Which 60" TV Should I Go With??

I have owned both over the past two months. I liked the Vizio a lot when I first got it. Color and overall screen quality, particularly right in front, is extremely good. Mine suffered lip sync issues but it was random enough that I was just putting up with it when it occurred. Unfortunately, after about a month, the picture stopped displaying an image though I could tell at least some of the LED's where still on (dark gray screen, not completely off). I also continued to hear audio. Anyway, back it went...and, I have to say, the incident with both the lip sync and final failure made me a bit gun shy of trying another one.

Fast forward to last week when I picked up the Sharp. I think the picture overall is a little better than that on the Vizio. Better blacks and slightly better off angle viewing. The surface is a little more matte than the Vizio. I did, for whatever reason, have a much easier time dialing in the color on the Vizio vs the Sharp (even though the Sharp has a lot of fine color controls). Main issues I have experienced with the Sharp:

1) Terrible soap opera effect with motion out of the box. Turning off all motion effects does not completely fix the issue. Thus far, the only solution I have found is to use the Game mode, which has two drawbacks. A) It cannot be used when watching the built in Apps such as Netflix. B) it's much more difficult to calibrate - and I'm not sure yet it can be accurately calibrated - as the Gamma is out of range as compared to the Movie mode (which, again offers no way to fix the motion issues).

2) At least on my unit, the built in WiFi is extremely weak to the point of being almost unusable. In fact, I can only get it to connect if I remove the security feature (password protection) from my wifi. With password protection enabled, I only get error messages when inputing my password and attempting to connect (WPA). I even went so far as to purchase a dual band (N+G) router to see if it might be my wireless router. It's not!

3) Arg! I have also experienced lip sync issues at least on one occasion with OTA HD (optical out to receiver). Never an issue with my prevous TV and same connection.

So, unfortunately, the Sharp is likely going back as well. I have no idea what I'm going to buy at this point to replace my seven year old 32" Olevia LCD.

A lot has to do with where the TV will be placed with regards to options. If you don't have to deal with reflections, I noticed that Costco currently has the LG LM6700 55" for $1199, which is the best price I have seen for that yet. It's a gorgeous set aesthetically with edge to edge glass - but it is much more reflective than the matte screens. The IPS panel will also not have the black levels of the Sharp nor Vizio. Otherwise, it should be a nice set. It was on my short list until I saw that the reflection issue was a deal breaker for my location.

I suspect the Sharp will drop in price a lot over the next month. If you buy somewhere with a price guarantee, you're pretty much covered if the price drops. For instance, if the price drops within 90 days at Costco, they will refund you the difference (you can also return it in that period for any reason). HHgregg also currently offers a thirty day holiday price guarantee.

One other negative with Sharp is that they may not be around a year from now given their financial situation. Just something to consider.

Yeah, I may actually end up trying another Vizio myself after all of this. I did have to call their customer service and was surprised to get a live person located in the U.S. so I think Vizio is on the right track, at least regarding customer service.

Depends on if money is no object.... otherwise, the Visio is a no brainer, IMO.

Did you get the Vizio due to price? I too have heavy reflections and am "switching sides" from my Plasma. Liked both of these. Costco has the Vizio E601IA3 , the Sharp LC 60C 6400u and the LG60LS5750. I saw the Sharp LE on base - wish I could make up my mind - they all seem pretty good - I like that the Vizio has Pandora I noticed the Sharp LE did not.
Almost seems as though the cheapest set (Vizio) has the best reviews or am I wrong?

Also noticed that Vizio has wifi and Sharp does not? I can't hard wire my TV so if it's gonna get internet I need WIFI

The Sharp 6400 does have WiFi built in, though mine is pitifully weak and requires help with reception [Belkin makes a very inexpensive ethernet wifi bridge which works].

Regarding picture quality, the Sharp is better. Noticeably better blacks, less clouding and a little better off angle viewing. Once one sees the image quality of the Sharp, it sort of spoils you. Negatives: I have experienced Lip-Sync issues with both sets occasionally with OTH HD [ABC]. The Sharp has an issue dealing with motion and film material unless Game mode is used - the Vizio did not have this problem. So, as can be seen, both have plenty of warts/ issues and neither is perfect. And, Yes, it sucks the Sharp does not include Pandora. My wife said it had to go back for that reason alone.

