Sharp Aquos LC52D92U 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
See it at Amazon.com for $3,999.99Average Customer Rating
(5.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First (5 out of 5)Best LCD HDTV on the Market
I just purchased the 92U after a lengthy comparison with other sets, such as the Sony KDS55A2000, and am very pleased.
I am feeding the 92U from my Verizon FiOS set top box (which presently has 21 HD channels available) and from my Toshiba Upconverting DVD player. The picture from the FiOS HD channels is outstanding. Jump-out-at-you images with rich color and no banding. From the DVD, its still quite good due the upconverting to 1080i. Of course, until I buy a Blue-Ray or HD DVD and associated disks, I won't be able to see true 1080p.
One of the customer reviewers here (Araki on 4/5/07) deplored the sound from the TV speakers. He said that "this may not be an issue if not an audiophile" to which I say that this is not an issue if you ARE an audiophile because no audiophile listens to TV speaker sound. All TV's use small cheap speakers, knowing that audiophiles or home theater movie buffs will have separate reciever/multiple speaker setups. In my case, I'm running the audio through a Sony STR-DG510 receiver into a Cambridge Ensemble 208 system (two speakers + a subwolfer).
The product discription here of the LC52D92U is very sparse and confused. The 92U is an upgrade of the 62U and just came out in Jan 2007, so First Date Available at Amazon couldn't have been April 2005. Also, none of the notable upgrade features are even mentioned!! Its the first LCD HDTV with a 120 HZ refresh rate (other sets are 60 or 75 HZ) so that pixel artifacts seem to have finally been eliminated from fast action scenes. At least I haven't noticed any so far. Also with this model, Sharp has greatly improved on the viewing angle and the black color rendition - you can see this at any store when you view the 92U in comparison to the earlier 62U or any other LCD set. I suggest going to the Sharp site to read a much more comprehensive product description.
All in all, IMO this is the best LCD HDTV on the market at the present time.
(3 out of 5)Lots of nice features, couple big issues...
I was persuaded to buy this set instead of the new Samsung 52" by a very knowledgeable sales-person who pointed out this technology (4ms response time, 5 stage backlight) really set the standard for LCD technology.
I suspect he was right, but once in my living room, these were difficult to notice. Here's what I did notice...
Good:
- The performance coming out of my standard Tivo was terrific. The "S Stretch" mode does a great job using the whole screen but not making people look abnormally wide. The MPEG compression artifacts largely disappeared and the noise level was quite low.
- The screen lights up instantly when you press the power button.
- The menus are intuitive.
- You can customize the color scheme for each Input individually.
- When using DVI, the on-screen-display shows what mode it is in (720p, etc) in the
top right which is very helpful.
- You can skip back and forth with your previous input mode easily.
Bad:
- The speakers are truly awful. For a $3-3.5K device, the speakers are about like a $15 clock radio. TV shows with even a bit of deep base caused incredible sound distortion at very low volume. I'm not an audiophile and I don't consider these speakers acceptable in any way.
- If the brightness is too high, banding is noticeable. Tuned appropriately, I don't think it should be, but you may trade some amount of banding for detail in the blacks.
- In 720p hooked to my Comcast Motorola cable box, I'm seeing static noise patterns for non-HD content at the top of the picture. I get a bright line along the right side of the picture. And even in HD mode I get a purple line across the bottom of the screen. Seems like the set is displaying all the data it is getting and not stripping out the signal headers. You can only change the hpos and vpos of the image, not the stretch. There may be more settings I can play with on the Cable Box to make this work out.
- The case plastic is actually a very dark gray, not black, which depending on your room and stylistic preferences can make the set look a little bit cheap sitting in your living room.
- Out-of-the-box the colors all seem washed out. The Tivo green menu screen was trending toward gray. With some tweaking (particularly reducing brightness level) I was able to improve this.
Conclusion:
This is a very good LCD. The noise management for low-res content is impressive. That said, I'm going to return it as the speaker issue is intolerable. It is also more expensive than the Samsung 52" without a clearly visible benefit.
(I did return this product and purchased the 52" Samsung. I love it. Color saturation is better, it is much brighter, and the sound is terrific! Plus it can link up to a USB drive to show photos, etc.)
(5 out of 5)I'm Glad I Picked The LC-52D92U Over The Sony KDL-52XBR2
We'll, I finally decided to purchase the Sharp LC-52D92U over the Sony KDL-52XBR2. This decision took me about 4 weeks to make, with multiple trips to local retailers to compare the sets in action, and reading many online reviews.
If you ask store personnel what is the better of the two, most will say the Sony. After watching both sets in action many, many times, it's just not so. The picture quality, sharpness, and black levels on the Sharp are truly amazing. The Sony is a good TV, just not worth over a thousand dollars more! I purchased mine from the internet for $3,200 delivered.
I highly recommend this TV to everyone.
(5 out of 5)Great TV, Great Price, Great Everything
Like most of you, I spent a lot of time trying to decide what I wanted. I ruled out rear projection because of the viewing angle, I ruled out plasma because I have a very bright room. So I decided to buy a LCD.
