Ryom
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2006
- Messages
- 1,854
My 37" Westinghouse HDTV that I had been using as a monitor developed a very bad mottling problem and I chose to replace it. As many of you know the Westy was an INCREDIBLY popular HDTV to use as a monitor, driven mainly by this forum. It was an excellent performer, save for black levels. Thus replacing it turned out to be quite difficult. I settled on the Sharp 700UN series as my replacement. Since many others are reporting quality issues with their Westys similar to mine I'll outline my thoughts for its replacement here for other interested parties.
First off, a link to a professional review at AVS forum http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16971626#post16971626
Notable from that link: Excellent black levels, Excellent ANSI contrast, Excellent Calibration options, Excellent power consumption, Color is good.
My subjective experience and grading using this HDTV as a monitor:
Text rendering on the Westy is flawless. Certain bold colors can look fuzzy on the Sharp (saturated red/blue text on a dark background for example). Cleartype can help in certain situations. Standard text colors are fine.
Westy text: 10 out out of 10
Sharp text: 7 out of 10
Black levels on the Westy were very poor, one of my peeves with the set. The Sharp has the best contrast available outside of local dimming sets and the best black levels available outside of top tier plasmas.
Westy blacks: 4 out of 10
Sharp Blacks: 9 out of 10
Input lag on the Westy was an acceptable 33ms. Input lag on the Sharp in "game" mode is almost non-existent. Running the set in 120Hz mode (creates new frames to smooth actions) gives high input-lag (as with all sets with this feature). I do not recommend running 120Hz for gaming, the game mode with "Fine Motion Enhanced (this is not the 120Hz feature) is the ideal setup.
Westy input lag: 8 out of 10
Sharp input lag: 10 out of 10
Response time on the Westy was acceptable, but occasional smearing can be seen. The Sharp has excellent motion, and a specific feature called "Fine Motion Enhanced" that changes the overdrive function to optimize for fast movement. Fine Motion Enhanced is not an intermediate frame creation algorithm (120Hz) but simply a change in the way the set drives the pixels.
Westy response time: 7 out of 10
Sharp response time: 9 out of 10 (it's still an LCD)
Miscellaneous: Power consumption on the Sharp is EXCELLENT. The LED backlight allows for sub 100 watt usage for the 52" model, with even less for the smaller screens. The Westy used a standard CCFL backlight and could use several hundred watts of power depending on your setting. The Sharp screen is also lightweight, about 60lbs for the 52" model. The base for the 52" model is VERY deep, ~16", so make sure you have room or wall mount it. Also the backlight buzzes when not at full power, it is high pitched and fairly quiet but it's there. EDIT: I had this set replaced under warranty for hot pixels and backlight buzz, the replacement set backlight DOES NOT buzz.
One of the biggest cons of the Sharp: I do not know if this is endemic to all the 700UN series displays, but the 52" model has a very long power on time. From when you press the power button until you see the screen power on can be upwards of 10 seconds.
Summary: For gaming and movies the set is STELLAR. For every day use it is acceptable.
Some photos for reference:
http://trickingq3.com/misc/photoshop/forum_posted/Westy/Sharp_700UN-1.jpg
http://trickingq3.com/misc/photoshop/forum_posted/Westy/Sharp_700UN-2.jpg
http://trickingq3.com/misc/photoshop/forum_posted/Westy/Sharp_700UN-3.jpg
First off, a link to a professional review at AVS forum http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16971626#post16971626
Notable from that link: Excellent black levels, Excellent ANSI contrast, Excellent Calibration options, Excellent power consumption, Color is good.
My subjective experience and grading using this HDTV as a monitor:
Text rendering on the Westy is flawless. Certain bold colors can look fuzzy on the Sharp (saturated red/blue text on a dark background for example). Cleartype can help in certain situations. Standard text colors are fine.
Westy text: 10 out out of 10
Sharp text: 7 out of 10
Black levels on the Westy were very poor, one of my peeves with the set. The Sharp has the best contrast available outside of local dimming sets and the best black levels available outside of top tier plasmas.
Westy blacks: 4 out of 10
Sharp Blacks: 9 out of 10
Input lag on the Westy was an acceptable 33ms. Input lag on the Sharp in "game" mode is almost non-existent. Running the set in 120Hz mode (creates new frames to smooth actions) gives high input-lag (as with all sets with this feature). I do not recommend running 120Hz for gaming, the game mode with "Fine Motion Enhanced (this is not the 120Hz feature) is the ideal setup.
Westy input lag: 8 out of 10
Sharp input lag: 10 out of 10
Response time on the Westy was acceptable, but occasional smearing can be seen. The Sharp has excellent motion, and a specific feature called "Fine Motion Enhanced" that changes the overdrive function to optimize for fast movement. Fine Motion Enhanced is not an intermediate frame creation algorithm (120Hz) but simply a change in the way the set drives the pixels.
Westy response time: 7 out of 10
Sharp response time: 9 out of 10 (it's still an LCD)
Miscellaneous: Power consumption on the Sharp is EXCELLENT. The LED backlight allows for sub 100 watt usage for the 52" model, with even less for the smaller screens. The Westy used a standard CCFL backlight and could use several hundred watts of power depending on your setting. The Sharp screen is also lightweight, about 60lbs for the 52" model. The base for the 52" model is VERY deep, ~16", so make sure you have room or wall mount it. Also the backlight buzzes when not at full power, it is high pitched and fairly quiet but it's there. EDIT: I had this set replaced under warranty for hot pixels and backlight buzz, the replacement set backlight DOES NOT buzz.
One of the biggest cons of the Sharp: I do not know if this is endemic to all the 700UN series displays, but the 52" model has a very long power on time. From when you press the power button until you see the screen power on can be upwards of 10 seconds.
Summary: For gaming and movies the set is STELLAR. For every day use it is acceptable.
Some photos for reference:
http://trickingq3.com/misc/photoshop/forum_posted/Westy/Sharp_700UN-1.jpg
http://trickingq3.com/misc/photoshop/forum_posted/Westy/Sharp_700UN-2.jpg
http://trickingq3.com/misc/photoshop/forum_posted/Westy/Sharp_700UN-3.jpg
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