Home Theatre/TV: JVC LCD Monitor LT-42WX70 – Review

The world is filled with televisions – stacks of plasmas, LCDs and LEDs are lined up wall to wall on shop shelves presenting a virtually endless list of choices. Manufacturers know their products have to stand out somehow, so some sets are super-thin, some have crystals in the bezel or mirrors on the stand, while others have motorised mounts or hordes of HDMI sockets.

The 42-inch JVC reviewed here seems pretty conventional but its claim to fame is the panel itself, which is designed to have an outstanding colour range (or gamut), allowing it to reproduce a wider range of colours. This makes it perfect for such things as viewing photographs, where it replaces the old slide projector – in fact this panel was used by our sister magazine to judge the winners of the D-Photo/Canon Photographer of the Year contest, so it certainly does an excellent and very flexible job as a professional photographer’s tool. That enhanced colour capability also translates into very good news for people who just want a great panel for watching movies and TV – but bear in mind that this is actually not a television set; there’s no built-in tuner because it’s actually a high-end monitor, so for broadcast TV you’ll need an external tuner such as a Sky or Freeview box

JVC’s latest LCD is a good looking set, a little understated rather than ostentatious with its dark textured bezel and silver finish rear, propped up on an elegant stand. This screen may not be as ultra-slim as an LED TV but It’s slender and lightweight for an LCD. The speakers are external in the form of a narrow speaker bar, which is cunning because it sounds better than the speakers crammed into many modern televisions and the bar can be binned if the set is hooked up to a home theatre system.

There’s no doubt this panel has colour reproduction down pat. Running from JVC’s XV-BP1 Blu-ray player, the LT-42WX70 displayed smooth movement thanks to the 120Hz Clear Motion Drive III technology, and presented a bright image that was deeply saturated without looking as if the settings had been cranked to eyeball-bleeding levels for an in-store demo. Watching the obligatory building site chase scene from Casino Royale was a treat; the reds and blues actually looked like they were filmed on planet earth, not planet ultra-saturation. I’d say that the panel looked natural, for want of a better description. The blacks are dark – not up to the blackness possible with the best plasmas but up to the best of the LCD/LED segment. DVDs looked particularly good on this screen as well.

The JVC has an array of more than 50 settings that would please even the most obsessive videophile or professional screen calibrator, but the results are pleasing on the standard presets, so you don’t have to be a geek to enjoy watching this panel. The settings provoked a variety of opinions: as expected the ‘Dynamic’ setting was chosen by younger viewers for its deeper blacks and increased saturation but the ‘Theatre’ mode, which is far more subtle, was preferred by an older demographic, this reviewer included.

JVC’s LT-42WX70 costs a lot more than a generic 42-inch full HD set and it doesn’t even have a built-in tuner, but it is a specialist panel and the price reflects its capabilities. It’s a very good choice for serious photographers who happen to love movies but it’s also ideal for home theatre enthusiasts who can use its comprehensive settings to optimise the image for their personal preferences – although they might be happier with a 50-inch screen.

ASHLEY KRAMER

JVC LCD Monitor LT-42WX70 – Tech Specs

PANEL: 42-inch, 1080p monitor
DYNAMIC CONTRAST RATIO: 50,000:1
BRIGHTNESS: 450cd/m2
RESPONSE SPEED: 6.5msec
INPUTS: 3x HDMI, PC (D-Sub 15 Pin), RS232C
DIMENSIONS: 990 x 717 x 171mm (W/H/D incl stand)
WEIGHT: 12kg

PROS

• Natural colour representation
• Photographic functionality

CONS

• Not exactly inexpensive
• No in-built tuner

VERDICT

A specialised product for enthusiasts

Contact

www.jvc.co.nz

This article is from Tone 82. Click here to check it out.