LCD TV Help

[Eomer]

Basically I've done all I can, and I cannot for the fucking life of me figure out the difference between the following three Sharp Aquos TV's. Please help me! There's about $300 difference between the different 52" models, yet as far as I can tell they're virtually identical. Is it only cosmetic changes that separate them?

Sharp.ca Sharp at Home

Sharp.ca Sharp at Home

Sharp.ca Sharp at Home

Basically my brother wants a couple TV's for his new house, and has measured out the LC42D62U and LC52D82U at Best Buy and determined they're perfect for the custom millwork. They seem to be pretty good TV's, but I don't follow them all that much, so if they're horrible pieces of crap please feel free to comment.

Third, anyone recommend a good retailer (online or brick and mortar) for purchasing these in Canada? I was going to buy some from a place in the US on Ebay, but once I dug past their bullshit it became apparent that with all the shipping, insurance and so on there was no savings at all even with the strong loonie. I see that Costco.ca has the 52D82 on their website for 3700 vs 4200 at Futureshop, which is a pretty nice savings.

Thanks for the help.

[Tolanin]

With an order that expensive its definitely worth it to get the costco membership and get it from there... they are a fine retailer and if they have a store near you it makes it even better since you can take it there any time you have trouble or whatever. I have no idea if they have branches in canada tho so that might mess it up =/

We bought a smaller 45in sharp about 6 months ago from bestbuy and its worked fine, no regrets.

[Eomer]

Yeah there's one about 3 blocks from our office, so it looks like barring a miracle the 52" will come from there. That's the only Sharp they stock, and apparently Sharp won't fix it if I buy from them:

Since Costco is not an authorized dealer for this product, the manufacturer’s warranty does not apply. In place of the manufacturer’s warranty, Costco will refund your purchase price if you are not completely satisfied with this product.

I've heard that Costco's got a great return policy, so should I not be worried? I'm willing to bet the only reason they aren't an "authorized" dealer is because they're willing to price under the MSRP.

But that still leaves me wondering where to buy the 42". Fuck does e-tail ever suck in Canada, there's like no one other than websites of brick and mortars.

[Aegdaien]

Sharp won't honor the manufacturer's warranty if you purchase it at Costco? Are you serious? What kind of lame shit is that.

As far as their return policy goes, you have 90 days from the purchase date to return it for a full refund. Past that, Costco extends all TV warranties to 2 years.

But I wouldn't even purchase from Sharp if they refuse to honor a simple fucking warranty because it was purchased at a major retailer that they don't seem to like for some reason. Though their TVs get great reviews, something like that doesn't give me any product/customer service confidence.

[Eomer]

Like I said, I can almost guarantee it's because Costco is refusing to honor the MSRP. Even if you buy from a speciality dealer, they'll just about never give you a straight discount on an item from the MSRP, instead they'll tuck it in somewhere else so as not to piss the manufacturer off.

[Vorph]

That is the norm for any sort of electronics: buy from an authorized dealer, or don't get a warranty. So really it's Costco's fault, not Sharp's, although I'm not sure the authorized dealer thing really has much benefit to the customer anymore.

[Cennyan]

As you progress upwards in model numbers the picture (in theory) get's better. The higher model has a better Contrast Ratio and faster refresh rate.

Contrast ratio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thing to keep in mind...all three are 1080P TVs, not 1080I. P = Progressive, I = Interlaced. The ONLY thing that is coming out in P that I'm aware of is DVD players, specifically Blue Ray and HD DVD. An "upconverting" DVD will not deliver a 1080P picture. No broadcasting source (Cable, Dish Network, Direct TV, etc..) has a 1080P broadcast. At best you will get a 1080I broadcast and usually, most shows that are "HD" are only 760P. In essence, he may be wasting his money on a 1080P TV at this point. This is the first year for the general population to have 1080P's available and it's still a very new technology for which there has not yet been a defined standard (Think VHS vs Beta in the 80's). So if he does go with this TV keep in mind 2 things. 1. It's not mainstream yet and there is very little which caters to the 1080P standard (although it is by far the best picture when you get a 1080P source) and 2. Since there is no standard, it is likely that it may change again leaving your brother with a TV which works, but has much of it's "bells and whistles" wasted.

Anyway, hope that helps some. GL

[Aegdaien]

1080p:

Xbox 360
Playstation 3
Blu-Ray DVDs
HD-DVDs
HTPCs (1920 x 1080)

720p:

HDTV
....
..
.

Oh wait, 720p also has really shitty HTPC resolutions! (1280 x 720)

Yeah. If you ever intend to use your HDTV for anything other than simply watching cable TV, you'd be retarded not to get a 1080p tv.

[Tolanin]

a 1080p tv will also display 1080i source much better than a 720p tv would since it doesnt have to downconvert to fit.

