Thinner is better, apparently. Shame we like cake so much
It’s not enough for a TV to be just flat anymore, it seems. Now they’ve got to be the AV equivalent of pancakes before they grab anyone’s attention.
Which is, of course, precisely why the new range of AV gear JVC has just unveiled in Prague features not one but two ultra-thin – or SuperSlim to use JVC’s own terminology – TV ranges.
The most complete of these ranges is the DV1 series. Due to launch in 37in and 42in screen sizes in March, with a 47in version emerging a month later, the DV1 range is even slimmer than JVC’s groundbreaking SuperSlim debutante, last year’s LT-42DS9, coming in at under 70mm even at its widest point. And it’s considerably thinner than that at its extremities.
Fully loaded
All the DV1 models feature built-in Freeview tuners despite their slimness, let you turn the picture off if you’re listening to a radio channel, contain JVC’s latest DynaPix HD image processing, and are pretty well stocked with connections too, including three HDMIs, a PC input, and a USB 2.0 port.
Claimed contrast ratios of 1,000,000:1 for all three DV1 models kind of caught our eye as well, but we’ve saved their best feature for last… the HandClap function! For in a technological development set to change the world forever, JVC has made it so that you can turn your DV1 on or off by clapping three times, or mute/unmute the sound by clapping twice. Seriously, does life get any better than that?
The other flat TV ‘range’ from JVC is the WX70 series. Well, actually ‘series’ is a bit of an overstatement, as for the time being there’s only one model: the 42in LT-42WX70, due in March. This glamourpuss is just 43mm deep, is capable of delivering wide colour space formats like x.v.Colour and even Adobe RGB for photoviewing, and is going to be sold in modules. As in, you can get just the screen with no tuner or speakers; the screen with an optional speaker 'bar' but no tuner; the screen with an external Freeview tuner receiver but no speakers; or the screen with both speakers and external Freeview receiver. Got all that?
TV, your way
Eventually you’ll even be able to specify what exactly you want your external multimedia box to carry. Options discussed at the product launch included boxes with a Freeview tuner and DVD built in; boxes with Freeview and Freesat tuners built in; and even boxes with a Blu-ray deck and HDD recording system built in.
Whether all these options will really become a reality remains to be seen, but the idea seems sound, at least!
As soon as we can get our hands on review samples of these TVs, we’ll tell you whether they live up to their promise.
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