Official Sharp AQUOS LC-80LE632U Owners Thread - Page 83

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

I called Amazon customer service ( I am a long, long time Amazon customer in the best standing they have) and they said they would stand by me if there was any problems with the Closeout Source. They said they have had no problems with that dealer

im upset...Just got an email from Closeout Source saying that they canceled my order because Sharp revoked a $800 price discount and they cannot sell the LC-80LE632U at that price. Oh well..I might have to wait until black friday.....Im very disappointed..

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

Hello Guys,
I have been reading your posts on this thread for a few weeks and came to the conclusion that the LC-80LE632U Is the right TV for me. I have always bought the biggest at the right price range, unless it was a problem laden model. My Samsung 72" DLP has just died 2 weeks after installing a new bulb it it. Its a shame, as I loved the TV and the new bulb made it look almost as bright and clear as many LCD's.
Anyway, after all the great recommendations on this forum, I have been shopping for price. Amazon had it for $4100 + change. However they frequently change prices. Amazingly about an hour ago, an Amazon dealer named Closeout Source listed the LC-80LE632U for only $3494.99 including free shipping and NO TAX. Could this be an old TV sitting around unopened for along time? It is advertised as BRAND NEW. They only had two left at the time I saw it so I put it in my cart right away and paid for it. I called Amazon customer service ( I am a long, long time Amazon customer in the best standing they have) and they said they would stand by me if there was any problems with the Closeout Source. They said they have had no problems with that dealer. I plan to call Sharp tomorrow and find out if they are an authorized dealer. I suspect they are not and wonder how that may effect the basic 1 year parts and labor warranty. Do any of you folks have suggestions about an extended warranty? I can purchase a 4 year warranty through Square Trade for approx $380. This seems kind of high, but the company seems to be regarded well. I would appreciate any and all comments. Assuming I go through with the purchase I will be back on here requesting help with optimum settings. Thanks in advance.
Oh..and by the time I called customer service the last one from Closeout Source was gone. At the time of this post ( which is 1/2 hr after I bought the TV) Amazons best price went up to $3999.

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

im upset...Just got an email from Closeout Source saying that they canceled my order because Sharp revoked a $800 price discount and they cannot sell the LC-80LE632U at that price. Oh well..I might have to wait until black friday.....Im very disappointed.

Originally Posted by beerme1 

Out of curiosity because I am so close to pulling the trigger on this set because I have been waiting for 11 year old 65" Pioneeer RPTV to die but it wont (man love for my Pioneer), I am looking and see this generally bad reciew on the Sharp.
http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/sharp-lc-80le632u/4505-6482_7-35029961.html
Based on everyones comments on the Sharp I get the feeling that Cnet doesnt know **** anyway and maybe it's like consumer reports. But this is a bad review on this tv.

Originally Posted by beerme1 

Out of curiosity because I am so close to pulling the trigger on this set because I have been waiting for 11 year old 65" Pioneeer RPTV to die but it wont (man love for my Pioneer), I am looking and see this generally bad reciew on the Sharp.
http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/sharp-lc-80le632u/4505-6482_7-35029961.html
Based on everyones comments on the Sharp I get the feeling that Cnet doesnt know **** anyway and maybe it's like consumer reports. But this is a bad review on this tv.

Originally Posted by usr5000 

I have nothing but good to say on mine. I paid $3219 at Sears

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

Thank you all for your replies. Yesterday I bought the LC-80LE632U from HHGregg. They have it on sale for $3999. I used a 10% off coupon they emailed to me for signing up on their website, and on top of that I got an additional 5% off as a promotion for applying for and then using their credit card. That brought the price down to $3420.00 + .0725% tax. That brought the out the door price down to $3667.95 That was over $170 more than that Closeout store through Amazon, but at least I purchased it through a major retailer and didnt have to worry returns, etc. I got it in my Grand Caravan and took it home. I set it up and watched it last night. Its still set to the factory spects. I was very disappointed. The Soap Operal Effect is overwhelming. My 72" Samsung DLP that just died was much nicer and brighter ( I had just put in a new bulb before it died) and I NEVER had to adjust the factory specs on it. So as soon as I finish typing this, I will go back and look at some of the recommended settings and try to adjust the TV. I am not looking forward to this. I have to say I am intimidated. Any suggestions would be helpful. I am shocked that I am disappointed.
Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

Thank you all for your replies. Yesterday I bought the LC-80LE632U from HHGregg. They have it on sale for $3999. I used a 10% off coupon they emailed to me for signing up on their website, and on top of that I got an additional 5% off as a promotion for applying for and then using their credit card. That brought the price down to $3420.00 + .0725% tax. That brought the out the door price down to $3667.95 That was over $170 more than that Closeout store through Amazon, but at least I purchased it through a major retailer and didnt have to worry returns, etc. I got it in my Grand Caravan and took it home. I set it up and watched it last night. Its still set to the factory spects. I was very disappointed. The Soap Operal Effect is overwhelming. My 72" Samsung DLP that just died was much nicer and brighter ( I had just put in a new bulb before it died) and I NEVER had to adjust the factory specs on it. So as soon as I finish typing this, I will go back and look at some of the recommended settings and try to adjust the TV. I am not looking forward to this. I have to say I am intimidated. Any suggestions would be helpful. I am shocked that I am disappointed.
Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

