LCD TV Reviews

Real-World Performance
Chapter 8 of Mission: Impossible III on HD DVD on Blu-ray opens with a pan across a long staircase, which is a great test of a TV's 1080i deinterlacing capabilities. On the Sharp, the stairs pulsed with moderate moiré. Also, the shadow detail in the catacombs was not great.

As I started to watch some Blu-ray movies, I was astonished to discover that the Fine Motion Enhanced frame-interpolation control was "grayed out" in the menu and completely unavailable. According to Sharp, if the set gets 1080p/24—which I was sending—it displays the image at 96Hz (each frame is displayed four times), not 120Hz, which is unique in my experience. Apparently, this is a holdover from the 60Hz models that displayed 1080p/24 at 48Hz. Frame interpolation only works if the set receives a 60Hz signal.

An excellent test of frame interpolation occurs near the beginning of Cars when Lightning McQueen is being profiled during the Piston Cup race. McQueen appears in front of an array of bright blue lights, which can exhibit lots of smudging if frame interpolation is on. It didn't in this case at 60fps with Fine Motion Enhanced on or off. On the other hand, the sharpness of moving objects didn't improve significantly with frame interpolation on.

Unfortunately, the relatively high black level was very evident at the beginning of Stargate: Continuum on Blu-ray. The black of space was not deep at all, and many of the stars I know to be in that image were not visible. Also, shadow detail in chapter 3 as the Achilles steams across the Atlantic was not great—some of the low-level detail in the dimly lit cargo hold was lost in solid dark areas. On the upside, colors were excellent, from skin tones to the wood paneling on the submarine to blue sky, and overall detail was very good in general, though some objects in motion did lose some sharpness.

Hidalgo is a wonderful-looking Blu-ray title with lots of fine detail in things like intricate rugs and stone buildings, which the Sharp rendered quite well, but again, objects in motion lost some of that detail. Colors such as the variegated desert browns, red flags, blue sky, and skin tones were superb, but the high black level robbed the picture of any real punch, and the letterbox bars never disappeared from my consciousness.

Much the same was true on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl on Blu-ray. The detail of still shots was excellent—I've rarely seen young Elizabeth's freckles more clearly—but motion caused some of that detail to be lost. Shadow detail in the dungeon and nighttime attack on Port Royal was not great, but the color of skin tones, blue sky, aqua sea, and red uniforms was beautiful.

Turning to DVD, I watched some of Moulin Rouge. The very first image is a fade-in on a stage curtain, which looked somewhat blotchy until the fade-in was complete; the same thing happened in some dissolves between scenes. As before, colors were gorgeous, but they didn't really "pop"—in fact, the image looked a bit dull overall. Detail was okay but not the best I've seen with standard-def material.

The onboard audio system was definitely sub-par, with poor dialog intelligibility and a very thin, closed-in sound. As always, I recommend pairing this set with a good outboard surround-sound system.