Mike Hobin appraises a projection screen as stellar as it is portable

Paired with the JVC projector I reviewed previously was the Indigo Screens Meteor Traveller 16:9 portable pull-up floor screen.

In short, this is a floor standing portable screen for use with home theatre or data projectors. It’s available in two flavours: 80-inch and 92-inch.

The screen ships in a very large cardboard box with excellent packing. The unit sits in a plastic bag, in a polystyrene cradle. Simply open the box, pull the polystyrene off, and lift the screen out.

The screen itself is housed in a great looking black aluminium carry case with a good solid handle. It’s not heavy, and despite its size it’s not hard to move around.

The case open with two catches, a quick flick of each of them and flip the top back and you’re set. To raise the screen, simply grasp the top bar of the screen and pull upwards.

The hydraulic lift scissor mechanism of the screen helps raise and lower the screen and keep it at the height you select.

The bottom of the case has two stabilising feet that you rotate 90 degrees to keep the unit stable. Once raised, the screen is stable and does not flop around at all.

A word from the (possibly) wise: when I first raised the screen, I had trouble with it catching on the right hand side, but this was caused by me not opening the case’s lid back far enough and the lift mechanism catching on the case. It’s just something to watch for the young players out there.

The screen itself is the standard off-white colour, with a gain of around 1.0 – 1.2. The screen area is surrounded by a black border to alleviate any image overflow from your projector.

The screen is washable, durable, and, apparently, fire-retardant.

The picture clarity was excellent with no blooming evident in the whites, and excellent deep black levels; colour clarity and consistency were equally good.

• Indigo Home Theatre Projector screens are available from RapalloAV.

By Mike Hobin

Some tasks are not necessarily a chore — like being asked to review a new HD home theatre projector from JVC.

First impressions of the DLA-HD250B were that it’s huge – a whopping 365x166x478mm unit that weighs a substantial 11kg.

The technical specs come first:

• Display device: Full HD D-ILA device
• Panel size: 0.7 inch (16:9)
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels
• Lens: 2x motorized zoom & focus, f=21.4mm — 42.8mm, F=3.2 — 4
• Lens shift function: Motorized ±80% vertical / ±34% horizontal
• Projection size: 60-200 inches
• Lamp: 200W UHP
• Brightness: 1000lm
• Contrast ratio: Native: 25,000:1
• Terminals: Composite x1 (RCA),S-Video x1 (mini DIN), Component x1 (RCA 3-pin),HDMI x2 (ver.1.3), RS-232C (D-sub 9-pin)
• PC input signal: Digital: VGA/SVGA/XGA/WXGA/WXGA+/SXGA/WSXGA+/WUXGA
• Video input signal: 480i/p,576i/p,720p 60/50,1080i 60/50,1080 24p/60p/50p
• Noise level: 19dB (Normal mode)
• Power consumption: 280W (Stand-by mode:1W)

Now that we have all the techy stuff out of the way, let’s get down to what really matters – is it any good?  Yes, yes it is.

Modern digital display devices often suffer from contrast ratio issues, specifically crushing in dark scenes in your movies.

JVC use D-ILA to combat this, its end result is a very high contract ratio and this leads to the ability to keep colours bright without washing out your darker scenes and causing the black to appear grey.

The colour was so good right out of the box I didn’t even bother running it through a colour calibration.

The JVC is all but silent (19dB) so you won’t hear its cooling system whirring away over the quiet scenes in your movie – a nice change from my DLP TV, which tends towards the noisy.

Having said that, of course, your movie should be loud enough to make your windows bow outwards and your neighbours complain, anyway.

The DLA-HD250B has two HDMI inputs and a plethora of the old analogue inputs, which I hope will never be used — you don’t spend the money on a spectacular HD projector to use a composite input!

Lens control is accomplished with the included remote control and is very easy to set up. Unless you’re moving your unit around a bit, you should only need to set it once.

Movement, both vertically (+-80%) and horizontally (+- 34%) as well as the 2x motorised zoom is done electronically and allows a large degree of freedom in placement of the projector; the throw distance is 3.0-6.1 metres.

A motorised lens cover opens when the unit is on and automatically closes when turned off, to project your shiny new lens from accidents and dust.

All-in-all, it really comes down to how easy a unit is to use on a day to day basis, and I had absolutely no issues with the JVC at all.

In fact, once the placement was done and the vertical horizontal shift, zoom and focus were set, it was a perfect unit.

I would happily have the JVC DLA-HD250B as my main HD display, and that’s all the endorsement you really need.

• The JVC HD250 usually is available from www.rapalloav.co.nz for $5499.00 but until the end of April can be bought for $5299.00, complete with a free 92-inch Nova 16:9 manual pull-down screen valued at $455.00.

Flat-screen connoisseurs on a budget will be hoping for a bargain as Samsung rolls out its 2010 range of LCD TVs over the next six months.

To make room for the new models, including Samsung’s Next Big Thing — 3D-capable displays — retailers may start offering great deals on its Latest Big Thing: LCD TVs with LED edge lighting.

Sony pioneered LED backlighting in the mid-2000s but  Samsung was first to exploit its potential for creating super-slim TVs that use less energy than conventional LCD TVs while generating brighter colours and better contrast within a frame that’s barely 30mm ‘thick’.

The key to the svelte design of Samsung’s Series 6, 7 and 8 models is edge lighting. Samsung’s first-generation LED-lit TV had its LEDs arranged across the back of the TV, so from the side it looked more like an LCD TV that uses cold cathode fluorescent lamps.

But by mounting the LEDs along the edges of the screen, Samsung was able to shave nearly 70mm off the depth. Moreover, it’s done this without having to house all of the video, computer, USB and Ethernet inputs in a separate multimedia box.

