Sharp LC-52D64U review

Performance
In sum, the Sharp LC-52D64U performs about as well as previous larger Sharp LCDs we've tested, delivering excellent black-level performance and good standard-def picture quality, but evincing the same "banding" we've seen before. That issue alone is enough to keep it out of the top tier of LCDs.

During setup we followed our standard procedure to adjust the TV's user settings for best performance in our completely dark theater. Attenuating light output to a comfortable yet dynamic 40 ftl was first on the agenda, which as usual involved backing down the backlight control quite a bit. We also chose the Low color temperature preset, which actually came fairly close to the D6500 standard (previous Sharps have been worse), although it was minus-green overall and got quite blue in shadows. Of course we'd like the ability to further fine-tune the color temperature, especially for dark areas, but the Sharp's user-menu controls don't allow that.

During setup we also attempted to coax an improvement out of the Sharp's primary colors, which were relatively close to the HDTV standard to begin with, using the CMS (color management system). Green was the least accurate of the three, as shown on the Geek Box below, so we started there. Unfortunately every adjustment we made caused compromises elsewhere--although we did end up with a very small improvement in green. We had better luck with the secondary colors, especially yellow and magenta, which we were able to get much closer to the standard. Only the Hue section of the CMS seemed to have a positive impact, so we left the other section, Saturation, at its default settings. For our complete user-menu settings, click here or check out the Tips & Tricks section above.

For our comparison we set the LC-52D64U up next to a few competing HDTVs, including the Toshiba 52LX177 and the Vizio GV52LF, both 52-inch LCDs, and the Pioneer PDP-5080HD, a 50-inch plasma. We watched The Bourne Supremacy via the Toshiba HD-XA2 HD DVD player at 1080i resolution.

The opening of Bourne in Jason's Goa apartment and especially the porch outside includes some of our favorite dark-scene demo material, and the Sharp outclassed the other two LCDs at showing it. The shadows behind Matt Damon were deeper and more true-to-life, and shadow detail was quite good. We could make out the plucked eyebrow of Franka Potente and the glint of her shadowed eye, but the rise from black to brighter areas wasn't as gradual or realistic as that of the Pioneer--which, of course, also produced a noticeably deeper shade of black than any of the LCDs. We also noticed that shadowy areas, like Damon's half-lit face, appeared a bit bluer, a result of the Sharp's less-accurate color temperature near black. Dark areas were quite clean and free of noise, however.

Bright areas, as usual, brought out the best in this LCD, and the colors during Franka's shopping trip in the Goa market looked vibrant and relatively realistic. We had to back down saturation to make skin tones more accurate, which did rob some impact from the colors, but it was worth the sacrifice to get the red out of her skin, for example. The Sharp did deliver the most accurate primary colors in the room, which came across in the natural greens of the market vegetables and spot-on reds of the pinwheels.

Given our experiences with previous Sharp LCDs, namely the LC-52D92U and the LC-46D62U, we paid particular attention to the LC-52D64U's uniformity across the screen. In short, it seemed to exhibit the same problems as those other sets. Starting with full-raster test patters consisting of fields ranging from black through gray to white, we saw faint vertical and horizontal irregularities that were most-visible in dark-gray and mid-dark tones (5-30 IRE). In program material, we noticed these bands most during camera movement. They showed up in the sky during a pan over the beach in Bourne, for example, and again while watching the U.S. Open, where we saw faint horizontal bands in the blue backdrop behind the players as the camera followed them. Another example came during the shuttle liftoff sequence from Digital Video Essentials on HD DVD, where the white clouds and blue sky behind the ascending spacecraft evinced bands along both axes, especially a darker horizontal band near the top of the screen.

None of the other sets in the room showed uniformity issues to this extent, and while the Vizio did have comparatively minor vertical bands of slightly varying brightness, they only really showed up on the test patterns, not program material. We've been told by Sharp and we've seen reports by users online that some big Sharp panels don't suffer from this kind of banding, which supposedly varies from sample to sample. As far as we're concerned, however, the three we've been sent are evidence enough that uniformity is still a big issue for large-screen Sharp LCDs.

When seen from off-angle the banding became more visible, but overall the Sharp's picture stayed truer and less washed-out from the sides and top and bottom than either the Toshiba or the Vizio LCD. The LC-52D64U also has a somewhat shinier screen than many LCDs, so it reflected a bit more room lighting than the Vizio or the Toshiba, but its screen was still less reflective than the Pioneer.

HD video processing on the LC-52D64U was better than we expected. With the Film Mode setting engaged, the set succeeded in properly deinterlacing 1080i content for display on the 1080p screen, passing both the video- and film-loss resolution tests from HQV--few HDTVs we've tested can pass the film-loss test. Toggling between the two settings for Film Motion we noticed very slightly more flicker in some areas of the film-loss pattern, so we recommend leaving this function in Off mode. We couldn't really detect a difference between the Fast and Slow I/P Setting modes, so we left it on the default "Slow."

We also checked out the effects of the I/P setting and Film Motion modes when watching tennis, and honestly it was impossible to see the difference between the two--the quick-moving yellow ball appeared the same regardless of which setting we chose. The car chase from Bourne was the same story, with its frenetic camera movement and quick zooms. We also paid close attention to the 120Hz Toshiba in comparison to the standard 60Hz Sharp, watching tennis, football, and NASCAR, and couldn't really point to any motion blur on the Sharp--again regardless of which video processing mode we chose. The ticker from ESPNHD, our most consistent real-world indicator of motion blur so far, looked equally sharp on both sets, and noticeably softer on the Vizio when we compared them side-by-side.

The Sharp's standard-def performance was as good as any large 1080p HDTV we've tested recently. It resolved every line from the DVD, and the shot of the stone bridge with passing cars appeared well-detailed, too. Moving diagonal lines of evinced mostly smooth edges, and the shot of the waving American flag likewise looked relatively smooth and realistic. The Sharp has two noise reduction levels, and we found that High especially helped clean up the disc's noisiest shots of skies and sunsets quite well. The set engaged 2:3 pulldown processing quickly and effectively.

When fed PC sources the Sharp LC-52D64U performed much better via its HDMI input, connected from a DVI output of our PC, than it did via its VGA input. With the digital HDMI connection the set resolved every detail of a 1,920x1,080 source according to DisplayMate, text looked perfectly crisp, and there was no overscan. Conversely, via VGA we saw the best results by setting our graphics card to 1,280x1,024 resolution, and even then text looked soft and the 43 image didn't fill the Sharp's wide screen perfectly. We tried 1,360x768, the highest wide-screen resolution the set would accept, but text was nearly illegible, and the desktop was overscanned quite a bit. In short, if you're using a computer with this TV, be prepared to monopolize one of the HDMI inputs.

Juice box

Sharp LC-52D64U	Picture settings
	Default	Calibrated	Power Save
Picture on (watts)	280.22	142.32	N/A
Picture on (watts/sq. inch)	0.24	0.12	N/A
Standby (watts)	0.32	0.32	N/A
Cost per year	$85.29	$43.41	N/A
Score (considering size)	Good
Score (overall)	Poor