Sharp Aquos LC52D64U 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

This is my first large-screen TV. I spent a month or so researching before the purchase. There is much chatter in reviews about "banding" and non-uniform picture, etc. Given that I don't have electronic measuring instruments, I have to say there is absolutely no sign of any such effects in my TV, and the picture is fine. The TV lives up to the advertisement in terms of being quite compact with a bright and sharp picture. I did find that setting up some of the picture parameters (from the controller menu) did help with the HD pictures where motion was concerned. I also didn't realize at first that you need an HDMI cable or component cable to get the HD picture - I originally had a composite cable. In side by side comparisons in the store, Sony appeared to have a better picture, but I'd like to see a side-by-side comparison under controlled conditions. The built in sound seems quite adequate, but understandably a dedicated sound system would be an improvement.

I can't describe the months of tortuous research I performed to prepare for this purchase. It boiled down to the Sharp Aquos 54 Series and Sony Bravia. They were both almost identical. The Bravia almost had me because they had the 120hz refresh rate and connectors all over the place. At the time of research, the aquos had the slower refresh and a disappointing lack of HDMI, PC connectors. Then out of no where, the 64 series Aquos released and had all if not more than the most current Bravia, and at $1,000 less. At this point it was a no brainer. Amazon delivered and set up the set in my living room and hauled away packing material at no extra charge...a nice treat. The set performed exactly at representated since. Colors are brilliant, black is black (and that is easy feat). I thought 52" was too big, but once set-up it is actually now the minimum size for my living room I would consider. Becareful not to buy too small, I almost made the mistake of getting the 48". I am very satisfied with this purchase.

We ordered this TV on December 10th and it delivered and up and running on December 18th, we could have had it delivered earlier, but our HDTV connection wasn't ready until the 18th.

This was one of the easiest online transactions I've ever had, far better than Ebay. The price was easily $500 less than I expected to pay. Amazon is great!

We chose this TV because it was thinner than the other sets we looked at, Sony and Samsung, and the picture was comparable. The set is connected to a DISH VIP722 DVR via an HDMI cable. I've tried both composite and HDMI and there was no noticeable difference so we went with the single cable HDMI connection.

The default picture setting was way too bright for our environment, probably set for a retail store, so we had to play around with the setup. The first thing I would recommend is to flip up the cover on the remote and use the A/V Mode button to test out different picture modes to see if one meets your needs. If you don't like any of them you can set it to user mode and put in your own adjustments. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11852269#post11852269
has some settings you might want to start with.

The sound is far better than I expected and is really fine for most news and drama shows, but with such a big screen and High Def picture, many shows deserve a better sound system which will be my next big purchase.

On the downside, a lot of shows are still not in High Def and when a video shot in Standard Def is shown on a program broadcast in High Def we get an annoying flickering white and black line at the top of the screen, this is known as under scan . I'm trying to get this resolved with Sharp or DISH.

Overall this has completely changed the way we watch TV, it's much more like being in a theater than the old 27 inch TV.

Great TV! Bought on Amazon and everything went off without a hitch. This 52 inch seems like a perfect size for a living room. We view it about 10 ft away. Looks great even during the day. I used it with a TiVo Series 3 and a Toshiba HD DVD and a Sony AV system. HDTV from your provider, TiVo, an AV system and a player (DVD and/or Blu-Ray) is a lot of fun! It is a whole different experience from just watching a little box. For home entertainment, HD and TiVo have to be two of the best innovations for home entertainment, ever. Great TV.

We could not be more pleased with the shipping and being able to track our order,the condition of the TV on delivery, the ease of installation and the picture quality.

We have recommended this to many of our friends.