones that the manufacturers quote because they measure the deepest black with the backlight turned down, and the peak white with it turned up. Our measurements are done with the backlight set at the highest level for both, because that's what happens when you are actually using the TV. So, our figures represent what you get in the real world, and the manufacturers figures don't. Tunnel Contrast (9.85) Your TV doesn't ge tthe luxury of diaplying just blacks or whites very often; in most situations, it has to display both at once. What we test here is how dark the black remains when there is white next to it; does the black stay nice and dark, or does light bouncing around inside the screen cause it to turn greyish? We didn't see a big problem here with the LT-42WX70; even when showing just a small area of black surrounded by white, we found that the blacks remained at pretty much the same level.
White Falloff (9.96) The flip side of this coin is what happens to the whites when they are surrounded by black. So, we test this by measuring the brightness of a small area in the middle of the screen with varying amounts of black surrounding it. Again the LT-42WX70 performed well here: we found that the whites remained at a pretty constant level irrespective of how much black was around them.
Uniformity (4.88) The LT-32WX70 had some serious issues in this test, where we look at how uniform the screen looks. We test this by displaying both black and white screens and examining them to see how uniformly dark and white the screens are. On the black screens, we saw several large blotchy areas on the screen that were much lighter than the rest, which could distract from the image if you are watching a horror film or something else that relies on areas of black for dramatic impact. On our tests using a white screen, we also saw problems where the bottom edge of the screen was significantly darker than the rest of the screen. Again, this was bad enough that it could prove distracting when watching TV. Greyscale Gamma (9.0) The LT-32WX70 is unusual in providing the user with access to a number of different gamma settings, called Gamma Mode 1 to 6. We found that Gamma Mode 3 was pretty much right on the mark for what we look for; we measured the gamma here at 2.19, just a touch off the 2.2 ideal level that we look for. The Gamma curve was also pretty smooth, although there was some issues with stepping; the stair-steps on the graph below are where an increase in the signal didn't lead to a similar increase in the luminance of the screen, which could lead to banding issues on the screen, where a subtle change in the grey level is reproduced as a sudden jump.
Resolution Scaling (7.75) The LT-42WX70 is a 1080p display, but it still has to deal with lower resolution signals that a device such as a DVD player or cable box could throw at it. So, we test every display with each of these signals, examining ho well it deals with the process of upscaling these signals to fit the screen. 480p (7.95) 720p (8.0) 1080i (6.3)
One of the most important aspects of the color performance of a HDTV is how consistent the whites are. On some TVs, the whites shift as their brightness decreases, so greys start to have a distinct color cast. That's what we test here, but the LT-42WX70 had only minor problems; we saw a slight tendancy for the whites to turn slightly orange in the middle of the range. But this was only a slight shift, and it is only just visible (the green area on the graph below shows the minimum change in the white color temperature that most people will notice).
Televisions create all of the colors that you see on the screen from a combination of the red, green and blue elements that form the dusplay, so it is important that these colors are accurately reproduced; if a display fails to accurately create subtle changes in these primary colors, the colors that the combinations create won't look accurate. We test this by sending the display a range of intensities of each of the primary colors, and measuring the color on the screen. The graph below shows the results; with a perfect TV, these lines should be smooth curves. On the LT-42WX70, they are some way from being perfect; the lines are extremely bumpy.
As you can see from this, the LT-42WX70 has a far from ideal response; the gradient on all three of the colors is not smooth and there is some quite significant banding across the range of shades. Color Gamut (5.14) The range of colors that a display cam represent is called the color gamut. This is one area where the LT-42WX70 differs greatly from most TVs; it claims to support several different color gamuts, including the sRGB and Adobe RGB color gamuts used by many digital cameras. But the first thing it has to support is the standard HDTV color gamut, which is defined by something called Rec.709, where a group of color experts defined what colors a HDTV image could contain. If a HDTV matches this reccommendation, the colors on the screen will look the same way that the filmmaker intended.
The LT-42WX70 did rather por job here; when the TV is set to the Normal Color Space setting, the measured color gamut is some way off from the reccomended one, with both the red and green corners of the gamut being further out than they should, which means that the reds and the greens will look a little oversaturated. For those who like to look at the numbers, the measurements we made are below.
Because the LN-42WX70 also claims to support the Adobe RGB color space, we also tested it to see how well the display represented this wider color space.
As you can see from the diagram above, the LN-42WX70 covers most of the gamut, but doesn't quite manage all of it; it falls somewhat short in the green area. If you look closely at the specifications for this display, they state that it covers 96% of the Adobe RGB gamut, and the missing 4% seems to be in the greens.