I cant see any reason not to get 1080p its definitly better than 720p in every way.

[Eomer]

As you progress upwards in model numbers the picture (in theory) get's better. The higher model has a better Contrast Ratio and faster refresh rate.

Uh, the links on Sharp's website indicate that the actual panel in all the different models at a certain size is pretty much identical. There is no difference in refresh rate and contrast ratio. Oh wait, actually the 92U does seem to have a higher contrast ratio. But the 82U and 62U are the same. And as far as I can tell, they're all 120hz.

Anyway, hope that helps some. GL

Not really. I'm not retarded and understand what the different resolutions are. To be perfectly honest .

[Lyenae]

** Too much panel resolution retardation going on in this thread ***

To the OP, you want the newest technology when financially possible. LCD panels are making big changes every production year, and some of the older panels (even current panels), have big picture quality problems that you won't be able to ascertain from specification lists on manufacturer's websites

You should spend 5-10 hours reading up on AVS forums (such as this thread Official Sharp Aquos 42D62U/46D62U/52D62U Owner's Thread (NO PRICE TALK!) - AVS Forum) and looking across the entire internet for reviews on your panel, or other panels in your desired class.

[Vorph]

I'd try to find a TV with full support for 1080p24 if you ever intend to watch HD movies on it. Unfortunately Sharp TVs aren't capable of actually using the 120Hz refresh for 5x frame display, so you end up losing any benefit that would be gained by doing 1080p24 on them.

Basically you'd want to look for something with the same features as the Pioneer Elite PRO-940HD, except LCD instead of plasma, and 1080 resolution instead of 768.

[Eomer]

To be honest, my brother is absolutely NOT a hometheatrephile. I'm not really, either, but I know the terminology fairly well. I just can't be bothered to spend 16 hours tweaking every setting on my PJ, DVD player and computer to achieve the absolute perfect color balance. Fuck it.

He doesn't know what the resolution is, he doesn't know what the refresh rate is, and he certainly doesn't care about the contrast ratio. The guy who did the wiring for it recommended those models, the custom millwork was made roughly for those dimensions (I'm sure there's an inch or two of play), and that's what he wants. So that's what he gets. If there's no massive massive issues with the Sharp (thanks for the link on the banding), then that's what he'll get. My question, again, is what the hell the difference is between the various 52's from Sharp, it appears the 92U has slightly better contrast, but otherwise the 62U 82U and 92U all appear virtually identical save for minor cosmetic differences. I'm just going to assume that the higher the number, the more recent the model, and that there's really no significant differences that my brother would ever notice.

The most important thing for me, really, is finding a good place to buy them at less than MSRP, because paying MSRP for anything is a fucking joke. Costco has the 52D82U, but I can't find anyplace with the 42D62U.

So again, anyone know a good Canadian online retailer for TV's? I tried buying from the US on ebay, but the ridiculous shipping and insurance costs coupled with the US warranty not being honored and having to buy an extra warranty pretty much made them the exact same price, but in US dollars.

[Lyenae]

You need to go to Sharp's website and find a list of authorized dealers, or find out EXACTLY their policy on warranties.

I bought my TV off an authorized dealer that works through Amazon.com.

Amazon.com: Used and New: Sharp Aquos LC42D62U 42" 1080p LCD HDTV

[Intrinsic]

Originally Posted by Eomer

Basically I've done all I can, and I cannot for the fucking life of me figure out the difference between the following three Sharp Aquos TV's. Please help me! There's about $300 difference between the different 52" models, yet as far as I can tell they're virtually identical. Is it only cosmetic changes that separate them?

Sharp.ca Sharp at Home

Sharp.ca Sharp at Home

Sharp.ca Sharp at Home

Basically my brother wants a couple TV's for his new house, and has measured out the LC42D62U and LC52D82U at Best Buy and determined they're perfect for the custom millwork. They seem to be pretty good TV's, but I don't follow them all that much, so if they're horrible pieces of crap please feel free to comment.

Third, anyone recommend a good retailer (online or brick and mortar) for purchasing these in Canada? I was going to buy some from a place in the US on Ebay, but once I dug past their bullshit it became apparent that with all the shipping, insurance and so on there was no savings at all even with the strong loonie. I see that Costco.ca has the 52D82 on their website for 3700 vs 4200 at Futureshop, which is a pretty nice savings.

Thanks for the help.

The brochure doesn't go in to a whole lot of detail, I was looking for the individual manual for each TV to get a little more specific, but it looks like . . .

The LC52D92U is the only one of the three to use the 5-wavelength Backlight system. The speakers of the D62 series don't seem to be rated like the rest (2x15w), simply bottom mounted recessed. Could be that they are worse (than normal TV speakers? oookay). Also it looks like the D92 has the most inputs (multiple HDMI, Component, RS232).