Company History

When JVC introduced its D-ILA light engine in 1997, it 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. When we reviewed their NZ8 and NZ9 models, which have true 4K-native D-ILA chips, we were highly impressed with the performance, and they have been a top seller at Audio Advice since their introduction. Now, JVC is introducing new upgraded models, the NZ800 and NZ900, which feature their third-generation D-ILA chips, second-generation 8K e-shiftX, optimized BLU-Escent Laser light source for more lumens, and other video enhancements.

Our team at Audio Advice was excited to hear this news and eager to get our hands on the new projectors to put them to the test prior to their launch. In this article, we will cover the upgraded features that both projectors share over their predecessors and then discuss the differences between them and why you may want one over the other.

Features & Technology the New Models Share

Build Quality

Just like their previous models, these new units are built like tanks. In fact, they utilized the exact same chassis as the NZ8 and NZ9, so you won’t notice a difference at first glance. As we mentioned before, every unit is quite heavy. We highly recommend you have a friend around to help when you go to hang your new JVC projector!

JVC stands behind its build quality with a 3-year warranty and a 1-year advanced replacement warranty, which is pretty incredible.

Gen3, Native 4K N-ILA Devices & BLU-Escent Laser

The D-ILA device is the heart of these projectors and plays an essential role in making the image the best it can be. The NZ800 and NZ900 are both updated with the new third-generation D-ILA devices, where JVC has improved the alignment control of liquid crystals and enhanced the flatness of image pixels. What this all means for you is that you get 1.5x the native contrast ratio and better overall image uniformity compared to the previous NZ8 and NZ9.

Both of these new models also feature JVC’s newly optimized BLU-Escent Laser light source, which can last up to 20,000 hours at 50% brightness! The laser light engine is another essential component of a projector, and JVC has optimized it to achieve higher peak brightness levels than before. We will go over their updated lumens later on.

Motorized Lens Support

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 filmed in widescreen, it is the way to enjoy content the way the director intended. Both of these three projectors can be set up to give you both standard 16:9 HDTV ratio content and a wider aspect ratio of 2.40.

You simply set up two lens memories, and you are done. JVC even takes it further, giving you ten memory slots for those fans of European TV series or many Netflix shows, such as Stranger Things, which 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, which details how widescreen works and 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 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 more contrast-rich blacks, and many more variations of colors. The idea is fantastic.

However, HDR content is designed for display devices like flat panel televisions that can achieve light output from a few hundred nits all the way up to a few thousand nits. One nit is equal to one candela, or one candlepower, per square meter. It is essentially the brightness per unit area. The catch is that most home theater projectors can only produce 100-200 Nits. This gap caused projector manufacturers to devise a better way to interpret the HDR10 data to deliver a great image on a front projection system.

JVC developed Frame Adapt HDR, which 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 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 its Home Theater Optimizer to adjust the tone mapping based on your exact system and the environment it is in.

In addition to standard HDR10, the new NZ800 and NZ900 support HDR10+. We are seeing more and more Blu-ray 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.

For the new NZ800 and NZ900, JVC has once again pushed the limits of what is possible by implementing their Second Generation of Frame Adapt HDR. They took this already incredible process of analyzing the signal frame by frame or scene by scene and reexamined it to achieve an HDR image with high definition. Plus, their proprietary algorithm for tone curve selection has been improved to reproduce HDR images that are brighter, more colorful, and have a wider dynamic range.

Deep Black Function, DML, Filmmaker & Vivid Modes

JVC has introduced a few new updates to their processing, which we will go over now. First is the new Deep Black function, DML (Display Mastering Luminance), Filmmaker Mode, and “Vivid” Picture Mode in each model. The Deep Black function actively subdues tones in dark areas for more realistic darkness and maximizes the dynamic range so that scenes with light and dark shades can be projected with even greater realism. The DML adjusts and sets the dynamic range to match the image for improved HDR tone mapping. The Filmmaker mode, which was developed by the UHD Alliance, gives you the ability to recreate an image that is more faithful to the look that the director intended you to see. It does this by turning off frame interpolation and noise reduction and setting the color temperature to 6500K, which is a standard in the industry. Finally, JVC is introducing a new picture mode called “Vivid.” This new picture mode is excellent for SDR animated content with a more narrow dynamic range. This mode will allow that content to shine with greater vividness and more saturated colors. When you combine these modes with the new second-generation Frame Adapt HDR, these new projectors give you deeper blacks and allow you to project the very best of what each source has to offer.

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.

8K with 8K/e-shiftX

With the NZ800 and NZ900, you get the latest second-generation 8K e-shiftX system that shifts in four diagonal directions (up, down, left, and right). To achieve this, JVC had to increase the processor's speed and design a way to drive the panel at twice the speed as before. There is a 240HZ driver that goes in the NZ800 and NZ900 to deliver images at a speed equivalent to 240Hz with 35 million addressable pixels! This updated technology, paired with the 0.69-inch native 4K D-ILA device, has drastically improved the sharpness and detail across a wide range of content.

