Official Sharp AQUOS LC-80LE844U Owners thread - Page 59

Yeah, at this point I think I'm going to settle with my Uverse. I got a really great packaging deal through a rep on Slickdeals. Plus I don't know where I'll be in a year, and DirecTV pretty much enforces a 2 year agreement; and DISH doesn't have AMC which is one of the few channels I actually watch. With my Uverse I have the U300 package with HD DVR, plus Shotime, Encore, Starz, and one other premium I'm forgetting. The DVR is leagues beyond Comcast's DVR. Also have 18Mbits internet, all for $90/month. And after 2-3 months, I will get a $300 VISA or credit as part of the deal (which when distributed between a year brings down the monthly cost to $65/mo). And HBO trial for 3 months.

With DTV, I would have gotten a $150 BB gift card, but all the premiums channels were only 3 months trials, whereas I got all except HBO and MAX for as long as I keep Uverse. What sucks with Uverse is they compress each HD channel down to 5-6Mbits I'm hoping they will change this in the future, but who knows.

When I move again or get a house, I will definitely get satellite unless Google Fiber or Verizon FiOS is available, or Uverse upps their HD channel bitrates.

Olympics looked fantastic on FIOS.
No pixelation or macro blocking at all....
I got a new FIOS box during the olympics too and that made the picture even better. Even my girlfriend made remarks about how she couldn't believe how good it looked.

All TVs have tradeoffs. What were his other concerns?

Michael

I'm not good enough at typing to try and reproduce the entire review but I tried to hit a couple of the high lights that would influence me as a potential buyer, which I am. When he says that non Blu-ray material is almost unwatchable that gets my attention. I watch a lot of TV from Dish, especially sports. Here are a few more of his comments.

He mentioned that with contrast ratio-enhancing modes turned off and backlight set to -16, black level measured a reasonable 0.005 footlambers and max light output 13.18ftL, for a contrast ratio of 2,636:1 which isn't bad for a flat panel. However, performance falls off rapidly if your sitting slightly off axis. For example, I measured CR half way between the center and edge of the screen at 704:1. Sitting one seat over on my sofa, roughly 15 degrees off axis, I found a CR of just 768:1. Is this fall off common with most LCD's? Yes, but here it's greater. And because the 844 is so huge, you're always looking at more than just the center of the screen.

I couldn't find a balance between measured color accuracy and an accurate looking image- I can't recall seeing such a wide discrepancy in a TV before.

One of the biggest issues I had with the 844 was it's non-defeatable motion interpolation in movie mode. I checked with Sharp. and this is, indeed a "feature" of the Movie Mode. Baffling. I was told to use the TV's Game Mode if I wanted to actually turn the interpolation mode off. Trouble is Game Mode locks you out of other picture menu features. It limits you to a 2-step grayscale adjustment while the other modes all offer a 10-step option.

I feel like there's a decent TV in here somewhere, but at every adjustment step, the Sharp fights you from letting it out.

So one thing that my 844 does, and it's happened about 3 or 4 times
now is that it turns off then back on by itself. Like someone hit the power
on the remote. The receiver stays on and everything else it's just
the tv. Really odd

Watching this set at the store I see two things that annoy me and I'd like to know from someone who owns one if it is a real problem or just stuff that appears because the store doesn't do a proper set up.

1) Blurry Image: I feel like there is a lack of sharpness overall to the picture.

2) Lots of artifacts in BluRay movies, especially during action scenes.

Am I seeing things or are these items present in everyday viewing at home once properly set up?

I don't see either of those on my set - you have to remember that showroom tvs are usually at factory settings and lots of times a blu-ray is on a distributed feed to all the tvs which degrades the signal.

The TV is definitely not perfect, you are making compromises for the size/price you are getting

If you want a great picture, go for the panny 65" plasma, but you give up 15"
If you want an ok picture and a large screen, this is the tv for you.

Any progress?

Tony,

Have you gone into the setup menu and adjusted the audio delay in your receiver?

S~

Hey SD,

That's really strange, I thought it was just me but mine has done this twice now that I can recall. It's just a momentary blip on the TV. At first I just thought it was my DVR recording with a loss of content or something but now that you mention it, it was the TV. I'll have to keep my eye out to see if this continues.

In my things to consider list I must also include that the extra 15" larger screen that gives me an only OK picture also costs about $3500-$4,000 more than the 65" Panny plasma which gives me a great picture. Unfortunately the Panny also has a reputation of being IR prone which is a scary problem on it's own. Of course I may feel that the 844 has a fantastic picture when I see it in my house.

Sharps do have one of the noisier pictures, but Dish has pretty clean HD, so I doubt it would be much of a problem.

With discounts, the 844U would be about $1500-2000 more than a 65" VT50. That's still a pretty big hit, but better than $3500.

Michael

I think you have your prices wrong, I only paid around $4,000 for the Sharp - so how can it be $4000 more then the Panny?

I see it occassionally as well. I think it is HDMI handshake issues. Not sure if the culprit is the TV or the DVR or my pre-pro.

