Quote:
Originally Posted by
chiefrocka 
Soooo, long time lurker here.
I got a chance to go to the Magnolia section in Best Buy last night, and they had this TV set up in a room by itself.
I asked the Magnolia dude if he could put some content on it for me as it wasn't showing anything at the time. He popped a BluRay of War of the Worlds into what I believe was an Oppo player.
He jumped ahead in the movie to get to more action heavy scenes, and the SOE was terrible. He went into the menu and turned off the smoothing and something else, and said "there you go". He dimmed the lights and let me watch as much as I wanted.
I have to say that my first impression of this beast was not very good. The picture was filled with grain, and quite blown out.
The question I have is, never having a calibrated set myself, how much does calibration solve these things? I'm sure the blown out colors can be solved, but what about the terrible snowy picture? I was sitting about 12 to 13 feet away, and it was not pretty.
Thanks!
I don't think it's fair to the customer or the TV manufacturer to have their product judged by how a retail store displays and sets up the unit. Having been a video fan for over 30 years, I can't count the horror stories I could tell you about how badly some products are misrepresented. Much better to look for insightful professional reviews like those from Chad and make sure that the store you buy it from has a liberal return policy. Also, make sure you understand the fundamentals of setting up a TV. If not, find someone knowledgable to set it up for you.
I have the LC-80LE632U and have been enjoying it for the past week. This, being my 10th Hi-Def LCD is BY FAR, the best set yet! Decently set up and watched from the correct distance it has a marvellous picture. I am not aware of any added noise not contributed by the content itself (make SURE that the sharpness is turned to the neutral '0' setting as that will definitely introduce some nasty visual effects if set too high). As a final test, I have watched 3 Pixar cartoons in the last few days (Monsters Inc, Toy Story 3, and The Incredibles). Those films are absolutely clean and totally grain free - proof positive that the Sharp does not itself introduce additional grain or noise, providing the TV is set up correctly.
I'm still, however, puzzled and disappointed why so many people knock 'added interpolated frames' calling it SOE. I remember clearly as a young kid going to the movie theatre and frequently being disappointed when the camera started panning. Sharpness became pathetic and the motion judder drove me crazy. The illusion was totally destroyed for me. This is 90 year old technology folks. The ONLY thing that saves the pathetic 24 fps is the fact that the motion frames are so blurry that you usually don't notice that the rate is too low. I personally can't wait until we progress to 30, or even better, 60 FPS. Just my two bits - but I LOVE being able to smooth out the 24 FPS presentations (especially 1h11m of Casino Royale when the card table is panned - HORRIBLE!).
Take a look outside your window folks! Reality is SMOOTH! Why wouldn't you want your films to look as realistic. I'm sure that in 10 Years or so, this argument will be moot as we will finally have progressed to a reasonable approximation of reality, not just in sharpness but also in motion.
