15 out of 15 people found this review helpful.
Sharp LCD amazing picture as long you are HD.
Date of Review: Jul 4, 2007
The Bottom Line: Sharp still makes the best LCD. Sony and others will not let Sharp rest. As it should be and great for all of us.
First and foremost let me share I have none of the banding issues others have experienced. The Sharp shows a fantastic picture in HD. For now just using Cable HD, but will get a Sony PS-3 for the Blu-ray and a Toshiba A2 series HD DVD player for the high res playback on disc. The Sony and Toshiba offer upconversion to 1080p not that I could really tell or care on a 42" but it is nice for the gaming I intend to do where processing IS the most important thing.
An alliance with Phillips and LG is curious, but sensible in that Sharp has never really had high volume capacity like the Taiwan, and Korean houses today.
Standard Definition playback on the Sharp is poor. My Loewe TV blows it away. It is a ED TV of the late 90s and still is amazing. It is one of the most amazing in that I.S.F. techs have trained on these T.V.s due to their NTSC standard accuracy. This LCD will scale to 1080p.
Processing seems with this Sharp and other TVs I have seen favor greatly the HD signals much more than SD. Really makes you want to always watch in High Def. Not necessarily a bad thing if you have a great selection of program and station choices. I will probably this August jump over to Satellite because of the greater selection over cable. Picture quality is superior too.
picture quality impressions. With O.P.C. set properly and contrast and brightness taken out of Demo factory setting, black level is very good with a nary of black crush or clipping. Color saturation is very good too. The SMPTE color bar test and a blue channel filter gel to set color balance is a big help.
Sharpness is good but not perfect. A nary of dot crawl, and aliasing, but very minor. Compared to other LCDs I have seen, the Sharp is very clear. Avoid over sharpening but unlike most displays turning the sharpness off really does dull the picture with poor edge definition. Finally a TV that has a proper sharpness control. Most TVs you move the sharpness all the way to the left or off to get max sharpness. Cranking up sharpness usually increases haloing or ghosting of edge detail.
Hue or tint behaves as it should with nothing remarkable.
Picture alignment or pincushion adjustment is dead on with a user adjustment for position both vertical and horizontal.
IN processing no noticeable motion artifacts or comets indicating great processing and very good refresh rate.
Menus themselves are usual Sharp excellent standards in simplicity and completeness for the average consumer. My fear often is that the higher level adjustment for ISF techs is too easily accessible to the consumer, and more headaches ensue when the customer has to bother for no good reason.
Tuner performance is no comment since I use a separate tuner/decoder/DVR.
Of note. This TV is heavy about 66 pounds. Have a friend help you when mounting. Wall mounts are always extra. You get in the box, the LCD panel,tabletop stand,power cord, remote, and instructions. That is it. HDMI connections are 2 with 2 component inputs and the requisite composite and S video for those vintage technologies. Optical Digital out for Dolby Digital out. 1 Antenna input RF.
Takes the peanut shaped or Pioneer like power cord. Not an IEC power cable.
Remote is sensible and nothing rocket science about it. Drives the TV fine, but I use a universal remote so the Sharp remote is idle most of the time except for major adjustment settings. On the Sharp remote are the requisite power, next is the transport controlling, 10 key pad, input and flashback buttons. The navigation quadrant next, than favorite channel buttons...of which are 4 favorite buttons. Flanking the navigation quadrant is freeze,menu,exit,return.
Final comments and use. I enjoy this Sharp very much and must say I have no regrets in buying it. I will have an I.S.F. Technician calibrate this LCD for proper NTSC broadcast in my varying light conditions and source material. Gaming, Tv watching for me with the exception of standard def has never been more fun and enjoyable.
Associated equipment. Pioneer Elite VSX-49tx AV reciever,Denon DVD-1730 DVD player, Scientific Atlanta decoder with DVR,Energy Veritas center, Left and right Energy towers with integral Powered Subwoofers. NHT SB-2 surround speakers on Lovan Affiniti stands, Raymond power cord on Pioneer Elite AV receiver. Audioquest optical digital cables, Accell ultra AV HDMI cable. Monster power HTS-1000 mk.1 for power management. Tie it all together with the Omnimount G3FP stand with built in LCD pillar and mount for any display up to 60 inches. Plasma or LCD compatible. V.C. thank you for reading.
