Home > Consumer Reviews > Sharp Aquos LC65D64U 65-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

We purchased the Sharp Aquos LC65D64U in early February, and have found the picture and everything else about this HDTV nothing short of amazing. We shopped extensively and looked at many other large screen flat panels, and nothing compares to this for the money. (Actually, I don't know how anyone could want a more beautiful picture at any price.)

We used our existing high-end surround sound speaker system (originally purchased several years ago for use with a Sony 60-inch rear projection TV, which was great in its day), but upgraded our old surround sound receiver to a new Yamaha RXV863 receiver to complement the newer digital technology. We have the Sharp mounted on the wall, and use a Playstation 3 for Blu-ray movies and a Cox HDTV cable box with DVR for HDTV reception, recording, and playback. We also have a Wii player connected, and its images also look great with this HDTV.

This Sharp HDTV was delivered via Amazon's standard truck carrier, and arrived on time in perfect condition.

This is one great HDTV. We highly recommend it!

This TV is so far everything I expected. The Sharp Aquos line took a big dump years ago when they started to redesign and replace parts with cheaper ones. This new generation Shar Aquos is back to its original standards. I have this unit mounted on the wall of my entertainment center and its the perfect size. This is the only available LCD on the 65" range. About the 120hz hype, I've seen the next generation of this model with the 120hz Spider Man 3 on Blu-ray and there IS ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE. What the other makes are advertizing as 120hz true motion is different. This is manipulating the image to eliminate all possible blur natural to LCDs when watching cinema (24 frames per second) movies. If you have any doubts, go to a Frys or BestBuy and watch a TV playing a movie with 120hz true motion enabled. It makes movies look fake, as if you are watching a video game or a soap opera. It takes you out of the movie. Your grinch reflex will be overworked scene by scene. Sharp has had 120hz refresh rates for years and they look the same as 40hz (this model). Don't be taken up by the marketing fad on this feature and be suckered to pay an extra $3000. In my opinion, the next generation on this size by Aquos is plain ugly. The frame looks like is covered in leather, with four hidious chrome squares on each corner. This model has a slick piano-like frame finish with very elegant and contemporary lines. Overal, it is a great TV. Make sure you have at least 14 feet of separation between the TV and the seating area.

I recommend this product highly.

We have a large room with lots of windows so had to go LCD over plasma. I have not complaints over this tv. Picture is amazing, even wathching Hi Def sports channels. The price goes up and down, but keep watching it and go for the 65 over the 50's any day.

Wow! After patiently waiting 9 days for delivery via CEVA, Amazon's preferred shipper (to be fair, it was a four day holiday weekend) my TV finally arrived! And it was worth it... but:

CEVA - "White Glove Delivery" ...

well, that's sort of a joke (no, I didn't expect them to have white gloves)... however they gave me a four hour delivery window of 12-4PM, yet they were almost 3 hours late (got here at 6:40PM after first arriving at 5:45 (driver only) and telling me they needed a second man to unload (this TV weighs 157 lbs in the box!), "be right back" - not sure where they got the second man but he did reappear almost an hour later with what appeared to be a CEVA employee.)

In CEVA's defense, their on site personnel were uniformed, neat, friendly and helpful - and the dispatcher was responsive when I called their office to ask where the driver was, they called him on his cell and reported he was on the way.

THE TV, OVERALL?

In a word, wonderful! AND NO ODORS AT ALL! It's been running now for several hours and we have not smelled anything - so not sure what others have experienced, but there was no burn-in odor whatsoever.

PICTURE? Fantastic - but the preset defaults were not even close - it does take some fiddling if you don't like green faces. A few folks in these ratings have listed what worked for them - I tried one's settings and it was pretty close - tweaked it a bit more and I'm happy as a clam... wonderful, almost 3-D like picture. But I did learn one thing: 1080p is only available via BLU-RAY content - all broadcasts, according to the FAQ Aquos site, is 1080i, so this TV is "future ready" but not going to display 1080p unless you are watch a blu-ray DVD. I never knew that, so you live and learn. Doesn't really matter though, 1080i Cable is pretty awesome! Have not hooked up my blu-ray yet, but it's hard to imagine a better picture!

(** note: when I first saw this TV, in a Costco, it was underwhelming - apparently they just sat it out, made no adjustments, compared to others nearby, the picture was not impressive - now I know why. The default setting are not even close - so whatever you do, don't judge by some display model - it may be that no one bothered to make the adjustments - which are a bit complicated but with some patience (and a little guidance from our fellow raters here!) you will be pleased with the picture.)

AUDIO? The Aquos speakers are not impressive but if you buy this TV you will likely be using a home theatre system and you should - the speakers are mediocre, at best. A bit tinny - didn't mess with them, just turned them off, but it might be possible to get them sounding better but what little I heard was unimpressive.

MANUAL? Also a bit underwhelming, but adequate - not very indepth as to what some of the controls do - minimal is the best description... but in fairness, the on-screen controls are pretty self-explanatory and easy to navigate as well as understand. Spend a few minutes and you will feel like you've had this TV for months.

FEATURES? WHERE IS THE PICTURE 'n PICTURE?!?! I knew it didn't have this feature and bought it anyway but WHY - WHY SHARP? A TV like this, a top of the line model, no PnP? Crazy!!!! I like to use PnP for my security system camera's - now I have to toggle back and forth whereby with my old Sony I could have both pictures on the screen at the same time - LISTEN UP SHARP!!! How about a firmware upgrade enabling this feature if it is possible?? PLEASE!?!? It's really the only major feature missing. What a shame. And my rational for 4 stars vs 5 (actually I would give it a 4.5!)

