Originally Posted by
Zepheyr 
I received this TV yesterday and spent most of the day hooking stuff up and rearranging the living room to compensate for its size (upgrade from a 46").
After finally getting everything hooked up and turning the set on, I was at first not wowed. As with others, I thought the picture quality was pretty mediocre until I upgraded the firmware and used the calibration settings provided earlier in this topic, which improved it 100%. Now the picture is marvelous, rich, clear, and more colorful than I was prepared for (in a good way). I expected LCD's had come a long way since I was in the home theater business, but I am really surprised and impressed with how beautiful some of these new sets are. It is definitely a *MASSIVE* improvement over my Toshiba 46RV530U. Blu-ray looks better than ever, with colors being far richer than I am used to, and the motion smoothing technology is a nice gimmick which makes for a fun new TV watching experience. I can definitely say that from a picture quality standpoint the price can't be beat.
With that ringing endorsement out of the way, I am returning the set as soon as possible, with a harsh lesson learned. Why? After my awe died down I noticed some really annoying, gamebreaking problems with the Sharp LC-60LE6300U. My wife is equally shocked at its problems, and she is one of those people that typically replies "I don't see it" when you point out sound or picture issues that you might find glaringly obvious.
a) The clouding on this set is the worst I have ever seen in my life. I know LCD's have always had a problem with clouding and flashlighting, but this is so bad that the TV looks as if it is covered in a thick layer of dust. Whether I am changing input sources, watching a movie with a dark scene, or playing a video game with a night sequence the clouding just stares at you and it is *all* you can see. The main reason I upgraded from my Toshiba was because it had clouding issues too, but they were never as bad this, not even close. The clouding on this TV is so bad that its a dealbreaker by itself.
b) Motion in gaming is subpar. I'm almost positive its worse than my 46RV530U, which was decent with motion. Walking around in an FPS-style game causes pretty noticeable motion blur, to the point that my eyes hurt a little, specifically with ground textures. It's not a dealbreaker but it does frustrate me because one of the primary reasons I bought it was for use as a PC monitor, as I do all my surfing and gaming in the living room.
c) When viewing bright imagery, such as browsing this very website, I notice strange, faint hazes stretched across various areas of the screen. They're immobile, and remain regardless of source. It almost looks like the LCD panel is being ever so slightly compressed from all sides, causing the screen to flex and bend in places, resulting in a gray haze where the screen is lifted away from the backlight. That's my theory anyway. I can't be sure it the hazes correlate with the same places where the clouds are occurring, but it might be related. Either way, it is definitely a dealbreaker because you notice it all the time, faint though it might be.
I ordered this from Brandsmart USA for $1000, and had it delivered for $100. The really disappointing thing about all this is not how terrible the Sharp ended up being, but that because there are no Brandsmart stores in my region, if I want to return it I am going to have to pay for return shipping costs. It was $100 just to get it shipped here, and if I have to pay $100 for a return trip to get my money back, I am now out $200 for a nearly unusable set. I am beyond disappointed in what I ended up with, and curse myself for jumping on a great Cyber Monday deal instead of waiting and researching the product more like I normally would. I'm half-way considering calling Sharp to see what they have to say, because if I have to pay another $100 just to return the TV, I might as well get Sharp on the line to ask for a replacement or repair. I'm not sure what to do just yet, as I've never had hardware issues with a TV, or even had return one.
Given the prevalence of clouding issues with LCD's, and that they still seem to exist in abundance after all these years, this experience has scared me away from LCD TV's. I think I am finally going to jump ship to the Plasma barge and get a nice, cloudless 55-60" Plasma TV. Any suggestions?
P.S. I'll take a picture of the clouding problem when its a little darker outside. My wife likes to have a lot of light in the den during the day.
... Those saying the blacks are not accurate cannot have their settings correct. This is the best blacks I've had on a TV. No joke.
