Hi there.
I'm David Katzmaier from CNET, and this monster is the Sharp LC70LE732U.
It's a 70-inch LCD base TV, the biggest we've ever shot and the biggest TV you can buy right now, unless you have about 22 grand to spare on maybe a 5-inch or larger plasma.
This 70-inch LCD is very similar to 2 others in Sharp's line-up so this review will apply to all 3 models.
Now this TV is actually a pretty good performer which is a little bit surprising to us, but we'll get to that in a little bit.
First,
let's take a look at the style on this TV.
It's all-black around the edge.
It's pretty understated which in a TV this large isn't a terribly bad thing.
And when we say large, we mean it.
This TV's screen is about 5 feet wide by 2.8 feet tall; and even when you put on a 4 x 3 image, those old images with the letterboxed bars on either side, it's 57 inches diagonal so the 70-inch is substantially larger than the 65-inch models used by a lot of its competitors.
So you could see this Sharp looks relatively thin from the side but at 3.5 inches it's still thicker
than a lot of the edge-lit models.
Although this TV lacks 3D, Sharp did pack a couple of extra features into it including a 120Hz refresh rate and an internet suite that includes Netflix as well as Voodoo, CinemaNow and a few other video streaming features.
This suite isn't quite as good as a lot of the others we've seen however, and it does lack an app store although it does have Voodoo suite of apps.
Picture adjustments on this Sharp include an excellent color management system as in 2-point grayscale control.
We'd like maybe a 10-point scale or the ability to adjust the dejudder processing; but,
otherwise, the picture controls are pretty darn good.
Around this TV's ample back side, you'll find plenty of inputs.
There is 4 HDMI as well as a pair of video inputs and a component video input; and unlike a lot of the other TVs out there, you don't need breakout cables.
There's plenty of room to connect your analog connections.
As we mentioned at the top, picture quality on this Sharp was pretty impressive, better than a lot of the edge-lit models we've tested, although it's still not the best LCD of the year.
Part of the reason for that improved picture quality is this TV has an LED backlight with a full array; meaning that, unlike a lot of those edge-lit TVs
the LED backlight runs across the entire back of the screen, so you do have better screen uniformity, although it doesn't have the benefits of local dimming found on a lot of the other full-array displays.
Sharp invents good black levels for an LCD as well as relatively good color once we dialed it in.
Its real strength though is its bright picture in bright rooms as well as this matte screen which allows it to reject a lot of the ambient light.
Compared to the bigger plasmas out there, both those factors make this Sharp a better performer in bright rooms, although plasmas still win in demanding home theater environments.
And that's a quick look at Sharp's gigantic LC70LE732U,
and I'm David Katzmaier.
