JVC’s latest projector doesn’t need lasers to be brilliant
Product | £7499 | whf.cm/DLA-NP5
The DLA-NP5 is JVC’s most affordable D-ILA projector for 2022 – and with the company’s cheapest laser D-ILA models setting you back well into five figures, we have a funny feeling that interest in the lamp-based NP5, with its native 4K resolution, could be seriously high.
By using a lamp rather than lasers, JVC is able to sell the NP5 for £7499. This compares with £11,499 for the step-up, laser-toting DLA-NZ7. Sony’s upcoming XW5000, which will offer a native 4K resolution and laser projection for just £5999, looks set to give the NP5 some stiff competition. But if the NP5 can maintain the sort of contrast for which JVC’s D-ILA technology is legendary, it could well still feel worth the extra.
No lightweight
The word that best describes the DLANP5 is ‘brute’. It really is a substantial thing; half a metre wide by nearly half a metre deep and, perhaps most strikingly of all, a seriously chunky 23cm tall.
Its bulk establishes right away that, despite its ‘entry-level’ positioning, this is still very much a serious home cinema projector likely to find its way into a dedicated cinema room rather than a living room. It’s not unattractive for all its heftiness, though, thanks to its rounded corners and heavy-duty finish. It’s just not living-room levels of attractive. It is, however, the only model in JVC’s 2022 D-ILA range to be available in white or black colour options.
The DLA-NP5 is built around JVC’s D-ILA optical system. This JVC-exclusive variant of liquid crystal on silicon technology has been renowned for years now for its ability to deliver black levels that other projector technologies still can’t match today. There are no moving elements (such as DLP colour wheels) involved with D-ILA technology either, so you don’t have to worry about things such as rainbow-effect RGB striping, or fizzing noise.
The NP5’s lamp is powerful enough to deliver a claimed 1900 lumens of peak brightness – a decent amount for a lamp-based model that’s as (correctly) interested in contrast as it is brightness. That native contrast is in this case claimed to be an exceptional 40,000:1, which rises to an extraordinary 400,000:1 if you deploy the projector’s excellent dynamic contrast ratio feature.
The NP5 boasts a pretty high-quality lens arrangement for JVC’s entry-level D-ILA option. Its 17-element, 15-group, all-glass 65mm design should certainly help the projector deliver well on
