JVC: HRMD30000, 40000 and Samsung 165 waveform response

[HDTV Forum]

Well the verdict is in.

All three of these products are severly rolled off. Square tires folks.

That said, D-Theatrer is still the best thing going and actually meets the specifications for critical viewing distance of 3.2 screen heights. I have certainly enjoyed mine and it is far better than DVD.

The full review is in Widescreen Review, issue 75, August 2003.

Just to express how bad this problem is...

Most frequency response graphs are referenced to 0db with +1db and -4db to document the roll off. Just -3db is considered poor. The majority of DVD players will do +1db to -2db as referenced to 0db for this specification.

The JVC is so bad that they required a -25DB chart to fully document the roll off. -3db point is about 18mhz and it drops like a rock from there to -25db at 30mhz. The Samsung 165 has a -3db point at about 16mhz with a shallow slope ending at -18db for 30mhz.

The new JVC 40k shows little improvement in this regard and for all intense purposes has the same response. This also verifies my suspicion that the Samsung 151 is severly rolled off as well. Gotta love that old Panasonic 51!

It would also appear that no matter how thick your wallet there is no other alternative at this time.

I should also add that if you have DVI on your HDTV use it instead of the
component if you also have the Samsung 165 STB. Any rolloff from there would be coming from the D/A convertor inside your TV.

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Update!!!

With the release of the Sencore VP403 I have been doing further research into high frequency roll off problems with HDTV sources. It appears this is far more common than I suspected. While this is relevant to improving future performance the bottom line is no matter what you buy it is likely rolled off.