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148 of 149 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sharp's new top of the line LCD, March 9, 2007
I bought the Sharp Aquos LC46-D92U in early February of 2007. It was Sharp's latest and is supposedly their high end model. My set had a serial number beginning 7018xxxxxx. The first number in the Sharp serial number tells the year of manufacture (2007) and the next two numbers represent the month of manufacture (January). As you can see, I was an early adopter. I bought it sight unseen despite the uproar going on on the Internet about the banding problems of the new Sharp LCD's manufactured at Sharp's recently opened manufacturing plant in Kameyama (sp?), Japan. For those not familiar with the conflict, apparently some of the new LCD's from Sharp demonstrated the presence of both dark horizontal and vertical bands that could be seen on monocolor backgrounds, like solid gray, or white or sometimes black. The earlier models from Kameyama, the D62U's, were supposedly worse. So, why did I buy this set when a conflict about such a defect was raging? There were a number of reasons:
1. I saw a couple of the D62U models playing in various stores and I didn't notice any bands on regular material.
2. Sharp has been extremely cooperative with people complaining about banding and has been replacing the sets until the person was satisfied or returned their purchase price if the individual desired.
3. Those who had seen the picture quality of the new D92 U models at the Consumer Electronics Show in January were absolutely blown away by it. This set was a true leap forward in LCDs. The blacks were jet black and easily a match for a plasma set. The new 120 Hz screen refresh rate (double the normal 60 Hz) seemed to completely eliminate any motion artifacts. You could watch a football game or hockey game without any smearing. The new five color backlight gave some of the most rich glorious colors yet seen on an LCD. The colors had a real WOW! factor. With the new 1080p resolution, a high quality signal had an almost 3D quality on this set.
So, I decided to take the risk. I had good luck with the picture quality. It was just as amazing as had been described, and there was not a band in sight. I apparently got one of the good ones. However, it came out of the box with a problem with the sound. No matter what I hooked up to the set, the sound was intermittent. I called Sharp who gave me the number for the local authorized repair person. He checked things and then called Sharp to discuss the problem with the Sharp technicians. They apparently recognized it immediately. They told him they'd been having problems with the audio IC board. Apparently they received a bunch of problematic ones. They sent a new audio IC board out, the technician bolted it in place of the old one, and everything was solved.
So, it has been a bit of an ordeal getting everything set up properly, but, now that it is, I think it was worth it. I don't have one of the new High Definition DVD players, but I've got a good upconverting conventional player that I set to 1080p output, the native resolution of the set. When I use the DVD player, I set the TV to dot-to-dot mode. All I can say is: it's a revelation! I have not seen a picture like this on any LCD before. Of course, you have to properly adjust the set. It comes from the factory set in the flamethrower mode and will melt your eyeballs if you watch it this way in a darkened room. For those not familiar with videophile jargon, this means the factory sets the backlight all the way up so the set will be as bright as possible out of the box. This may make sense if it's going to be hung in a big video display in Circuit City or Best Buy, where there are very bright overhead flourescent lights, and where the set will be hung right next to its competition (Sony, Samsung, etc.), but it makes no sense in a home environment. If anyone buys this set, my advice is to immediately turn the backlight down to the STD setting. There are other setting changes for color, tint, sharpness, contrast, etc that need to be made. Go to the Internet website [...] and find the Sharp threads. You'll find plenty of recommendations for how to set the TV properly. You will also find an incredible amount of whining and complaining about this set from people who expect perfection in whatever they buy. To each his own. What you won't find is anyone who has anything but good to say about the picture quality. The banding problems and the sound difficulty are why I gave this set only four stars. Based on picture quality alone, when fed a really good signal, this set deserves 5+ stars. It really does seem to have addressed all the picture quality problems that previously plagued LCD sets. The sound is OK, but a set this glorious really deserves better. If you don't want to fiddle with a full five or seven speaker surround sound system, Sharp makes a nice two piece "Home Theater In A Box" called the SD-SP10. Amazon has it for sale and it's quite inexpensive for the quality of sound it puts out. It's truly a bargain. Just don't expect it to compete with a five speaker setup driven by 6 or 700 watts.
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84 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
KDL-46XBR2 vs. 46D92U!, April 19, 2007
I ordered a Sharp 46D92U after living with a Sony KDL464XBR2 for a while. My wife and I love the XBR2, but right now both sets are set up side by side in my living room and while there's a long list of things that we prefer about the Sony; after several evenings of viewing, the Sony's going back to the store and the Sharp has a new home.
Now that's not because of looks. Neither my wife nor I have ever found televisions attractive. They tend to be these big ugly hunks of glass that are best hidden away when not in use. Not so the XBR2, we find the XBR2 to be the most attractive looking flat screen package on the market. It looks like a thing you want hanging in your living room. The Sharp? The Sharp looks like a really big computer monitor. We had a tough time ordering it in the first place because we find it so ugly and the Sony so pretty.
It's also not because of the build quality. Don't get me wrong, the Sharp is built well. But the quality of the buttons, the labels on the ports, all much lower on the Sharp than the Sony.
Nor is it because of the "out of the box" sound. The Sony's speakers and sound have it hands down over the sharp which sounds tinny and thin and quiet compared to the Sony.
But then there's the picture quality. This is after all a TV; not a vase, not a computer keyboard, not a stereo, it's a TV. The two boxes are set up side by side in our living room and here's the net. Coming out of a Blu-Ray player, the Sony looks worse on almost every scene compared to the Sharp. The Sharp has this clear "no panel blur" picture that is just incredible. The Sharp displays a level of detail in the darker scenes that the Sony just cannot match.
Don't get me wrong, if we'd not done the side-by-side, we would have continued to be completely happy with the Sony. The XBR2 has an incredible picture. But it's not as good as the Sharp's. Motion on the Sharp is better. Dark scenes on the Sharp are better. The only downside is that all that "sharp-ness" makes the source material look grainy once in a while. So, if you are willing to put up with the Sharp's looks and not going to rely on the built in speakers for sound, this may be the set for you.
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55 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow! Now That's HD!, April 26, 2007
I have been researching flat panel TVs for months now trying to decide between Plasma vs. LCD, TV size, and picture quality. What I found was the Sharp LC46D92U. First of all LCDs appear to be the direction of the industry as there may be limitations to the advancements that can be made with plasma technology. Secondly the advances made with the Sharp LC46D92U have put to rest all of the advantages held by plasma sets in the past. Plasma TVs for example had deeper blacks than LCDs because plasma TVs do not use a back light. Also in the past, faster moving scenes on large LCDs have been a problem because the frame rate conversion was to slow to keep up with the fast motion. The Sharp LC46D92U put all issues to rest because they doubled the frame rate conversion solving the fast motion problems, and a 5 wave back light has solved the black level problems. Now, I could go on about how this set is superior showing you all of my research, but I don't feel that I need to as this set speaks for itself. Be sure to get the D92 module as it is the latest set with the advanced 5 wave back light, 120z frame rate conversion, and the 4ms response time. Also watch out for the previous D62 and D82 modules as some stores are still trying to push old stock (Best Buy & Circuit City, etc.). These old modules do not have the latest advances nor do they have as many connections, and they had some banning problems on the old modules. Also as a side note this set is 1080p Full HD, so it is ready for the latest forms of HD (1080p) (Blue Ray DVD) (HD DVD). All in all, the picture is fantastic and the price can't be beat and that is why I bought the Sharp LC46D92U.
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