new tv! what to get?

so you're thinking of what to get for a tv. plasma, LED, LCD or a 3D TV? well here's a simple review for our newest baby, sharp aquos quattron.

When I attended Sharp's quad-pixel press demo earlier this year, I was impressed with the overall picture and uniform brightness of the Quattron HDTVs on display. Still, I couldn't help but wonder how the addition of a fourth (yellow) pixel would affect color accuracy. As it turns out, the Aquos 52-LE820UN ($2,999.99 list), a 52-inch edge-lit LED HDTV with a decidedly different cabinet design, performed admirably on our color and contrast tests, and earned a spot as one of the 10 best HDTVs you can buy. It also aces energy efficiency and both high- and standard-definition picture quality is impressive. On the flip side, a very high price, limited Web apps, and a narrow viewing angle are tough to ignore.
Design and Connections
With its rounded corners, edge-to-edge glass, and silver trim, the set looks more like an oversized desktop monitor than the current crop of HDTVs, but that's not a bad thing, especially if you're going for a more contemporary look. I like how the lower bezel transitions from black to a silvery mirror finish along the bottom edge. At around 1.6 inches, the LC-52LE820UN is relatively thin but not as svelte as LG's 47LE5500 ($2,099.99, ), a 47-inch edge-lit set with a 1.2-inch cabinet. Star Trek fans will appreciate the backlit upside down 'V' power indicator positioned in the center of the lower bezel, but may be distracted by the backlit Sharp log off to left. (Both can be disabled.) On the right side of the lower bezel are seven clearly labeled touch controls (Volume, Channel, Menu, Input, and Power) that light up when pressed, making them very easy to identify even in very dark rooms.

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The 66-pound cabinet sits precariously on a rectangular glass base. The short, chrome wrapped mounting arm allows you to swivel the panel with ease, but it doesn't provide adequate support and, as a result, the set is extremely wobbly. It's a fine candidate for wall mounting. I love that Sharp put the most frequently used connections on the left side of the cabinet. All four HDMI ports, two USB ports, an Ethernet port, a mini composite A/V input, a mini composite audio output, and a digital optical audio output are set in a recessed pocket where they are easy to reach once the set has been installed on a wall.
Missing is a media card reader such as the one found on Panasonic's TC-P50G25 ($1,499.95, ), which lets you play back photos and video clips from a memory card. At the rear of the TV are a coaxial antenna/cable jack, a set of component A/V ports, and an RS-232 port. There's also a 15-watt subwoofer that complements the two down-firing 10-watt speakers mounted on the bottom edge of the cabinet. This combo delivers solid audio quality with a good amount of bass and plenty of volume. The surround effect is not very convincing, however, and is best left disabled.

Specifications

Screen Size

52 inches

Type

LED TV, HDTV

Supported Refresh Rates

120Hz

Aspect Ratio

16:9

Video Inputs

Component, Composite, HDMI

Networking Options

WI-FI

Speakers Included

Yes

Stand Supplied?

Yes

Height

31.9 inches

Width

49.6 inches

Depth

1.6 inches

Weight

66.1 lb

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The 9.25-inch remote contains 53 buttons plus a four-way rocker. The thin wand is black with chrome trim running down the sides and the buttons are well spaced but lack backlighting. In addition to the usual player controls there's a dedicated audio button that allows you to adjust sound settings without having to enter the on-screen menu system, an input select button, an AV mode button for selecting one of nine picture modes, and a dedicated Aquos Net button which takes you into the Aquos Net console.
Aquos Net offers Netflix streaming and widgets from Astrology.com, NASDAQ, Picasa, Twitter, Weatherbug and some others, along with a handful of games. (For 1080p VUDU video streaming and additional services, you'll have to move up to the pricier 920 series) Sharp claims to be continually adding new interactive services, but there's a way to go to catch up to the number and selection of Web apps that come with most current Samsung or Sony HDTVs. The console also lets you access the Aquos Advantage Live support application where you can turn over control of your set to a remote service technician who can help you set up the TV, tweak settings, and update software services.
Performance
In addition to Sharp's proprietary quad-pixel technology, which introduces a yellow pixel to the traditional red, green, and blue color filter, this set uses the company's X-Gen panel technology, introduced last year with the LE700 series. The X-Gen panel uses a ribless-pixel design engineered to allow more light to pass through the panel than is possible with a typical ribbed-pixel design. Combined with the yellow color element, which helps boost brightness while giving colors a bit more pop, the X-Gen panel manages to deliver a bright picture while keeping power consumption down.
After a basic darkroom calibration using DisplayMate's TV setup software, the set turned in a respectable measured contrast ratio of 2,328:1 and a peak brightness of 256.15 cd/m². These numbers are considerably higher than those produced by LG's 47LE5500 and Samsung's UN40B7000 ($2,199.99, ) both of which are edge-lit LED models. Color accuracy, as measured by a Konica-Minolta CS-200 ChromaMeter, was fairly accurate; blues were slightly saturated, but not enough to cause any tinting. High-definition picture quality was superb; scenes from the Blu-ray movie 2012 were crisp and noise-free. This movie contains a lot of panning shots, which the 52-LE820UN's 120Hz technology handled without a trace of judder. Image detail in the scene where Mt. Bighorn explodes and fireballs rain from the sky looked exceptional in my tests.

• Pros
  Unique, attractive design. Clean HD and SD performance. Bright colors. Energy efficient.
• Cons Expensive. Narrow viewing angles. Fewer Web apps than the competition. Unsteady stand.
  
• Bottom Line
  With its Quattron line, Sharp is the first HDTV manufacturer to add a fourth color to the traditional RGB filter. The very energy-efficient Aquos LC-52LE820UN serves up an accurate picture that's bright and colorful, but those yellow pixels don't come cheap.