I won’t post the entire review here since I’ve already got a long review of the Sharp Aquos LC-65D90U on VizWorld. But I wanted to post something that was a little off-topic for the review and non-objective for something like VizWorld.

One of the big selling points of that huge 65″ LCD display is its 1080p capability. Check Sharp’s FAQ and you’ll see the 65″ Aquos listed as one of only 2 of their LCD TV’s to support 1080p. Read the specs for the TV and you’ll see it listed as 1920×1080 display resolution and 1080p capable. But the reality is that it only accepts 1080p on broadcast. The HDMI and Component inputs are all limited to 1080i, and the DVI (which you’ld think would be ideal for this, afterall my monitor is on DVI at 1920×1200) won’t go above 1280×1024! So if 1080p is only available via broadcast, what’s broadcasting ?

From Wikipedia’s 1080p page: (emphasis added)

Broadcasts

Even though various television networks in the world broadcast HDTV programming in 1080i and 720p, no 1080p broadcasting actually exists at this time. Material that has been digitized from a 35-mm film source is basically 1080p24 though, fit into 1080i50 or 1080i60 (progressive with segmented frames) and with proper 3:2 reversal deinterlacing, can be converted back into a true 1080p signal (see above explanation).

So they specifically advertise a feature that they know people want, knowing full well that there’s no way to use it. Frankly, it pisses me off to know that I can’t use any of the 1080p sources out there (Computers, 1080p upscaling dvd players, PS3′s, Blu-Ray/HDDVD players) with this $10,000+ TV, even though they advertise that it will do it. All of us here in the office are pissed about it, and it really seems like Sharp is just out to con folks with this.

Is it false advertising? Technically it does do 1080p, it’s just that nothing on the market produces the 1080p they want. All the things that do produce 1080p wind up dropping back to 1080i.

Update: I just got off the phone with Sharp Tech Support again and got a clarification on all this.  They’re just flat out lying to us, the TV only does 1080i.  I updated the vizworld article with the new info, but apparently just because the LCD operates at 1920×1080, they think they can say it’ll display a 1080p signal.  I guess their 1080p stands for “pixels” instead of “progressive”.  It’s 1080SHARp, not really 1080p.
[tag:vizworld][tag:sharp][tag:1080p][tag:hdtv][tag:lcd][tag:aquos]

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