New Sharp 2012 70" LED/LCD

[BMXTRIX]

This is going to be a very brief review about the new Sharp 70" LED/LCD for 2012 which was recently released. I had the chance to install this in a client's home last week and will be back next week to take a look at it again.

Packaging and all was pretty typical. They are just using straps instead of the locks at the bottom to hold the TV in place, and once the straps broke, which was very easy, the TV wanted to fall out of the bottom of the box, so it is better to move the TV by carrying it from the bottom.

Once unboxed, the manual and accessories were mostly located in the styrofoam at the TOP of the box - which is a silly place to put that stuff since it sticks in the box near the top when you pull off the lid. Gotta make sure to grab that styrofoam and pull your accessories out before throwing it away!

The mounting pattern for screws on the back is tight. I think it is a VESA 400x400 pattern. It was plenty solid for the display which was potentially light enough for one person to lift, but way to large for them to do it safely. Instead, two people working the display makes the most sense.

Ended up using the Monoprice large tilting mount - about $30 or so. Works great, but not at all left/right adjustable so make darn sure you get it level!

Went up fine connected to HD cable and a Panasonic BDT210 BD player, all fed through a Denon 2312CI receiver.

My first reaction is that the image from the display is significantly better than last years display. Sharp has really put it together as far as getting rid of the digital artifacts which have plagued its displays for years. The image from HD cable showed far less false contouring and far less of the compression artifacts than last years model.

This particular installation was not in a location where the new glossy screen would present itself as an issue, so it certainly didn't impact the installation. I will check to see if off-axis viewing is an issue. Likewise, I will make sure to bring a Blu-ray Disc with me when I go in for final system setup and testing to check out the video quality with a truly solid HD source.

Still, the jump in quality puts it far closer to what Samsung has been giving us for the past few years. Instead of consider Sharp as a definite step downwards from Samsung or Panasonic as far as video quality goes, I would consider much more of a sideways step. Perhaps just a tiny bit worse than the competition, but not nearly as much as it was last year.

Of course, you can't get a 70" Samsung or Panasonic right now... especially for the price Sharp sells them for. So, it's a really big jump overall. I'm anxious to see how their 80" display looks this year, and would seriously consider one if the new processing was carried through into that model.

 

[FirstReflection]

Cool!

Which exact 70" Sharp model is this?

I went ahead and bought the 2011 LC-70LE735U, which I've been happy with. I personally can't stand a glossy screen - I know it bugs me a lot more than it bugs most other people, but I just can't stand it, so I appreciate the semi-matte 735U's screen! Rather bummed to hear that the 2012 models are back to being glossy

My whole reason for buying the 735U was for casual TV watching and playing videogames with the lights on. And for that purpose, I'm happy with it. It retains its black level under lighting and sunlight better than my Pioneer Kuro plasma. No, the blacks are not as deep in the dark as the fabulous Kuro (still think it's crazy that all these years later, the Kuros are STILL the best in terms of black level ). But I didn't buy the 735U for dark viewing. I bought it for lit viewing, and its blacks look blacker than the Kuro under lighting. The 735U is also significantly brighter, so that helps with the lights on or sunlight too.

There is a slight uneven "clouding" to the Full-Array NON-local-dimming LED backlight. But I can only really spot it with the lights turned off. There's also some unevenness to the illumination from off-angles where the edges of the far side are brighter.

I haven't had any banding problems with my set. Seems as though that was a unit-to-unit issue with some units showing banding and others free from the artifact. So I guess I lucked out on that front!

I do have some posterization (aka contouring), but in my case, there's some posterization in my cable signal anyway, so even my Kuro shows posterization when I'm watching TV! The posterization is an artifact in the Sharp though because it shows up on Blu-rays too, which doesn't happen at all on the Kuro.

So the 735U is not perfect by any means, but I bought it for a specific purpose and for that purpose , I'm happy with it. It does what I want and what I bought it for.

The glossy screen on the new 2012 models is enough all by itself to make me glad I jumped on the 2011 735U model! The new 70" 2012 models are also edge-lit now, except for the yet-to-be-released 9xx series, which are full-array, local-dimming.

I have an LG 55LH90, which is local-dimming. I wasn't sure how the non-local-dimming 735U would stack up. Obviously, it can't get as pitch black as when the LEDs in the LH90 literally turn off! But I do appreciate not having any "blooming" - especially on any content with black bars where the blooming really shows up easily. Not sure how the new 9xx local-dimming sets will stack up. I hear they're using more local-dimming "zones". So maybe that will help.

And while I haven't got much in the way of 3D content to really test out the 735U's 3D capabilities, I have to say that I really quite like Sharp's AN3DG20-B 3D glasses. They're very light-weight, comfy, rechargeable, fit well over my eyeglasses and only cost $50 a pop. I also like that they have the 2D mode so that if I'm watching 3D with someone who doesn't like 3D, they can just switch the glasses to 2D mode. It IS a bit ridiculous to put on glasses just to watch 2D, but I like that the option is there! My mom needs it since she has a health issue with her right eye and the 3D effect doesn't work for her. Now she can visit and watch a 3D movie with me

Like I said, haven't used 3D much at all yet, but I appreciate that the 735U can really crank out the brightness. It is much needed for 3D! I'd say the glasses cut the light output by about 65%, so the TV's practically blinding if I take the glasses off while watching 3D Really nice to be able to have the image not look dim though, even with the room lights on!

I'll be interested to hear more about the new 2012 Sharps. But yeah...glossy screens again. Such a shame