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Sharp LC-52LE700UN
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Last week I got together with Chris from Cleveland Plasma to calibrate and review the new Sharp 700UN LCD. The 700UM's use of an LED backlight gives it impressively low power consumption stats, and it also results in a light TV for the size. The backlight is not divided into locally dimmed zones as on the LG LH90 and a few others, but it can dim dynamically in response to the image and room light.
As soon as we got it unpacked and moved into place, I noticed that, although it's screen was darker overall than the Samsung B550 plasma mounted close by, the 700UN's screen was very glossy and susceptible to annoying reflections. Manufacturers seem to be falling in love with the glossy screen look; or is it that they think we are in love with it?
My first look was late at night, without making any changes in the TV's settings, and looking at SD DirecTV content. The black levels and contrast ratio looked impressive, on par with, or slightly better than, a good plasma. I've calibrated many previous Sharp Aquios LCDs, and I noticed that the blue/purplish black tint that had always bothered me on them seemed gone on this new model. It was a pretty impressive showing; totally watchable and less annoying than most sets out of the box. There was some black crush, with dark objects looking like black blobs, and some standard def jaggies. However, I didn't see any problems with pans or movement.
The 700UN has more picture options than previous models. In addition to the standard brightness and contrast controls, there is a gamma selection, a pretty good CMS adjustment (hue, saturation, and value adjustment for each primary and secondary color), and high end/low end white balance adjustments. Those previous models were not very calibration friendly. It was a long, tedious process involving going into the service menu, doing the 6-point gamma/white balance adjustment, getting out of the SM, waiting 5-8 minutes for the backlight to stabilize, taking readings, and repeating many, many times. The 700UN's thorough picture menu adjustments make the calibration process much easier.
The 700UM's screen is, at first glance, much more forgiving off axis than I expected. The picture doesn't show any glaring faults until very far off to the sides or top/bottom. That is much better than the Toshibas, Sonys, and Samsungs I've seen. However, there are subtle changes that begin to happen at very slight off axis angles. These changes would not be noticed by most people in everyday use, but they came into play later on in the review process.
The power save options control the actions of the LED backlight. Power save off means the LEDs are at a fixed level all the time, which results in the most stable and accurate behavior. Power save standard allows the backlight to dim dynamically with the program material. It's action seemed pretty transparent, but it did cause some changes: the on/off contrast ratio increased dramatically, but dark images appeared too dark and became hard to distinguish. Power save advanced was similar to standard, except it also engages the OPC. That means it intelligently (yes, I have to admit it seemed pretty smart) raises or lowers the backlight in response to both program material and ambient light. If you want the deepest blacks and the punchiest picture in all lighting conditions at the expense of shadow detail and raised low end gamma, advanced would be a good choice. However, because I needed repeatability and stability, I usually left the power save off.
The measured performance was very good after calibration, with excellent gamma, grayscale tracking, and color performance. Light output can be anything you might want from under 30 fL up to over 110 fL, depending on how the backlight was set. Raising or lowering the backlight made absolutely no difference on the white balance once things stabilized. It seemed to take a couple of seconds for the white balance to snap into place after raising or lowering the backlight. Resolution was pixel perfect at 1080i and 1080P.
With the power save off (backlight fixed), on/off contrast ratio after calibration measured 2345:1. The checkerboard contrast ratio measured nearly the same at around 2330:1. That's exceptional for a fixed backlight LCD! With the power save on, the contrast ratio was raised so much that my meter (a Chroma 5 profiled against an Eye One spectroradiometer on this particular TV) could not take an accurate reading even at the longest exposure time.
After I was done with the technical aspects, it was time to check out some real images on Blu Ray, sent via HDMI at 1080P/24. I moved the 700UN off to the side a bit so I could easily switch the HDMI signal from it to Chris's reference Samsung B550 plasma, which I calibrated a few months ago. I calibrated the 700UN so that light output was similar to the B550.
My first impression was mixed: I could see much more shadow detail in the 700UN, which is a good thing in my opinion, but the color did not look as natural as the plasma. The 700UN looked a lot sharper (the B550 looked soft in comparison), and the screen looked naturally blacker and more contrast-rich when appropriate. It looked impressive, to be sure, but I did not like the purplish flesh tones of the 700UN. This did not show up in the measurements, so I decided to investigate further into what was causing the unnatural looking color. After putting up a gray ramp and moving from one side of the couch to another, I discovered that my initial impression was skewed by my placement of the 700UN. By positioning it so that I could easily switch the HDMI signal, I had moved it slightly to the side, which made the grayscale cooler with more of a blue/purple cast. It also made shadow detail much more apparent, with dark objects being more discernible.
After I moved so I was looking at the 700UN on axis, things became much closer between the two sets. I was still bothered by slightly artificial looking fleshtones, though, so I changed the red hue in the 700UN's CMS adjustments from 0 to +10. I wanted to go even higher, but the red accuracy would have suffered too much. After that tweak and the position change, I felt that the 700UN had pretty good color, though I still preferred the Samsung's fleshtones. Both sets now looked like they came out of black a little slow, with dark images appearing a little too dark. I have found that many home theater enthusiasts prefer this look, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. The 700UN continued to make the plasma look soft in comparison, and it's real world contrast ratio looked better. The 700UN's pans were smoother, but as with other high refresh rate LCDs, they might be too smooth.
