Viewing:
I started with The Fifth Element. The opening credits roll through the blackness of space in bright white lettering. The white looked great, crisp with no blurring into the deep black background. The earth moved into the frame from outer space as a glorious blue orb covered with puffy bluish/white clouds. It looked just like I imagine the earth would look from space. The blacks and whites were clear and crisp and the color looked great,
In the next scene, a massive stone monolith stands against a blue, pixilated or tiled sky. Picture quality lacked detail and the whole dulled scene looked flat. Once the scene shifted to a close-up, the detail and picture quality became great. Flesh tones and the sandstone looked very good and shadow details were excellent. I went back to the opening scene with the tiled sky and, by changing the Brightness to 44, it looked better but not perfect without degrading the shadow details. In a later scene, you can see the fine detail in a cat's fur, its great big green eye and the pink skin in its ears. Very cute cat and excellent detail on this shot.
Next, I watched the widescreen version of Finding Nemo. In the THX demo clip that opens the feature, all of the colors were rich, with deep reds and chromes. Moving on to the feature itself, sunlight pours through the water. The water and light looked good with no real tiling problems, but the plankton detail was weak. In tighter shots, details were much better and tiling was nowhere.
Inside the cave, shadow detail again was good. I could see the roof's rocky surface and green growths. Overall, shadow details were clear and on par with some of the best screens we have tested. Inside the sea anemone, the orange body colors were just on the edge of being too bright and blooming. I was tempted to readjust the color controls but didn't because all the other colors looked just right. Surface details, like Mr. Ray's skin and the anchor chains' rust and forging marks looked realistic and were plainly visible.
The off-axis viewing angles on the MV7000 were excellent. Even at extreme left and right sitting positions, the picture maintained its color and brightness integrity. The MV7000 also did a great job on its vertical viewing angles.
Conclusion:
The MV7000 has a lot going for it. I love that the DVD loads into a slot on the side of the screen with no doors or flaps to mess with. If it came with a mounting shroud and wired FM modulator, it would be hard not rate this as a "Must Look At" product. But I can still tell you to check it out if you're in the market for a top performing flip-down. The MV7000 has great picture quality and is easy to use, and that makes it a winner.
Setup And Tuning
To get the best performance out of your video screen, get a test DVD disc that will walk you through the proper video levels to get the maximum picture quality. This month, I used the AVIA Guide to Home Theater DVD, which uses a series of test patterns including "Needle Points and Steps" for White Level or Contrast, "Black Bars + Half Gray" for Black Level or Brightness, "Sharpness," "Saturation" (Color) and "Hue" (Tint) test pattern. For more info on how to tune your picture using this disk, go to
www.caraudiomag.com.