I have reviewed the Sharp LC42XL2E 100Hz LCD TV. There’s probably just enough time to squeeze in one last review before I call it a year, so if you’re on the VIP Notification List, check your email inbox for the “HDTVTest 2007 Year-End Poll” where you can vote for:
- the last HDTV in 2007 you’d like me to review
- the HDTV you’d most like to see post-calibration settings published
- the best HDTV of 2007 in your opinion
Depending on my festive season commitments, I will try to publish the results – along with my own picks of the top HDTVs of 2007 – before the new year. Happy voting!
Warmest regards
Vincent
Is it me or does almost every TV reviewed on this website get an award at the end. Surely some of them aren’t great?
Is there any chance of a review of the samsung 46″ 1080p screens. They seem to have gone unnoticed :)
Thanks
Excellent review – I bought the 46″ version of this and thankfully it was band free! I have not noticed the red push as much as the review suggests but that my be user perception, we are all different in visual terms and my preference may be towards red :-)
Cannot argue with any of the points raised, and I think that the set is very good indeed as long as you do not get a banded unit. I am particulkarly impressed with the motion on the set – it is what I really liked about it, and makes sport viewing in SD or HD a real pleasure. For HD, my Toshiba 230 HDTV player comes up beautifully, as does the PS3 and my son’s XBOX360. Overall, all the inputs are superb, the sound is a bit bright for me (again personal preference) but plugging it into a Creative Soundworks unit beefs up the bass no end!
Thank you for all the hard work and the rock solid reviews in 2007, I would like to wish you a very merry cheistmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. Let’s hope 2008 brings some interesting and innovating times to the world of HDTV!
Steve.
Excellent review as usual, thank you vey much for that work.
Vincent could you publish your [Colour] and [Tint] settings after adjustements ? In what color mode have you done the CIE chart ?
I have learnt here that [Movie Mode] gives the best gamma profile. I will then try moving from [User Mode] to [Movie Mode], guessing it’s the same on X20E series which i own.
Any chance that we got an X20E review one of these days ?
Grats again for what I condsider to be the best reviews around.
Excellent review, great job! Since a week I also own the 46XL2E and I’m very happy with it, except for the lack of 1080p support through VGA and Component.
I would also love to know what settings you have used, so it would be great of you could share these with us. Keep up the good work.
Great job, Could you tell us what setting you have used? I’m not a profesional changed the settings and will be perfect for me to have your settings for my LCD. Many Thanks
About the awards.
“Highly recommended” is obviously the best award you grant.
But what is the difference between “recommended” and “qualified recommended”?
Cheers and thanks for yet another great review.
The best recommendation is: “reference level”. only the pioneer Kuro’s got them. after that it’s “Highly recommended”. what is next remains unclear for me: “Recommended” or “quallified recommendation” ?
Anyway, 2007 is almost over and I would like to
Thank for all the hard work… I also think it is the best reviews site on the web. keep up your high standards and Objectiveness – It’s what made you famous.
Have a happy new year!
Ido.
It’s from the times of Sharp GA9 that I notice an horrible filter on all Aquos Tvs, at every resolution which I cannot eliminate with any settings. It’s a sort of oversharpening, but much more subtle; it has the effect of make every horizontal line subtlely jagged and not perfectly straight; it’s more obvious at lower resolutions but it’s still there even at 1080 and has the other effect of adding rumour to the image. I clearly notice it on all Sharp tvs if I look closely to the screen, including XL2E; I am still amazed given I never found any mention of this (deal breaking for me) problem in the whole internet and I wonder if anyone succeded in eliminating it (or, at least, *noticing* it).
I wonder if you (vincent) have found settings that would decrease red push to be less noticable? I have have the 32X20E by tomorrow and I like to know the settings for this tv.
Excelent review, like others
I wonder if would be possible a review of X20E series
Mery Christmast
Any chance that we got an X20E review one of these days ?
I’d like to see the X20E reviewed as well, the 46″ would be a real bargain, if it holds up on the image-side…
I’d like to see 46X20E reviev too.
I woulde like to know your opinion about the Full HD Philips 9632 models, especially the 37 inch and the AUREA with surrounding Ambilight in the TV’s frame.
Seems to me that the Philips 9632/9732 is the review that is most glaringly absent here considering all the praise it gets.
I would love to see a 47″ review as I am about to reject mine due to an unbelieveable green push that makes everyone look like the Hulk and dynamic contrast that actually changes the colour temperature…. I would love to know if it is just my set because it is SO bad. I am close to ordering a Samsung F86 to replace it but might try another if Vincent gives it the thumbs up.
All the reviews elsewhere seem to be for 37″ or 42″
I got 46XL2E and it is absolutely fabulous! There was only one set i liked more in the shop (Ask on tottenham court road which has probably the best choice) is Pioneer, so i am very happy with the set and no doubt it is a bargain for 1300 pounds including the stand.
Yes, thanks for all the hard work and reviews Vincent…I am in the process of choosing a HDTV at the moment and find these independent quality reviews you do invaluable…a few months ago I wouldn’t have had a clue about things like black level and would have gone for the one that ‘looked the best’.
RAMON; did you get your 32X20E TV? I am interested in this one but haven’t found any reviews on it yet? I saw a review for a similar model and the only negative I can see is that the colour temperature isn’t that good (has a blue push). Also, how is the motion handling…this doesn’t have 100Mhz like the XL2E range does it?
