Sharp LC40LE831E 3D LED LCD TV Review

It’s been a while now since we had a look at one of Sharp’s LCD TVs, which made their delivery of a the new LC40LE831E quite timely, since we’re always eager to see what the Japanese LCD innovator is up to. The company has a tradition of producing distinctive displays, the case in point being the “Quattron” LCD technology present in this model, which sandwiches a fourth yellow sub-pixel into each individual dot on the screen. We weren’t very impressed with the last Quattron display we reviewed (last summer’s LC46LE821E), but most of our misgivings seemed to be down to implementation issues, rather than inherent limitations with the technology. As such, we were eager to see the company’s latest attempt at producing an LED LCD HDTV.

The Sharp LC40LE831 we have here for review is, in fact, part of the company’s highest-end series of flat-screen televisions for Europe this year. Unsurprisingly, it features the latest incarnation of Quattron, 4 HDMI inputs, support for Freeview HD (that’s DVB-T2 for those of you in regions which are less branding-happy), and new for this year, 3D capabilities. Let’s get stuck in and see if the Sharp LC-40LE831E can produce a compelling LCD image.

Note: The same LED TV may be marketed as Sharp LC40LE831E, LC-40LE831E, LC40LE831 or LC-40LE831E by high-street retailers like John Lewis, Currys and Comet, as well as online merchants like Amazon and Dixons. While we have not reviewed the larger Sharp LC46LE831E, there shouldn’t be any significant difference in picture performance given similar specifications.

Design

Styled similarly to Panasonic’s high-end HDTVs, the Sharp LC40LE831E seems to have taken a few lessons from the iPad school of design, and features a slim, glossy black bezel surrounding the 40inch LCD panel, with rounded corners and a silver area outlining the edge of the display.

Sharp LC40LE831E

Underneath the company logo, there’s a tilted area of plastic, with an optional arrow-shaped glowing light, and touch-sensitive zones which give limited control over the LC40LE831 without the use of a remote control. Of course, this area is also styled in gloss black, so we didn’t want to touch the zones and adorn the LC-40LE831E with our fingerprints. We were happy to see that unlike last year’s high-end Sharp HDTV, the panel is no longer covered in a sheet of glass. This reduces reflections, and also means that the television weighs much less. The supplied table-top stand attaches easily to the TV itself, and is plainly styled.

Connections

The Sharp 40LE831 features the now-standard 4 HDMI inputs, an aerial input for the Freeview HD tuner, USB sockets (to which wireless dongles or hard disk drives can be attached), an SD card input, a SCART input, a Component video input, and a Composite video input. Unlike most slim HDTVs on the market today, the SCART, Component and Composite inputs are of the traditional variety, and do not require breakout adapter cables.

The LC40LE831E doesn’t feature built-in wireless connectivity, but it might as well, since Sharp includes the wireless dongle in the box.

Rear connections
Rear: 4x HDMI, RGB SCART, Component, Composite, VGA, RS232C control, 3x USB, Aerial

Operation

Sharp’s HDTVs have always shown independent thought, and we’ve commented that they remind us of the user interface on a computer operating system more than most TV menus. The LC-40LE831E’s menus feature unique, legible fonts, with categories being arranged horizontally, and configurable options appearing vertically on the right side of the screen. The majority of the screen is occupied by a shrunken TV image, allowing the user to clearly see the results of their adjustments in real-time.

[Picture] menu [Picture] menu
[Picture] menu

We delved into the menus to figure out which options we’d need to use (and which are best ignored) to calibrate the Sharp LC40LE831 for the most accurate picture quality. First of all, there is the [AV Mode] selection. We discovered that, although the “Movie” mode gives a more accurate (although somewhat dulled) out of the box picture, it only allows for one set of adjustments to be saved for all inputs. Originally, we planned on using the “User” mode, since this allows for per-input settings to be made, until we discovered that the [Colour gamut range] option is only available inside “Movie” mode. We’re glad to see that this option has been added, as it hopefully means that one of our criticisms of last year’s model (over-saturated yellows) won’t be a problem with this year’s LC40LE831E. Accordingly, we used the Movie mode as the basis for calibration, and made do without per-input settings.

Moving through the options, we found that [OPC] adjusts the panel backlighting in relation to ambient light in the viewing room. We shut this off for consistent operation. [Backlight] can also be controlled manually, as can the more pedestrian picture adjustments (Brightness, Contrast, Colour, Tint, Sharpness, etc).

The Advanced menu features three [C.M.S.] controls (CMS stands for Colour Management System), with the menus allowing the hue, saturation and “value” (brightness) of the six primary and secondary colours to be adjusted. Below this, there’s the [Colour gamut range] option we just discovered (in Movie mode only). We’ll see if it produces accurate colour later on in the review. Interestingly, we noticed that it affected more than just colour gamut – using “Expanded” made grey shades appear brighter.

