Sharp LC40E77UN 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV

Comment: I had shopped the electronic stores here locally and was told to stick with the 3 S's on more than one occasion (Sony, Sharp, and Samsung). For the price you can not get a better value than this Sharp 1080p 120HZ TV. One of my apprehensions regarding this TV is the brown that is at the bottom of the TV, as you can not tell how brown it is. After getting the TV wall mounted it really blends into the wall and is not noticeable. After getting the TV set-up with my system it truly is a great TV for the price. This is my second Sharp TV that I own and I do enjoy both of them very much.

Comment: I don't have a single complaint about this TV. It was super easy to setup and doesn't weigh very much. The picture and sound are great. I have even used it as my computer monitor by hooking up my laptop with an hdmi cable. Excellent picture quality.

Comment: I actually own the sister version of this product (the Sharp LC-52E77U), but the information in this review is equally applicable to this TV since they use the same, albeit smaller, panel.

Since I have owned this TV for a few months now, I thought it would be helpful to share a few tips and tricks I have learned:

PROBLEM: INCOMPATIBLE AUDIO SIGNAL

All my A/V devices (360, PS3, Wii, Samsung DTB-H260F) were connected to my Onkyo TX-SR607 receiver with HDMI, which was set to output to my Sharp Aquos LC-52E77U. And, although the receiver was set to "Audio TV Out" off (and even with it on), the TV kept popping up this error:

"Incompatible audio signal has been received, please check the output signal."

It only pops up for a few seconds, and only when I would switch devices or resolution or whatever. Still, pretty annoying. Connecting the devices directly to the TV via HDMI caused the same error - the only time it didn't happen is when there was 2ch 44.1/48Khz PCM involved.

Unfortunately, unlike every other TV I have ever owned, the Sharp doesn't have a menu option to disable audio. Muting didn't help, either.

The solution? Set the audio volume to 0. No more error!


PROBLEM: NO DEVICE DETECTED (DVI -> HDMI)

When I first got this TV, I plugged in my Mac Mini, using a DVI -> HDMI cable. After using it for a bit, the TV would stop recognizing that the Mac Mini was connected. It turns out that, whenever the Mac Mini would be rebooted or would go to sleep, the Sharp would refuse to recognize that it was connected anymore.

The solution? Physically unplugging and plugging in the TV (not just pressing the power button), and disabling sleep on the Mac. I still have to do this unplugging dance occasionally - like for system updates - but not as often as when sleep was enabled. I guess that's the price you pay for a beautiful 1080p HDMI signal, as opposed to a letterboxed 1600x1200 VGA signal - the max this TV supports.


CALIBRATION SETTINGS

This TV has some definite problems with blues in areas of high contrast. Here are the best settings I have found, in order of their appearance in the menus:

OPC: Off
Backlight: +6 (you can adjust up or down a smidge if need be)
Contrast: +36
Brightness: -6
Color: +1
Tint: +1
Sharpness: -1

CMS Hue/Saturation/Value: 0
Color Temp.: Low (leave at Mid for color managed devices like Macs, or OTA TV)
R Gain: +11
G Gain: 0
B Gain: -10
Fine Motion Enhanced: Off (leave on for sports if you prefer)
Active Contrast: Off
Gamma Adjustment: 0
Film Mode: Off (I used Advanced(Low) for sports)
Digital Noise Reduction: Off
Monochrome: Off
Range of OPC: +16 Max, -16 Min (it is off, anyways)

Comment: Picture: The wife likes it. 'nuff said.
Setup: The channel scan is really sloooow. No big deal, but be prepared to go have lunch while the scan works.
Mounting: Oops! Guess I didn't do my homework. This TV was intended for the bedroom, on a wall mount, in a corner so it would have to be both tilted and swiveled. No can do. The wall mount points on the back of the TV are spread WAY out, and will NOT accept a "universal" mount. The only wall mount it will accept is their own Sharp mount, and it only tilts, and does not swivel. So I had to return the mount I ordered at the same time, and install a shelf on the wall that I could set the TV on (it does have a good swivel base included). Also note that this TV will probably not fit onto those TV stands that have an integrated mount on a pillar. Before you purchase such a stand be sure to have the TV at home first, take good measurements, and shop for a stand with tape measure in hand. Otherwise you'll get the furniture home, and find out it's useless.
Just so ya know.

Comment: Great "current day" price for a great tv! Not very tech savy but from what I've seen so far it is awesome! I probably wouldn't use a 40" tv as a computer monitor, but hey... to each their own. No dead spots on the tv, blur from fast motion games not an issue, and big difference from my samsung 52" plasma 720p as far as quality! Watched the Dark Knight movie on blu-ray and some of the Special FX looked kinda fake... Step it movie guys the tv's are winning! Very happy so far with tv and will update as I get more time with the tv.