What is this likely to mean for the serious photographer that the display is aimed at? Well, the Adobe RGB color space mode definitely has a wide color gamut than a standard TV, so if you shoot photos in the Adobe RGB color space and use this monitor in that same color space, your colors will look closer to the original than they would on a standard HDTV. But they won't be as accurate as a professional monitor that covers the entire Adobe RGB color gamut and more, especially with greenery.
[page title="Motion"]
The LT-42WX70 includes a 120Hz refresh rate, and this made a significant difference in the smoothness of motion; we found that with this enabled, motion was much smoother. However, there were still some issues: faces and other complex objects on screen took on a flat, cartoonish look and lacked definition.
Motion Artifacting (6.5) We also saw some issues with sharp edges; our test screen of a number of white to black edges moving rapidly across the screen had an unpleasant, juddering look to it, with the edge becoming broken and jagged. This was also noticeable on real TV images; if an object moved rapidly across the screen, it took on a broken, jagged look.
3:2 Pulldown & 24fps (5.0) The LT-42WX70 had some problems displaying an image using 3:2 pulldown processing; in our test screens we saw strobing that indicates it couldn't fully process the signal, so you won't get the full effect of the filmic look that 3:2 processing tries to create. It did not, however, have any problems handling a 24 frames per second signal from a Blu-ray player.
[page title="Viewing Effects"]
Viewing Angle (5.23) The LT-42WX70 was a little disappointing in terms of the viewing angle; we found that the contrast ratio of the display fell to 50% of the maximum at just over 20 degrees off axis, which is a rather low number. Other HDTVs had much wider viewing angles: the similarly sized JVC LT-42P300 had a viewing angle of just under 35 degrees, meaning that you would still get a decent picture even if you were off-center from the middle of the screen.
Reflectance (6.25) Although reflections are visible in the screen of the LT-42WX70, they aren't a big problem; there is a coating on the screen that diffuses them slightly so they are more splotches of light than reflections. We'd still recommend that you place the screen carefully so that there are the minimum of reflections in it, though; we still found them to be somewhat distracting
Video Processing (3.0) As the LN-42WX70 does not have a cable/antenna input, it is missing many of the video processing features present on other TVs that are designed to try and improve a poor signal. There are a few other video processing features, though, which are detailed below.
[page title="Remote Control"]
The remote for the LT-42WX70 is a long, thin affair that has buttons across most of its length. It is pretty lightweight, but the buttons and case feel like they should stand up to extended use without problems. Many of the buttons on the remote don't control the TV itself; they are designed to control an optional TV tuner (the TU-CX100). If you don't use this TV tuner, this means that more than half the buttons are useless. Given that most users will be using this display either with a computer or with a probably incompatible device such as a cable set-top box, we would have preferred that JVC included a simpler remote that didn't include the useless buttons. Button Layout & Use (6.25) The long, thin layout makes for an attractive looking remote, but it has an impact on the usability, as it means that some of the buttons are at the far end. In this case, JVC made the wise decision to put the channel and volume controls in the midle of the remote, so they fall under then thumb and are easy to use. However, the menu button and 4-way control buttons are more awkward; they are located at the top of the remote, and you have to shift the remote in your hand to reach them.
The remote cannot be programmed to emulate other remotes or be programmed to control other devices than the TV. However, the LT-42WX70 does support device control over HDMI, which allows certain devices to be controlled through the HDMI cable. This is not widely supported, though, so it is of limited use. [page title="Connectivity"]
Input Ports (3.0) The LT-42WX70 has a relatively sparse collection of inputs; underneath the two panels on the rear of the case are two HDMI, an analog video input and a single VGA input. The latter can also handle composite and component video input with an included adapter. On the side of the case under a small panel is a single HDMI port. That's a pretty minimal number of ports, and the requirement for an adapter to connect component or composite devices means that you can only use one at a time. Likewise, the single analog audio input could be a limitation, as it is shared between the analog video inputs, the VGA video and the HDMI input if your video source doesn't send audio over it (such as a computer). You might be able to get aroud this if there was an additional digital audio input, but there isn't any seperate digital audio input here. Basically, if you have more than one device that can only output analog sound, you're pretty much out of luck. Also missing here is an antenna input; if you want to watch TV on this display, you will need to buy an external TV tuner, such as an over the air DTV converter box or a set-top cable box. JVC is offering a seperate tuner box (the TU-CX100) that can handle over the air high def TV and digital or analog cable, but there is no pricing information available on that yet.
In the cavity on the left side of the stand, we have the HDMI and VGA inputs.
To put it simply; there aren't any. The LT-42WX70 has no video or audio outputs, so it's the last port of call for your audio or video.
Other Connections (0.0) An increasing number of HDTVs include connections to home networks or the Internet, but the LT-42WX70 does not; there are no network ports or other connections on this screen.
Media (0.0) There are no media card slots, USB ports or other connections that would allow you to play back photos and video on the LT-42WX70 from devices other than a computer or set-top box.
