Successor to JVC projector 'legend' hitting stores now

Right at the end of 2007, JVC came out of nowhere to turn the previously pretty staid home theatre projection market on its head with the DLA-HD1: a model which used groundbreaking new technologies to produce some of the best picture quality ever seen from a home cinema projector.

And now that ground-breaking tech is back in apparently much-improved, second-gen form in the shape of the DLA-HD350: a £3500 machine that's arriving in the stockrooms of specialist home cinema dealers right now.

The technology at the heart of the HD350 - and the previous HD1 - is something called D-ILA Wire Grid technology. Without getting too heavy on you (it is only Monday, after all), this combines JVC's refinement of liquid crystal on silicon chip design with a new light polarising system based around wires laid on a glass substrate as opposed to the usual prism-based system.

JVC's 'wire grid' approach - together with new manufacturing advances that to reduce the usual irregularities in the liquid crystal alignment - leads to much less light getting 'lost' on its way through the projector's optical engine. And this results in unprecedented contrast levels for an affordable home cinema projector.

Hmm. Perhaps we did get a bit teccy on you after all. But hey - at least you've now got something you can talk about to make yourself sound clever at the pub next weekend.

The upshot of all the HD350's bleeding-edge tech is a huge claimed native (no dynamic iris nonsense here) contrast ratio of 30,000:1.

The HD350 is also brighter than the HD1, with up to 1000 Lumens of light available, and apparently has more comprehensive set up options for installers/home tinkerers.

If Santa can fit one of these down the iGIZMO chimney, we'll hopefully be able to bring you a review here very soon. Keep 'em peeled.