JVC HDTV - yea or nay?

[wuzzzer]

I went to a Best Buy today in response to their 36 months no interest on any home theater purchase $999 and up. In their ad I saw that they had a Toshiba 56" DLP TV for $1499, except that it was 720p resolution.

On the other side of the display was a JVC tv, also 56" except it was 1080p. Regular price was $2249, its on sale for $1749 plus it comes with a free killer-looking stand valued at $299.

The picture looked really good from what I could tell. I didn't have a lot of time to spend with it since my wife caught up with me and wanted to go to supper. We went back after supper but I only had about 5 minutes to look at it again since they were closing.

The model is JVC HD56FN97.

Otherwise does anyone have any other suggestions for a sub $2000 TV?

[bismarck]

NASA uses JVC's HD-ILA So you should too! Personally I like the JVC's although i have heard alot about the bulbs burning out quickly. Personally, I would go with the JVC over the comparable Samsung. I do think the Sony SXRD looks better than the JVC though, but not enough to cover the price difference. one thing Iwould ask the BB employee to do is to change the JVC and whatever TV is next to it to standard deff. and see what you like better. That is, if you are going to be watching standard deff., if not, buy the JVC and an HD-DVD Player and call it good.

[colterphoto1]

it does seem like everyone is buying Samsung. I'd get one but can't even afford catv let along HD. What's a boy to do?

[oldbuckster]

I don't believe you can plug and play 1080..............think there are other expenses to get properly set-up.........Make sure you can receive 1080 broadcasts with your cable, or dish network first.................Hate to have you buy it, and not be able to receive broadcasts in 1080........Just a thought, there are so many good choices available today.................................

[atleer]

I have this exact TV!

<>It has been everything and more I
would have hoped for. Amazing picture. My neighbor across the street
has a Mitsu DLP, and my father in-law has a samsung. The picture on my
JVC blows it away. Of course I say that, but my wife and mother in-law
think its amazing how much better ours looks.

<> <>One of the things i'm most pleased with is the standard def PQ, sweet.

<><>This is a great deal they are offering right now, and that price is a steal, IMO.

<><>I
researched these, along with others, for months on avsforum. They have
great threads, model specific. I HIGHLY recommend getting this TV, but
even if you don't, you owe it to yourself to check out that site. I'd
be happy to tell you more if you want.

[Fish]

Just do a search on JVC ILA issues.

[Dallben]

I got two of the 61 inchers a week and a half ago (one for me and one for my father) and we both love the set. The picture needs a little tweaking, but overall it's a great display.

To the best of my knowledge, the bulb issues had to do with a bad run of bulbs (I believe from toshiba, but could be mistaken), that were used in the previous generation of the D-ILA sets. (These use the same model bulb, but the newer production runs don't seem to exhibit any of the problems).

As long as you don't need 1080p over component (most sets don't do it anyway) or greater than 1024x768 over the VGA port (really my only problem with this tv) I think you could be very happy with this model.

There's a 70 or 80 page thread about the JVC HD-xxFx97 displays at avsforums as well.

[wuzzzer]

Cool, thanks for all the responses! One probably dumb question is, does anyone know if this TV will display 1080i over component cables? My DVR is a HD decoder and I have component cables hooked to my current Mitsubishi HDTV and it displays 1080i very well.

I won't be utilitizing the 1080p function right away at all, so it doesn't really matter to me that it even has it. It is nice to have it for future use, though.

I also did see how some of the older HDxx96 TVs had some problems but it seems that the current HDxx97 series aren't experiencing the same issues.

If I have time tonight I'm going to run across to the Best Buy that's right across the street from where I work and give it another look if they have one. I literally only spent about 30 seconds looking at it last night, and the Best Buy that I was at last night is about an hour away from me so I don't really want to go back to that one if I don't have to.

[Dallben]

Yes, it will do 1080i over component.

[DeafDad]

I purchased this set in the beginning of December, I think it is great! I do have a problem with the ATSC tuner failing on startup, the set is do to be exchanged next week. I use OTA broadcasts, good quality signals (780p / 1080i) provide spectacular results, standard (480i) can look very good if the broadcast station does it right. I have watched a lot of DVDs (via HDMI connection) on it and am very impressed, you can tell the difference between a good transfer and a poor one. I have also had a couple of PCs hooked up to it, one through the VGA port and one via a DVI-HDMI cable, I am satisfied with the VGA connection (limited to 1024 X 768) but it really shines with the DVI-HDMI hookup (1080p - 1920x1080 resolution), does anyone think the S-Video outputs on the old cards were in any way acceptable? The picture quality is all about signal, garbage in garbage out. Best Buy had an analog RF signal going into the on on display in my area and did not adjust any of the settings and it looked ok, they really could throw a better signal at this though. I am not going to pay the price to be an early adopter of the 1080p HD players, I will wait to see how the the standards shake out and prices to fall. I second the 2000+ post thread on this set on AVS for detailed comments.

[wuzzzer]

Chatted with a few people at work today and I might have a good lead on someone buying my old TV. I hope it all works out!