The Short Form

Price $4,050 (AS TESTED; $4,299 LIST) / sharpusa.com / 800-237-4277

Snapshot

Sharp's ultra-crisp 1080p LCD makes an intriguing alternative to plasma.

Plus

•Very crisp high-def picture •Vivid color •Excellent blacks, shadow detail for LCD •Minimal motion-lag on fast-moving images •Very wide viewing for an LCD

Minus

•Variable screen uniformity among samples

Key Features

•1,920 x 1,080-resolution screen •Adjustable backlight •Dot-by-dot display mode for 1080i/p •OPC setting automatically adjusts picture brightness and contrast •Vido inputs: 2 HDMI, 2 component-video, 3 composite-/S-video; RF •52.8 x 38.3 x 12 in / 89.3 lb (w/stand)

Test Bench

With the User Mode and Low color temperature selected, the Sharp's grayscale tracked within ±800 K of the 6,500K standard from 30 to 100 IRE - below-average performance. Measurements also showed a green deficiency throughout the set's grayscale, although color-decoder tests showed only a - 5% green error and 0% red for both its HDMI and component-video inputs. Overscan measured 0% in 1080i Dot-by-Dot mode and 4% in the 16:9 Stretch mode with 720p signals. The set displayed 1080i and 720p test patterns with full resolution via the HDMI inputs, but 1080i patterns viewed via component-video were slightly soft. Color "bands" were clearly visible on full-field gray test patterns on the first review sample we tried - a problem that also showed up on program material. A second test sample, however, was fine. Full Lab Results

SETUP The Sharp provides six picture presets ,from a blazingly bright Dynamic mode to a subtler Movie mode. There's a custom User adjustment that enables you to tweak the picture for each input. A feature called OPC (Optical Picture Control), which dynamically varies the output of the backlight based on room lighting, can be turned on or off for each input, and you can adjust its overall range. Beyond this are an adjustable Backlight setting and a Black setting that can be switched between normal and enhanced modes. Fine Motion, another option on the advanced Picture menu, can be turned on to optimize the panel's response time for watching fast-motion sports.

The Sharp LC-52D62U offers five color temperature presets, of which Low delivered the most accurate color (see Test Bench). When tweaking the set's brightness and contrast, I set the backlight relatively high and turned off the Black setting. This provided the best one-two punch of deep blacks and fleshed-out shadows.

PICTURE QUALITY The first thing I noticed was the Sharp's stunning picture detail - a quality that came across dramatically on the big 52-inch screen. Watching an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in high-def, I could make out the rough texture of the unshaven face of Detective Goren (Vincent D'Onofrio) as he escorted a criminal on an international flight. And when I watched the documentary Pulse: A Stomp Odyssey on the INHD channel, background grass in a shot featuring African percussionists looked well-defined and crisp, while close-ups revealed individual beads in their tribal jewelry.

Other characteristics in which the Sharp Aquos LC-52D62U excelled were contrast and shadow detail - its performance in both cases was exemplary for an LCD TV. During a dark, exterior nighttime shot of a convenience store in the movie Four Brothers on HD DVD, the sky came across as a deep black tone, and I saw loads of detail in the surrounding buildings, cars, and dark clothing of hoods robbing the place.

The set's color was also rich and mostly natural-looking. In that convenience store in Four Brothers, products lining shelves and racks showed a wide range of vivid hues, while the faces of the actors displayed subtle skin-tone variations. Caucasian faces revealed a slightly red cast to the set's color, but overall it wasn't that objectionable.