Sunday, October 25, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Sharp LC46E77U Very pleased with our Sharp LC46E77U HDTV
We have had the LC46E77U for about a month and we are very pleased. We have the LC46E77U hooked to a Tivo HD box and digital cable. The combination is a true joy.
Setup is very easy. I really didn't have to do much. Setting up the picture was surprisingly simply... the picture was practically perfect out of the box. We have a 26" Samsung HDTV and setting up the the picture on that TV took a lot more tweeking. The controls were easy enough to use and I had a picture I was happy with in no time. The Tivo set up the channels for me, so no fuss with that.
I have the LC46E77U set to adjust automatically to the picture source and all HD and SD channels are clear and proportionate with side top bars where needed and the picture is never stretched, deformed or unclear.
HD channels are stunning. Very sharp, colors are just right. I have noticed that the quality of HD content can vary depending on the source. Some content seems to be shot and/or processed by better equipment. The very best HD content looks almost 3D. Series Equator and Planet Earth are so clear and vivid that I can't take my eyes off of it... and that's just on cable. I haven't even tried Blu-ray yet.
Sports on the LC46E77U look fantastic. I wanted the 120Hz feature for this reason and it doesn't disappoint. It's baseball season (the greatest sport ever invented) and it looks wonderful. I've seen some car racing, Tour de France and X-games and they all made me feel like I was right there at the event. I can't wait for football to start!
SD channels look very good. Of course we are hooked on the HD channels, but when we do need to watch something which is SD, it's really pretty good.
Viewing angles are very good and screen glare reduction is good. I have a sliding glass door in the room which is very bright in the morning. This is the only time I see reflections and they are not that bad. My old tube TV was much worse. The LC46E77U can automatically adjust to the light in the room and this seems to work well.
Sound is OK. I didn't expect much from a flat panel TV since the speakers have to be pretty small. There's really nothing wrong with the speakers; they are loud enough and don't sound tinny, but they do not have a very rich sound. I have the TV's analog audio output going to a pretty old stereo and the sound is quite good. I'm sure it would be even better with the optical audio output hooked to a more modern sound system, but I'm happy.
Watching DVDs with a Phillips DVD player which upscales to 1080P looks as good as the HD channels from cable. I don't have a Blu-Ray player but it's hard to imagine that it would look much better than the upscaling DVD. I think I can wait for the Blu-Ray prices to drop some more before going that route.
I have hooked a Macbook to the LC46E77U (via an HDMI to DVI-D cable) and it is amazing. The LC46E77U uses the full 1920x1080 from the Mac. We ran slide shows of our digital photos off the Mac and we were blown away by the perfect quality of our photos displayed on the 46" monitor. Photo viewing will never be the same at our house.
The cabinet is very attractive and well built. The gold champagne accent at the bottom of the bezel is subtle and nice. The swivel base is very handy if you want to reach around the back hook up an input.
There are plenty of input and output connectors on this TV. I can't imagine anyone would have a need for more. Having several connectors on the side is very nice.
Overall I am very pleased and really can't think of anything negative. For the price, quality and features, I don't think this set can be beat.
Setup is very easy. I really didn't have to do much. Setting up the picture was surprisingly simply... the picture was practically perfect out of the box. We have a 26" Samsung HDTV and setting up the the picture on that TV took a lot more tweeking. The controls were easy enough to use and I had a picture I was happy with in no time. The Tivo set up the channels for me, so no fuss with that.
I have the LC46E77U set to adjust automatically to the picture source and all HD and SD channels are clear and proportionate with side top bars where needed and the picture is never stretched, deformed or unclear.
HD channels are stunning. Very sharp, colors are just right. I have noticed that the quality of HD content can vary depending on the source. Some content seems to be shot and/or processed by better equipment. The very best HD content looks almost 3D. Series Equator and Planet Earth are so clear and vivid that I can't take my eyes off of it... and that's just on cable. I haven't even tried Blu-ray yet.
Sports on the LC46E77U look fantastic. I wanted the 120Hz feature for this reason and it doesn't disappoint. It's baseball season (the greatest sport ever invented) and it looks wonderful. I've seen some car racing, Tour de France and X-games and they all made me feel like I was right there at the event. I can't wait for football to start!
SD channels look very good. Of course we are hooked on the HD channels, but when we do need to watch something which is SD, it's really pretty good.
Viewing angles are very good and screen glare reduction is good. I have a sliding glass door in the room which is very bright in the morning. This is the only time I see reflections and they are not that bad. My old tube TV was much worse. The LC46E77U can automatically adjust to the light in the room and this seems to work well.