FIRMWARE? Not sure yet, but the firmware version on Sharp's site for this TV is "lower" in numeric value than the one on the TV - and I'm wondering why? Why would the TV come with a more up to date version (if that is the "logic" of the number) than the one on their web site. I'm not upgrading the firmware until I understand more about this, because "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". (NOTE: Sharp says no need to upgrade this firmware on current sets, last updated was Jan 08!)

WARRANTY? included in the documentation was an extended 3 mos warranty for registering, so a 15 mo vs 12 mo warranty - not bad... but had I purchased this TV at Costco I would have received a two year extended warranty (but, paid more and sales tax and had to drag it home myself, no easy feat!)

PRICE? Well, Amazon is pretty whacky with this one. The price seems to bouncing like a ball on this TV. One minute it's $[...] with a free Sharp Blu-ray DVD player, the next minute it's $[...] with no promos. And everything between - I watched the price, every day, for a week and every two days it changed... when it finally hit $[...] (the lowest I saw it but others claim to have bought it before Jan 1 at $[...] w/ the blu-ray promo) I waited and then it was GONE! Poof. Took another week before it hit that price again and this time I jumped "only 1 left" - sure enough, after I clicked purchase, the next minute it was no longer available from Amazon but only one of it's vendors, at $3400! FYI: for some weird reason, Costco is $3499 on this TV (model number is slightly different, but it's the same TV - Sharp does this so you can't compare prices and their retailers don't get upset with them for selling at warehouse clubs, I'm told) When you run this model through sites like PriceGrabber, it comes up mostly in the $3100-3500 price ranges.

OVERALL? VERY, VERY HAPPY. Still have to hang it on the wall - got the Sansu wall bracket for $164 (forget Sharp, they want $400!) on Amazon, but all the comments about the screws not working is correct - you will need the M10Kit from Sansu, another $27 but I complained to the wall bracket vendor and they gave me a $35 refund (which includes the S&H of $8) to reimburse me for the M10Kit. Nice, and no hassles.

BUY THIS TV! It's a great TV for the price. You won't regret it. I had a Sony LCD, 4 years old, and this is a dramatic improvement, blacker blacks, contrast is incredible, Sharp lives up to it's name: This IS one VERY "SHARP" TV!

UPDATE: FIVE DAYS LATER: Still no odor issues... not sure why some have the problem and some don't but we are in the same room with this TV about 12+ hours a day, and there has been zero odor from this TV.

Finally mounted it on the wall today - looks awesome. Note to those considering the suggested Sansu mount kit - the M10 kit (Beach Audio) that is required for installing this TV due to the larger bolts, well, it came with 2" screws - you will only need 1" (30mm) screws - with 1.5 pitch (got zapped on that too, making for two trips to the hardware store), 4 bolts, .80 each - ended up returning the M10 kit and just got the bolts locally. You will need to make the slot in the extension brackets larger by boring them out, takes 10 mins., save $35!

As a followup, I experienced the same problem with "out of the box" poor picture performance - seems the factory defaults are just lousy. But once you get it set (see these reviews for some suggested settings!) it is one great picture. Call Sharp special Aquo's number to speak to a level 2 tech, to ask about auto-dimmer picture control - automatic brightness adjustment was far too sensitive... Sharp tech said there was no adjustment for this but HE WAS WRONG: it's under ADVANCED settings... and once adjusted, works great. Just slide the slider for each inward about 1/3 to create a shorter zone - you may have to play with it based on your lighting but this TV was way too bright during the daytime and would actually hurt your eyes watching it - just move that slider in a bit and problem solved.

UPDATE: AFTER 10 DAYS OF OWNERSHIP - STILL NO ODORS! And I am in love with this TV! After a few more tweaks and learning that EACH input requires individual picture control adjustments (kind of a pain, but...) - now I just have to hope that after a power failure they don't all reset to default settings, which were way off the mark.

10/7/2009 UPDATE: Well, I knew it was bound to happen - it was too good to be true. About a week ago (and 9 months of ownership) I began to notice a 2" wide horizontal "band" across the screen, almost dead center. After experimenting with the settings, I determined that it was only there in STANDARD and CUSTOM modes - when I set it to GAME mode, it went away. Sharp sent a tech out and he brought a new voltage board but after replacement, same problem. So now we move to replacement of the control center board - and another week long wait for that part to come in and then reschedule a second trip. Sharp told the tech is this doesn't fix the problem they will replace the TV with a new one.

NOTE: the tech support people make it very clear that the service tech would not help us remove the TV from the wall mount - but he was very nice and offered to help (it weights 157 lbs) making the entire process much easier than I had thought it would be.

We still love the TV and honestly, Game Mode is a bit more vivid than Standard Mode, but the picture is crisp and almost 3-D like in that mode - we may stick with that after the repair/replacement.

Still the best TV I have ever owned... Better than Sony and Samsung's LCD's, which I own as well.

This set worked great out of the box. I am very pleased with picture and sound, as well as the price available on line. I used the Sanus wall mount kit recommended for the LC65D64U. It fits very close to the wall, looks good. Be warned that the bolts furnished by Sanus do not fit the set (Use metric M10-mm30) also had to file the slots in the mount bracket slightly wider to allow for the bolts to fit. I know there are some feature on much more expensive models that might sound neat but for a basic set with a great picture I could not see a cost benefit with another more expensive set.