I narrowed my search down to the Samsung 52" and the Sony. When I saw the Samsung in the store I was turned off. For some reason the screen is almost as reflective as a plasma. The Sony was very nice, but $1,000 more than anything else. It wasn't that nice.
When I saw the $3299 price from 6ave Electronics here on Amazon I thought something wasn't right. This is a $4,299 list television. They even tossed in free delivery (it took a week, but it seemed like a month) and they didn't collect sales tax.
I asked Best Buy if they'd price match it. The store manager actually said that products bought on Amazon have the serial number removed so you don't get a warranty and that's how they can sell it for less; Best Buy wanted list price for this TV but was willing to sell it for $3,799.
I'm happy to say my TV has a serial number (not like I didn't think it wouldn't) and I couldn't be happier.
I installed the speaker and the stand, hooked it up and turned it on. At first I thought, WOW, that's bright! But, the factory had it set to "dynamic". I kicked it down to "standard" and the picture was just amazing.
The menu system is very intuitive with help available so you don't get lost.
Standard def. programs look good, but they remind you of what a letdown SD is over HD. We need more content!!
I read some reviews about the audio not being up to par. I have no idea. I'm hooked up through a home theater system with 5.1 surround sound which, IMHO, is the only way to enjoy HD content.
To summarize: the TV is first rate, picture, setup, etc. Delivery was as advertised. The only thing that'll confuse you are all the input options on the back of the TV. I'm only using 3 (Cable, DVD, VCR) but there's room to add anything that comes down the road.
You will not be disappointed with this TV.
One month later. Still enjoying this TV. But, and this isn't a comment on Sharp but all HDTV's, you really start to notice that maybe the broadcast industry isn't quite ready yet. What I mean is, some of the SD programs look OK, some are a bit fuzzy and all of them naturally are in the old format. You can live with it. But, you'll also notice that some of the older programs that are being broadcast on HD channels aren't all that wonderful either. It's essentially the old content, different channel. What shocks you after awhile is that you have a clearer picture many times on a SD CRT than your new expensive HDTV. Why? simple, that higher resolution magnifies the flaws with the old (480) content so you see everything, good and bad, bigger and sometimes it's not very pretty.
Like I said, this isn't a Sharp LCD issue. I have friends that own Toshiba, Sony and Samsung, LCD, plasma, and rear projection and they would all make the same observation. Careful when you're shopping in the store; they show Blu-ray DVD's. Ask the sales person to switch the TV to a SD channel so you can see what I'm talking about.
February, 2009 can't come soon enough but please don't expect the same crystal clear picture that you see on a DVD when you're watching cable.
This just in... Check out the November, 2007 issue of Consumer Reports. In their quick picks for LCD TV's they say if you want a jumbo screen (52 inch and up apparently) buy the Sharp Aquos LC-52D92U. Their top rated LCD is the Samsung LN-T4661F but it's a 46 incher, the 52 inch Samsung comes in below the Sharp.
Eight months later (time flies when you're watching HD!). I still have nothing negative to say about this TV. The picture is as crisp as ever, it's easy to use, no banding, no dead pixels, everything is the way it was the day I bought it. I did upgrade my home theater system. I put in a Yamaha RX-V1800 audio-video receiver along with a terrific 5.1 speaker set from Aperion Audio. I did have an old Pioneer Elite AVR with Bose speakers. The difference is more than noticeable (both video and audio).
And, I did listen to the Sharp's internal speakers for a few weeks while I waited for the new equipment. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.
(5 out of 5)Great picture
I spent a long time looking at Sony, Samsung, and Sharp LCD TV's in the 50" range, and was put off by the banding and clouding issues until the Sharp Aquos "92" series came along. I figured they had solved the banding issue and took my chances, although I paid more by ordering through Crutchfield as "insurance," if there turned out to be any problems. Plus, I was getting a whole system; so I needed their consulting advice which turned out very useful. Their free shipping and white-glove delivery was great, and the TV worked perfectly right out of the box.
Once fully installed on the wall and running through the Scientific Atlanta HD DVR cable box (Cox Cable), the picture was amazing. I set it up so that the sound comes from my Onkyo receiver (HDMI-switching). I added an upconverting (1080p) Panasonic DVD player (two HDMI's into the receiver from the cable box and the DVD, and only one HDMI, and nothing else, out to the TV). This works really well.
The TV is perfect. Watching an NBA basketball game in full HD is actually better than being there, an almost surreal experience, especially when the picture comes from the sky cam. The fast response time, very high contrast, etc., means no compromises.
I think this is the best 1080p LCD out there. In doing research for this purchase, I found it very hard to compare LCD TV's at retail stores like Best Buy. Their setups or feeds must not do justice to some TV's.
Bottom line: no "banding" after 6 weeks of viewing, great picture, upconverts nicely, excellent contrast and viewing angle, never even planned to use the speakers that came with it, so sound quality is not an issue.