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Sharp AQUOS LC-37D5U 37" LCD TV (16:9, 1366x768, 800:1, HDTV - MPN: LC37D5U)
Description: Sharp?s LC-37D5U AQUOS is an elegant, state-of-the-art 37" widescreen1 LC-TV that can easily enhance the decor of any family room, living room or den. With a true 16:9 aspect ratio, HDTV resolution of 1366 x 768, Sharp?s Emmy award-winning .... Read More Description: Sharp?s LC-37D5U AQUOS is an elegant, state-of-the-art 37" widescreen1 LC-TV that can easily enhance the decor of any family room, living room or den. With a true 16:9 aspect ratio, HDTV resolution of 1366 x 768, Sharp?s Emmy award-winning LCD technology and breathtaking color purity, it is the TV to carry you into high-definition. The LC-37D5U utilizes Sharp?s proprietary Advanced Super View/Black TFT Panel, which provides high brightness (450 cd/m2), an 800:1 contrast ratio, and wide viewing angles (170? x 170?). The LC-37D5U is Digital Cable Ready and includes a CableCARD slot. This means you can "Plug and Play" with any HDTV-capable Cable-TV system without a separate cable set-top box. The LC-37D5U also includes the TV Guide on Screen electronic program guide.The LC-37D5U features a sleek silver design with side speakers to ensure the sound is as outstanding as the picture. In addition, the included table stand can be easily removed for wall mounting applications. Minimize |
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| Date Reviewed: 08/02/2005 |
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Strengths: CableCard Slot,'Multiple Inputs, Easy Setup
Weaknesses: No Picture-in-Picture
Summary: With my two growing children feeling the need to shake the TV stand and try to drop the TV on top of them, it was time to look for a TV to put up on the wall for safety. The added bonus was that I get a cool new HDTV to play with.
After much research and comparison shopping I decided on the 16:9 Sharp Aquos LC-37D5U. It currently runs about $400 to $500 cheaper than the new LC-37D7U model with a feature set that is nearly identical. Speaker placement seems to be the biggest difference with the D7U moving the speakers from the side to the bottom of the display.
Setup was very easy right out of the box. Since the 37” Aquos line uses standard 200x200 wall mounts, the installation was simple, but did require 2 people. The TV comes with an onscreen TV guide that searched for an automatically selected the channels. After the first 48 hours, the guide had populated with all the listings from my local cable provider. The system also lets you use of a CableCard device from your cable company that allows you to receive unscrambled digital cable without the use of an external cable box. This was a big plus for me since I find the external boxes inconvenient and an unnecessary extra step. You can also use the TV to record this unscrambled signal to an external recorder. An important note on CableCards: they are not the same as a full up cable box. Since they are not a two-way communication device, you will not be able to get pay per view, on demand, etc. If you use these services, you will need to stick with your external box.
The LC-37D5U comes with a wide variety of inputs including PC monitor and the new HDMI connector for higher end digital products as well as the standard Video, S-Video, and component video connections.
Since the device has only a single tuner, no support for picture-in-picture was included, which is odd since the TV includes a freeze-frame option that splits the screen into two roughly 4:3 images, freezing the right side image. Even if it required an external tuner (i.e. VCR) to make it work it is a standard on most high end TVs today.
Regardless, I have been pleased with my purchase and would recommend the Sharp Aquos LC-37D5U to anyone in the market today for a high quality LCD TV. You can purchase these today (August 2005) for as low as $2350 including shipping.
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| Date Reviewed: 09/22/2005 |
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Strengths: Great UI, lots and lots of useful features, beautiful picture, plenty of inputs, TV Guide On Screen. SO LIGHT, only 50lbs or so, I moved it myself with no problems (though 2 people are recommended)
Weaknesses: As usual for LCDs, black colors aren't that deep. Delay between changing channels is a bit annoying.
Summary: 2005-09-22 14:50:30 I've only had this TV for a day so far and I can't stop watching TV! I'm a total gadget freak so it's about time I bought myself an LCD HDTV. I was going to go plasma, but since 37" LCDs are only a little more than 37" HDTV plasmas, I went for the LCD, mainly because of longevity and the fact that I'll be playing video games on it. Plus, I don't like the stretch mode of these 16:9 TV and plan on watching 4:3 shows with the black bars on the side. As you know, that's not the best thing for a plasma.
I have both a progressive and non-progressive DVD player so that was my 1st test, I tried both. The de-interlacer on this TV seems to work VERY well as it was hard for me to tell a difference between the progressive and non-progressive signals. In fact, my non-progressive player looked a bit better, probably because it is a Panasonic and the progressive player I have is a no-name brand.
Next test was standard TV. I was very surprised at the picture quality. Most people say SDTV looks like crap on HDTVs, the Sharp does a pretty good job smoothing it out. The only reason I could notice is probably because I did the DVD player test first and saw how clear that was. Honestly, if I went straight to SDTV before watching a DVD, I probably wouldn't have noticed.