There is a minor downside to this innovation: because the arrangement sacrifices what’s known as “local dimming”, the black levels are a smidgen lighter than on the first LED generation. But most people will gladly trade-off this incremental loss for a flatter, more elegant design that still delivers vibrant, accurate colours with phenomenally good black levels that rival those of plasma TVs.

The top-of-the-range 46-inch B8000, which sells from $5000, looks its best with HD content but even SD broadcasts and DVDs are surprisingly punchy once the display has been calibrated using its plethora of picture-tweaking options.

Because you can also adjust the 200Hz processing, judder can be minimised without introducing intrusive side effects, although the blur that bedevils LCD TVs is never eliminated.

The screen also appears ‘blotchy’ when it’s blank but this inconsistency isn’t apparent when watching broadcasts or Blu-rays – indeed, the shiny, reflective bezel is more distracting.

Neither is the shortage of analogue connections a problem. A TV of this calibre wasn’t designed for legacy gear without HDMI outputs, and the sooner more manufacturers follow Samsung’s lead in this respect, the better, as it frees up space for extra HDMI inputs.

The B8000 has four of these, so it can accept a Blu-ray player, a MySky HDi, a games console and a MyFreeview HD simultaneously (it also comes with a built-in FreeviewHD tuner, can be plugged directly into a broadband connection for watching YouTube videos and offers the option of a wireless adaptor for home networking).

Accommodating all of these within such a slim chassis is an engineering marvel but perhaps Samsung should have opted for a separate multimedia box. Because the B8000 has a transparent pedestal stand, the HDMI cables extending from the rear of the display can’t be hidden, whereas a single HDMI connection to a multimedia box would have looked less unsightly.

There’s a couple of other design drawbacks, too: if you sit off-centre from the screen, picture quality deteriorates markedly while the space-compromised speakers disperse barely adequate audio.

But if you’re in the market for a premium TV this sleek and chic, you’ll probably already have an equally sophisticated home theatre system — not to mention a collection of HD movies that will make the UA46B8000 your Blu-ray haven.

THX marks the sweet spot of Panasonic’s new V and Z range of plasma TVs.

A shortcoming of Panasonic’s Viera flat-screen TVs has been their limited picture tweaking options.

But engage any of the new models in THX mode and fine-tuning becomes irrelevant, so accurate is the colour.

Just as it set the standard for high-fidelity sound, THX increasingly is being used to optimise video quality in everything from TVs to projectors to digital video recorders.

I’ve appraised several of Panasonic’s top-end consumer plasma TVs over the past few years and none has come close to nailing the natural look that THX delivers.

It shines with high definition movies and sports broadcasts alike. Golf fans will especially appreciate seeing fairways and greens that look like grass rather than gaudy Astroturf.

The true benefits of THX may be lost on the shop floor, where harsh lighting can wash out its strengths and subtleties. But at home, in subdued lighting, the HD images are immaculate.

Panasonic offers THX in its three V models, which range in size from 50 inches to 65 inches, and its wireless, 54-inch Z1 display.

At $3999, the TH-P50V10Z is the most affordable. It’s one of Panasonic’s new-generation NeoPDP Full HD panels that combines improved brightness and energy efficiency with excellent contrast, four HDMI inputs, a PC input, a FreeviewHD tuner and an SD Card slot with a “Viera Image Viewer” for viewing digital photographs.

But it’s not only the technology that makes this a tour-de-force TV: almost as eye-catching as its performance are the cosmetics.

Panasonic may make some of the best plasma TVs but traditionally it’s been a company run by engineers rather than designers. The V series, however, imbues the company’s Corolla reliability with at least a hint of Lexus styling.

The one-sheet glass appearance is sleek and chic while the lippy look of last year’s horizontal arch on the high-end PZ and PY models has been smartly streamlined into a slimmer frame with a narrower bezel that doesn’t reflect as much light as its predecessors.

Best of all, the connections are on the rear, or to the side, of the display; no longer does Panasonic spoil the front of its TVs with a flap under the screen that, when raised, exposes connections from which unsightly cables trail.

Having four HDMI connections is good but barely meets the needs of households with MySky HDi, TiVo, a Blu-ray or DVD player, and a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.

Panasonic has refined its remote control and at last relocated the volume key from the left side to the right, in line with other manufacturers.

Auto-tuning is a breeze and while the easy-to-adjust menu includes gamma settings, which is rare for a Panasonic display in this market, it still offers fewer customisable options than many rivals.

Although the THX mode largely mitigates this, using it does thwart Panasonic’s Intelligent Frame Creation (IFC) option. IFC effectively reduces judder in the Dynamic, Cinema and Normal modes but because it introduces occasional artefacts, such as slight shimmering around fast movement, it doesn’t meet THX certification demands.

This notwithstanding, IFC is one of the better motion interpolation methods, and Panasonic has improved it to the point where a ball in flight will no longer break up, as it did on the 11^th-generation Vieras. (One of the best tests for the stability of the latest IFC iteration is the opening skyscraper sequence of The Dark Knight).

Audio also is surprisingly good given the speakers are straitjacketed within a frame that’s only 84 centimetres thick and although there is some flickering on a blank screen, it’s not apparent when watching movies or TV.

Standard definition DVDs and broadcasts don’t overly suffer from being showcased on a large display but it’s with HD that the TH-P50V10Z earns an A-plus.

The Blu-ray of the first season of Fringe jumps out of the screen with almost three-dimensional oomph and while the black levels may fall short of Panasonic’s claimed dynamic contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1, the shadow detail revealed in the DVD of the Italian gangster drama, Gomorrah, is extraordinary.