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JVC goes 4K with new Diamond TV line

JVC has announced its new Diamond series of 4K televisions which will feature bundled Roku Streaming Sticks, HDMI 2.0 compatibility, and local dimming.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
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Ty Pendlebury

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JVC

Despite being on the market for over 18 months , there are still relatively few 4K TVs out there in the wild. There's either the big guys -- Sony, Samsung, and so forth -- or a couple of cheap Chinese models from the likes of Seiki . There is still plenty of room out there for the JVCs of this world to play, and so JVC (via AmTran) has just announced three new 4K models coming in September of this year.

The new Diamond series will come in 55-inch ($999), 65-inch ($1,999), and 85-inch ($7,999) variations, and could rival the Vizio P-series (due in the Fall) for features if not even picture quality. Crucially, the 65-inch DM65USR will feature direct LEDs with 32 local dimming zones, while the 85-inch will feature 64 zones of dimming.

The TVs includes five HDMI ports with four including version 2.0, as well as HDCP 2.2 (for streaming 4K content).

Unusually, the models will come with two choices of smart TV systems, including its own roll-your-own version of Android TV, which features a slick-looking wheel UI, as well as a bundled Roku Streaming Stick . Like the 2014 Vizio televisions, the JVC models will not offer 3D.

If you're looking for something simpler, JVC has just started shipping its 1080p EM-FTR series, which comes in a variety of sizes, from the $429 42-inch up to the $1,399 65-inch version. These will also ship with a Roku Stick, and while they are also direct LED, they are not local dimming.