Luckily, my cable provider let a couple HD channel signals through that weren't scrambled so I got a taste of HDTV. It looked even better than those store displays! Probably because I could adjust the lighting in my room and the signal wasn't split to so many different TVs. The free HD channel I got watched just showed outdoor scenery and cityscapes. It was incredible. Unfortunately though, this made the SDTV channels look even worse in comparison! :(
I did notice the "over-redness" that is characteristic of Sharps as I have read, but I just turned the TINT towards green and lowered the COLOR levels a few notches and it helped. Still a little red, but not as bad as the out of the box settings. You can further finely tweak these settings with advanced color settings, but I'm not picky enough to deal with them just yet, I will soon though.
Also, one of the 1st things I did was turn the backlight down from +8 to 0. My living room isn't that bright so this should work fine for me, plus it will add some life to the backlight. If a setting of 0 ends up being too dark, this TV has 2 great features I love which can easily compensate for dark pictures 1)Preset color/brightness/contrast/etc... settings, with a button press I can lighten or darken the picture to one of my predefined settings and 2)Automatic brightness adjustment, this TV has an optical sensor on the front that detects the amount of light in the room and adjusts the brightness automatically. I can see how this features can be a bit annoying, but every once in a while, I turned it on, and it did a pretty good job, especially in darker rooms.
One last thing I have to say is the TV Guide On Screen is pretty cool. I've only had it a day so not all the programming content has been downloaded yet, but I have a few channels downloaded already and it's very handy. It's a little hard (and slow) to use at first, but I'm sure I'll learn to depend on it as soon as I get the full channel lineup downloaded.
So overall, the awesome picture quality of Sharp TVs is not just hype, it's true, it's amazing. The number of inputs and settings you can tweak on it will keep gadget freaks like me busy to squeeze the absolute best picture quality out of this set possible. The biggest gripe I have, yes it's the black levels. It's the only thing that makes me second guess my choice over the plasma. When I viewed it in the store, the lighting was so bright, it kind of detracted my attention from the black levels. Now that I've had a chance to really view the TV in a pretty dark room, I will admit it got to me. I keep telling myself, that's just and LCD TV, you trade the blacks for a sharper picture (more pixels/in^2) and a theoretically longer lasting TV! I'm sure I'll get over it soon.
Another lesser gripe I have is the viewing angle. I totally discounted getting a DLP TV because the viewing angle on those was too small for my tastes (though they aren't THAT bad). This LCDs viewing angle is significantly better than a DLP, but the advertised 170 degrees IMO is a bit of an exaggeration. At around 120 degrees horizontally, I already see the picture start to wash out a tiny bit. Granted, there will be few instances when I watch TV from this angle or more, but it's something I noticed. Vertically, the viewing angle seemed a bit better. I'm not saying the viewing angle is bad overall, it just wasn't how I pictured it according to what was advertised.
So because of these 2 small gripes, plus the slow channel changes, I couldn't give it a 5 star. Admittedly, I'm setting a pretty high bar for this TV. In conclusion, this TV is GREAT! I'm so glad I got it!
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| Date Reviewed: 09/12/2005 |
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Strengths: In-built HD (ATSC) tuner, Multiple inputs, CableCard slot, Easy menu navigation, slick looks
Weaknesses: No PIP (single tuner), TV Guide setup is complicated, Black levels don't look impressive, No 1080i support
Summary: I had been looking for a good LCD tv for some time. I wanted a set that won't be outdated in 6 months, plus I did not want to pay a huge premium for a top of the line product. Well, LC-37D7U seemed to fit my bill. It offers a performance LCD tv at a fairly reasonable price (since I purchased it from Costco).
I bought the tv about 2 weeks ago at around 2k plus taxes. For a tv loaded with features, the setup was very easy. I used the EZ setup initially. I was up and running (watching a movie in less than 15minutes. The channel setup for cable and over the air signal took some time since the tv goes through hundreds of channel. The default audio and video configuration is very close to what you may end up with. Although I have tweaked it somewhat over the past few days. The menu navigation is pretty intuitive.
LC-37D7U has a native resolution of 1366 x 768, therefore it does not support native 1080i or 1080p resoltuion. One would expect a 37" tv to do so. However the picture quality with 720p incoming res looks stunning. It will be a while before 1080p signal becomes common. On that note, the set has a built-in ATSC tuner. You can plug in a HD media directly to the tv. However, LC-37D7U does not support PIP. The tv does support a freeze frame feature, though. It would have been nice if tey could incorporate PIP support for devices that do not require a tuner, like VCR, DVD, etc.
The viewing modes available in LC-37D7U cover pretty much every kind of incoming signal (aspect ratio). Also, the tv remembers the viewing mode for each input which is very convenient switching from one input to another. The OPC (optical picture control) can be improved according to me. This is a feature where the tv tries to optimize brightness according to the room conditions. I find it a little too dark. This is something that I would expect Sharp to improve in later releases.