Placement (3.75) All of the ports on the LT-42WX70 with the exception of a single HDMI port are located under the two panels on the back of the screen near the stand, located at 90 degrees against the screen under the lip of the panel's edge. Whle this helps to keep the back of the screen tidy, it also makes plugging in and removing cables a frustrating exercise; you either have to try and do it by touch, or look up from below the screen to see where the sockets are located. The stand also only allows the screen to rotate about 15 degrees, so you need to move the entire thing, stand and all, to get to the ports. So, it's a triumph of aesthetics over practicality; it might be acceptable if you are content to connect everyhing once and never change a cable, but not if you need to plug in and remove them from the rear connectors. The single HDMI port on the side of display is better located, but this also requires some manouvering; the port is behind the edge of the bezel, so you need to be side onto the display to unlock the cover and plug the cable into the socket, which could be awkward if the screen is located on a wall mount. [page title="Audio & Menus"]
Audio Quality (5.0) The speakers on the LT-42WX70 are two 5-watt speakers that are located in a sound bar that fits onto the bottom of the screen. They produce plenty of volume, and have reasonable sound quality; the low notes are deep, and the trebles are clear. But they are nowhere near as good as even a cheap set of dedicated surround sound speakers. You get a fair amount of control over the sound; as well as bass and treble controls, there is an auto volume control, which dynamically adjusts the volume, and a volume limiter, which controls the maximum volume that the display can output. There are no pseudo-surround sound features here; the sound is just straight stereo. There is, however, a mode called PQD that tries to enhance the sound on the included pseakers; we found that it made little difference to the overall sound quality.
Menu Interface (5.25) There are a number of buttons on the remote control for accessing the on-screen menu; the menu button itself, the directional pad with a central selection button, plus an exit button and a back button (which takes you one step back up the menu tree). The menus themselves use the ubiquitous tabbed approach, with self-explanatory options at the top for Picture, Sound, Setup and HDMI. Most of these options have several screens worth of sub-options, so finding some controls can involve rather a lot of up and down actions.
In particular, options such as the color space are buried rather deeply within the menus. However, the most commonly used options (such as the memory settings and the presets) are right at the top and are easily accessible.
Manual (6.50) Included with the display is a printed manual that comes in English, French and Spanish. This manual covers all of the features of the display, but in a somewhat perfunctory way. More complex features, such as how to use the various color spaces that the display supports, are only covered in a cursory way. It is available for download here.
Formats (10.0) The LT-42WX70 is a 1080p screen, so it can display video with a resolution of up to 1920 by 1080 pixels. It also had no problem dealing with lower resolution signals from various sources; it was successfully able to display 1480p, 720p and 1080i signals. It also had no issues displaying a 24 frames per second signal from a Blu-ray player, or detecting and displaying a signal containing a 3:2 pulldown signal.
Photo Playback (0.0) The LT-42WX70 does not support the direct playback of photos from a memory card; you ahve to either use a digital camera or computer connected to the HDMI port.
Music & Video Playback (0.0) There is no support for directly playing back music or videos.
Streaming Playback (0.0) The LT-42WX70 has no Internet features, so there is no way to play back streaming audio or video.
Other Media (0.0) There are no other media features on the LT-42WX70. [page title="Power Consumption"]
Power Consumption (8.91) HDTvs can be power hogs, with some larger sets costing up to a hundred dollars a year to run. So, we test how much juice every TV that we review uses, and calcualte what the typical running costs might be, including how much power they use while they are on standby, assuming an average of 5 hours of use per day. We found that the LT-42WX70 did pretty well here: we calcualted that it would cost a typical user about $21.83 a year to run at our standard brightness level. If you like to crank the backlight all the way up for the brightest possible screen, the cost rises to $32.13, and with the backlight on its lowest setting, the cost falls to $10.79 a year. To adjust for the different screen brightness that we see from different TVs, our score is based on the screen being adjusted to a standard brightness of 200 cd/m2, which is bright enough to be seen indoors on a typical day. We also test with the backlight at the maximum and minimum settings so we can see the range of how much the TV costs to run.
[page title="Vs Samsung LN40B650"]
Value Comparison The JVC LT-42WX70 is the more expensive TV by a considerable margin; priced at about $2300, it is nearly a thousand bucks more than the Samsung LN40B650. But it is a little larger (at 42 inches, over the 40 inch size of the Samsung).
Blacks & Whites Both TVs had pretty dark blacks, but the Samsung had a bit of an edge; it managed a black level of 0.07 cd/m2, while the JVC was at 0.1 cd/m2. The Samsung also had a slightly higher peak white, and this combination leads to a wider contrast ratio.
