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Strengths: Sleek design, different defaults modes depending on what you want to do (PC, Games, Movies) automatic adujustment based on lighting, clean picture, good colors
Weaknesses: PC via HDMI isn't really supported by sharp, hence the remake with DVI. A little too bright when using default settings, remote doesnt always work on first push.
Summary: This is my first HDTV, but I got this TV to use as a PC monitor mostly. This is an updated version of the LC32D40U which some have stated was riddled with some bugs and didn't officially support PC. I am still not 100% sure if there is a big difference from the old (D40U) and this one in terms of PC support. I know this monitor has a DVI input, and they have PC support in the manual and the menu/settings where as to my understanding the D40U didn't have that. For other monitors they state that you can use a DVI to HDMI converter and the old monitor would have worked fine after you tweaked your PC's resolution with a program called powerstrip. I first had to make sure I had DVI support with my video card, as this is what they recommend (DVI to DVI) for PC. This ran about $100 at RadioShack which I was blown away by and ripped off, but I needed it. Make sure if your going to use for PC to that you look around for a good value on DVI to DVI cables (or VGA to DVI if your video card doesn’t support DVI). After everything was put together (took about 15 minutes) and plugged in. It booted up fine and took me 15 seconds to figure out how to get to PC input, and the PC screen showed with no dead pixels. However, the PC's resolution was 1024 x 786 and the monitor was in 1024 x 786 mode, but still stretched across the screen. (this is what people complained about with the D40U and HDMI). I realized the display mode was at stretched, so I set it to dot by dot and it showed the 1024 x 786 1:1, but with black edges. This is because I have to set my video card (and monitor) to the monitor’s naive resolution, which is 1366 x 768. I could of done this with Nvidia forceware drivers, but I am using vista and an old un-supported card (Geforce 4 TI4600; damn you nvidia). Instead I installed powerstrip. The program was confusing but somehow I got everything to run at 1366 x 768 and 1:1. Now this is of course a low resolution for a monitor of this size, so it wasn't as crisp as my old 21 Inch Sony CRT monitor (which is to be expected). It basically performed how I expected a big LCD TV to act like a monitor. You definitely need to use cleartype fonts, and just forget about pixel editing. Perhaps even anything related to graphic design. Ideally you'd want 1080 for a LCD TV being used as a monitor, but they don't make 1080 32 inch LCD TVs to my knowledge, because when using it for its true function of being a TV, the difference between 720 and 1080 on a 32 inch screen is almost identical. I have not yet tested the sound on this TV because I am too lazy to hook a DVD player or any service up to it (yet), I was also a little surprised to see that I had to also buy a separate cable for the DVI audio ($10 or so). I got this TV at a local store, because I was worried how good an LCD TV would work as a monitor and I didn’t want to risk online. It was 1299 in the store (rip-off) and I tried to get him to price match to a 899 D40U at best buy, but the best he would price match was 960, but it included this 2 year warranty for $30 and also located close if I didn't like it. Overall I am happy with this TV as my main PC monitor. I recommend anyone to get a D41U over a D40U, but I wouldn’t recommend paying $160 dollars more like I did. Based on reviews this is one of the best 32 inch LCD TVs to buy without wasting money just for bragging rights (Sony)
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