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dad1153 said:With the blessing of our own Therese (wpwj40e) I'm starting a thread for new owners of the Sharp 1080p AQUOS LCD's to discuss picture settings, tweaks, etc. using her first-hand accounts from the LC-52D62U TV set she just purchased. Please don't post/ask about prices, where you can buy one, what's the best deal online, etc. This is a thread for people that have bought (or are certain that they're buying) a 42D62U, 46D62U or 52D62U Sharp AQUOS and want to share experiences. Let's start with links to specs for each individual model based on Sharp's own website:
Sharp LC-42D62U: http://www.sharpusa.com/products/ModelLanding/0,1058,1761,00.html
Sharp LC-46D62U: http://www.sharpusa.com/products/ModelLanding/1,1058,1745,00.html
Sharp LC-52D62U: http://www.sharpusa.com/products/ModelLanding/1,1058,1744,00.html
Please note that the 42" model is not manufactured by Sharp at its new Kameyana II plant and doesn't share the 2,000:1contrast ration as its 46" and 52" brothers have (the 42"'s contrast ratio is listed as 1,200:1). This doesn't mean the 42" is a bad or terrible 1080p LCD, but it's also not as 'tricked out' as its 46" and 52" counterparts. Speaking of Sharp's Kameyana II plant, it's a brand new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Japan that Sharp is touting as much as the LCD's themselves. It's suppposed to speed-up and improve the manufacturing of big-screen AQUOS LCD's with more efficiency and quick turnarond. It's built next to Kameyana I, the assembly planet Sharp still uses for the manufacturing of smaller AQUOS LCD's (like the 37D90U and others).
Here are the impressions, in chronological order, of Therese's experiences with her Sharp LC-52D62U from her postings on the big 'Sharp D62U Line' thread (:http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=718029&page=1&pp=30). I've skipped a few irrelevant posts and concentrated on the posts that have the most useful information.:
10/06/06, 6:58PM:
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Do not have time to read the past two pages of impressions - but I skimmed...so will try and address what some others have reported...
Here's my take, with the usual disclaimors...IMHO, YMMV etc...
Best Buy is the WORST place to try and evaluate a set. The loop feed is horrid and they refuse to really hook up a bunch of sources. That said I was in 3 Best Buy's today viewing this set.
I will concentrate on the place where I had a Pioneer 6071 and a Sony 40" XBR2 right next to it.
The first thing I did was to dial in the two adjacent sets correctly - using my settings of choice posted numerous times in the repsective threads.
Now onto the Sharp...
There is a pronounced red push. Much more so than I have seen with other sets. It took about 30 minutes of tweaking to ALLEVIATE it - as in GONE. So while outta box - it is there - it can be easily tweaked away. Lets move onto PQ...
First off - this set has the best black and contrast levels of any LCD I have evern seen. I would go as far to say that it is just as good as the Pioneer and better than the Sony XBR2/3. You need to dial down the backlight and run some other adjustments - when done the black and detail levels are FANTASTIC. Let me repeat...the BEST I have ever seen on any LCD - very close if not on par with the Pioneer.
If you are familiar with the BB loop - there is a section where they are showing a football game - the black logo in center field was pitch black - WITHOUT crushing and you could make out the individual grass strands that were colored black. Not dark gray or charcoal black, but black black. There are several scenes where there is a man wearing a black jacket with a black tshirt underneath. The tshirt has more "texture" to it and is BLACK, while the jacket stood out as black as well. Clearly seeing the difference in the two materials.
I could go on and on about the black levels and the contrast - but it is there and in spades!!!!
Color is very good (once dialed in) and on par with the Sony and equally as bright and vibrant as the Pioneer. Because of the great contrast and black levels the color just "pops" off the screen and there is a great deal of depth to the image.
I found the picture to be much less noisy than the Sony XBR - much more smooth - more like the Pioneer. Yes - when standing within 2 feet there clearly was noise (mosquito and some macroblocking) this was eveident on all sets showing the feed - the Sharp did a stellar job handling it and at 7-8 ft back (my viewing distance) the picture appeared clean, smooth and detailed.
The PQ appeared a tad, I mean minor, but noticeable when comparing it - a tad softer than that of the SOny. This could have been size related (52" versus 40") but you could see it was just ever so slightly softer than that of the Sony. It was also so much cleaner than the Sony - that I would give up that minor softness for the less noisy picture.
