Quote:
Originally Posted by
billdag 
I agree. I've had quite a few sets with varying degrees of clouding. This set is the best by far and to my eyes exhibits essentially ZERO clouding. I have my TV in standard mode with -3 back-light and am thoroughly pleased with this set after more than a year of ownership. No regrets. Best set I've ever had even ignoring the size. I concur that your set is NOT typical and Sharp should replace it.
NOW THIS IS REALLY STRANGE BUT WITH A HAPPY ENDING!!!!
A couple of days after I submitted the above Non-clouding raving about this set, I sat down to watch some TV and when the dark transition occurred, just before the commercial break, I noted some obvious clouding in the lower center of my 80-632U. It wasn't real bad but I was certainly disappointed to see if after more than a year of non-clouding bliss!!!!
Over the next couple of days I kept looking for it and it kept showing up. One of the best tests, I found, was to set the TV to an input with the equipment turned off. That way the internal circuit doesn't turn off the back-light. Clear as a bell, no doubt about it, I got CLOUDS!! Two of them, the size of watermelons in the middle lower part of the screen. I tried all the usual stuff like playing with the back-light setting, contrast, brightness, OPC, etc. etc. but they had little effect. I wish I had taken a couple of pictures at the time but I planned on doing it later. NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS - IT'S TOO LATE. THE CLOUDING IS TOTALLY GONE AND BETTER THAN WHEN NEW, IF THAT'S POSSIBLE.
So.....what happened? I was doing some dusting and cleaning and proceeded to wipe down my TV with a damp cotton cloth. I had the TV on, at the time, showing the infamous clouding. As I was wiping down the set, wherever I applied light consistent pressure, the screen brightened considerably in that area. Not unusual, as most of us know, if we tap an LCD screen you will get a bright little circle popping up for a spit second.
Anyway, I finished cleaning up and sat down and was surprised that I still had clouding but the shape and area was different!!!
So, I deduced that the light emanating from the polarized screen was somehow affected by applying light but steady pressure on it.
I went back with my little damp cotton cloth folded into about a 4x4 inch square (allowing consistent pressure) and proceeded to wipe down the entire screen using only vertical motion with a fair amount of overlap. A couple of minutes later, I was done and sat down to watch my back-lit black screen. WOW!!! The clouding was totally gone.
I'm sure there's some rationale for this but I'm not sure what it is. In any case, if there is anyone out there with clouding issues with this set, you may want to try the above.
I should say, in all fairness, that even if the clouds were permanent, this set would still be the best in that area, of all the 7 sets or so, that I've owned.
Well - I'm heading back to my set but thought I would take a 10 minute break and share my good fortune with my fellow Sharp 80 enthusiasts, especially Manola.
Remember to try to have your eyes form a 90 degree angle with the center of the screen. Otherwise you will see some lightening creeping in from the top or bottom of the screen. The center of my screen is perhaps a foot or so higher than my eyes when I'm in my normal seating position, so I have the screen tilted slightly downward to compensate.
The pictures Manola posted clearly show some clouding but they may be exaggerated due to not taking the pix straight on. This set is quite sensitive to off-angle viewing especially if you are too close - be back at least 10 feet to minimize it.
