Official Sharp Aquos LC-42D64U/46D64U/52D64U Owner's Thread II (No Price Talk)

Originally posted here on 9/19/07...

OK party people, I hope you like pictures. (All of these were taken with my 10 MP Canon Rebel XTi DSLR, by the way.)

I finally got both of my LC-52D64U's delivered on Monday.



I spent Monday night moving the behemoth Pioneer 64" RPTV out of the way an installed the Sanus VMAA26 mount. No problems whatsoever. So NBK_PlanB, you might want to consider it ($303 on Amazon.com). Pushed back to the wall, the entire depth (TV + mount) = 6.5".







Here's how everything is currently connected:

EDIT: I should add that I'm using nothing but el-cheapo HDMI cables purchased from Amazon.com:
Premium High Resolution 10FT / 3m 24K GOLD HDMI TO HDMI M/M CABLE FOR HDTV PLASMA DVD
HDMI 2M (6 Feet) Super High Resolution Cable
1m ( 3ft ) Atlona High-quality Dvi to Hdmi Cable Windows XP is running at 1360x768 and I found that to be the best resolution for me. However, in order for me to get it working through the DVI port (my ATI Radeon X800XL card has DVI, component, and VGA connectors), I first had to turn off Entech PowerStrip (which was sending a 856x480 resolution to my RPTV with custom timings) then connect my Dell LCD monitor to the VGA connector so I could see what I was doing. I then connected the DVI-to-HDMI cable and the card saw both screens. Finally, I selected a 1360x768 resolution, upgraded to latest Catalyst for good measure (v7.9) and all was good.

You can see an untouched image of my Windows XP Desktop here.
Note: I'm not going to paste any more images into this post because they are all 1936x1288 in size -- the smallest image size my Rebel XTi would take. Also, the thin vertical pinstripes is due to the camera and not visible with the naked eye.

Images of PlayStation 3 interface and various games:
PS3 Image 1
PS3 Image 2
PS3 Image 3
PS3 Image 4
PS3 Image 5
PS3 Image 6
PS3 Image 7

Images of Transporter 2 on Blu-ray (PS3):
Transporter 2 - Image 1
Transporter 2 - Image 2
Transporter 2 - Image 3
Transporter 2 - Image 4
Transporter 2 - Image 5
Transporter 2 - Image 6
Transporter 2 - Image 7
Fantastic 4 Trailer

I was up late last night trying to optimize my picture settings with the PS3. The PS3 offered the following options under Display Settings:

RGB Full Range (HDMI)
Adjust the output settings for TVs that support RGB full range. For RGB video signals, the range of color scale that is input varies depending on the TV in use. This setting is for use when the TV is connected to the PS3 system using an HDMI cable.
Limited: RGB output signal is output in the range from 16 to 235.
Full: RGB output signal is output in the range from 0 to 255.

Y Pb / Cb Pr / Cr Super-White (HDMI)
Adjust output settings for TVs that support Y Pb / Cb Pr / Cr input signals. Super-white signal can be output when playing a DVD, Blu-ray Disc (BD), or AVCHD-format video. This setting is for use when the TV is connected to the PS3 system using an HDMI cable.
Off: Disable super-white output.
On: Enable super-white output. I'm not sure if the Sharp TV supports either of these. Does anyone know? I tried them but didn't see an immediate difference.

As far as sound goes, Transporter 2 is "dts MA" but my Onkyo Receiver was only reporting PCM, not dts. Under BD/DVD Settings, I had to set the BD / DVD Audio Output Format (HDMI) option on the PS3 from Linear PCM to Bitstream in order to finally get dts working on my receiver.

BD / DVD Audio Output Format (HDMI)
Set the audio output format to use when playing a BD or DVD containing audio recorded in Dolby Digital or DTS format. This setting is used when an audio output device is connected to the system via an HDMI cable.
Bitstream: Set to output audio with the original digital signal prioritized.
Linear PCM: Set to output audio by converting the digital signal to Linear PCM format. But once I did that, the demo for the game DiRT had very scratchy sound during the intro. I had to go back in to Audio Output Settings under Sound Settings and uncheck all 7.1 formats (I have 5.1 speakers).



Lastly, the thing that everyone wants to know is if my set has banding. I'll let you view the image below and be the judge:
40% gray field test
Shutter Speed: 1/4s
F-number: F5.6
ISO: 100

I personally see very faint, thin lines vertically and horizontally, like a "grid" pattern. But really have to strain to see anything remotely resembling that when viewing DirecTV, Windows XP, or the PS3. Your comments are welcome!

Originally posted here on 9/25/07.

