Official Sharp 2011 LC-70LE632U Owner's Thread - Page 43

Hello. I had the same dilemma of not having HDMI inputs with my older Denon AVR-2700. But this receiver gave me a bit more flexibility with BR players using my 5.1 analog inputs (no lag correction either or have never used it). It had no lip sync issues that I noticed with this sharp either.

I was using this receiver on my Panasonic BD55 BR which I purchased to be able to use 5.1 on my older Denon w/o hdmi inputs. Two weeks ago, Fry's had a great sale on a newer 2011 model Denon AVR-1712 which had the latest: 6 HDMI, ARC, 3D, 7.1 and the wonderful room acoustic correction Audyssey MultEQ XT built in. Let me tell you the BIG difference it made with how my setup now sounds even when using my old speakers. It's awesome!

I made a small investment of 227 USD (compared to the price of my 70") and I totally agree that sound is 50% of the whole HT experience. So I would suggest saving up or putting one of these babies on your upcoming wish list (best bang for the buck) for the newer "room acoustic correction" Denons and you will never look back! Now I feel that this 70" Sharp (with Jason's calibrated settings) and great sound complete my HT setup that I was always aiming to achieve. Just sharing my experience.

Thanks, Jason. I will give both a try and let you know. Do you have a "POP" version of the GAME mode like you did previously? Or is it same as before with ACTIVE CONTRAST set to ON and GAMMA set to -2? Please advise. Thanks again for all you do here on the forum!

Thanks for sharing your experience, rbanez - glad to hear someone else in a similar position had good results. With any kind of luck, the lip sync problems won't be an issue for me either. Upgrading to a newer receiver has been on my mind for a long time due to the restrictions of my older model (no DTS, no external analog inputs for 5.1/7.1, no HDMI, no surround back, no zones, etc) - on the other hand, the Dolby Digital decoding is excellent, it pumps out plenty of clean power for my 5.1 environment, has absolutely great sound/imaging, and was the top of the line Denon flagship model at the time (meaning it also cost me thousands of dollars - in the 90's!). So I've been stuck in this mindset that if I finally upgrade, then I need to upgrade to a comparable top-quality contemporary model, which would mean another large investment - but maybe I just need to get myself over that and take a look at more affordable contemporary receivers rather than the 2 to 3 thousand dollar models that I can't afford right now anyway. I'm betting that even a mid-range current model would be taking a huge step forward for my home theater.

Can't wait to get this TV on the wall this week-end so I can stop theorizing and see how it actually all plays out...

Demian

Wow. I didn't know you were into high end AV equipment. So I guess since my Denon was the lower tiered model way back when, I guess any new contemporary ones would blow it away. My old Denon was great with Dolby Digital 5.1 but no DTS either. The analog 5.1 inputs helped since my BR player decoded any HD format and just sent it directly to my speakers. I was lucky in that manner. But I always thought calibrating my speakers with an analog SPL meter was all I needed. WRONG! I was not able to correct room acoustic problems and delays based on my speaker placements. Audyssey really did the job and now the sound I get is night and day. It takes the guesswork out of setting parameters for your 5.1 setup. Let us know how your tv setup goes this weekend. I am loving my 70"...

Yeah, I've heard great things about Audessey, and could probably really use it in my room - my speaker setup isn't quite ideal due to a funky wall length on the one side, so one of my dipole speakers is about a foot and a half in front of my listening position, which impacts the surround effects somewhat. Like you, I bought a sound meter and used that to at least dial all the speakers to 75db using c-weighting, but I'm betting Audessey could do a much better job. And if my receiver had analog inputs, I'd be able to let my new Oppo do all of the decoding - but no dice. There is a company called MSB that would put 5.1 analog inputs into my Denon, but it would cost $400 to $500 for the upgrade and the cable, which feels like way too much to invest in a 15 year old receiver (that money would be better put toward a new receiver)

As for being into high-end AV equipment, it was a lot easier when I was single and in my 20's - now I'm 40 with two kids and wife, and my days of buying the latest and greatest gear every few years are definitely on hold for a while.

Jason, I noticed that your latest Movie mode settings are at 35 ftL vs. previous versions at 40ftL - I apologize if I sound dumb for asking this, but does that mean that your newer settings would be darker, and therefore more suited to nighttime or darkroom viewing? I used your previous set of 40ftL settings for a movie today and they looked pretty darn good - more on that later.

I also just configured your newest 40ftL Game mode settings this afternoon (was using your previous set of Game mode settings yesterday and this morning) - I'll let you know how the new settings look for me once I have a little time to form an opinion.

So far much better than out of the box settings...

Demian

Demian,

Exactly, typically the lower the ftL the darker the viewing environment.

