2D Performance 3D Performance Features Ergonomics Value
Price: $9,000 At A Glance: Superb resolution and color • Impressive blacks • State-of-the-art 3D
If last year was the year of thin in flat-screen HDTVs, 2013 promises to be the year of big. Seventy may well be the new fifty, and we’re not talking birthdays. While this year’s models are still remarkably thin, now your friends can ooh and ahh while viewing them from the front and not just the sides.
AT A GLANCE Plus
Accurate color
Superb resolution
Near state-of-the-art black level and shadow detail
Huge, bright picture
Minus
Price
THE VERDICT
The UN85S9AF is a hyper-expensive flagship for Samsung, and more of a technology demonstration than a product for the masses. But the money, as they say in Hollywood, is up there on the screen to see.
I once joked about the humongous 100-inch-plus HDTVs many manufacturers trot out at trade shows, suggesting that the best way to get them into your house was to place the TV where you thought it should go on the slab of your house under construction, then build the house around it. Samsung’s new 85-inch (diagonal) Ultra HD isn’t that big, but it’s close.
Key Connections: Two HDMI inputs, two component video inputs
Features We Like: Excellent connectivity with dual HDMI and component inputs, Over the-Air HD tuner, ambient light sensor adjusts image brightness to match room light, backlit remote
There is something to be said for 1080p. It is, after all, the so-called holy grail of HD. As far as the mainstream end of the market is concerned, there are only three displays available now that support it: This Sharp, the "mine's bigger than yours," 1-inch-larger Samsung LCD, reviewed in the April 2005 issue, and the Sony 70-inch LCOS (sorry, SXRD) rear-projection TV. If you have money to burn, there are several front projectors that are 1080p and cost more than a Camry—and a couple of plasmas that cost more than several Camrys.
Price: $1,800 At A Glance: Superb color and resolution • First-rate standard-def video processing • Mediocre blacks and shadow detail
From Sharp Minds
Sharp is a prime mover and shaker in the flat-panel business. The company has been dedicated to LCD technology from the beginning of the beginning—all the way back to the earliest LCD pocket calculators.
Sharp has been in the LCD flat panel television game as long as anyone. Its huge and ongoing investments in R&D and manufacturing facilities have paid off with a strong worldwide sales position and an enviable reputation. If someone mentions LCD televisions, the first word that pops into your head might well be "Sharp," Followed closely by "AQUOS."
Sharp has been in the LCD flat panel television game as long as anyone. If someone mentions LCD televisions, the first word that pops into your head might well be "Sharp," Followed closely by "AQUOS."
It has come to my attention that some of you out there feel that I am, for some reason, biased against LCDs. I would like to apologize. I am sorry for pointing out poor black levels, inaccurate color, horrendous viewing angles, mediocre contrast ratios, and, above all else, motion blur. Yep, my bad.
Price: $12,000 At A Glance: Superb blacks • Exceptional resolution • Inaccurate color
Ultra Black and Ultra Thin
Less than two years after I accompanied a group of American journalists on a visit to a new Sharp factory, the company has developed yet another new plant. This one can support an even larger mother glass. On that same visit, we also witnessed examples of the company’s cutting-edge R&D, including new, ultra-black technology.
Per screen inch, this is the most expensive TV we've reviewed in years. The early 50-inch plasmas were certainly more expensive (and obviously smaller), but, in the era of higher yields and vicious competition, it's rare to see any company come out with a model that unabashedly eschews the price wars. An obvious comparison would be one of a Ferrari, and Sharp would indeed love that comparison. For the extra money, does this 57-inch offer greater performance compared with the Camrys of the LCD world? The better question would be, does it offer enough better performance to justify its substantial premium?
AT A GLANCE Plus
Inexpensive (with discounting) for a 75-incher
HDR compatible
Accurate and extended color
Minus
Limited contrast
Backlight artifacts
Highlights in HDR
programs lack detail
THE VERDICT
Sharp’s heavily discounted 75-inch TV offers accurate color and decent HDR performance, but its best feature is its big screen at an affordable price.
The arrival of a hulking 75-inch Ultra HDTV on your doorstep would be something you’d ideally want to coincide with a worthy media spectacle—the Super Bowl, for instance. In my case, however, the delivery of the Sharp Aquos LC-75N8000U synced up perfectly with the broadcast of the first Presidential debate. Lucky me: I got to witness what perhaps were the two most unpopular candidates in history assail each other’s character at near-life-size.
Editor's Note:Home Theater is pleased to bring you this exclusive first look at Sharp's groundbreaking Elite LCD HDTV. As you'll read in Tom Norton's superb and thorough review, it is the first LCD that can truly go head-to-head with the now-discontinued Pioneer Elite Kuro plasmas for the title of Best TV Ever. Enjoy, and please post your comments.—Rob Sabin
2D Performance 3D Performance Features Ergonomics Value
Price: $6,000 At A Glance: Class-leading blacks and shadow detail • Superb resolution • Bright, vivid 3D
When Pioneer announced it was dropping out of the HDTV business in 2009 (its remaining sets were available on a limited basis until early 2010), the video world shuddered. While there were sets at the time that could at least match Pioneer’s Elite-branded Kuro models with respect to color, resolution, and video processing, most independent observers—and most A/V reviewers—agreed that no other sets could equal the Pioneers’ black level. But in an era of dropping flat-panel prices, Pioneer couldn’t hope to match the competition’s stickers while retaining the quality it was known for, and they succumbed to market forces.
With the LC-30HV2U LCD TV, the king of LCD brings the skinny to the medium-sized market.
Thin is definitely the wave of the future. Just look at most Hollywood actresses. Their faces get more gaunt with each passing season. Television displays are the same way. People are tired of the little black box. Consumers have clamored for skinny plasmas and liquid crystal displays (LCDs) since their introduction a few years back. The only problem's been that plasmas have come in large screen sizes (42 to 60 inches diagonally) while LCDs have been relegated mostly to computer-monitor service. Sharp, longtime master of the LCD panel, has now brought forth a midsized panel for midsized environments.