I learned about the PowerBridge from this thread. Works great. Romex is what's used to connect the two plugs. Anything else probably won't comply with code.

I got the 2 HDMI wall plates here from Amazon.com.

Then I had the electrician install it where the current satellite RG-6 cable comes out of the wall. He drilled a hole into the bottom HDMI wall plate (there's room) and now it serves as "SAT out" and "HDMI in", if that makes sense.




SANUS VMAA26 mount




Now that I have swapped out A/V furniture, if anyone in So Cal is interested in my Sanus NF-206 AV Stand (MSRP $330) in maple (which I just learned is being discontinued and that's a shame because I feel it's the most attractive A/V rack out there) please PM me.

I had a helluva time finding the new A/V rack in maple. So if interested, PM me and we can discuss.

hi tigerdave,

not sure if you saw my question (don't think so after you said a 64u II thread might be good), but how do you use that lcd test you found? do you just load up the zip onto a jump drive and select them onto the tv screen? i reread that page a couple of times, but wanted to make sure i did it right the 1st time around.

shark

I have a PC connected to the Sharp, so I just view the images right there in my FireFox browser in full-screen mode (F11).

For any new owners of the 64 series, how does gaming and sports hold up on them.

Gaming is Great. Sports are fine, a little bit of blur now and then.

However, I think I've got a case of banding. I don't have a digital camera on hand to take a picture of my screen, and the best buy rep told me that the "64s dont really 'band'." So if someone could link me a picture of the 'banding' problem, id really like to make sure that's what's wrong with my display.

Sounds great, It is always a great feeling when you buy your first HDTV. Keep posted on any banding issues or any pictures you take of it.

As far as gaming goes I think it works great. I've tested quite a few ps3 and xbox 360 games.

Are you playing the games on any specific settings or just on plug and play

Everything I do on the TV are with these user settings:

I tweaked some of my TV settings. I started with this set from baloo75:

from there I changed:
backlight +5
contrast +32
brightness 0

OPC off
I/P Setting: fast
active contrast off
fine motion off

That's great and you don't have any banding issues with it yet or clouding?

Yeah it's clean (grey screen test). No banding or clouding; just 1 stuck green pixel that I don't notice in normal viewing. Overall I'm loving the TV so far and we've been watching a lot of HD content in the last 3 weeks that we've had the set. Now, if I can just get the wife to watch less Dancing with the stars....but that's not the TV's fault (or maybe it is since it looks so much better in HD, very colorful show).

ARogan, I'm curious - you have a PC hooked up via VGA and are able to achieve 1080p? I was under the impression that max VGA resolution was 1600x1200, which would obviously inhibit full HD resolution...

I currently have an older ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9600 Pro with 2 VGA, 1 S-video, and 1 composite output, but no DVI (silly, but when I bought it 3 years ago I wasnt thinking HDTV).

I haven't experimented with it yet, but was just wondering what you thought of the VGA input?

For your pixel problem I would try running some animated Pixar DVD's, that can help with stuck pixels.

Luckly I have no stuck or dead pixels, however I have noticed a little horizontal banding - but it his hard to notice in 1080i/720p. I'll have pictures of my setup soon...

For my day to day use, my htpc is hooked up via dvi -> hdmi (ati 9600 np) which works just fine in 1080p. For VGA I tested two things.
1) xbox 360 which works and looks great at 1080p over vga. It just takes like 10 seconds to sync up when you initially change resolutions.

2) I took out my old dell inspiron 8600 laptop with ati 9600 pro turbo and hooked it up to the tv via vga (I didn't want to go messing with my htpc which was working well and all setup already). In this case I was able to output full 1080p (1920X1080) over vga (which is a contradiction of the manual). The only problem is I couldn't quite fill the screen. There was some slight pillar boxing. I'm running on omega drivers which are about a year old. Changing refresh rate (60, 75) didn't help. Adjusting tv/drivers also didn't help enough. One thing I didn't try was powerstrip.

So my findings are:
1) 1080p vga over 360 is great
2) 1080p vga on older pc hardware is questionable. With enough tweaking you might get it all working, but I didn't spend enough time on it to really find out. With dvi -> hdmi working so well I don't think I would be using vga with a pc much anyways.

It might be time to upgrade that video card to something with DVI. For you I would just grab the latest catalyst drivers, maybe a copy of powerstrip and go for it. No harm in trying. All it will cost you is some time.

Thought I would post the color settings that I posted over on the other thread here in case anyone wanted to use them.