I guess the price depends on who has what on sale. As of right now on Amazon the Sharp 844 lists for $6,000 and sale priced at $5100 (your $4,000 price is really good) while the 65ST50 is sale priced at $2100. I'm using the ST since that is the model I would be interested in and it uses the same panel as the VT50. Also it seems that because of supply and demand the 65" Panny would be more likely to be always at a better MSRP/Sales price ratio compared to the lesser production 844.

to be fair, it was $4,000 and change, can't remember the exact price right now.

I've been enjoying a 55" Panny plasma for 2-3 years, thanks in no small part to the excellent feedback here on AVS. I'm taking a look at the 844 as an upgrade. If I could find one for $4K, I'd buy one today. For now, I'm watching prices & QC issues. Problems will alway occur. It's how they're handled that makes a difference. I'm hoping to buy from a AVS forum sponsor with the right deal. Wonder what prices will be like by end of summer.

I'd like to know if the 844 will play video from a hard drive via the USB input on the set. A sales guy told me it would, but a review I read said it would not. Anyone tried it? If it won't, I'll need to find another way to playback video from a (non powered, preferably) hard drive. Currently, I'm using the USB input on my LG BR player, but I'll have to upgrade the player to a 3D unit for the 844. Back when I last shopped BR players, LG was the only maker with the USB video input option. Hopefully that has changed.

I'm deeply envious. I had really really looked forward to watching massive amounts of Olympics this year on my 80-632U, but the illusion was CONSTANTLY destroyed whenever there was a lot of motion or camera movement. I took a few pix a couple of days ago - see attached (NBC 1080i feed - Shaw Cable Mpeg2). Hard to believe this is 1080i as it looks worse than regular SD. In fairness though, during still scenes (like interviews etc.) the picture was OK though barely 720P quality.
Anyone else watching Breaking Bad on AMC? That show looks unreal - as good as most hi quality Blu-Rays. Click on pix to see full sized pixellated details!

Wow, Bill, that's bad. My comcast has a direct fiber feed from all of our locals. Dish and Direct have OTA feeds, although Direct is running a fiber feed for our ABC since it suffers severely from inversion in the VHF. I've found that dialing down the backlighting a little helps with artifacting.

S~

Incredible - those are really poor quality - saw nothing like that with my 844u - using DirecTV and the motion scenes were excellent

Bill, that is awful. I did some comparisons last weekend between the Dish NBC feed, and the OTA feed. Both were very clean, and I could only see a slight reduction in resolution with the Dish feed, and only then occessionally with some really hard stuff, like volleyball nets (even then, it was usually identical). I was impressed with how clean both feeds were. There was some motion blurring during fast pans, but I expected that. I also tested SD on a CRT, and interestingly, the SD on CRT had virtually no motion blur. The background pans were very clear. Ahh, the good old days! Of course, the picture didn't have a lot of resolution either.

Michael

Holy crap, that's terrible!
I'd dump any company if their picture was that bad.. damn!

You need to have your TV calibrated! I've never seen TV signal that bad. Have you had your provider come and check it?

Olympics on DTV were excellent on my 844. No issues with pixelation or smearing. Obviously on a screen this size, the source will have a major impact on picture quality.

is that on all channels or just some channels? if it is all, get yourself a new box, hows the bluray quality.

is that on all channels or just some channels? if it is all, get yourself a new box, hows the bluray quality.


No - this is the worst I've ever seen. Other channels and programs vary from mediocre to Wonderful! The main culprit is my cable carrier still using MPEG2 on almost all their hi-def channels. The exceptions are pay-per-view sports and National Geographics Wild. They are Mpeg4 and look much much better. Almost totally devoid of digital artifacts like mosquito noise and macro-blocking. I think Shaw would like to transition to Mpeg 4 as I've noted that the bit rate is about half of the mpeg2 channels without all the nasty artifacts. The problem is that Shaw SOLD a bunch of cable boxes and DVRs that only decoded Mpeg 2 (Motorola 6412, 6416 etc.). Until they're past their useful life, Shaw is kinda stuck with providing most of the hi def content in pathetic Mpeg2 - Yuck!!!

Blue Ray and media player files I've made myself are superb quality (except for some older movies re-released like Dirty Harry and such). A visual feast. Still thrilled after having my 80-632 for 11 months now.

bill. while I am known around here to be down on my 844 right now for the challenges with dialing in the set on DTV, I will say that I thought the NBC looked very good on the set.
I also have the 632 and it was just about the same.

Something REALLY bad going on there. Either the set is way out of whack settings wise or your provider is crap.

Hi Bill, I'm in the same boat. I have the 844 and my provider is Shaw. I have the old Motorola 6412. Does what you said means that I won't see any improvements even if I upgrade to Shaw's newest DVR? Will Telus OptikTV provide better HD? Thanks.
Sue

Its great to hear how you love your 844.
It seems that most people on this thread complain about one thing or another.
Don't get me wrong this is a great site to ask and get answers to questions that we all have.
But sometimes it seems to turn into a "Complaint Center".
But hey I'm new to this so its great reading either way.
I'm planning to purchase my 884 in November, have any good suggestions?
Thinking of getting it from Best Buy in Southern California.
How do you like the 3D? Did you get a deal on the glasses?
So many questions....so little time......