Very fine TV, August 20, 2009

By 

a scientist (US) – See all my reviews

  

Quality

I had another LCD Sharp for four years before this one. That one has survived two cross-country moves and the pixels are still perfect. My feeling is that Sharp’s panels tend to have fewer dead pixels than their competition. Also, there are many fewer complaints about the sets suddenly not turning on after two months (in stark contrast to Samsung). So I regard Sharp as a high-quality but relatively cheap LCD TV maker.

Picture

The picture quality is fine (I’m not a videophile) and HDTV really is lovely. Imagine being able to see the food served on the Food network… to say nothing of a football or golf ball. I like the 120MHz motion de-juddering, but I have it turned to low rather than high. It really is quite unnatural in the high setting – everything looks like an episode of the Teletubbies. Maybe I’ll get used to it. The “OPC” thing is annoying, but you can turn it off and/or stop the little leaves from appearing every thirty seconds. I think it has something to do with dynamic contrast, which takes the ambient light in the room into account, but I can’t be sure. Suffice it to say, the picture is pretty good.

Sound

Also fine – how loud do you want it? Actually, the bass is a little overdone, but I’ve hooked up a soundbar and everything sounds great now. Nicely enough, this set acts a bit like a receiver: all my audio signals get channelled into the TV through HDMI connections and then I use a digital audio output to send it to my soundbar. I don’t need multiple wires to connect my soundbar. I thought that was a nice feature.

Set-up

Easy. Clear manual. Good menus. Functional remote control (which also operates my other Sharp TV and looks almost identical!).

Why buy?

The styling is fine. It’s not as thin as the latest Samsungs but it’s only 40 lb (that’s considerably lighter than last year’s D85U, which this replaces) and the design works well.

It’s energy efficient. Again, only the much more expensive Samsung LED-based LCDs are better, but they don’t have even lighting across the whole screen. Oh, there’s a Philips Eco-TV, too, but I never saw that in the shops.

It’s high quality and does the job. Basically, it’s a brand name product with the latest technology at a no-name price.

Why only 4 stars?

I wanted an LED set! No, seriously, this is a great TV with plenty of inputs (9 by my count, of which 5 are HDMI) and it’s energy efficient and light enough to transport or wall-mount. It’s not the lightest or the brightest or the loudest or the fastest, nor is it the cheapest, but it’s a good compromise on all those things.

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Several pros, some cons., August 20, 2009

By 

Javier Ortega Ramirez “Javier Ortega” (Monterrey, Mexico) – See all my reviews

  

I got this LCD to replace an Aquos 42D65U; mainly because of my old set lacked a 10-bit panel and 120Hz video processor, features that are present with this set.

I am kind of picky regarding features and while some people might think Im a bit exaggerated regarding details this review is to address anyone whom needs to know specific details to help to decide about getting this set.

PROS:

-There are a lot of options in the menu that let you fine-tune the calibration of the image. If you own a calibration DVD or Blu ray you can easily achieve a perfect image and color balance that can also be tweaked to your personal taste.

-Input lag in GAME Mode is practically inexistent; I read that some brands have severe input lag while other brands also offer some sort of GAME mode to reduce such lag, but after personal comparisons SHARP manages it better.

-120Hz processing gives you a very smooth image and not as exaggerated as displayed by other brands and also NO artifacts!

many people turn this option off because it sometimes look unnatural, and I agree. Watching a movie that looks like a soap opera its not cool and sometimes it looks just plain silly and eerie, but this set manages it without going to the extreme and looks smooth and natural…and you can just turn it off if it bothers you.

Also note this: NO artifacts!

CONS:

note: I repeat, Im picky, maybe you wont notice these CONS and if you do you may not give a lot of thought to it as they are not catastrophic faults.

-that 10-bit panel promise of smooth transition between colors is not quite true. While it certainly alliviates some instances of color transition, that step between different shades of the same color are still present, not a deal-breaker issue, maybe you even havent noticed it.

-Light Banding, If you dont know what banding is, dont look for it, dont go fishing for problems. Old Aquos set had this problem and VERY more noticeable than it is in this set; also not a deal-breaker but mildly annoying if you look for it and visible only in specific panning scenes.

-Transitions of skin tones in faces sometimes look a bit posterized, or softened. Im stubborn and picky I want to see the pores on averyone faces, be able to count the eyelashes! But if you watch TV from the recommended distance then its absolutely no problem and also it might be a matter of personal taste for some people since professionals recommend to set the sharpness of the picture at low settings. Turning down the Fine Motion and dejudder settings dont alleviate this issue, but as I said, its only somewhat visible in skin tones at close-ups, otherwise the details of objects are spot-on.

MOVIE and GAME modes are my recommended settings since I found both DYNAMICs, STANDARD, PC and USER modes more of a chore to calibrate and ultimately pointless since movie/game work perfect for me.

The picture is gorgeous, Blu Ray movies look amazing and both Xbox and PS3 also have excellent image quality and no lag. The price is really accesible compared to other brands and it might not have LAN connectivity or included content as weather widgets or cooking recipes as competing sets but you might already have several devices that offer those functions and its not a big deal.

So if you are disappointed in looking around the web or forums for those very specific details regarding this LCD I hope this helps you.

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Awesome picture!, April 16, 2009

Just setup the tv last night to watch the Blazer game (thumped Denver!!!). Incredible picture and the faster processor kept up with the action pretty well (120hz). Setup was a snap, very intuitive if you’ve plugged in most any other electronics/gaming systems.

The only knock on this set are the speakers which if turned up are flat and tinny. That is not a concern for us as we’ve wired for surround however if you do not have a sound system I would consider a sound bar.

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