Overall, I really liked the changes the LEDs brought to the Sharp, and it produces a very sharp, detailed, and punchy image. It is dramatically improved over previous Sharp LCDs that I have calibrated, and it's contrast ratio is truly exceptional for a non local dimming LCD. If it's color had won me over, I'd be even more enthusiastic; but even so, it's a great performer with some very advanced technology.
As soon as we got it unpacked and moved into place, I noticed that, although it's screen was darker overall than the Samsung B550 plasma mounted close by, the 700UN's screen was very glossy and susceptible to annoying reflections. Manufacturers seem to be falling in love with the glossy screen look; or is it that they think we are in love with it?
My first look was late at night, without making any changes in the TV's settings, and looking at SD DirecTV content. The black levels and contrast ratio looked impressive, on par with, or slightly better than, a good plasma. I've calibrated many previous Sharp Aquios LCDs, and I noticed that the blue/purplish black tint that had always bothered me on them seemed gone on this new model. It was a pretty impressive showing; totally watchable and less annoying than most sets out of the box. There was some black crush, with dark objects looking like black blobs, and some standard def jaggies. However, I didn't see any problems with pans or movement.
The 700UN has more picture options than previous models. In addition to the standard brightness and contrast controls, there is a gamma selection, a pretty good CMS adjustment (hue, saturation, and value adjustment for each primary and secondary color), and high end/low end white balance adjustments. Those previous models were not very calibration friendly. It was a long, tedious process involving going into the service menu, doing the 6-point gamma/white balance adjustment, getting out of the SM, waiting 5-8 minutes for the backlight to stabilize, taking readings, and repeating many, many times. The 700UN's thorough picture menu adjustments make the calibration process much easier.
The 700UM's screen is, at first glance, much more forgiving off axis than I expected. The picture doesn't show any glaring faults until very far off to the sides or top/bottom. That is much better than the Toshibas, Sonys, and Samsungs I've seen. However, there are subtle changes that begin to happen at very slight off axis angles. These changes would not be noticed by most people in everyday use, but they came into play later on in the review process.
The power save options control the actions of the LED backlight. Power save off means the LEDs are at a fixed level all the time, which results in the most stable and accurate behavior. Power save standard allows the backlight to dim dynamically with the program material. It's action seemed pretty transparent, but it did cause some changes: the on/off contrast ratio increased dramatically, but dark images appeared too dark and became hard to distinguish. Power save advanced was similar to standard, except it also engages the OPC. That means it intelligently (yes, I have to admit it seemed pretty smart) raises or lowers the backlight in response to both program material and ambient light. If you want the deepest blacks and the punchiest picture in all lighting conditions at the expense of shadow detail and raised low end gamma, advanced would be a good choice. However, because I needed repeatability and stability, I usually left the power save off.
The measured performance was very good after calibration, with excellent gamma, grayscale tracking, and color performance. Light output can be anything you might want from under 30 fL up to over 110 fL, depending on how the backlight was set. Raising or lowering the backlight made absolutely no difference on the white balance once things stabilized. It seemed to take a couple of seconds for the white balance to snap into place after raising or lowering the backlight. Resolution was pixel perfect at 1080i and 1080P.
With the power save off (backlight fixed), on/off contrast ratio after calibration measured 2345:1. The checkerboard contrast ratio measured nearly the same at around 2330:1. That's exceptional for a fixed backlight LCD! With the power save on, the contrast ratio was raised so much that my meter (a Chroma 5 profiled against an Eye One spectroradiometer on this particular TV) could not take an accurate reading even at the longest exposure time.
After I was done with the technical aspects, it was time to check out some real images on Blu Ray, sent via HDMI at 1080P/24. I moved the 700UN off to the side a bit so I could easily switch the HDMI signal from it to Chris's reference Samsung B550 plasma, which I calibrated a few months ago. I calibrated the 700UN so that light output was similar to the B550.
My first impression was mixed: I could see much more shadow detail in the 700UN, which is a good thing in my opinion, but the color did not look as natural as the plasma. The 700UN looked a lot sharper (the B550 looked soft in comparison), and the screen looked naturally blacker and more contrast-rich when appropriate. It looked impressive, to be sure, but I did not like the purplish flesh tones of the 700UN. This did not show up in the measurements, so I decided to investigate further into what was causing the unnatural looking color. After putting up a gray ramp and moving from one side of the couch to another, I discovered that my initial impression was skewed by my placement of the 700UN. By positioning it so that I could easily switch the HDMI signal, I had moved it slightly to the side, which made the grayscale cooler with more of a blue/purple cast. It also made shadow detail much more apparent, with dark objects being more discernible.
After I moved so I was looking at the 700UN on axis, things became much closer between the two sets. I was still bothered by slightly artificial looking fleshtones, though, so I changed the red hue in the 700UN's CMS adjustments from 0 to +10. I wanted to go even higher, but the red accuracy would have suffered too much. After that tweak and the position change, I felt that the 700UN had pretty good color, though I still preferred the Samsung's fleshtones. Both sets now looked like they came out of black a little slow, with dark images appearing a little too dark. I have found that many home theater enthusiasts prefer this look, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. The 700UN continued to make the plasma look soft in comparison, and it's real world contrast ratio looked better. The 700UN's pans were smoother, but as with other high refresh rate LCDs, they might be too smooth.
Overall, I really liked the changes the LEDs brought to the Sharp, and it produces a very sharp, detailed, and punchy image. It is dramatically improved over previous Sharp LCDs that I have calibrated, and it's contrast ratio is truly exceptional for a non local dimming LCD. If it's color had won me over, I'd be even more enthusiastic; but even so, it's a great performer with some very advanced technology.
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