Official Sharp Elite PRO-70X5 and 60X5 Owners Thread - Page 419

can the IR on the vt50 be easily seen when watching normal content? how loud/distracting are the fan issues?

Wouldn't that be a good question for the VT50 owner's thread?

I can tell you that, from my reading, very few people who complain about IR also indicate what they were watching, how long they were watching it, and weather or not they used solid color slides to spot the IR. It can be hard to get an accurate idea about IR even from the owners. Then there are those who claim to use their plasmas as gaming monitors for hours on end and they have never had any IR.

I have a five year old 60" Kuro that I use for football, hockey, the Olympics and other sports events. All of which can have fixed high contrast images on the screen. I also watch a lot of movies in many different aspect ratios, and some logo free HDTV. I don't check for IR with colored slides, and have never noticed any IR during the sources that I watch. I've always assumed that the frequently changing wide variety of what I watch has protected our display from IR.

Guys, I have a question... I bought my Elite from Best Buy/Magnolia last year, and at the time purchased a protection plan with them. I'm honesty not familiar with their plans, and don't know if it is honestly good or not. I don't usually purchase protection plans, but after spending this kind of money on the Elite, I jumped on it. In the past 6 months, I have received 3 separate emails from Sharp/Elite offering an extended warranty thru them. Would this be beneficial to buy, or is my protection from Best Buy/Magnolia enough? Thanks

Talked with Best Buy Magnolia rep who said the Elite has been discontinued in there system with no refresh coming from Sharp. Talked to Midwest Sharp reps last week and when asked why there was no mention of the Elite at CES they said the were pushing large displays and 8k technology(yes 8k). To release a 90" 8k Elite would be so cost prohibitive they would not sell enough to cover R&D. Seems like they wanted to release the 945 this year,but would have cut into the already low sales numbers of the Elite. I know it is not the same but the average consumer see an Elite setting at $7000 for a 70" and a Quattron 70" for $5000 they will for go for the Sharp.

Actually, the 70" non-elites can be found for under $3500 for the 70-847
You can buy 2 of those for the price of 1 70" Elite

I still feel Sharp over priced the Elite to the point the sales suffered.
If they had priced it at $5999 from the beginning, they would have doubled (or more) their sales and made more profit in the long run.

Performance Plan

I have a TC-P60GT50 which is substantially similar and will tell you, it is fine as long as you baby the set. By that I mean:

- no CNN, CNBC, etc. at all. The CNBC ticker is permanently burned into my set, though it has faded significantly over time. Can only see the dark band from it on a pure white screen. I used it for a couple hours here and there when the TV was a few weeks old, but in 8 months since it still has not disappeared.
- no using your blu-ray player as an audio player. My Oppo BDP-93 displays text and numbers on the screen that take several weeks to disappear, when playing MP3s and FLACs from my NAS. If I use this now, I turn the TV off once the playlist is going. Apple TV rotates the image and i have not had a problem.
- no excessive watching of channels with logos in the corner, whether they are white, semi-opaque, whatever. I've had logos stick from James Bond marathons, watching FOX, etc.
- you should be willing to run the Disney WOW pixel flipper on "Vivid" mode to clear minor IR while you are at work, sleeping, etc.

The plasmas are great for dedicated media rooms such as man caves or home theatre rooms, where there's not much ambient light and you don't watch too much TV or sports from any one channel. But for a "living room tv" you need to be aware of these constraints. If you don't watch channels with tickers, and glare isn't an issue, have at it. It will be a much more uniform image than almost any LCD.

Buzzing is not a noticeable trait of my set.

It sounds like you are asking if buying two extended warranties covering the same time period would be a good idea. I don't think so.

There's nothing wrong with the BB extended warranty other than maybe the price.

Ok thank you, just didn't know if I'd have better coverage or service from Sharp. As I've said, I've never bought an extended warranty

I must say the cheapest option is from Costco square trade, for $100 you get additional 3 years and YES they do sell for sets purchased outside of Costco.

Well....I was in PC Richard a week ago and I saw that the 70945 was in their system. I asked whether that was a holdover from 2012 and the sales guy who I have known for years, told me that was a new entry most likely made around CES time. No orders yet but the skew was there.

Perhaps with the demise of the Elites, they will decide to bring finally bring out the 945 viewing it as an easier to sell commodity. No need to worry about the 945 taking away sales from the Elite's. Also...Now that the R&D has been done they can bring down the price point to a more consumer friendly level.

Where is the build date located in the Elite?

It's on the side of the box.

I wonder if Chris from Cleveland Plasma can confirm this?

This seems to be an extreme case of IR. I do have a Pioneer plasma where i have watched several ticker channels, logo channels, played games and never had a burn in.

This is not true. I was following the 945 very closely because I intended to buy it instead of the Elite. Sharp had considered releasing it before their financial problems but pulled the plug on it. If they had intended to release it they would have shown it at CES. From what I understand, the 945 has "been in the system" since February of last year when it was announced.

Can't say 100% whether it is true or not, since I don't know their retail software. Hopefully for all of us that like a good picture they do correct some of the problems of the Elite and put out a fully backlit LED set, with a picture comparable to the Elites. Do this either as an Elite or as part of their regular line. Even though I got a good price from PC Richard for an Elite, the wife nixed it, so hopefully something less expensive form Sharp, with a great picture, gets the go ahead.