Keep up the good work guys!!! :)
Jamie I have my 32X20E for a week now and I use it as pc monitor, for my ps3 and some regular tv. The motion handling is quite good (it has no 100hz) but there is some red push and also blue push in the darker places. But when having struggled with the tv settings and my ps3 settings the red push is minimal and the dark areas are nice black.
The only problem I have is that I always sat about 2 feet from my little old crt tv playing on the ps3 and the games looked good but evyone said ps3 games look like crap on a sd tv so I was expecting an impovement. But now when looking from 2 feet the games look like shit even in 1080p you see all the aliasing and bad textures. When I sat about 2 meter from the tv the games where looking good again but I certainly expected more (or maybe I am doing something wrong) the blu-rays are looking good though (also from really close) as for upscaled dvd’s. The sharp is fully compatible with my pc and I’m doing 1920×1080 @60hz thru a hdmi to dvi cable and it looks very good.
Terrestial tv looks terrible but a bit better then expected. So I’m quite happy with my Sharp 32X20E.
Ps. I have some banding but believe me it’s almost invicible, you won’t notice it.
Thanks for the response Ramon.
I would be using the TV largely to watch SD content…but will probably be getting a PS3 at some point as well and so playing games and maybe the odd blu-ray film. I have noticed HDTV’s look quite pixelated when I have seen them in the shops but like you say it is probably because I am about an inch away and looking for it! :) I usually sit about 2 metres away from my current TV (21 inch CRT!! haha) so hopefully would be far enough away not to notice any artifacts/pixelisation.
At the moment I have narrowed it down to the sharp, the Panasonic TX-32LXD700 and the Philips 32PFL9632. just have to find a shop I can go to that stocks them all so I can see them side by side…tricky enough in itself! that is until the next high end 32″ TV comes along.
merry xmas all!
I own the 46 inch version of this set, and … its going back for replacement. The image is truly great and vivid, however on darker tones and certain shades my set produced shadows/dark patches/lines when panning. This was only evident on certain dark colours in games where there is a consistent colour, but I understand something was seen similar in the review as well.
If I can get a set without this banding then it will be great. The 1080p 24fps mode is great, but like I say this strange banding issue I have (which you cant see if the image is not moving) is only related to games, though i’ve seen it sometimes with video rarely, but Mass Effect has many lines when I look at the sky and pan around.
SD quality is passable though of course I sit 6 feet away so i’ll notice everything. Sharpess needs to be taken down as default is too high. Black crush seems to occur on RBG Full with PS3 so there is no way you would enable this for movie playback, but for games RBG Full looks good.
Vicente!!!!!! Where are you??? We need the settings for the sharp XL2e. Please give it to us for christmas time!!!!. Happy new year everybody.
Hello ^_^
Great site (I’m new here)
I think Sharp replaces/repairs TVs with the banding effect. (Needs to be confirmed)
I have only two concerns:
_ I’ve read here and there that there still was some “judder” effect for some reviewers (using other digital sources I guess). None of them had the banding effect though.
_ Is there a fan in the TV ? (I can’t stand Sony’s KDL-40X3500 because of the noise of the low quality fan.) Even a good quality fan will make noise sooner or later.
I wonder if Sharp would be so good as giving a way to calibrate the screen to 6500°K (firmware update or hidden menu)
Happy New Year!
For the award question, which I don’t think has been answered, clearly “qualified recommendation” is worse than “recommendation”. Surely.
Does anybody have any settings for this tv ?
Hi Ramon,I have taken a leap of faith and gone for the 32X20E!
So…first impressions; I agree with you about the red/blue push. I didnt notice any motion blur which I was pleasantly suprised about. I have only watched standard definition through freeview at the moment. I think the picture is quite good; sharper than what I was expecting but I am not that happy with the black levels.
The 32X20E lets you toggle the dynamic contrast on and off (default is ON). I found it quite distracting on a number of scenes and lost all detail when there was a dark scene. the screen looked nearly totally black when it pushed the contrast up. SO, I have turned it off but at the moment it is looking slightly grey (not very dark)…the black level is a good level for an LCD of this size (2,000 static – 10,000 dynamic) but I was expecting better; maybe it is just the standard definition that is causing it and it will pick up more shadow detail with blu ray content.
Conclusion – better than expected freeview viewing and motion handling. a bit disappointed with the way it handles the dynamic contrast and black levels. I will give further feedback once I have had a chance to hook up a PS3 and try a couple of games and blu ray movies.
RAMON…can I ask what you have your settings at? My mum and dad like how it was originally…but I would like to get as close to D65 standard as possible (I think they are suckered in by the bright colours…not realising how unrealistic the picture looks). do you think yours is close to it?
VINCE…Im guessing the menu settings will be similar to this TV (Sharp 42XL2E) so would much appreciate the settings for that if you get a chance! :)
Best regards all,
Jamie
I have just got the lc46xl2e and have noticed that with some of the games that the screen appears to judder slightly with vertical lines some times appearing with fast motion. Any suggestions on how to fix this or if it can be fixed would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards
Bojir
It seems we will not get the used settings for this review :(
Just received my second 46XL2E set, left it in the lower box as I turned it on and quickly tried Mass Effect And Graw 2 with their dark sky background and moved around, again annoying lines and dark spots and unique “dirt” effect.
My SECOND Set and also noted in this review (I bought this set before the review).
Needless to say the excellent retailer gave me a refund. Probably the retailer pays for awefull product quality and build from Sharp.
Whats the point of a 1080p TV if it does all this and I spent so much ?