Sound is OK. I didn't expect much from a flat panel TV since the speakers have to be pretty small. There's really nothing wrong with the speakers; they are loud enough and don't sound tinny, but they do not have a very rich sound. I have the TV's analog audio output going to a pretty old stereo and the sound is quite good. I'm sure it would be even better with the optical audio output hooked to a more modern sound system, but I'm happy.
Watching DVDs with a Phillips DVD player which upscales to 1080P looks as good as the HD channels from cable. I don't have a Blu-Ray player but it's hard to imagine that it would look much better than the upscaling DVD. I think I can wait for the Blu-Ray prices to drop some more before going that route.
I have hooked a Macbook to the LC46E77U (via an HDMI to DVI-D cable) and it is amazing. The LC46E77U uses the full 1920x1080 from the Mac. We ran slide shows of our digital photos off the Mac and we were blown away by the perfect quality of our photos displayed on the 46" monitor. Photo viewing will never be the same at our house.
The cabinet is very attractive and well built. The gold champagne accent at the bottom of the bezel is subtle and nice. The swivel base is very handy if you want to reach around the back hook up an input.
There are plenty of input and output connectors on this TV. I can't imagine anyone would have a need for more. Having several connectors on the side is very nice.
Overall I am very pleased and really can't think of anything negative. For the price, quality and features, I don't think this set can be beat.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Sharp LC46E77U Bargain winner
Just purchased this gem a few days ago and its performance has been spectacular. Setup was quite easy and multiple tweaks allow you to view the picture according to your individual taste. Blu-ray movies are as clear as you could possibly want, and baseball and football games on high def cable are equally enjoyable to watch.
With this set, you don't need to spend big bucks to obtain superior performance. It's a bargain winner.
With this set, you don't need to spend big bucks to obtain superior performance. It's a bargain winner.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Sharp LC46E77U Competes with Sony/Samsung @ a better value
Spent time in stores before i bought this tv looking at all makes, models, brands. There are not alot of Sharp Aquos tvs in my area but plenty of the more expensive Sony and Samsungs.
Luckily for me my buddy bought the 52" 60 hz refresh of this model and I was able to see the beatiful picture.
Once I got the HD Direct tv service installed and adjusted the many picture related settings in this panel to my liking I am totally satisfied with my purchase.
The picture is, in my opinion perfect. HD programming looks so good its almost painful.
I have a PC in my living room attached to the panel via a DVI to HDMI cable. 700 MB DVD rips look flawless on this panel. No pixelation or atifacts with vivid vibrant color and lighting.
I dont use the speakers on the panel though i do use it to feed my Sony surround system with fixed output. It does not negatively impact sound quality.
I would highly reccomend this panel to anyone who wants high end features without the high end prices demanded by the bigger name manufacturers.
Most importantly image quality (once adjusted) cannot be beat.
The dynamic contrast and backlighting do a great job of changing picture settings with changing room lighting. I did find it best to limit the range of the OPC (auto backlighting feature) as I prefer a very bright picture.
The movie playback quality is unbelievable, especially considering the sometimes poor quality of video Im feeding it.
Spend some time adjusting this TV and you will be well rewarded.
Luckily for me my buddy bought the 52" 60 hz refresh of this model and I was able to see the beatiful picture.
Once I got the HD Direct tv service installed and adjusted the many picture related settings in this panel to my liking I am totally satisfied with my purchase.
The picture is, in my opinion perfect. HD programming looks so good its almost painful.
I have a PC in my living room attached to the panel via a DVI to HDMI cable. 700 MB DVD rips look flawless on this panel. No pixelation or atifacts with vivid vibrant color and lighting.
I dont use the speakers on the panel though i do use it to feed my Sony surround system with fixed output. It does not negatively impact sound quality.
I would highly reccomend this panel to anyone who wants high end features without the high end prices demanded by the bigger name manufacturers.
Most importantly image quality (once adjusted) cannot be beat.
The dynamic contrast and backlighting do a great job of changing picture settings with changing room lighting. I did find it best to limit the range of the OPC (auto backlighting feature) as I prefer a very bright picture.
The movie playback quality is unbelievable, especially considering the sometimes poor quality of video Im feeding it.
Spend some time adjusting this TV and you will be well rewarded.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Sharp LC46E77U Great picture
Excellent picture from this unit, with lots of HDMI, component, and composite video inputs. Viewing angle is excellent, and the automatic brightness adjustment works well.
