JVC DLA-HD350

Not long ago we looked at and fell head over heels in love with JVC’s DLA-HD1: the world’s first projector to use D-ILA Optical Wire Grid technology.

And now, while we’re still reeling from that, JVC is hitting us with the second generation of the Wire Grid technology, in the form of the £3,500 DLA-HD350. Surely this can’t really improve much on the HD1, can it?

It looks slightly nicer thanks to a glossier finish – but at heart it’s still the same large, black, coffee table-eating hulk.

Unfortunately it hasn’t improved significantly on its predecessor's connections either, in that there are still ‘only’ two HDMIs, no dedicated D-Sub PC port, and no 12V trigger jack for driving a motorised screen. Hmm.

All good in the hood

Luckily there have definitely been changes ‘under the hood’, however, as signalled by a claimed native contrast ratio of 30,000:1. This, remarkably, is double that quoted for the HD1.

What’s more, this is a NATIVE contrast ratio figure, and so doesn’t depend on a dynamic contrast ratio system, where the image’s brightness is reduced during dark scenes to improve black levels.

The only feature missing from the HD350 that we would really liked is a full-tilt colour management system. Luckily, though, the colour tones the HD350 achieves in its ‘from the box’ state are mostly very good. But there are still one or two moments where the occasional rogue colour tone creeps in.

Crucially, though, that’s pretty much the HD350’s only performance stumble. In every other way it’s sublime – and yes, that means it really is even better than the HD1.

Black beauty

Dark scenes, for instance, enjoy even richer, deeper, more natural and above all more stable black levels than they did on the HD1 – which is saying something given that the HD1 itself set new standards in this department.

Even better, the HD350 doesn’t need to reduce its brightness to produce good black levels, the darkest of blacks can sit right alongside extremely bright whites within the same frame – a cinematic feat practically no other projector at the HD350’s price point could even dream about delivering.

Actually, the HD350’s picture is noticeably brighter than that of the HD1 too, enabling it to work comfortably on really large screens as well as giving the picture more punch.

The HD350’s densely packed 1920 x 1080 pixels, meanwhile, help the projector achieve an extraordinary level of sharpness and detail with HD sources, while some decent onboard processing even means it handles standard definition decently well.

Wherefore are thou noisio?

It does no harm to the HD350’s sharpness, either, that it handles motion effortlessly, with only the tiniest trace of blur, and without the dithering noise which can trouble projectors that use DLP technology.

In fact, there’s no sign of any technology-related noise at all, which allows you to forge a perfectly direct link with whatever you’re watching.

Add to the HD350’s near-perfect pictures the fact that it runs much more quietly than its predecessor, and you really are talking about a projector that feels worth way more than just 3,500 of your measly English pounds.