AV-Mode = USER
Color Temp = middle
BackLight = +9
Contrast = +36 (I like a bright picture)
Brightness = 0
Color = -1
Tint = +11
Sharpness = 0

CMS Hue:
R = +5
Y = -5
G = -1
C = 0
B = 0
M = -10

CMS Saturation:
R = +6
Y = 0
G = +15
C = 0
B = +3
M = +15

Note, you will probably want to play with the brightness and contrast to suit your taste, I changed it to 0 in this post as opposed to -12 in the other post because I had lots of feedback that the picture was to dark. Brightness will really be affected by your viewing environment. If you want to faithfully reproduce to the NTSC standard the above Color, Tint and CMS settings are pretty close (though not perfect).

Here are some pics of my LC-46D64U

I also have some backlight uniformity issues, left and right side are much brighter and it shows during SD broadcasts or movies that have the borders at the top and bottom. It's not really clouding like the Sonys, but it is annoying during dark scenes.

I guess I got bad luck and ended up with a crappy set.

Ironically, I do like the TV, it's light and thin and doesn't consume as much power. The black levels are great when Letterman or Leno come out in HD wearing their black suits I can see the details and creases in the black very nicely.

Thanks for the new thread! Oh and thanks to Tiger and Baloo for the detailed settings. Like most I'm liking the colors with Baloo's settings. I'm surprised at most of the back lighting recommendations as I'm used to seeing most people set that at zero. However I tried +4 through +9 and I'm liking it. Of course thats another setting like Contrast and Brightness that is source and condition dependent. Anyway here are a few pictures I took of my humble bedroom setup. I'm hoping to get some new furniture soon to stream line my setup a little bit.

My computer with clunky CRT, Comcast HD-DVR, Router, Monoprice HDMI switch, PS3, wireless keyboard and mouse, and ofcourse the Sharp LC-42D64U.


A shot of some Hi-Def footage found in the extras section of the PS3 game Motorstorm.


And alittle experiment Im doing with "bias back lighting". Let me know what you think.

Few pics of mine. I have (happily) no banding, clouding or dead pixels.

Using slightly tweaked baloo settings and it looks great.

http://shirow.m-n-m.net/main.php?g2_itemId=142 - MediaPortal in action
http://shirow.m-n-m.net/main.php?g2_itemId=145 - Custom wallplates from SuperCellAudio
http://shirow.m-n-m.net/main.php?g2_itemId=148 - Component tower (Yes, I have cleaned up cables since picture was taken..)
http://shirow.m-n-m.net/main.php?g2_itemId=151 - Closer look at TV

Mounted using Monoprice wallmount (3003 IIRC), powered over Powerbridge.

I really like your "Bias Back Lighting", it looks really good. Care to share how you did it?

Thanks...

Sure.
At first I was just seeking to add some light to my bedroom by placing a light behind my LCD. So I went to Home Depot and found a 22 inch fluorescent light that I thought would fufill my needs. I placed it ontop of my wall mount and it shined up upwards. I was not satisfied with just having light shine out of the top. So I returned the light and purchased two 13 1/2 inch lights. I used some industrial strength velco and secured the lights to the back of my panel. But instead of placing my lights ontop of the brakcet I put them to the sides. Here are a few pics of the process.





Sorry for the offtopic. This sort of lighting is discussed in greater detail here. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=451527

[quote]Originally posted by WhoMe14
And alittle experiment Im doing with "bias back lighting". Let me know what you think.
[quote]




Nice job. I really like that. I may have to look into doing something like that. Thanks for the idea.

Just got my LC-46D64U from Sharp and I have a couple questions.

1) I have my xbox 360 connected to input 3 with the component cable. I set the output to 1080p and the TV reports 1080p. Is this accurate? I thought I needed HDMI to acheive 1080p. Would I get a better picture using the VGA cable or if I had a xbox with HDMI? Also can I label the input as XBOX or GAME? I did not see a label that really fit.

2) Has anyone spoke to sharp about when the warrenty starts. I ordered 9/9 but did not have the TV delivered to untill 10/10.

3) Are there pics around of a banding test that does not show banding? I am still a little unclear on what to look for.

Guys, correct me if I'm wrong, but from reading through this thread and the previous one, it seems like the D64Us have fewer banding issues than the D62Us. That's not to say the line's immune to banding, but it appears to be improved. Am I right?

My 42D64U has one very faint vertical band. It is difficult to detect on a blank screen and impossible to see when there is content on the screen. I would like to note that generally I am very particular about those sort of "defects". However in this case since it does not affect images on the screen atall, its a keeper.

My tv will be arriving tomorrow. I am only going to be using it for gaming and movie watching as of now (not tv). Do I need anything more than 1 hdmi cable?