Home > Consumer Reviews > Sharp Aquos LC45D40U 45-Inch LCD HDTV with Integrated ATSC Tuner

We have had this TV for about 2 weeks now and are really enjoying it.
After researching LCDs, it came down to this TV or the Sony Bravia 40". Most of the reviews gave this TV the edge so, after going to see the picture and the TV, we decided on this one. The picture quality is amazing. When watching baseball or football the detail is like looking through a window. The picture almost looks 3-D. We haven't watched any movies yet. The sound is excellent, very clear.
Until yesterday, I still wondered if the Sony might have been better. On a whim, I went into Costco to check out the price on the Sharp. They had the Sony Bravia 40" and this TV right next to each other. Both pictures were good but the Sharp was crisper and the edges more defined. Without a doubt this picture was better than the Sony.
We also got the black frame (you can get it in silver or black) and it is quite sleek looking. It is "piano" black so it has a nice high gloss finish and very subtle.
Did I mention that it is as easy to set up as a Mac? "Right out of the box."
We love this TV.

Briefly speaking, it's the great TV. I did quite a lot of research before the purchase, and considered several other brands including Samsung, Sony, Philips, and Westinghouse, various sizes from 40 to 46 inches, and various resolution types including 1080p. My goal was to get reasonably priced high quality LCD TV from a reputable manufacturer, and I after about 3 weeks of using the set, I am happy with my choice.

Sharp produces an outstanding picture from any source, but 1080i content looks particularly crisp and rich. There are plenty of various controls and settings to adjust the picture any way you want. To my surprise, Sharp has a setting that can automatically adjust the strength of the backlight according to the light in the room - very useful feature not only to save power consumption, but also avoid having to mess with the setting manually if you watch the TV in the very dark room or during the bright sunlight. I found that the TV slightly overdoes the backlight compensation by default, and luckily the level of compensation can be adjusted to fit the particular room settings. On the subject of adjusting the picture - Sharp is preset at the highest levels of brightness, backlight, sharpness and contrast, which is not the best combination of settings for your room. After spending 10 minutes with the sliders, you can bring the picture to a more comfortable viewing level. The settings you set are saved for each input, so you can have different settings for the DVD or cable, and also choose from several presets, including Game, Movie, Standard, etc.

The only drawback of the TV is its average remote. Even though it can be set up to control other devices, buttons cannot be programmed individually. The remote has a few useful dedicated buttons letting you quickly change the viewing modes, activate the backlight, etc. From time to time pressing a channel number button sends the signal twice, for example pressing the button 7 switches TV to channel 77. Even though it's annoying, for me it doesn't matter much since I use the universal remote control from the cable box.

If you shop for a sub-1080p LCD TV, Sharp is the one to seriously consider.

I have been looking for about 1 year at plasma and lcd tv's. In the last 3 months I decided on the lcd format, mainly due to heat and energy data. It was a close tie between Sharp and Sony but a few things gave the sharp the edge. My wife is a musician and scientist, so I used her to determine color tone differences and she found the blacks a little better on the Sharp. We both liked the black finish on the Sharp over the dull silver Sony. The Sharp has a consumer replaceable lamp - not a big deal with 70-80,000 hour lamps but nice to know the whole unit isn't garbage because of a light. LCD and Plasma use built in lamps to provide the brightness on the screens, only Sharp makes them replaceable to my knowledge. It has every input/output you would need - Composite, HDMI, S-Video, Coax.

This TV is great! I really looked around and read a lot of reviews on LCD HDTV's and this one was very highly rated. While I am not a techno wizard, I do love to watch TV. It was easy to set up and has a great look in my den. I highly recommend this product.

We've owned the Sharp LC40D40U for going on three years now and have been happy every day since purchase that we bought it. I'd been hesitant to pull the trigger on a big flat screen and we found this one for an unbelievable deal out of box at a CC store. With an active shelf life of 80,000 hours, buying a floor model was only a slight concern and 3 years later we haven't been proven wrong on that front.

We run an Xbox 360 through component, an upscaling DVD (Phillips DVP5960/37), analog cable, and over the air HD through an amplified RCA antenna. The 1080i HD programming over the air is astounding, and the availability has only increased as the DTV transition nears. The upscaling 1080i from the DVD player is amazing too and has reinvigorated our DVD collection and renting habits. The most surprising thing about this TV is its ability to comb out imperfections in a 480i analog signal. When we first plugged it in and connected all our devices and cable it automatically set up and memorized our cable service. We thought sure that the analog cable would look like dog crap on such a large screen, but it actually looked near perfect (no artifacting, no weird jaggies, no dots or dot crawl). Sharp has been manufacturing large scale LCD televisions longer than any other manufacturer and it shows in their product. We wouldn't hesitate to buy this again, even at a higher price than what we paid.

Pros - Excellent comb filtering and in-TV upscaling of 480i, fantastic 1080i picture, box design actually looks better to us than a lot of the ones newly available
Cons - HDMI inputs are at top of TV (about 2' longer away from bottom), changing channels is *slow* (but this is a side effect of the pro of having AMAZING post signal processing in the TV), remote is a little iffy, but I use a Harmony and so that's not an issue

All in all, pull the trigger if you're even looking at this one. Our next will be a Sharp without a doubt. We couldn't be happier and have been for nearly three years.