All Glass Lenses

JVC utilizes the same high-performance lenses as the NZ8 and NZ9 in the new models. The NZ800 features a 65mm, 17-element, 15-group all-glass lens, and the NZ900 steps up to a 100mm HQ lens system with an 18-element, 16-group all-glass lens and five special low dispersion lenses. The NZ900 lens is also better suited for 8K reproduction, meaning when you turn on the e-ShiftX tech, the improvements in detail are even bigger.

48Gbps HDMI 2.1 HDCP 2.3 Inputs

The NZ800 and NZ900 are both equipped with two 48Gbps HDMI 2.1 inputs with HDCP 2.3, which enables them to accept and playback a full 8K/60p source. While we don’t see much content available in 8K just yet, it’s good to know this projector will be future-proof for a long time as new source formats change. With the low latency mode, you can even play games at 4K/120p, which will make gameplay super smooth if you have the latest Xbox, Playstation, or gaming PC.

Great Calibration System

There are no major changes this year to JVC’s already great calibration system. The menus are very extensive, with some very deep-level settings for adjusting and calibrating the picture. You can even input the brand and type of screen material you have in your system for the best color accuracy. The great news is that most of the default settings are exactly where you want to leave them, and we will go over these in our tips and tricks guide.

If you are the type of video enthusiast who wants to take things further, JVC has a great piece of free software. You do have to purchase an optical meter for around $200 and up (the Spyder X is a good value unit), but with a laptop, their software, and a meter, you can get extremely close to what would cost you several hundred dollars from a professional calibrator. And it's all automatic!

If you need some design help finding the best-sized screen for your room, please check out our free home theater designer. You can lay out your room and find out what size screen will give you the immersion level you desire for your seating position. Then, you can work with our home theater experts to find the right projector for that screen size.

Performance Testing

JVC sent us the new NZ800 and NZ900 for testing. We utilized one of our home theater testing labs to put them through their paces and compare them to the NZ8 and NZ9.

If you own or have used a JVC NZ8 or NZ9, these new models will be easy for you to use and set up, as pretty much everything about them, including the menus, has stayed exactly the same. We used our exclusive Audio Advice setup guide that we send to all of our customers to dial in each projector before testing them with different movies and games.

After watching different scenes using Blu-ray disc movies and even streaming content from Netflix and Max, we were really pleased with the overall performance of these new projectors. The step-up in brightness from the NZ8 and NZ9, while it’s around an 8% and 10% bump, was noticeable when you put them side by side. In addition, the blacks were even darker, and the contrast and picture looked even more true to life. This was evident in movies with dark scenes where certain parts of the scene are meant to be deep black and other parts are meant to be a dark shadow. The NZ800 and NZ900 handle the dark tones brilliantly, and one reason for this is their dynamic laser light control feature, which analyzes the incoming video signal to automatically control the amount of outgoing laser light to produce a dynamic contrast of infinity to 1 in scenes with pitch blankness by completely shutting off the light source.

The best way for us to describe it is if you’ve ever experienced a properly calibrated NZ8 or NZ9 in person, you can picture that image on the NZ800 and NZ900 with even more color accuracy, deeper blacks, sharper image, and brightness. JVC has taken two already phenomenal projectors and made them even more powerful.

So, should you upgrade from your NZ8 or NZ9? If you have a large theater room or a multi-purpose room where there are some ambient lights, these new models have the extra brightness to combat that and are highly recommended over their predecessors. However, if you’re in a theater and have complete control over your light, the upgrade might be a bigger question for you. If you’re really looking to get more out of your NZ8 or NZ9, we recommend first using our exclusive Audio Advice setup guide to get the best image possible. If you still want to improve your performance, stepping up to the NZ800 or NZ900 should give you a brighter and better image.

If you’re considering the NZ800 or NZ900, you can use our FREE Home Theater Design Tool or FREE Home Theater Projector Distance Calculator to compare both models to each other or to the NZ8 and NZ9. Our experts have measured the brightness of all of these projectors in a real-world environment to give you more accurate results and allow you to see the difference in brightness (nits) when you place them in your room. When you plug in your room dimensions, projector location, screen size, and more, you can be sure you are getting the best option that will have enough brightness to display HDR content and fill your screen with a vibrant image.

Overall Recommendation

JVC has done a fantastic job with the new NZ800 and NZ900. While they may look the same on the outside as the NZ8 and NZ9, the guts of these projectors are completely updated to give you a better overall experience. If you’re purchasing your first JVC projector, we recommend you go for the NZ800 or NZ900, as you will get the latest technology inside and the extra brightness right away. However, if you already own an NZ8 or NZ9 and are considering upgrading to the new models, we recommend chatting with our team of experts to make sure it will be the best option for you. Remember, you will want to be sure you have a high-quality screen and source components before upgrading your projector and expecting to see a huge change.

Remember, if you purchase your JVC projector from Audio Advice, we will include our tips and tricks guide.

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