Customer Reviews

Sharp LC-37DB5U Aquos 37-Inch HD-Ready Flat-Panel LCD TV

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My unit, which I bought from Amazon, had a whole bunch of problems. Out of the box, it has two bad pixels. One is always orange, the other one is always greenish. They are quite noticeable. It sucks to pay 2k+ for a screen that is flawed. When channel surfing with this thing, it occasionally resets itself; turns itself off and then back on. The biggest problem with my tv is that once a while it can't be turn on. The power light and OPC light would flash on and off, pressing the power button on the remote and the set won't turn it on. I would have to unplugg the power cord and then plug it back in for this thing to work again. When it works, the picture quality and black levels are very good. I've contacted Sharp customer service. We have not reached a solution yet.

This Sharp Aquos is just a spectacular TV: great HDTV, sound, look, etc. However, the unit I bought from Amazon had two small defects (scratches) in the upper right corner of the finish and Amazon customer service was actually quite terrible. They simply told me they could not accept returns on TVs over 27 inches. I recommend getting this TV, but from a local store, so that way if you have the same problems as me you can exchange it for a perfect unit, which you and I deserve for the money. Overall: TV great, amazon stinky.

I love this TV. Bought it for $1750 (floor model). Had an initial problem with the TV turning itself on and having a frozen screen where we couldn't shut it off unless we unplugged it. We called SHARP and they contacted a local repairman to come out and fix it. I guess this is a common problem with this model. The repairman came out yesterday and said he's already done this "firmware upgrade" to 15 others like ours. Hopefully this will solve our problem.

Otherwise it's awesome. Great visually and has a lot of options. We're in Indianapolis and are dropping our cable bc with a roof antenna we get our local channels in HD. Looks much better than cable!

Only gets 4 stars bc the price is still outrageous on technology is that supposed to be mainstream. Not everyone has $2k to drop on a TV.

I have the same problem as the first reviewer. I didn't purchase the TV my dad did. So I don't know if I can get repaired. Picture looks great while it is on.

I got the same problem which is reported here, the TV some times will re-set itself when watching a program, or turn on by itself during the mid-night ...

After Sharp sent someone to my home and did inspection and end up with no solution, I figured out the reason by myself. I am hooking up a TERK indoor HDTV antenna with the TV, when the OTA input is turnned to an un-stable channel, like the signal is very weak and you can have picture some times but lost the picture other times, no matter you are watching OTA input, or cable input, or any other input, your TV will reset by itself, or, if the TV is turnned off, it might be turned on by self. when you turnned the OTA input to a very stable channel, this problem dissappeared.

I called the Sharp guy abou this found, his reply is simple - do not use that antenna with the TV.

I don'w know what antenna you guys are using, but TERK is definitely a widely used indoor antenna, maybe we can talk about that here.

This TV looks great, sounds fantastic, and has a stunning picture - in HD anyway. The regular standard-def picture is ok, but seems a little pixelated or "artifacty". This could be from the cable company and/or the TV's upresing. Either way I really only try to watch the HD - as I mentioned it's stunning.

I wish it had an additional HDMI port, but I don't need it yet. It would also be nice if they somehow hid an additional RCA video input on the fromt of the monitor, so I don't have to mess around with the giant panel of inputs in the back just to hook up my video camera.

It's amazing how even though the screen is so big, thee flatness of the TV actually makes it seem to take up less room than my older, smaller CRT TV.

Sturdy and beautiful all-around.

i shopped for along time an at first was overwhelmed with lcd,hdtv, plasma ect.but after many months i found my self coming back to sharp aquos its an amazing set i had mine mounted on the wall and the cords hidden in the wall its otstanding the high defination is amazing i even took out a 5 year warrenty after spending 2100 dollars on the set but i wanted to protect my investment its not to big and not to small and the color is amazing im very very happy i wish i had purchused the 45 inch but the question is is it woth 2000 dollars more for 8 more inches for the money this is a great set. but its gets better i convience pc richards to exchange this set for the 45 inch its like having a theater in your living room if you can afforf go for the 45 i wrote a letter today to consumer reports telling them how great this set is and how great they both are. consumer reports feb 2006 rated the sharp aquos the number 1 set

I've owned this TV for over a year. It works very well if this is the size you can use (I prefer a larger screen and will move it to a bedroom, eventually). I will not articulate all the features that are covered so well by other Reviewers. But beware a few glaring irritations.

1) Low speaker volume.
Try all you want. There's no way to raise the speaker volume to a high-enough level to be heard over ambient noises in a household setting -- and I live alone! I am researching add-on third speaker units, right now. But at the cost most of them run I may decide on a new TV, instead.

2) Weird power loss and reset issues.
I've never experienced such a bewildering issue of losing control over a TV due to a power outage or brown-out. I'm sure it's a built-in safety factor. But periodically the TV has to be completely unplugged, then reconnected and reset to resume normal operations. I attribute this to local power outages in the neighborhood. But it completely mystifies me. And I have it plugged into a surge protector. Nothing else on that protector is affected in this way.

3) Limited controls.
The Mitsubishi HDTV that this one replaced had far greater controls available for tweaking the picture quality, etc. Maybe I'm expecting too much on a 37" LCD. For $1200 to $1700 Retail, I wanted more.

However, I must add, at the time I bought this LCD I compared it side-by-side to others on the market and felt it had the best picture, with the most-natural skin tones, etc. The Sony ran a very close second but was selling at a price well above the Sharp.

Here's a hint for those comparing between LCD and Plasma: To me, Plasma looks a lot sharper (especially the Panasonic), but if you have glare from overhead lights or windows, choose the LCD format. For some reason, they are now touting LCD screens with glass shields in front to get that glossy look, which they claim increases the picture quality. It seems to be defeating one of the strongest reasons for buying an LCD, to me. On the rear-screen projection Mitsubishi that I owned (53" screen), the main selling point was I could remove the clear acrylic protective shield and gain the sweet non-glare look of an exposed LCD-like viewing experience. You may notice that a lot of your friends mount their Plasmas up high on a wall and then tilt them downward. I think it's because they are trying -- in part -- to avoid that glare. Most people coming late from the traditional TV experience don't even realize the best advantages of LCD -- the lack of irritating reflections.

I agree with other reviewers that this set is excellent for viewing. In the last few months, though, we've started having problems with the remote. When the set is first turned on only the on/off feature will work for about five minutes from ten feet away. When we move to within a couple feet the remaining features start working, and after the short wait period. We've changed the batteries several times and made sure the send and receive ports are not blocked to no avail. We've had the set just over a year and no other problems. We've no children or pets that chew on these things. I just emailed Sharp customer service describing the problem and haven't heard anything back. One way to troubleshoot this would be to buy a universal remote and see if it works any different. So far the nuisance factor hasn't driven us to do anything else. I'm prompted to write this because several reviewers noted what seems to be a remote control problem.

This is a nice looking TV - I have this in my home sitting on a mantle over a fireplace. The picture is great, though I think it does suffer from the same issue as most LCD displays - black levels that could be more black. This is especially apparent when viewing a movie in the dark.

Also, oddly, it seems as though the volume control is ignored for the first few seconds the TV is turned on. This can be a problem if the set is turned on and the volume is too loud for the time of day (perhaps others in the house are sleeping).