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Sharp or Sony?

Old 04-22-12, 03:29 PM
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Sharp or Sony?

Lemme just throw this out here- Sharp or Sony? The Sharp I'm looking at has a bigger screen (60 inches) , lower price and a freeze-frame function, but has an annoying dimming effect that can't be turned off (not as annoying as the one on my Vizio though which was defeatable) and the onscreen display seems to come on excessively. The Sony is 5 inches smaller, costs a few hundred more, is a Sony (a bad thing in itself) but has defeatable 'smart-dimming' and the onscreen display doesn't seem to trigger itself on every time the input signal changes. (This is important to me because when starting a VHS tape for example, the display will come on saying what input it's on. I can make it go away with the remote but it's still annoying.)

I've narrowed it down to these two because my absolute requirements are active 3D (I've been a 3D fan for ages so really want to support it now, and passive 3D halves the resolution which is unacceptable) and PAL compatibility since I had region-free PAL-capable DVD players and a multistandard VHS machine (which can convert PAL to NTSC but it looks like crap that way.)

Most people probably don't care about the amount of on-screen crap a TV puts on when changing signals, but maybe someone can say which has the better picture overall. I'm really annoyed to see backlit screens are becoming less common in favor of edge-lit, but having a backlit TV right now I can say they aren't perfect either.

Right now I'm leaning towards the Sharp because despite its annoyances I think it'll be better overall.
Old 04-22-12, 03:40 PM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

Just curious why not considering a Plasma? I was a LCD person and was all set on getting a new LED to replace the damaged SONY LCD. Plasma's were not even on the menu or a thought. We now have a Panasonic 55" GT30 plasma on the wall and I couldn't be happier with the PQ be it 2D or 3D.....it's just great.
Old 04-22-12, 04:49 PM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

Originally Posted by Alan Smithee
Sharp or Sony?
Panasonic or Samsung plasma.
Old 04-22-12, 05:24 PM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

Originally Posted by Mr. Salty
Panasonic or Samsung plasma.
This, although I'd lean towards Panasonic.
Old 04-22-12, 07:18 PM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

Originally Posted by Mister Peepers
This, although I'd lean towards Panasonic.
and I would lean towards Samsung, but we both agree on the plasma
Old 04-22-12, 07:53 PM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

Originally Posted by K&AJones
Just curious why not considering a Plasma?
You may have missed his (I mean, growly's thread) other thread. PAL compatibility, which Panny doesn't provide.

Alan,
I'd say Sharp, in general. Sony seems to be on a downswing of caring about quality.

Last edited by Spiky; 04-22-12 at 10:12 PM.
Old 04-22-12, 08:13 PM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

Originally Posted by Spiky
Alan,
I'd say Sharp, in general. Sony seems to be on a downswing of caring about quality.
I definitely second this, as I had spent a better part of the last 6 months actively searching for a new TV. ended up with the Sharp LC-60LE835U. And yes, the active 3D looks damn good and bright.
Old 04-23-12, 12:01 AM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

Yeah, have been leaning towards Sharp since even though it isn't perfect by my standards (don't think anything is, really) it outweighs the Sony at least for having 5 more inches of screen at a few hundred bucks less. Samsung is out since they purposely locked out PAL in their American models, heard Panasonic did the same. Don't like plasma because even if burn-in is no longer an issue, they force grey side bars (instead of black) on standard-def inputs and TV stations- I watch the "Antenna TV" network which has great reruns with no bugs or other annoyances, also means I would be playing my old video games with grey side bars. I run my VCRs and other analog stuff through my receiver which upconverts them to 1080p with black side bars, but I can't use that for games because of the lag that results. I actually held off getting a widescreen TV for a long time until they made one that displayed 4x3 properly, I can't stand grey side bars!

Sony's always been hit-or-miss, haven't had enough experience with Sharp yet to say much about them.
Old 04-24-12, 08:17 AM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

Originally Posted by Mr. Salty
Panasonic or Samsung plasma.
Exactly!
Old 04-24-12, 02:22 PM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

But Panasonic and Samsung specifically have PAL disabled on their US TVs. They obviously don't want me to buy them.
Old 04-24-12, 11:37 PM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

But not disabled on their projectors.
Old 04-25-12, 02:38 AM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

Don't have room for a projector unfortunately. My apartment is too cluttered right now to even set up my 16mm projector. Maybe when I finally get a house. (Don't suppose projectors have closed-caption decoders? I'm not hard of hearing but I like being able to access them; current equipment makes it rather difficult but can still be done.)

Anyways, getting the LC-60LE745U in about 15 hours from now unless someone can give me a good reason not to!
Old 04-25-12, 12:31 PM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

Originally Posted by Alan Smithee
I've narrowed it down to these two because ... I had region-free PAL-capable DVD players and a multistandard VHS machine (which can convert PAL to NTSC but it looks like crap that way.)
That leaves Sony out, then. Although you can play native PAL on the HDMI and Component outputs on a Sony, it's NTSC-only on Composite, which is where you'd be hooking up that VCR. I have two Sharp TVs and one Sony (given to me--certainly wouldn't have bought it for myself with that limitation), so I do have real-world experience with this.

So, Sharp is the uncontested winner on the VCR compatibility front (PAL-capable on all inputs).

I did see further down the thread you planned to go for Sharp anyway, but thought this reply worth posting in case anyone else with a PAL VCR was "TV-shopping."

As for that "dimming" you're talking about, is that the feature that increases/decreases brightness based on how much lighting you have in your room? If so, it can be defeated (or at least, it could be in the past). Just put the set in "game" mode (you might have to do this for each and every input) and it will turn that feature off, I think (and will also turn off the annoying 'motion enhancemen' feature that makes films look like videotaped shows).
Old 04-25-12, 01:38 PM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

The Vizio I currently have only shows PAL through its HDMI inputs, but I ran the VCR through my receiver which converted that to HDMI and it worked. It'll be good to have the regular A/V inputs accept it too though, just in case. (I've heard some people erroneously say that ALL TVs will display PAL through HDMI, but that isn't true- I tried it on a Samsung and it showed "Mode Not Supported".)

The dimming problem I saw on the Sharp is that if a scene goes to black, the backlight dims down as well, giving the screen a 'blacker-than-black' look which just doesn't look natural. I could not see any way in the store to turn this off, though I had all 'enhancements' I could find turned off.

Here's a video showing how my Vizio's smart-dimming works- the Sharp isn't so quick to cut the backlight as this one is, so it shouldn't be quite as annoying as this- the Vizio's backlight goes COMPLETELY out, but the Sharp's just dims down really low but doesn't go off.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VXR813ltCcc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Old 04-28-12, 11:28 PM
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Re: Sharp or Sony?

Got the Sharp on Wednesday, BTW. It's not "perfect", but the pros have outweighed the cons so far. Been loving the 3D!

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