Moving on, we have a [Colour temp.] menu which houses both 2-point and 10-point Greyscale adjustments, which will be of tremendous benefit during calibration to get the most tint-free image out of the LC-40LE831E. Next is [Scanning backlight 200], which offers three levels as well as an “Off” setting. We’ll find out if this control does its job of increasing motion clarity later in the review (and if there are any unwanted side effects). [Sub pixel control] makes almost no difference to image quality, but up-close scrutiny reveals a very subtle change to diagonal edges in the picture (we left the control on, but would be just as happy with it off). The only clear difference we could see with this control was on the Spears & Munsil test disc’s overscan/sharpness pattern: enabling the control made the “stippled” pixel pattern in the middle of the pattern appear yellow rather than monochromatic. We could never see any tangible difference with real-world content, so users shouldn’t worry about it.

Lastly, there’s a basic [Gamma] adjustment, which allows users (or calibrators) to adjust the distribution of brightness from black to white, a [Film mode] which we’ll investigate later, and [Active Contrast], noise reduction, and [Monochrome] options, which we left disabled.

 

8 comments

  1. Good review. I’ve owned this tv for several months now & have been very happy so far, particulary with gaming & Blu-ray performance. Any chance you can post your optimal calibration settings please?

  2. This is a 5 star review for a 5 star product, anyone who has owned a Sharp’s LCD will know just how good they are and this one with 4 HDMI’s and 3 USB ports gives you a great screen for movies, gaming and music video’s as well as a very stylish LCD TV. Great review David.

  3. Great review. Had the 46” version of this TV for a couple of weeks now. Found it a huge step up in picture quality from my previous TV (a 4 year old Samsung). I’ve found blu-ray material to be stunning. Sky HD good too. Echo the previous post; will you be posting your settings for this TV soon?

  4. only Qualified Recommendation ? for my opinion this model deserves for better score :)

  5. I own the 46″ version and I would like to share my thoughts. Overall I am very pleased with this tv and although I have been a plasma user thus far I do not find it to be very compromised in any category. My biggest gripe is the softness of the image even with HD sources, I do not normally like to use the sharpness setting but here I have it at +3. Clouding is also an issue not so much during viewing but at blank screen or after a movie when showing the cast screen. The inability to have user presets with standard colour gamut is also annoying. Lastly I do not like the how dim the screen gets when the scanning backlight is enabled, my parents have a Philips 47PFL9664 and it does not dim when scan is enabled.

    On the subject of calibration I have found two sets of settings online. The first one is from Flatpanelshd and I find it too dull and dim as it uses scan.

    Picture mode: Movie
    Backlight +16
    Contrast +32
    Brightness: 0
    Color: 0
    Tint: 0
    Sharpness: 0
    Color gamut range Standard
    Color temp. Low
    Sub pixel control. On
    Scanning backlight 200 Scan
    Gamma adjustment +1
    Film mode Off
    Active contrast Off
    DNR Off
    R Gain (LO) 0
    G Gain (LO) -2
    B Gain (LO) +2
    R Gain (HI) +1
    G Gain (HI) -8
    B Gain (HI) +8
    OPC Off

  6. The second set is a more thorough one from a professional calibration using Calman on the 60″ version of the display I took from an AV forum.

    Picture mode: Movie
    Backlight +7
    Contrast +30
    Brightness: 0
    Color: 0
    Tint: 0
    Sharpness: 0
    Color gamut range Standard
    Color temp. Low
    Sub pixel control. On
    Scanning backlight 200 Off
    Gamma adjustment -2
    Film mode Off
    Active contrast Off
    DNR Off
    OPC Off

    CMS Hue
    R0, Y+7, G-4, C+3, B0, M-2

    CMS Sat
    R0, Y-6, G-5, C0, B0, M0

    CMS Value
    R-8, Y-2, G+7, C+3, B-5, M-5

    10 point setting high white balance
    positions RGain, GGain, BGain

    1. 0,0,0
    2. 0,0+15
    3. 0,0+6
    4. 0,0+4
    5. 0,0+3
    6. 0,0+8
    7. 0,0+12
    8. 0,0-3
    9. 0,0-7
    10. 0,0,0

    Vincent, can you please post your settings as I have followed Hdtvtest for a long time and I would love to hear your take on this TV.

  7. i bought the LC-40LE811E 5weeks ago the picture quality is splendid my problem is the sound is distorted when played through my bt vision box ialso tried my humax box that was also distorted sound the sound is ok on my other tvs can anyone please help its driving us mad thanks

  8. This comment section is now closed… for further discussion please visit our dedicated Sharp LE831E forum thread:

    http://forums.hdtvtest.co.uk/index.php/topic,6893.0.html

    Warmest regards
    Vincent

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