LCD TV Reviews

From Sharp Minds

Sharp is a prime mover and shaker in the flat-panel business. The company has been dedicated to LCD technology from the beginning of the beginning—all the way back to the earliest LCD pocket calculators.

Despite the market penetration of LCD flat panels—they significantly outsell plasmas—LCD technology has two serious shortcomings. Off-axis viewing is one—we’ll get to that a bit later. The other is how they handle blacks and deep shadow detail. But a new design technique, LED backlighting with local dimming, promises to change all that. (See sidebar on page 37.) Both the Sony and the Samsung use it.

LCD Picture, Widescreen Sound

Many of today’s flat-panel HDTVs can look amazingly good. But when sets frequently offer similar features that differ mainly in name, it’s hard for any particular model to break loose from the yada, yada, yada sameness of the pack. That is, unless the manufacturer can convince the consumer that its Super Dynamic Image Enhancer is something he’s just gotta have.

Many companies have gotten into the LCD TV game over the last few years, hoping to capitalize on the high demand for flat panels. But most are newcomers compared to Sharp, which was among the first to offer LCD TVs in Japan way back in 1988. Since then, Sharp has remained ahead of the curve in terms of manufacturing and environmental concerns, investing billions of dollars in new plants and processes.

Light Me Up, Dim Me Down

Last year, Samsung launched its first generation of LCD flat-panel sets with LED backlighting, the 81 Series. These sets were exciting in a number of ways. LEDs offer potentially superior color performance compared with conventional fluorescent backlights and also provide lower energy consumption.

Samsung's LN55A950 seems destined to generate controversy among the videophile community. Some will insist that it's the best-looking LCD TV on the market; others will say, well, otherwise. Both arguments are likely to revolve around the LED-backlighting technology that differentiates this high-end model from nearly all other currently available LCD TVs.