The JVC DLA-NZ9, DLA-NZ8, and DLA-NZ7 home theater projectors all share a lot of similarities. By the end of this video, you will have a clear understanding of the reasons to move up from one model to the next, and to determine which model is the best for your dream home theater.

Company & Product Overview

When JVC introduced their D-ILA light engine over 20 years ago, they became a serious contender in the front projection home theater world. D-ILA stands for Digital Direct Driven Image Light Amplifier and this tech has evolved over the last two decades. JVC now produces D-ILA chips that are 4K-native and this year's models have taken their great tech to the next level along with many more important video enhancements.

We were very excited when JVC gave us the early scoop on these new projectors and provided us with a sample to test weeks before the official release. First, we will cover the great features all of these 3 new projectors share, then get into the differences as you move up in the series.

**The new JVC 8K laser home theater projector models include the DLA-NZ9, DLA-NZ8, and DLA-NZ7. **

Features & Technologies the JVC NZ Series Projectors Share

JVC does not make a big deal out of this, as it has been a feature in their projectors for years, but motorized lens memory gets you into the widescreen experience, which we are huge fans of at Audio Advice. With 85% of blockbuster movies being shot in widescreen, it is the best way to enjoy content the way the director intended. You’ll need a 2.40 screen and any of these 3 projectors can be set up to give you both standard 16:9 HDTV ratio content and the wider aspect ratio of 2.40.

You simply set up two lens memories and you are done. JVC even takes it further, giving you 10 memory slots for those fans of European TV series that are moving to ratios of 2.0 and 2.1. These are not as wide as a widescreen movie but wider than standard HDTV content.

JVC also makes these models perfectly compatible with the aftermarket Panamorph lens for an even better widescreen experience. If you want to learn more about widescreen, check out our Widescreen Explained article, where we detail how widescreen works & the differences in various aspect ratios.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) and HDR10+ Support

JVC projectors have always been known for their brilliant color and detail. You have likely seen the term “HDR”, which stands for high dynamic range. This technology enables the studios to master content with high dynamic range. HDR10 tech allows them to embed metadata into the video feed, which instructs your TV or projector on how to reproduce the signal for brighter whites, deeper and contrast-rich blacks, and many more variations of colors. The idea is fantastic.

However, it is designed for display devices like flat-panel televisions that can achieve light output in the range of 1,000 to 4,000 Nits. A Nit is the light put out by a single candle. The catch is, most home theater projectors can only produce 100-200 Nits. This gap caused projector manufacturers to come up with a better way to interpret the HDR10 data to deliver a great image on a front projection system.

JVC developed Frame Adapt HDR. This looks at the signal frame by frame or scene by scene and dynamically changes the tone mapping based on analyzing the HDR10 content. The even better part is they take it one step further. To fully optimize HDR content, you really need to know how much light your system will be able to produce. With JVC’s system, you input your screen size and screen gain. The system knows how much you have opened the iris, along with your throw distance, and uses their Home Theater Optimizer to adjust the tone mapping based on your exact system and the environment it is in. That is just so cool!

Frame Adapt HDR versus HDR10+

For these new models, JVC has added support for HDR10+ which is an industry first and a big deal! We are seeing more and more BluRay discs and streaming content deploy HDR10+ which also embeds the luminance information for each scene in the metadata rather than just an average for the entire movie like HDR10. This lets the system get even closer to the HDR image the producer intended us to see. It is great to see the new models all supporting HDR10+ and we hope to see a lot more content produced with this feature.

Now, in case this all sounds very technical, for you to get the best results, you only need to do one thing. We go over this in our exclusive tips and tricks guide we send to you if you get your JVC projector from Audio Advice. You want to tell the projector the picture mode it should engage when it sees regular HD content and the mode for HDR content. Then, it all just happens automatically based on the incoming signal. There is no need to adjust things on the fly based on the type of signal.

All Glass Lenses

While there are three different versions of these lenses used across the models, just like a very high-performance camera lens, the JVC units either have a 100mm or 65mm all-glass lens system. This is one reason these units weigh what they do with even the NZ7 coming in at 50 pounds.