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate it. I have been rewiring my wall mounted speakers to make room for a bigger screen. I painted today
So I am almost there just gotta pull the trigger.
My room is very bright. I really would buy a dumb TV if they had any?? I don't need speakers or really any internet, off angle viewing no more than about 45 degrees.
With those parameters and a $1500 or so budget any ideas??
Thanks,
Bajapalm
how about a pic? the bright room & the plasma and now moved speakers
TIA

45 degrees is enough to get a very noticeable washing out of the picture with the Vizio. It has a very small sweet spot right in front, where it looks exceptional. Some people are more sensitive to this than others but I was surprised by how washed out the picture became outside of that sweet spot. This is common on all non-ips displays - and the IPS models suffer other issues such as poor black levels - but it is particularly severe with the Vizio. First thing I noticed when I replaced it with the Sharp was this difference, followed by the better blacks. But, as I mentioned above, it has it's own set of issues.

The "dumber" sets in this price range are often inferior in other ways, the most notable being a severe lack of fine picture control. The Sharp that's often around 1K for instance suffers from this - and I think others have noticed it may be a lesser quality panel as well.

In the end, it comes down to what trade offs you want to make at this price.

The Vizio looked great to me in it's sweet spot. I also think it was a little better with regard to color accuracy than the Sharp. The lip-sync issue I had was random - and rare enough - that I was willing to put up with it [and changing the channel back and forth fixed it when it occurred]. The major reason I don't still have the Vizio is that it failed completely and lost it's picture just after a month. I guess I just ended up with a dud. Anyway, enjoy the Vizio! I'm still trying to figure out my next step - deal with the Sharp issues or get what?

In Costco I looked at Vizio quite a bit - the colors were a bit muted compared to the others around it but that could just be settings? I did not notice a significant drop in PQ with off angle viewing. The plasmas looked the best to me, but the reflectivity of the screen is just such a killer for me - what about the LG?? any feedback on their unit??

Lg is a good brand of course go to your local BB or Conns and view and play with options

I have been closely looking at the LG LM6700 at Costco lately. Love the design aesthetics of the edge to edge glass. The screen is not high gloss but is definitely much more reflective than any of the matte screens. Cnet tested both the LM6700 and the LM7600. While both look almost identical on paper except for features, Cnet found the LM7600 to be much better with regard to picture quality, even surpassing LG's top of the line sets. The big issue they found was uniformity. Since I tried an LG about a year ago and saw major issues with uniformity, this is one of the major issues preventing me from trying another LG as they seem to have a major issue with this. The other thing is size. It doesn't sound like there would be much difference between 55" and 60" but once you have been looking at a 60" for a while in use, downsizing is very noticeable. I saw this after using the Vizio for about month and then trying a Panasonic 55" right after. It felt small. The current LG's which are 60" are not rated very highly from what I have read.

The LG smart apps also lacked Pandora, unless that has changed. Does anyone know? So far, both the Vizio and the Panasonic have had the most complete built in smart apps if that matters to anyone. If the Sony 850 drops in price to under $1500, that would likely be the set I try next - though it's not 60" but 55".

Thanks for the input -

TLang your story reminded me of about ten yrs ago when I first got a DVD player and plasma - I didn't own a DVD so borrowed one from my niece "Princess Diaries" haha my family still teases me, but it was for science!!
I have been a Panny fanboy since 03 or so so all of these are new to me,

Flatliner - my Costco didn't have the LM 6700 only the LS 5750 @ $1199 -

If the pix on the Sharp Aquos/LG/Vizio and Costco Sharp are all about equal - I think I lean toward the Vizio since it's cheaper $979 and has Pandora - Reflectivity would be my second priority tp PQ of the set

I'm sure vizio has gotten better quality wise but before as I own a 32 inch the picture is trash even on HDTV programming