There were quite a few options on the set such as setting different modes, color space etc. I played with a few. They do seem very sensitive.
Aesthetically - I LOVE the looks of this set. I did not find the Piano black bezel to be at all distracting, in fact it just made the PQ seem all the more deep.
The Sharp does not have individual RGB settings and it really took me awhile to play with the color temp, modes etc to dial it in. My major gripe would be the lack of fine tune color control.
Well - there's a few thoughts - and if I think of more I will post.
Oh...and I liked the set so much - I bought it
BB can be negotiated with
Therese
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10/07/06, 12:01AM:
Sorry for the hyperbole. I was short on time. Dial the backlight down, play with contrast and make sure all external processsing is off. I am very comfortable reporting on dithering and posterization within black levels as well as contouring and other artifacts. You can clearly see these on many displays. The Sharp was holding it's own. Since I had these sets next to each other with NO overhead lights - am comfortable with what I saw. Yes - I saw the house scenes and I know very well how bad these can look.
You would have to know me well to understand that I can get s Panny/Nec/Sony for well off the current MSRP. Ridiculous $$$$, if you may. However, I have not been convinced for my viewing conditions that any of the current displays (bar the 65 1080p) from these mfg's would meet my needs. I feel the Sharp does.
I agree the in store setup is a mess - but quite frankly - so it is for the Panny and the Sony and the Pioneer FHD. If you use the store, thier lighting and thier default settings to evaluate these sets - you are doing yourself a disservice.
The best 1080p set out there today is clearly the FHD by Pioneer, after that - well go for it. I think the Sony XBR is tops - but - it has a noisy picture. I don't care how you cut it or what you do - the PQ on this set without the most pristine of sources is noisy. I liked the Sharp - even though I feel it has a softer picture and it cost me more than the Sony.
So hyperbole or not - I am telling it like I see it. Hence my disclaimor...I will bring it home and if it does not hold up will report that as well. I have sent a a set back that did not meet what I needed. So have no problem saying so...
Therese
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10/07/06, 12:34AM:
You simply cannot evaluate a set at BB without seriously tweaking and dealing with the light conditions. Panny set in vivid or the Sony XBR in its default or the Pionner FHD etc. This set (Sharp)does not show well with default settings connected to a coax feed split god knows how many ways.
I would say the same about just about any set at BB. I am not trying to justify my purchase and if when I get it home it does not perform - back it goes. But you can get an indication of performance....
I have seen the Sony a bunch of times and set it up for friends. It was the top LCD contender for me. I however, could not get over how noisy the PQ was, the smearing I had witnessed or how poorly it handles sub par signals. It clearly has some of the best black levels of LCD's on the market and with a pristine signal - is/was about the best I have seen. The flowers on the Sony feed are soemthing to behold. I do not believe the Sharp has beat it in producing the best PQ for the most pristine of signals. It is my impression that the Sharp is softer in detail than the Sony.
I am very much enthralled with black levels and contrast. After playing with the Sharp for the better part of 4 hours in 3 different settings - I saw enough to convince me that the set could deliver. Better than my Panny - well I will know tomorrow Better than the Sony - yes - by a slight margin. Comparable with the Pioneer in the in store set up - yes. That will go against what plasma owners have said and see to day on thier panels - but the Sharp is very, very good here. I spent 1.5 hours doing nothing but playing to compare black and contrast levels. I guess I got convinced - YMMV...
The colors as set by default are not great - clearly a red push. I was quite frustrated trying ot get rid of it...I did...but without RGB settings it is not easy. I feel the lack of finer tuned color control is an issue and hope to find SM settings to really dial this in. It got good - but never great...and it feels like it can get there....
I was able to dial it in to the same level for the Sony and you would be hard pressed to tell the difference.
I have seen the comments regarding the noisier picture on the Sharp versus the Sony - all I can say is I do not understand. These are both great sets and the SOny offers MANY more features than the Sharp as well as inputs and calibration opportunities. But a noise free picture...well...its very hard to achieve on the Sony...IMHO.