This unit does a good job on handling standard (480i) inputs. The stretch mode will adjust a 480i picture to the size of the screen, maintaining the 4:3 ratio (i.e. black bars on the sides). The zoom mode is appropriate for letter-boxed DVDs and movies, and enlarges the letterbox to fill the screen, again maintaining the original aspect ratio. There are some additional stretching modes, including a "smart stretch" mode that pulls out the sides of a 4:3 image to fill the 16:9 screen without distorting the center of the image. Works fairly well, but not certain I'd use it.
For higher quality inputs, the available stretching modes are dynamically adjusted to a set appropriate for the input. I'll update further once I have more experience with them.
I've got a A/V system to handle the audio, so I have no comments there. One minor annoyance is that TV displays "No appropriate audio signal found" whenever the input or picture mode is changed. Well, duh. I haven't found a way to suppress that message yet.
This unit does a good job on handling standard (480i) inputs. The stretch mode will adjust a 480i picture to the size of the screen, maintaining the 4:3 ratio (i.e. black bars on the sides). The zoom mode is appropriate for letter-boxed DVDs and movies, and enlarges the letterbox to fill the screen, again maintaining the original aspect ratio. There are some additional stretching modes, including a "smart stretch" mode that pulls out the sides of a 4:3 image to fill the 16:9 screen without distorting the center of the image. Works fairly well, but not certain I'd use it.
For higher quality inputs, the available stretching modes are dynamically adjusted to a set appropriate for the input. I'll update further once I have more experience with them.
I've got a A/V system to handle the audio, so I have no comments there. One minor annoyance is that TV displays "No appropriate audio signal found" whenever the input or picture mode is changed. Well, duh. I haven't found a way to suppress that message yet.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Sharp LC46E77U Bloody Fantastic
After more than a month of looking around, and comparing various sizes, resolutions, colors, costs, etc., I chose the LC46E77U. I will try and write a more detailed review after using this TV for a longer period of time.
For now, this is one the best HDTVs I could find within a reasonable budget for a 46", 120 Hz, new model, and a reputable company SHARP. I've had it for 2 weeks and so far, it hasn't been a disappointment. Played PROTOTYPE on the XBOX 360 with HD Component cables and it looked absolutely gorgeous.
Will be tweaking and trying out more features in the next few weeks. There is no need to pay the big bucks on other HDTVs from companies like SAMSUNG and SONY when you can get pretty much the same enjoyment from this one. 5 STARS
For now, this is one the best HDTVs I could find within a reasonable budget for a 46", 120 Hz, new model, and a reputable company SHARP. I've had it for 2 weeks and so far, it hasn't been a disappointment. Played PROTOTYPE on the XBOX 360 with HD Component cables and it looked absolutely gorgeous.
Will be tweaking and trying out more features in the next few weeks. There is no need to pay the big bucks on other HDTVs from companies like SAMSUNG and SONY when you can get pretty much the same enjoyment from this one. 5 STARS
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Sharp LC46E77U Excellent TV for the cost
I picked this TV up recently from Dell with a coupon. Picture quality is very good on any input. It handles regular cable reasonably well for a big tv. It's watchable compared to some other big LCD's out there I've tried. Any input (I've done regular DVD, Windows Media Center, Blu-Ray at various resolutions including 480P, 720P and 1080P) looks excellent. The dynamic screen stretch actually works quite well to take whatever you're playing and scale it correctly to fill as much of the screen as possible. There is no blurring on anything I've watched and the response time seems to be no issue on any source.
The color adjustment is in-depth (if you want to really tweak it) and the auto-brightness/light monitor works well to adjust the screen brightness depending on the light sources in the room. I've seen others (Sony in particular) where this stuff just works half the time (especially the V4100/5100 series). Sound output is reasonable for a flat panel. It won't blow you away but it was sufficient in my 15x20 basement.
Overall I think this tv is a great bargain. It only weighs about 42 lbs so it's easy to mount. The settings are easy to use and change. The channel changing is pretty fast even for digital channels (between 1-2 seconds). OTA digital reception is good. If you can get it for $1200 or less, it's a good deal.
The color adjustment is in-depth (if you want to really tweak it) and the auto-brightness/light monitor works well to adjust the screen brightness depending on the light sources in the room. I've seen others (Sony in particular) where this stuff just works half the time (especially the V4100/5100 series). Sound output is reasonable for a flat panel. It won't blow you away but it was sufficient in my 15x20 basement.
Overall I think this tv is a great bargain. It only weighs about 42 lbs so it's easy to mount. The settings are easy to use and change. The channel changing is pretty fast even for digital channels (between 1-2 seconds). OTA digital reception is good. If you can get it for $1200 or less, it's a good deal.
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