What We Think

There are cheaper options at its screen size, but Sharp breaks new ground with this biggest-ever LCD TV.

TV reviewers get to gaze at a lot of fantasy products. January's Consumer Electronics Show, for example, was chock-full of one-of-a kind 100-inch-plus plasmas, eye-popping SED panels straight from the lab, and all manner of things that no one really makes (except to haul to trade shows) and no one could ever really afford (save for movie stars and sports heroes).

Sometimes, though, a manufacturer actually tries to bring one of these beasts to market, fully knowing that it will sell but a relative handful of units. Of course, it's not about achieving volume, it's about The Statement. And so it is that the Sharp Aquos LC-65D90U 65-inch LCD HDTV— currently the largest commercially available LCD flat-panel television ever to hit the streets— is as much a public relations campaign for Sharp and LCD technology in general as it is a TV. With its physically enormous presence, 1080p high-resolution screen with more than 2 million pixels, and $21,000 price tag, there's just nothing small about it. Even before any discussion of how it performs, you have to be humbled by the mere fact that they can build it— much less have the audacity to do it in quantity.

Seeing a flat-panel form factor for something this big is appealing. Though the Sharp Aquos LC-65D90U is almost 62 inches wide, the panel itself is just under 6 inches deep, a ratio that should make for a breathtaking on-wall display. Barring a wall mount, a panel this big needs very solid support, for which Sharp provides a sturdy 17-inch-deep pedestal stand. At 174 pounds, the TV is surprisingly heavy given that light weight is usually seen as a benefit of LCDs. Dropping it into position is definitely a two-man job (and make 'em the burly kind).

SETUP A full set of inputs adorns the LC-65D90U's back panel. One each of HDMI and DVI cover digital video, and a CableCARD slot with an integrated TV Guide On Screen program guide allows viewing of digital cable programs, including premium channels, without the need for an external cable box. Unfortunately, neither of the two digital inputs accepts 1080p signals, a disappointment given the imminent release of high-def 1080p Blu-ray discs and players and the set's impressive price tag.

Of the five available color presets in the menus, I found that Mid-Low was closest to the neutral-gray color temperature we strive for, which defines the overall background cast of the picture. A few adjustments in the service menu (see "Test Bench") brought it close to the ideal. Sharp's vast Color Management System (CMS) in the user menu also allows plenty of fine-tuning of the TV's color, which slightly accentuated red out of the box. Once I took the red down a couple of clicks in the Saturation menu, it was perfect. Like many LCD TVs, the Sharp Aquos LC-65D90U has a control to adjust the output of the LCD backlight. This is set very high at the factory to achieve better brightness, but you can get more realistic blacks by setting it lower. Don't go too low, though, or you'll lose shadow detail. I found –8 to be a good compromise, but even at this setting, the TV wasn't able to deliver the rich black of many plasmas.

The Short Form

$21,000 / 61.9 x 46 x 17.1 IN / 174 LBS / AQUOS.COM / 800-237-4277

Plus

•Huge size for an LCD panel. •Doesn't crush whites. •Good color reproduction. •Full 1920 x 1080 resolution.

Minus

•Limited reproduction of blacks. •Poor shadow detail. •Can't accept native 1080p HDTV. •One too many zeros on the price tag.

Key Features

•65-inch (diagonal) screen •LCD fixed-pixel display •Digital cable-ready tuner with CableCARD •rear inputs 1 HDMI, 1 DVI, 2 HDTV-compatible component video, 3 composite, 2 S-video, all with stereo audio; 2 Firewire; 3 RF antenna/cable; CableCARD slot •rear outputs 1 S-video; 1 composite-video; 1 stereo audio; optical digital audio

Test Bench

Color temperature (grayscale) was slightly cool out of the box with the Mid-Low color- temperature preset. For all but the HDMI input, this could be fully fixed in the service menu. For the most part, grayscale tracking was within ±150 K of the standard 6,500 K after calibration, though there were noticeable dips at 20, 40, and 70 IRE. Color decoding showed a +5% red error, which I was able to eliminate with the user menu controls. The Sharp Aquos LC-65D90U fully resolved a 1080i multiburst test pattern. Full Lab Results

PICTURE QUALITY The Constant Gardener, whose scenes vary from dimly lit interiors and night shots to bright African bazaars, provided ample opportunity to test the LC-65D90U's performance with DVDs. In many ways, the giant LCD served up an excellent picture. For example, in a play attended by the main characters at the beginning of Chapter 4, the bright oranges, yellows, reds, and cyans of the traditional African costumes appeared rich and vibrant. In Chapter 3, when Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) must identify the body of his wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz), the room is illuminated by eerie green fluorescent bulbs that perfectly characterize the grisly scene. Thanks to the LC-65D90U's accurate grayscale reproduction, their haunting glow came across perfectly, with no hint of unwanted color shift. Indeed, the TV did a wonderful job of maintaining its grays, even on very dark material. A lot of LCD flat-panels turn deep shadows into purplish blobs; this Sharp went slightly blue in these darkest areas and lost a little detail, but fared much better than most.

The TV also did great handling very bright scenes, where it maintained tons of picture detail, especially in the highlights— something LCDs also tend to do poorly. In Chapter 10, during a scene in which drug-company employees distribute pills, I was actually able to see the outlines of the lapels on their all-white lab coats, even when they were standing out in the glaring Kenyan sun. But it had a much harder time reproducing details in dark shadows. For instance, just prior to the morgue scene, three figures are seated in shadow on the wall outside the building as Quayle enters, but I couldn't detect any features on the men's faces. This and other dark scenes also suffered from some false contouring, in which transitions between light and dark exhibit subtle banding instead of a smooth ramp.

Switching to high-definition material really underscored this TV's ability to resolve tons of detail. The enormous 1920 x 1080-pixel screen delivered a super-sharp image— to the point that it quickly revealed the flaws in excessively compressed HDTV broadcasts. But on good source material, the picture looked great. Watching Corwin's Quest on Discovery HD Theater, for example, I was able to see tiny hairs and eyelashes on a giraffe's face, as well as the fine textures of an eagle's feathers.

Colors on HDTV were just as impressive as on DVD. The uniforms and court decorations in the basketball games I watched lit up the screen. And the Sharp Aquos LC-65D90U 65-inch LCD HDTV presented rock-solid action, with none of the ghost trails from fast-moving objects seen on a lot of earlier LCDs.

BOTTOM LINE Overall, Sharp's LC-65D90U is one of the best LCD TVs I've seen, though it's not without some of the flaws that have plagued LCD panels since their beginning. Still, it pushes the envelope of what an LCD can do, delivering impressive size, detail, and color accuracy. Serious movie watchers will find stronger options at this size at a fraction of its cost. But for the serious spender who's more interested in making a statement than getting a bargain, there's plenty here to crow about.

Full Lab Results
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