JVC

JVC will be rolling out three new flat-panel LCD HDTVs this fall, each featuring 120Hz refresh rate and JVC's new Clear Motion Drive II (CMD II) technology. Both the high refresh rate and the CMD II technology are supposed to reduce the blurring that sometimes occurs on lesser LCD panels during fast-motion scenes, although we have to admit we haven't seen much of that on newer LCDs. The CMD II technology also claims to do some motion interpolation--in other words, taking two frames of a movie and averaging them together to make a "new" frame in … Read more

Back in November of last year, our U.K. sister blog reported that JVC would be releasing a new line of sleek, flat-panel-friendly, virtual surround home-theater systems that also featured streaming media capabilities in a couple of the models. Well, word is that one of those systems, the Sophisti DD-3 is actually shipping--or about to ship--in the U.S. It carries a list price of $999.95 and seems semi-intriguing on paper.

JVC calls the 3.1-speaker system, "A new type of home theater system, featuring a Network Media Player that serves as the nerve center of the home … Read more

The pink-gadget craze is far from over, contrary to some speculation, if JVC-Victor's latest release is any indication. Among the company's new line of TVs released in Japan was a 37-inch pink model (with matching remote, of course). Technical information is a bit hard to come by, other than its 1,366x768 resolution. But Engadget has the most pertinent information anyway: It also comes in brown, beige and silver.

There's still no word on whether the TiVo Series3 will be seeing a price cut in the near future. But in the meantime, it's worth visiting an issue that cropped up during our testing of the box back in the fall of 2006. At that time, we noticed that the Series3 analog-video outputs exhibited some strange behavior when connected to JVC A/V receivers via HDMI--essentially, the composite and S-video outputs wouldn't work when playing back recordings that were flagged as "restricted" by the content provider.

Both TiVo and JVC have since followed up on … Read more

We may have been fantasizing about beaches in the South Pacific but, alas, today's freezing winds have jolted us out of our dreams. So before we shake the mothballs off our Tommy Bahama shirts, it might be more prudent to look into these "JVC Earwarmer" headphones. "Rock retro-chic with the big headphones that all the cool kids are wearing," as Shiny Shiny says. Right, that's us. We'll be secretly playing the Beach Boys.

Convergence is the name of the digital game at CES 2007. Music players become phones, phones become GPS devices, and GPS devices become music players. In the latest effort to combine two previously distinct products, JVC Mobile has integrated an 3.5-inch color LCD screen into the faceplate of a in-car stereo head unit to provide drivers with movies, music and directions in one after-market device.

The KD-NX5000, on display at CES for the first time, is an impressive product. Its 16GB hard drive-based navigation system contains 13 million points of interest and comes with a built-in RDS-TMC traffic tuner … Read more

The highlight of JVC's Everio models for 2007 is the Gigabrid image-processing engine--an update that's sorely needed, given the poor quality we've seen from past single-chip units. And it must be better than its predecessor, Megabrid, because it's Giga, right? They all have 30GB hard drives, and JVC has added support for high-capacity SD cards, as well as compatibility with the company's DVD dock. The MG555 gets a bump up to a 5-megapixel sensor, too.

GZ-MG130, $499.95, January

GZ-MG155, $599.95, February

GZ-MG255, $699.95, February

GZ-MG555, $899.95, March

Leave it to JVC to do something just a little bit different with its high-end consumer products. The company's Everio GZ-HD7, announced today at CES, has all the right creds: three progressive-scan 1/5-inch chips; a Fujinon HD broadcast lens; a hard disk capable of recording five hours of maximum-quality video; and a reasonable $1,799.95 price tag. JVC bills the GZ-HD7 as the first consumer model that records full HD video, which might be true; I could swear that Sony's AVCHD models record at the same 1920x1080 resolution, but I don't have time to check (… Read more

JVC, purveyor of LCoS-based rear-projection HDTVs such as the well-performing HD-56FN97, today announced a pair of superslim models designed to "easily fit on most stands and furniture designed for flat-panel TVs" according to the press release. The 58-inch HD-58S998 (January, $3,300 selling price) and the 65-inch HD-65S998 (March, $4,200) occupy a mere 10.7 inches and 11.6 inches of depth respectively. The company is marketing a stand (pictured, right) and a wall-mount bracket that allows these TVs to hang over the fireplace, plasma-style.