Sharp LC32SV29U 32-Inch 720p LCD HDTV – Black

UPDATED: great for a bargain-priced solution, November 30, 2011

By 

K. Moynehan –

  

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I originally bought the $199 Haier 32-inch Haier L32D1120 32-Inch 720p LCD HDTV, Black looking for a low-priced option. That TV was actually very good, but had a critical flaw for my purpose: I need to use it with headphones to avoid waking the baby in the next room, and the Haier’s speakers don’t turn off when the headphones are connected. Amazon’s easy returns process put me back in the market for a new set, so I pounced on this Sharp when it was $50 more.

I expected a better picture, better connectivity, and a few more features given the brand and higher price. However, I also knew that in a sub-$300 720p set, I couldn’t expect to be blown away.

All in all, I’m satisfied, but teetering on the edge of returning it, because I really am pretty underwhelmed with the picture quality. I have two other TVs – a 55-inch Panasonic Viera Plasma hooked up via HDMI, and a 46-inch Samsung 1080p LCD hooked up via coaxial cable to a remote Dish box. I hooked up this Sharp via the same coax setup, so my expectations were for a good SD picture, which I know to be far below a true HD signal on a good screen. Here is the rundown:

PROS:
Price
Connectivity more than adequate – although I only need coax right now, I can foresee using this in a more complex setup in the future
Inputs are on the rear with a few on the side (Haier put them all on the bottom, which made no sense)
Intuitive menu and easy setup
Assembly onto the stand (and disassembly from it) was far easier than my samsung, whose engineers decided to bury the screws in deep caves on the rear housing
Speakers turn off when headphones are connected (and there’s a separate option for disabling it permanently if you’d like, which I would recommend if you use it with an A/V receiver)
Easily wall-mountable (I recommend monoprice mounts for great value)

CONS:
underwhelming picture – I tried to optimize picture settings, but it still is nowhere near the SD quality of my Samsung, even allowing some benefit of the doubt on the size and price difference. It’s not bad enough that I think I have a defective unit, but just bad enough to irk me.
TV does not swivel on the stand – head-scratching omission there by Sharp, but still no big deal
Menu – takes up 85% of the screen, right in the center. And unlike on Samsung, there is no way to move it, or make it translucent. That makes it tricky to adjust video settings while trying to see the effect of your changes

So although I know I’m comparing two high-end 1080p sets to a budget 720p, I do have a pretty close comparison with two sets receiving the same standard definition signal. I will keep it because it’s not a terrible picture, but it will probably bug me for a while. If I were to do it over, I’d probably wait for another lightning deal (or the more rare Vizio deal on woot).

UPDATE:
I suffered through 20 minutes of making small adjustments, then exiting out of the menu so I could see the effect, and repeating this process. I was able to get some adjustments done while pausing the show when a face, some colorful item, and some black areas were at the edge of the screen (so I could see something meaningful while the menu blocked the rest of the screen). I now have better skin tones and a less hazy picture. Still not quite the samsung standard def picture, but it’s not supposed to be at this price. I’m now totally satisfied at the price I paid. The product itself is a four-star product, but offers five-star value at $250. I now recommend it.

UPDATE:
In response to a request, here are my settings. Your results will vary based on ambient lighting, preferences, etc, but these work for me.
Backlight 67
Brightness 45
Contrast 49
Saturation 71
Hue -1
Sharpness 13
Color Temp:
R 125
G 127
B 125

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 Comments (5)

Great HD TV, great price. I dont know why a few people complained about this TV, November 24, 2011

I bought this TV on a 24 hour sale, fast free delivery, TV looks great, sounds great, works great. Originally hooked it up to my FIOS with the coax cable until I got my HDMI cables. The picture is very good, better than I expected, and better than many other HD TVs I checked out. When I hooked up the HDMI cable and finally figured out the last settings I was amazed by the picture and sound. I can only imagine that the few who complained about picture quality have something set very wrong. Im impressed, as long as the quality and function are long tived I will keep this TV for a long time. The picture image is very sharp, not cloudy or muddy as a few have said (unless they have bad examples).

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