The Sharp has several less inputs and the manual has a wierd PC input chart that does not make any sense. It claims to accept ful 1080p on the HDMI inputs but less so using a PC source. Since this does not make any sense - I fear that trial and error will be the only way to determine what the Sharp truly accepts. That will be one of the first tests I do tomorrow when I get it!
I will post more when I get the actual tv tomorrow and have a chance to really put it through the wringer!
Therese
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10/07/06, 10:17AM:
As I recall there were some major "negative" reviews(when first released from casual in store viewing) with the Sony...amd the Samsung...and the...well you get the picture
Certainly I did not try all sources/inputs and get a chance to really test this set. By buying localy with a 30 day return policy - I feel comfortable that I will either dial in this set and find out what I perceived in the store it can do - or back to the drawing board.
When I tested the Sony/samsung/Jvc and others I either had them in my home, a friends home and was able to work with a dealer that allowed me to play with these sets extensivley in store with many feeds for many hours and days
BB was not that accomodating. I saw enough that I felt it was worth the hassle to get it home and really test it out. Given the return policy of a local buy - this was pretty risk free. So here's whats on the plate to test:
PC /HDMI 1:1 W/O overscan
HD DVD - PQ, Black Levels
HD DVR(Sa 8300) - Video 1080i, 480i/480p
SD PQ - Strecth & Non Stretch Modes
Noisy Video
SD DDV Upscaling & de interlacing
Backlight leakage/banding
Pixels
XBOX 360 - PQ and motion
Sports 1080i/720 p - Motion
Picture settings per input/and calibration capabilities - memories etc
OTA reception/tuning
If you guys can think of more I have multiple DVD players, mutliple HD DVR boxes (SA 8200 and DTV box), Mac And Win OS boxes etc.
Therese
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10/07/06, 10:23AM
the manual had a very starnge take on this. Had a paragraph exlaining how to set up many devices via HDMI and setting the output to 1080p. Then had a PC section further down the page (doing this from memory) stating the acceptable PC resolution. Went as high as 13xx by 1024. For the life of me cannot figure this out as you are connecting via HDMI and if sending a 1080p signal - why the discrepency?
Anyways - Rest assured it will be among the FIRST things I test out when my set arrives!
Therese
[EDIT: keep reading, because Therese discovered when she tested her 52D62U set at home that this is bogus and the PC resolution doesn't suffer from the limitations the manual talks about].
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10/07/07,4:38PM:
Just taking a breather for a few minutes and back to the "lab" I go
Sd is very good. My family insisted that was the first thing I checked - going to PC next. The smart stretch is wonderful. They have full blessed watching Sd from 7 feet. I personally don't thinks its that good and since I rarely if ever watch SD - as long as they are happy - well thats all that counts. From about 9-10' SD looks darn good and on digital SD stations - while not HD - very very good. I would even say comperable to my Panny ED and that is saying alot!!!
Since I do not want to start a war on who's set is better - suffice to say - those that watch a fair amount of Sd and are used to CRT - will not have a problem with this set.Remember this is SD at 52"
And it is watchable!
Therese
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10/07/06, 5:42PM:
Quick Update. Posting from my new display!!
Yes it does 1:1 via HDMI with NO overscan. I have taken a few pics which I will get up later. Using an iMac at the moment - with an ATI card. Recognizes the Sharp and since Im on a MAC I can choose the Sharp HDMI colorspace from my MAC - or you gotta love this...You can go to the Sharp HDMI setup window on the TV and select the signal type of either RGB, YCbCr 4:4:4 or YCbCr 4:2:2.
You can pretty much get any color space you want between the Sharp's capabilities and if you have a MAC - the Mac OS capabilities.
Yep - Am LOVING the 1:1 and the PC res. BTW - Looks everybit as good as the PC res over on the Westy thats up in my kids room. They want the bigger set - not gonna happen!!!!
I also just discovered a bunch of new modes buried under the slider in the remote. Guess it helps to actually read the manual. So now gonna go play some more...
Keeping in mind the manual leaves alot to be desired - clearly has the whole PC thing ALL wrong.
And my pictures on this set.....Stops...'Cause I really don't want to gush - but picture slideshows on this monster....okay gonna gush...drop dead gorgeous. I did not know I took such great photo's
Therese
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10/07/06, 6:05PM:
Confirmed. Yes it DOES accept 1080p via HDMI. 1:1 and no overscan using dot by dot mode.
