Sharp Aquos LCD TV

[Roger]

Hi

I'm looking at LCD TV's (replacement for CRT 4:3) and in particular the Sharp LC-30HV2E (30 ins) or the LC-22SV2E (22 ins).

Has anyone got one of these or had a demo or seen one at a friends etc?

I understand from a review that the 22ins TV is very good and a comment was made that the TV tuner was much better than the 30 ins model. How bad is the 30 ins tuner?

Athough I would prefer the bigger screen, picture quality is paramount.

I also like the look of the Sony LCD TV's but the largest screen available seems to be 17 ins.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciate.

Roger

[hornydragon]

Saw one today at Dixons XL in cardiff and at £6k its twice the price of a 42" Plasma so I really dont think it is worth the money, for £9k you can have a 60" Plasma LCD TV's that I've seen have been poor in comparison to Plasma. is there any reason that you want LCD not Plasma???

[NeilMcRae]

In my view the 30inch is outstanding. I looked at it but it was too big for what I was looking for.

[LV426]

There are advantages of LCD over Plasma.

1: Life. The only part that 'wears' is the backlight, which Sharp claim has 60,000 hours life (more than you are ever likely to need)

2: Complete absence of any refresh-rate flicker

3: Complete absence of 'screen burn'.

And, as LCDs go, I reckon that the Sharps are some of the best I've seen - mainly because of the extremely wide viewing angle - much better than the (more expensive) Panasonic (comparing the 22in models).

[Roger]

Hi

Thanks all for your replies.

Hornydragon - I'm looking at LCD rather than Plasma for the reasons Nigel has set out in his reply.

As for price. This ranges from around £3000 to £4500 from what I have discovered so far.

Even at £3000 I want to be wowed with the quality compared to my basic nicam CRT TV.

The Sharp also has a connection for a PC and does't appear to have extra fearures I won't use (e.g PIP and Split Screen).

It's just a shame it'is not available in black (as far as I know).

Why are TV's only available in silver (other than Loewe and B&O)?

Roger

[Hikikomori]

I'm getting the 30" as soon as I can afford it

I've had a demo so I know quite a bit about it...

I live in a lousy area for electronic retailers though (the usual Currys & Dixons etc. that's about it ) but I did find a local guy selling/demoing them @ £4300 (he had 2 in stock) (You being in London should have no trouble finding someone who stocks them ).

It has got a twin tuner/split screen (what's the point? ), he played a DVD and watched ITV at the same time with it (can't be used when using PC VGA input though supposedly). The picture quality is pretty impressive (and you can see it perfectly from any angle you look at it ). It's nice and light too
The only thing I don't like about it is the remote... Ugliest I've seen for a long time IMO
Average online price is around £3000...


You can get a brochure from the Sharp Website (if you haven't got one already) - Brochure Request Form

You can also download the USA manual (can't find the English one online yet) Here (it's around 4MB in size)

[garydhooper]

I have seen a number of LCD displays including the Sharp 30” and have not been very impressed. To me there is something not quite right about the colours on all the LCD displays that I have seen. The colour seems somewhat metallic and this effect seems especially bad in darker scenes. All the LCDs that I have seen seem to struggle with analogue TV but give a reasonable picture quality with DVD. The Sharp does appear to be better than the other LCDs especially the Samsungs.

LCDs are lighter and smaller than CRT but I don’t think that anyone has ever claimed that the picture quality is as good as CRT. (Even though a 30” LCD is twice the price of the best similar sized CRT.) You are paying a premium for a new technology – not a better picture. Would you consider a 32” plasma such as the Hitachi 32PD3000 instead? This definitely appeared to have a better picture quality than any LCD I have seen.

[LV426]

Originally posted by garydhooper
...I donÂ’t think that anyone has ever claimed that the picture quality is as good as CRT

I think that's an unfair statement. The picture quality of LCDs is different to CRT - but that doesn't necessarily make it worse. For example - geometry and convergence ARE BOUND to be perfect; there will be NO visible refresh rate flicker, nor any voltage regulation 'bounce'. And they are improving in other respects all the time. The Sharp 30 is excellent, IMO.

For info - my local John Lewis store carries one of these on display.

[Roger]

Hi

I understand from Sharp they are updating the 30 ins model which should be in the shops around mid March.

The speakers will still be detachable and look similar to the 22 ins model.

Also the AV Centre box will be udpated but no detail about any other changes or improvements (e.g TV Tuner).

Besides the visual changes, the updated model can be identified as the LC-30HV4E.

If anyone has more info please post details.

Roger

LCD displays are the future, Plasmas and CRT:s will disappear the sooner the better.

[StooMonster]

Not until the colour reproduction is fixed they won't.

I have never seen either a print studio or video editing suite use LCD screens for graphics/video (only used for text editing, email, etc), but plenty with CRT and plasma; because colour reproduction is not accurate enough for professional editing.

Don't get me wrong, LCD has come a long way; but it's still got a long way to go IMHO.

StooMonster