Somebody asked me a while back for a 50 ftL calibration and I may add one of those as one of my final 632 sets (or maybe even a 60 ftL for people with daylight rooms).

Jason

I'd really love to try your 50 or 60 ftls!

OK, that's what I thought. My room is a little of both - I have a big sliding glass door on one of the walls in my viewing room, which have blinds but don't fully darken the room during the day (nor do we always want it like a dungeon in that room ). Most of our movie/TV watching is at night when the room is darker, with some TV watching and XBox gaming during the daylight hours as well. So either I need to train my family to mess with backlight settings during day/night, or use settings that will reasonably fit the bill for both lighting conditions.

BTW, none of your calibrations specifically mention setting the Black Level, but there is a High/Low option for that which seems to have a big effect on the picture - do you typically keep this at Low (which is the default)?

I don't think my 70-632 has a High/Low option for black level. In which menu are you seeing this setting?

Ed

It is in the Picture Quality section, under Advanced - the Black Level setting will show up but is listed as inaccessible unless a video stream is running (at least, that was what I found when checking this out last night). Once I started passing a video signal to an input, the settings become active. It seems to default to a setting of Low (darker), but can be set to High which significantly brightens the blacks. I had my screen paused and toggled the setting on and off, and with High there was a lot more detail in the shadows and dark backgrounds - but I don't know if that is a good thing or not.

BTW, I have both component and HDMI inputs to the 632U - I know for sure that the component input allowed access to this setting, and I saw it on the HDMI inputs as well - but I didn't notice whether the setting is adustable in the HDMI inputs (I will try it tonight).

Demian

I see it now. Never noticed it because i stream with my BD player. I find I get better audio through by BD and it has same apps as the tv. I just got a notice on my sceen about a software update available for my sharp 70-632. going to install it now to see what it does.
Ed

The black level setting is not accessible via HDMI, it will work with Component/Composite/S-video (as Demian discovered).

Jason

Just did the software update to 311U1204061. all it did was remove some apps,(Blockbuster,Napster and another one that i forgot).
Ed

Thanks for verifying, Jason - I was going to test it last night, but caught up in other stuff (seems like there are a million different tasks and tweaks to make with this new setup). Is setting this type of value to High on the component inputs typically undesirable?

Demian

Raising the black level is not something you want to do as it washes out the image and decreases your contrast ratio (as well as some other negative effects), you'll be better off increasing the Gamma setting if you want more shadow detail. If you are at Gamma -2 right now that is about a 2.3 to 2.4 gamma which is more for a dark viewing environment, try -1 or 0 (which will range around 2.2 to 2).

Jason

So you think its a safe bet to skip the update? I'm having a hell if a time trying to download it....

I don't think it's really necessary. The web site said all it did was remove 3 apps. I downloaded to USB and updated that way as the tv had trouble getting the download.

Ed

I would just wait a couple of weeks and try when everyone isn't downloading it at the same time. My guess is you will be fine then.

The update apparently only removes some apps - no mention of new updates or fixes:

"This Firmware Update removes the streaming apps Blockbuster, Alphaline and Napster due to those streaming services no longer being available.

This update includes all previous fixes and improvements.

Version: 311U1204061"

--Tom

Best Buy is delivering mine today....just like Christmas morning...

Congrats! Tell us your experience. We know you will love this beast as much as I do, especially once you dial in the settings provided by Jason on this forum!

Will do....and thanks!

Best Buy hasnt showed up yet, so I'm looking at my mounting options...I purchased this... http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...ac1dc848bden02 ...(site must be a typo, box does say 70", not 60")...which looks like it will do the trick....I already own this...... http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en ....which is currently holding a 52" sony bravia........really wish i could use the Whalen (2nd unit) as it does say it's good for 135 ilbs, but I suspect the brackets will not line up as the tv is likely too wide......shall see soon enough...

So...delivered as promised...managed to hang it on the Whalen I pointed out above , which is nice......having a heck of a time so far with the calibrating....grass on the baseball game looks grainy....hockey game looked awesome with the closer camera angles, but like a SD feed from the usual pan angle.....which is unacceptable....Starting to get a bit late so I'll tackle it again tomorrow...tried these settings so far.. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...&postcount=294 ...which seem to give me that SOE everyone was talking about when it comes to baseball and hockey......tomorrow is another day....

HowieDoin,

You should have no SOE in Game mode and if you do it's not the calibration (the settings that create SOE are disabled in Game mode and cannot be enabled).

Jason

Ya...looks like I have a LOT more reading to do....LOL

Watch out for that recent firmware update, we now have one report of possible change to color (nothing verified as of yet).

Jason

I learned my lesson from my now bricked VF552XVT from Vizio. Fortunately with Sharp, you are given the option not to download.

Is there an area where I can check what the current firmware is on the unit?