JVC HD-58S998

[ Music ] >> Hi, I'm David Katzmaier, Senior Editor from CNET.com and I'm with JVC's HD 58S998. This is a 58 inch tv and you might not be able to tell from the front, but this is actually a rear projection television. It's not a plasma or an LCD. JVC's claim to fame is that it has less depth than pretty much any other 58 inch or that size rear projection tv we've ever seen. From the side this tv is really thin. In fact, JVC actually makes a wall mount kit you can buy for around 350 bucks and mount this thing right on the wall just like a flat panel tv. There's also a special stand down here that JVC sells for another 350 bucks. We really like the styling of this tv overall. One of the best things is this really thin bezzle around the edge of the screen here. Of course below the screen is your standard array of speakers and then this glossy finish here. All the inputs on this tv are on the side so again, to facilitate a wall mount. You can actually access all the inputs on the side of this tv instead of having to go around to the back which is another nice feature. In terms of other features, the JVC includes your standard two HGMI inputs, two component video inputs, there's also a PC input, although for a tv this high resolution, you can't really put in very high res computer signals. So that's kind of a downer. Another downer is the menu system itself. It's actually really kind of archaic looking and old school, but overall the design of this tv's really nice. When we took the JVC into the lab, we were generally impressed by most aspects of picture quality relatively good black levels and color accuracy, but there was one thing we couldn't really get over. With the horizontal lines on this tv, there's actually a little bit of geometric distortion so the corners bow up slightly. It kinda looks like a smile on the screen, especially when you have horizontal line like a ticker or a program grid on the screen. So again, with flat panel tv's, their geometry is usually perfect. So it's definitely one strike against the JVC in that department. Anyway, that's a quick look at the JVC HD58S998 and I'm David Katzmaier. ^M00:01:59 [ Music ]