Color Accuracy The LT-42WX70 had the edge on color; it had lower overall color temperature change, and the color gamut was more accurate. The RGB curves were significantly bumpier on the JVC, though, which could lead to more banding and contouring on the screen.
Motion The Samsung was the superior TV in displaying motion; thanks to its 120Hz processing, we saw smoother motion, and fine details in this motion were better maintained when they were moving rapidly across the screen. The Samsung also did a better job of processing a 3:2 pulldown signal, a process where a broadcaster processes a signal to give it a more filmic look. Neither TV had a problem showing a 24 frames per second signal produced by a blu-ray player, though.
Viewing Effects The JVC had a slightly wider viewing angle, but only by a few degrees. Frankly, neither HDTV does particularly well in this test; both have very disappointing viewing angles.
Connectivity The Samsung is the more connected TV by a long stretch; it has more HDMI prots, more analog inputs and a cable/antenna input that means it can work without a cable or set-top box.
Other Comparisons The JVC has one thing that the Samsung doesn't, though; the wider color gamut. However, as our tests show, it doesn't cover the complete Adobe RGB gamut, so this feature is a little less enticing than it forst appears. [page title="Vs JVC LT42P300"]
Value Comparison The JVC stablemates are very different competitors in the price race: the LT-42WX70 cost about $2300, while the LT-32P300 can be picked up for about $900. That's a huge difference that might be the deciding factor for most people. But value is about more than price, and the 42WX70 outperforms the 42P300 in pretty much every test.
Blacks & Whites The LT-42WX70 is a clear winner here; it has much deeper blacks and slightly brighter whites, and a bigger contrast ratio between the two. What this means is that you'll get much more dramatic looking pictures on the more expensive JVC model
Color Accuracy It was a much closer competition in the performance that we saw on color. The cheaper LT42P300 had slightly better performance on our white temperature test (where we measure how constant the whites are), but the LT42WX70 had the edge on the other tests, with smoother RGB responses and a closer adherence to the HDTV color gamut standards.
Motion Our tests for the performance of both TVs at displaying motion were a mixed bag; we found that the LT-42WX70 produce smoother motion (which is not surprising as it has 120Hz processing, so it can display images twice as fast), but that the 42P300 had fewer issues with artifacts showing in the video. Both had fairly decent motion performance, though.
Viewing Effects The LT42P300 was the clear winner when it came to watching TV from an angle; we found that we could sit significantly further away from straight on with this TV than with the 42WX70.
Connectivity It's a fairly even race when it comes to connectivity, although the P42P300 does have one significant advantage in that it comes with a cable/antenna input, which is not present on the 42WX70.
Other Comparisons The 42WX70 has the advantage of having the wider color gamut support than the P300; the more expensive model can reproduce about 96% of the Adobe RGB gamut. However, this feature is only useful for serious photographers, and it is unlikely to be worth the significantly larger expense for most of them. [page title="VS Sony Bravia KDL 52V5100"]
Value Comparison Although the Sony KDL-52V5100 is the larger TV (at 52 inches, against the 42 inch size of the JVC LT-42WX70), the Sony is cheaper; it's priced at about $1800, while the JVC costs $2300.
Blacks & Whites It's a tight race in the competition between these two HDTVs in our tests that lok at black levels, white levels and the contrast ratio between the two. The Sony has the lower black level (so it will have deeper blacks), but the JVC has brighter whites. This means that the JVC has a wider contrast ratio between the two, but the differences are not that significant. Bascially, they both do a good job of showing deep blacks and bright whites.
Color Accuracy On our tests on the performance of the displays with colors, it was again a pretty close race; the JVC did slightly better in our color temperature tests (which look at how constant the whites are), but the other tests were pretty close. Both had slightly bumpy RGB response curves (which could mean false contouring and banding in subtle colors on the screen) and has slightly inaccurate color gamuts. But neither TV was particularly awful; both had decent color performance.
Motion Both TVs also produced decent motion, with smooth on-screen images and only slight artifacts; we saw some issues with sharp, fast moving edges on the Sony having a slight forward shadow, while some colors on the JVC became somewhat flat and cartoonish.
Viewing Effects The Sony had a significantly wider viewing angle than the JVC; we found in our tests that the contrast ratio of the Sony fell by 50% at about 30 degrees away from straight on, while the JVC only managed 30 degrees on the same test. This means that the Sony will look better for those on the ends of the couch, or if it is used as an office display in a large conference room.
Connectivity The Sony has a wider selection of inputs and outputs, including more HDMI ports and an antenna/cable input. This makes it more flexible, as you can connect more devices and also watch over the air HD signals without an external decoder.
Other Comparisons The JVC has one feature that the Sony does not: support for the Adobe RGB color gamut, which allows it to display a wider range of colors than the Sony. [page title="Conclusion"]
[page title="Ratings & Specs"]
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