Sharp LC37D64U

I've had the LC37D64U for almost a month now, and I am very pleased with the TV. The TV's relatively light weight makes it simple to move around when wiring things up. The picture looks good right out of the box, and after some tweaking using a couple of picture calibration DVDs, it looks even nicer (there are a lot of picture control settings if you want to dig in). I get HDTV channels over an antenna and the 1080i broadcasts look amazing if the broadcaster hasn't compressed them too much. I don't have Blu-Ray yet, but my DVD player upconverts to 1080p and makes the movies look terrific. My Xbox 360 games look better than ever. The best part about this TV is that it is the narrowest 37-inch LCD on the market, which means it can barely fit into my entertainment center with a whisker to spare. I was almost resigned to buying a 32-inch until I happily discovered this model just in time.

I send all the audio to my 5.1 surround receiver, so I can't comment on the quality of the TV speakers.

One important thing you should know if you are sending 1080p signals to this TV via the COMPONENT inputs: the screen would occasionaly 'black-out' briefly when playing some content on my Xbox 360. Scouring some user-groups, I discovered that I was not alone, but there is a fix. Check the version number of your firmware in the menu. Mine was S0804011 or something similar. Sharp has another version on its website (version S0801101) that you can easily download, put on a USB stick and update your TV. The manual explains how to do it. Once I updated, the problem was solved.

There are a couple of very minor things that could make this TV a bit more friendly:
1. You can set it so the title of the TV program you are watching appears when you change channels, but there is no way to check the title again unless you change channels again. Ideally, this should appear whenever you press the 'Display' button on the remote.
2. Channel changing is a bit sluggish.
3. You can only name inputs to the preset names they have chosen. Unfortunately, they didn't see fit to put 'Game 1, Game 2," etc. as presets, so my game systems just get 'Input 1' and 'Input 2.' A minor annoyance, but it would help the members of my family figure out which input is which.

Overall, this is a very nice TV with a great picture. Just put in Pixar's 'The Incredibles' and you will know what I mean. I did a lot of research before buying this model, and I have no regrets. Amazon had a very competitive price when I bought this, and with free shipping and their excellent 'white-glove' delivery service, it was a no-brainer purchase.

Reviewed By : Redeye      : July 10, 2008

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