Thank you all for your replies. Yesterday I bought the LC-80LE632U from HHGregg. They have it on sale for $3999. I used a 10% off coupon they emailed to me for signing up on their website, and on top of that I got an additional 5% off as a promotion for applying for and then using their credit card. That brought the price down to $3420.00 + .0725% tax. That brought the out the door price down to $3667.95 That was over $170 more than that Closeout store through Amazon, but at least I purchased it through a major retailer and didnt have to worry returns, etc. I got it in my Grand Caravan and took it home. I set it up and watched it last night. Its still set to the factory spects. I was very disappointed. The Soap Operal Effect is overwhelming. My 72" Samsung DLP that just died was much nicer and brighter ( I had just put in a new bulb before it died) and I NEVER had to adjust the factory specs on it. So as soon as I finish typing this, I will go back and look at some of the recommended settings and try to adjust the TV. I am not looking forward to this. I have to say I am intimidated. Any suggestions would be helpful. I am shocked that I am disappointed.
Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by SonyHome 

I think alot of 632u owners are using Suzook's posted settings at beginning of this thread. You can try that to see if you think it's better.

Originally Posted by usr5000 

You can't leave it to factory specs and expect a great picture. You are one of only 3 people out of 100 online I have heard was disappointed in this set.
Look back at Suzook's settings and use them, otherwise, I would return the set if you feel you are too intimidated to change all the settings..

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

Well...I am having problems here. Not happy. But I'm 59 yrs old and not as sharp as I used to be. I could be part of the problem.
I found a post a few pages back that had the "famous SuZook Settings". Those seem to be the standard here, so I tried to put them in.
1) I did not see anything labeled "OPC" so I dont know if its on or off.
2) Initially I set the Backlight, Contrast, Brightness, Color, Tint, Sharpness to the recommended settings ( more on this in a bit)
3) I saw the Advanced settings option and went into it. I set the Hue, Saturation and Value settings to the recommended settings.
4) At this point I kinda freaked. The Color Temp was not adjustable ( It was light grey with diaganal line through a zero) The Active Contrast, Black level, Digital Noise Reduction, and Film Mode were all locked out as well
(they all were listed, but were unaccessable in light grey color with the diaganal line through a zero).
5) I was able to adjust the Motion Enhancement 120 HZ to "Low"
6) I did not see "Monochrome" or "Range of NA"
Ok..here is the killer...as you can see, I went as far as I could. Upon finishing I went back to recheck. I really freaked then because what I would call the Standard Settings (Backlight, Contrast, Brightness, Color, Tint and Sharpness) were now all set to zero!
Not only were they set to zero, but the SCALES FOR THEM WERE NOW DIFFERENT! Backlight only went to plus or minus 5, Contrast only went to plus or minus 10, etc.!!!!!!
At that point I put on a source to see what it looked like. I have Comcast with numerous HD channels. The screen was way too dark. I bumped up the Backlight, Contrast and Brightness. It looked brighter, but the colors seem washed out now. Soap Opera Effect still there.
7) My son is very tech savy (he is a software engineer who also has a 55" samsung that he is always tweeking) and I put in a call to him. He is the one who explained to me what the Soap Opera Effect was before I bought this set. He will stop buy later
on during the week to help me make whatever adjustments we can.
8) I should have mentioned that I did connect the TV to the internet. It is set to upgrade the software, but to my knowlege has not done so. I am not sure where you check for the current software version. I cannot find a manufacture date anywhere on the TV.
Thanks again for any help.