I thought about something after I posted. I suppose it is possible that they are secretly releasing the 945 and kept it on the down low at CES to allow them to sell off their remaining inventory. How ironic would it be if they actually would release it and the November Elite builds everyone is having trouble with are actually the new 945's. That would explain why some of the quality control is gone. Perhaps the November Elites were a test run before production cranks up.

Sounds like too much of a lawsuit to try and pass of a product that's something it isn't.

It might be impossible to prove if the 945 was simply an Elite with no quality control, cheaper panels, and a badge thats says SHARP instead of Elite. I'm not absolutely sure but from the info we have here, every single November build has pink/green areas with the exception of the one panel from Cleaveland Plasma. So something has definitely changed in production. If I had to guess, I'd say it's not quality control but a different manufacturing(cheaper?) method.

I have November build from Chris and it too has the green pink issue. Is there anything we can do? Is there a fix? Will calibration by Kevin help? Can I return this tv? Class action lawsuit? What are the options.

That kills the theory that the drop shipped Nov build sets from Sharp were better. It still seems the luck of the draw with the odds stacked against you.

What really surprises me is that there are no panels out there with pre-Nov build dates. You mean to tell me that every pre-Nov Elite is sold out?

Thanks Ken but is there anything we can do? I watch a lot of hockey and it presents a big issue. If I use the dynamic setting it isn't as noticeable. Upset about it because it was lot of money.

No fix for it. I think calibration wont help it go away. Because how can one calibrate different areas of a set. Like the areas where the green and pink patches are. Class action lawsuit? Well probably could but you gotta have a dam good lawyer for this going up against a multi billion dollar company. Then there's others who have this green and pink patches in their Nov. build set. But make themselves believe that they don't see it on regular viewing and that its OK to them. So now what's the odds of winning a case.

Can I return the set?

The option to return due to defect like pink/green or heavy DSE for an expensive item like Elite is why I decided to get it somewhere I can return (BB). Mine is a 60, Oct 2011 build, open box from someone who returned it for a 70, says BB. Now there are no more 60's in the Boston or New Hampshire area.

Lucky this one has no dead pixels and minor DSE. Everything I re-watch looks so much better with colors that pop, deep blacks, richer detail and greater contrast. Just watched Star Trek original series "Devil In The Dark" and the show's stage set of fake rocks LEEPED off screen with an intricate dazzle of blues and purples not on my old set.

I am really sorry I waited to buy an Elite. I was waiting for some things to come through financially and now that they have I cannot find a guaranteed pre-November build anywhere. I really don't feel like there are any other great LED options out there right now. They are all just selling cheap commodity with bells and whistles I don't care about. I just want a damn good picture.

I may have to rethink my stance on plasma but I'm worried about IR, buzzing and reflectivity.

There are a lot of happy plasma owners. For you to be one of the happy ones it would be a good idea to look closely at how you would use a plasma display. Several top calibrators who are known here at AVS come through the Bay Area. One of them is located in Santa Rosa, and Jeff Meier(USB), D-NIce, and David Abrams do tours.

Reflectivity is an issue that's directly related to your viewing room. I have a Kuro on a wall facing an East wall of windows with two more windows on it's South side. There are bamboo curtains on the windows. In general, reflectivity hasn't been a problem for us. Only you can determine if it can be controlled in your room.

For buzzing, just buy with a no cost return policy. There's no way to tell if buzzing will be a problem for you unless you test a specific display in your viewing room under normal viewing circumstances.

IR comes and it goes. There have been outlandish claims from every angle on this topic. Anyone who watches the super bowl, and immediately runs a white screen to check for IR will probably find some. Someone else who spends a lot of time changing settings or playing games will probably be able to find some IR using a white screen. If you watch a variety of source materials, and don't feel the need to tweak settings every few minutes, then you shouldn't have a problem. Just go easy on the fixed images when the set is new, and with the money saved over an Elite, have one of the best professionals calibrate your display after it's a couple hundred hours old. Or, get lucky and find an Elite older than the Nov. release.

Our Kuro is a little over five years old and it's been calibrated twice by Jeff Meier(UMR), and I spent time with D-NIce when he calibrated our Nephew's Panasonic plasma. If you want the best out of a display, I'd recommend both of them, and David Abrams too. Robert Busch (bht) in Santa Rose also has an outstanding reputation.

I've checked our display once for IR because of all the IR posts here at AVS. That was last summer, and I didn't find anything. Jeff Meier did his second full calibration this December and he didn't find anything.

Our viewing habits include heavy NFL (logos), NHL (logos), and shinny disk movies from Netflix (black bars). During the off season I watch the NFL network and have a few 49er games saved on our DVR that I watch to keep my spirits up. That's a lot of logos and black bars. The movies that fill the screen, and the variety of sources with logos seem to be enough to get rid of any IR before it can be noticed. After the initial few hundred hours, I've depended on our viewing habits to take care of any IR potential.

Best wishes for your search to find the display that makes you happy.
Edited by htwaits - 2/8/13 at 5:44pm

If you really want an Elite (and not a plasma) order one from Best Buy. You can always return it within 45 days as a silver member. Also consider the floor model, which will almost certainly be pre-November build. But just an FYI: not all November builds have issues. I know because I'm watching mine right now