Sharp P50 - 32" or 37" model?

[Jim Barry]

I've decided on the Sharp P50, but I can't decide whether to go for the 32" or 37" model. Other than the significantly higher price, is there any reason not to go for the larger model? My viewing distance will be about 2.5 metres (8 ft). I'm sure the LC32P50E would be perfectly adequate at that distance, but I'd quite like the extra "immersion" offered by the LC37P50E. Or would I just end up noticing picture imperfections such as compression artifacts more due to the larger screen size?

 

[kmhtkmhtkmht]

They are both too tine for me.

Go for the 37 - bigger is always better. (not too big, otherwise you'll get a headache.

 

[scrapbook]

I've decided on the Sharp P50, but I can't decide whether to go for the 32" or 37" model. Other than the significantly higher price, is there any reason not to go for the larger model? My viewing distance will be about 2.5 metres (8 ft). I'm sure the LC32P50E would be perfectly adequate at that distance, but I'd quite like the extra "immersion" offered by the LC37P50E. Or would I just end up noticing picture imperfections such as compression artifacts more due to the larger screen size?

Yep, go for the 37".

I sit at about the same distance away from the TV as you and tested both a 32" LCD and 37" Plasma at home.

I expected the 37" Plasma to be far too big, even more so after seeing the 32" LCD set up. To our surprise once the 37" has been set up it was the better size, even the Mrs thought so and she is very tought to please in these matters!

And once you have watched Gladiator on a 37" you wont ever think 32" again!

 

[3Dgeek]

My viewing distance is 7-8ft, i bought the 32" and i really wish (now i've seen the picture quality) that i had bought the 37, you will notice defects more but when HD finally gets here it will look even better.


Reuben

 

[Jim Barry]

My viewing distance is 7-8ft, i bought the 32" and i really wish (now i've seen the picture quality) that i had bought the 37, you will notice defects more but when HD finally gets here it will look even better.

There won't actually be any more resolution, of course, because the panel is only 960x540, to suit PAL. But yes, downscaled HD will look better due to the higher bitrate. But by the time HD is a reality, I expect I'll have my eye on a new TV anyway!

 

[neilmcl]

There won't actually be any more resolution, of course, because the panel is only 960x540, to suit PAL. But yes, downscaled HD will look better due to the higher bitrate. But by the time HD is a reality, I expect I'll have my eye on a new TV anyway!

Yeah, if you can go for the 37". I sit between 8-11 ft depending on which chair I'm in and the picture is fine, in fact if they made a 40" version I would have gone for that. You only notice any artifacts if you're within a couple of feet or if the broadcast is particularly bad.

 

[Jim Barry]

You guys are just telling me what I want to hear! Well, the deed is done. Digisaurus seems to have the best deal - £1160 all in, and that includes a free DVD player, which I'm sure I can find a use for. I just hope I am doing the right thing, after my previous disappointment with the Samsung...

 

[neilmcl]

You guys are just telling me what I want to hear! Well, the deed is done. Digisaurus seems to have the best deal - £1160 all in, and that includes a free DVD player, which I'm sure I can find a use for. I just hope I am doing the right thing, after my previous disappointment with the Samsung...

Crampton & Moore have the 37" available at £1199 so if you have a local John Lewis store you could do what I did and get them to price match C&M, it'll be worth it as you'll get JL's 5yr warranty incl.

 

[blakey1]

Crampton & Moore have the 37" available at £1199 so if you have a local John Lewis store you could do what I did and get them to price match C&M, it'll be worth it as you'll get JL's 5yr warranty incl.

Does anyone know if C&M display prices in store and if their internet prices are the same as their instore price.

 

[neilmcl]

Does anyone know if C&M display prices in store and if their internet prices are the same as their instore price.

Yes, if you read my ear;ier post you'll see that I got a JL price match, so they must do.

 

[Jim Barry]

Crampton & Moore have the 37" available at £1199 so if you have a local John Lewis store you could do what I did and get them to price match C&M, it'll be worth it as you'll get JL's 5yr warranty incl.

Damn, too late

I do wish JL would be a bit more competitively priced in the first place... seems like everything is pretty much at manufacturer's list price unless you force a price match.