Originally Posted by usr5000 

I have nothing but good to say on mine. I paid $3219 at Sears

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

Thank you all VERY MUCH for your concern and for your replies and SonyHome for your detailed suggestions. Everything SonyHome told me applied. I put the TV in Movie Mode and was then able to adjust the settings to "SuZooks" settings. I really didnt know what to expect, as I have read through several old posts, but far from all of them. It seems the general belief here is that there are no perfect settings that should be applied to every set. Each set is a bit different. Anyway I was hoping for a big improvement and I did not get it. The colors seem more "balanced" but are not very vibrant. In my opinion, it is not bright enough. I will try my best to explain further. The greens are dark. I watched a bit of golf and it looked like it was an overcast day when, in fact you could see shadows that would clearly indicate it was sunny out.
There does not seem to be anything functionally wrong with the set. Let me give a further example: I turned on my blue ray player. Its a Samsung unit a few years old, but thats not the point. On the initializing screen it says "SAMSUNG"in large letters across the top of the screen. The backgound is (was) a solid blue. Below the SAMUNG is the bluray logo, and below that are three colored boxes, one for NETFLIX one for PANDORA and one for YOUTUBE. Ok..let me come to the point: In the past the screen had a pleasing solid blue background behind all this. Now the background is only blue in the middle. It is BLACK at the top and bottom. It gradually fades to blue in the middle. The blue in the middle is not consistant. There are no specific "bands", but there are now light blue and dark blue sections. The background was a bright, pleasing solid blue with my 72" DLP. It has DRAMATICALLY changed with this new set. I am sorry to bore you all with details that may be stupid and irrelivant. However this is the one thing I can specifically compare the way things used to look with how things look now. I suppose I could take a picture if anyone thinks that would be helpful. However I would need step by step instructions on how to upload the picture to this site.
The Soap Opera Effect is somewhat lessened, but still there. I watched AVITAR on bluray on the set yesterday. It was much darker than in the past, and as far as the SOA, I felt like I was getting motion sickness several times. Of course this movie is mostly animated.
My wife thinks the set is fine. (decent) She is relatively ok with it. I explained to her what the Soap Opera Effect was and she does see it where it was not present on the 72" DLP. She loves to watch Baseball and we watched a game last night. She said the batter seems very clear but the people in the background are less clear and that bothers her a bit. We are only talking a 8" difference in screen size. I asked her if the set seems bigger than the old set, and she said maybe a tiny bit. The batter seems a tiny bit bigger. She said the new TV is less bright than the old one (DLP) Like I said, I had just changed the bulb before it died. It sits on the same stand we had the DLP and she is sure no one in the family will notice we have a new TV.
Well, I am anxious for my son to come over and see what he thinks and he loves to tinker.
Thank you all so much for you help and thoughts. I have 30 days to return it. However the thought of the hassle of packing it up is almost as upsetting as not getting a great picture (lol)

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

What is the best way to "punch it up" if your set is too dull?

Originally Posted by chill2006 

Right now, Sears price is 3999 (1000 off list). How long ago did you get yours for 3219? If it is very recent, that means the price my drop again soon as the holiday season approaches, and I may wait.
TIA

Originally Posted by Suzook 

Sony, I agree with what you are stating with the exception of using the OPC. Numerous calibrators and even reviewers have stated that using OPC can make PQ suffer because they routinely force settings to remain on when the OPC is on.
The reality is that Sharp has not made this set easy to dial in even with a calibration. One setting can have an effect on another. Defeating one can turn another on. Its madness really.
A higher backlight may get you the pop but contrast and true color reproduction will suffer.
This is the challenge because too many look at the torch mode samples sitting on the BB floor and assume all tv's should look like that.

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

What is the best way to "punch it up" if your set is too dull?

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

Thanks to everyone for their replies and help. I would like to give you folks a quick update. This morning I had my 89 year old father over to show him the set. As predicted by my wife, he said we would not have noticed a different TV on the stand if it was not pointed out to him. His initial reaction after watching some sports was that the TV was very nice, fine, but not as bright as the one I used to have. I started to show him all the adjustments that could be made, and put it in standard mode. Wow, it was like suddenly the TV got much brighter and the colors were popping too!. So what I had was Suzook's settings on Standard Mode. I switched to all the other modes too. They all seemed to be bright, thus better for me than the Movie mode. I have left it in standard mode for now. My wife thinks the set looks absolutely fantastic now and is very very happy! I see now that SonyHome has suggested it try this with some minor adjustments. Well, thank you very much, you are 100% right. I have not tried you minor adjustments yet, but will. I will also try the other posters suggestions. I really appreciate all the help and support you folks have been giving me.
I have spoken to my son a few times now and he is very anxious to get over here and see the TV and fiddle with it. He told me with his set the Movie mode is the darkest. He is totally up on the Soap Opera Effect and says that many people get used to it and come to love it. I watched Star Trek Insurection (in HD) this afternoon off Netflix. I am used to watching all the Star Trek Next Generation episodes in standard def (which sucks) on Netflix. I told my son that while watching Insurection, the actors looked so clear and detailed that the sceens on the bridge of the Enterprize looked fake. He advised that this was the famous Soap Opera Effect. Things look are so clear they look like a stage set. Anyway. I will eventually try all the suggestions and thanks again for everyone for your patience and help. I am starting to like this TV!

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

No..Im starting to love this TV!

Originally Posted by TheRichster 

im upset...Just got an email from Closeout Source saying that they canceled my order because Sharp revoked a $800 price discount and they cannot sell the LC-80LE632U at that price. Oh well..I might have to wait until black friday.....Im very disappointed.

Originally Posted by chill2006 

Right now, Sears price is 3999 (1000 off list). How long ago did you get yours for 3219? If it is very recent, that means the price my drop again soon as the holiday season approaches, and I may wait.
TIA