The Short Form

Price $4,500 ($5,300 LIST) / sharpusa.com / 800-237-4277

Snapshot

Sharp's newest LCD delivers bright, sharp pictures with powerful contrast, but its color reproduction needs work.

Plus

•Crisp 1080p picture •Excellent black depth and contrast •No motion-lag on fast-moving images •Very wide viewing angle

Minus

•Too-cool color balance •Below-average standard-def upconversion

Key Features

•1,920 x 1,080 resolution screen •Adjustable backlight •Built-in HDTV tuner •Inputs: 3 HDMI, DVI, 2 component-video, 2 composite-video, S-video; RF antenna/cable; 4 analog stereo audio; minijack analog stereo audio; RS-232C •50 x 34.5 x 12 in ; 92.5 lb (w/stand)

Test Bench

With the Low color-temperature preset selected, the Sharp's grayscale tracked within ±1,540 K of 6,500 K from 30 to 100 IRE - a poor performance level. (A Sharp technician confirmed that a standard service-menu calibration of grayscale isn't possible with the LC-52D92U.) Measurements also showed a deficient green level throughout the set's grayscale, as well as oversaturated red, green, and blue color points compared to the SMPTE HD spec. Color-decoder tests revealed +15% red push on the HDMI inputs - a higher than average amount. Overscan measured 0% in Dot-by-Dot mode when displaying high-definition signals. The set fully resolved both 1080i and 720p test patterns via HDMI and component video. Screen uniformity was excellent when viewed from off-center seats, with no sign of the color "banding" we found in a 52-inch Sharp tested in 2006. Full Lab Results

SETUP To get up and running with the Sharp, I switched the AV Mode to User (the set provides a custom User picture preset for each input, and you can also alter the settings of its five additional AV modes: Standard, Movie, Game, PC, and Dynamic). I chose the Low color-temperature preset from the Advanced picture menu and tweaked its variable-backlight and other picture controls for an optimal balance of brightness, contrast, and color. Parking the LC-52D92U's Sharpness adjustment anyplace other than minimum introduces edge enhancement into the picture, so that one is best left off.

After adjusting the set with test patterns, I couldn't help but notice that colors still appeared overly rich and that whites had that familiar ultra-bright look that results from a too-cool color-temperature setting - and this was with the Low setting engaged! A Sharp technician I talked with said that the Low setting is factory-calibrated to track an even 6,500 K across the grayscale, matching the industry-standard neutral gray, but my measurements told a different story (see Test Bench). And, unfortunately, he also confirmed that a standard ISF-style grayscale calibration isn't possible with the LC-52D92U.

PICTURE QUALITY Having done my best to tweak the Sharp, I sat down to watch director Oliver's Stone's surprisingly straightforward World Trade Center on Blu-ray Disc. Right off, I saw the results of the TV's too-bluish grayscale and pumped-up color. While viewing a scene where transit cops first confront the initial post-collision chaos, for example, the blue paint on the sides of a city bus, the red of fire trucks, and the yellow of the rescuers' protective gear all had an oversaturated and somewhat fake appearance. Faces also displayed uniformly orange and pink hues, which served to eliminate subtle differences in skin tones among the movie's multiethnic cast.

In other scenes from World Trade Center, such as one where Officers McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Jimeno (Michael Peña) first find themselves lodged in the rubble, the set's solid black level delivered an authentic sense of being trapped underground in the dark, while its fine delineation of shadow detail helped bring out background objects in the cluttered, ruined environment. A slight uniformity issue could be seen in very dark shots like this one, with corners of the screen looking brighter than the center, but on most scenes from this movie and others it wasn't a problem.