The quick shoot mode that Sharp introduced to improve fast action scenes did not live up to the expectation. One can see obvious trailing/blurring in such scenes, expecially the dark ones. I guess under 16ms response time is not good enough for this size tv. But then most LCD tv suffer from this ghosting issue.
I have heard complaints about viewing angle compromise with LCD sets. However, I did not observe any color or contrast shift within +- 90 degrees. If you are watching a tv at wider angles then you should have other concerns.
I have tried 3 different LCD tvs before this. Every time I felt that the regular broadcast looked more grainy than the conventional CRT. LC-37D7U does not suffer from that problem much. One can see the deterioration but it's not significant.
A wide variety of inputs is a nice feature. I would have preferred more S-video inputs. I realized it because both my VCR and DVD do not have component output. Now that I got a couple of component cables, and another DVD player, it doesn't bother me anymore.
I have not yet installed CableCard so can't really comment on the ease of installation and its use.
Overall, I believe that I have the best tv in LCD category that I can buy today for under 3k. I would recommend Sharp Aquos LC-37D5U to those of you in the market for a LCD tv. Certainly, the prices are going to fall and better tvs will be coming out. However, it's a trade off. I pulled the trigger coz I think this was a winner and I am satified.
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| Date Reviewed: 11/02/2005 |
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Strengths: Build-in HDTV tuner, light in weight, Multiple Inputs.
Weaknesses: No PIP
Summary: After researching for a LCD with Built-in HDTV tuner for a while, we decided to buy Sharp LC-37d5u. We had this TV for three weeks and enjoy every minute of it. Nice picture, especially when watching DVD movies. The only thing we were wishing for this TV is that it will be nice to have PIP feature.
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| Date Reviewed: 09/05/2005 |
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 Cable friendly but for DirecTV users....? Strengths: Nice looking unit. Good sound.
Weaknesses: Grainny picture. Cablecard good for cable user only. TV guide feature not for DirecTV user. Only 1 S-Vido input.
Summary: Having been Sony fan for many years, this Sharp is pretty difficult to get used to. The color is never as natural as the XBR. I would expect the picture to be sharper but is not. It has only been 4 days with this unit but I must admit I wish I had bought a Sony.
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| Date Reviewed: 04/17/2006 |
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Strengths: This TV is beautifuly displayed. It has pretty good sound and easy to set up.
Weaknesses: Only HD channels look good but this is the case with most HD tvs. Sometimes I hear background noise in the speakers.
Summary: Overall, I am happy with this purchase. It has many positive comments and the reason why I chose this model over others. I am happy with the choice and highly recommend. You can get a good price at Brandsmart if you have one near your home.
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| Date Reviewed: 01/26/2006 |
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Strengths: Great Picture & easy to use menus
Weaknesses: Sound quality & remote needs to face directly at tv
Summary: Very nice LCD TV. I also have a Magnavox 26" HDTV ready TV and this picture is much better. The only complaint I really have is the sound quality. I really believe you need a home theater sound system to keep up with it. I have address my remote issue with an after market remote I already owned. All in all - it is a little pricer but the HDTV picture is worth it.
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| Date Reviewed: 01/16/2006 |
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Strengths: Clarity of Pictures. Ease of Set Up. Good Customer Support.
Weaknesses: No PIP. TV Guide confusing.
Summary: The Set Up was quite challenging in the beginning, but you need patience and you must read the directions carefully. Additionally, you can select "set up" from the TV itself and it will guide you through the maze. The TV GUIDE set up was for the most part the confusing portion. The TV settings for Color, etc. are straight forward. There are default settings that can be used so that you will never have to worry about optimizing the settings. Beware, it can become too technical on the recommendations found on the Manual.
The ease of use will eventually happen.
I had a Remote Sensor issue (the Remote Control was not functioning) that I ended up contacting the Customer Support Number. The wait was very long on 2 tries, but on the 3rd try, I was able to talk to somebody, and wonderfuilly enough, I received a TECH Support call on my answering machine that told me what to do. I did a re-set of the Remote and everything was working again.
To the day, I have not been able to make the TV GUIDE recording Option to work. The directions are not as clear, but I will call the number given on the TVGUIDEONLINE website. If this works, then it is super, all you need to do is say, I want this recorded and it is done. I have never successfully enjoyed VCR Plus.
Lastly, since I do not have High DEF subscription, I have not truly enjoyed HIDEF, but if you invested in an UP Converting DVD Player that can give you 1080i, then you are closer to HiDef. I got the Toshiba for $80 @ Costco and I have played several options 480p, 720p and the 1080i resolution is superior. Although, there is a drawback, once it is on 1080i, you are given a default on the screen size, which is "SMART STRETCH."
Overall, the Unit is as advertised. Sharp probably makes the LCD better than the others.
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