 

[blakey1]

From what I understand some branches of JL are refusing to price match C/M as they say that C/M do not advertise prices in their shops.

 

[neilmcl]

From what I understand some branches of JL are refusing to price match C/M as they say that C/M do not advertise prices in their shops.

I would fin one that does then, for example Nottingham, then get the JL nearest to you to give the same price. They can't/shouldn't refuse if another branch has given you a match, if they do complain to head office as it's a national policy after all.

 

[FlyingBig]

Keep me posted SirSleepalot, i have picked up an interest in one of these tvs as well. Please post your thoughts no matter how small or big they may be so i can get a good idea of how good this tv is.

 

[Jim Barry]

On Sunday, my Pace Twin television recorder and I paid a visit to my local Currys, where the staff were good enough to let me "plug 'n play" to my heart's desire. I was generally very impressed with the PQ of both the 32 and 37 inch sets. Other than size, there was no discernable difference between the two; one is simply a slightly bigger version of the other. I noticed that turning the sharpness control down from -9 to -10 resulted in a sudden increase in blurriness - a sure sign that the sharpening is completely disabled at the -10 setting. This was very good news indeed. While the unpleasant "edge enhancement" effects disappeared at -10, the picture did look a bit "soft", but I am sure this is simply due to limitations of analogue signal transmission over SCART (even with the high quality IXOS cable I took with me). I think this set will be fantastic with digital 576i50 or 576p50 input, if somebody would just bring out a Freeview twin-tuner hard disk television recorder with HDMI output (DVD recording would be nice too). In the meantime, the input via SCART is good enough to be going on with, though I still cannot honestly say that the PQ is better than the Sony KV32FQ75 CRT that it will be replacing (geometry and convergence issues aside). I will post more after I have taken delivery of my new TV!

 

[ccantle]

SirSleepalot

My Sharp LC32P50E arrived last friday and I would recommend this LCD TV to anyone who wants a quality PAL picture. The picture from my NTL box through RGB scart looks amazing even with the out of the box factory settings. The cheapest I found it was £775 at 'AJ Electronics' with free delivery, which arrived next day.

Just need to get a DVD player with HDMI output to free up one of the scarts. Does anyone recommened one.

 

[Jim Barry]

Just got my LC37P50E. After having adjusted the horrendous default picture settings, I'm very impressed with it. The 37" model was definitely the right choice! The picture with PAL sources is clearly superior to what is achieved with 768-line panels. I imagine 720p sources will look pretty good too, scaled down by exactly 3/4 to fit the 540-line panel. This is definitely the TV to see me through until HD is a reality in 5-10 years and 1920x1080 panels are the norm.

 

[Bunter1815]

Just got my LC37P50E. After having adjusted the horrendous default picture settings, I'm very impressed with it. The 37" model was definitely the right choice! The picture with PAL sources is clearly superior to what is achieved with 768-line panels. I imagine 720p sources will look pretty good too, scaled down by exactly 3/4 to fit the 540-line panel. This is definitely the TV to see me through until HD is a reality in 5-10 years and 1920x1080 panels are the norm.

If you have Freeview, how does it look with that source?

Thanks

Bill

 

[Richot]

SirSleepalot

My Sharp LC32P50E arrived last friday and I would recommend this LCD TV to anyone who wants a quality PAL picture. The picture from my NTL box through RGB scart looks amazing even with the out of the box factory settings. The cheapest I found it was £775 at 'AJ Electronics' with free delivery, which arrived next day.

Just need to get a DVD player with HDMI output to free up one of the scarts. Does anyone recommened one.

I could be wrong, but don't HDMI DVD players upscale to 720p, which is pointless on this PAL optimised set?

 

[danvitale]

They should upscale to whatever you want it to. 576p? Sounds about right.

 

[Jim Barry]

If you have Freeview, how does it look with that source?

Extremely variable. Higher quality source material looks great, for example I am watching Jools Holland right now and it looks fantastic. However, lower quality material looks terrible because LCD tends to accentuate the compression artifacts etc, whereas CRTs are much more forgiving due to their inherent fuzz factor. The first thing to do when trying to get a decent picture on an LCD is to turn the sharpness control right down.