New Sharp Aquos models this year?

[gi32tgilkg]

After months of searching I really thought the 46D62U was the best HDTV, until now. With all the complaints about the horizontal and veritcal banding problems (and with no fix after 9 months of it being on the market), I think I need to look elsewhere. So, I've spent the past two days ... of a several month search ... trying to find something other than this HDTV.

I am not sure I've found anything better. I checked out the 92Us and it seems as if Sharp has failed to correct the banding issue on the new line as well (wtf?).

I am willing to spend as much as $2300 for a 46" 1080P set, and in that range there are plenty to choose from. I looked at Sony's and Samsung's but I still can't find anything that seemingly bests the 62DU for clarity, features, black-levels, etc in that price range. While I am all for saving hundreds of dollars on the 62DU, I am not a fan of imperfections as blatant as what people seem to complain about.

It the banding an issue that affects ALL the units? Or is the negative feedback here (and on AVS, CNET, epinions, CC, Amazon, etc) just an example of the customers with "working" sets just having no need to chime in and thus we only hear from people who have a need to post (e.g., those with banded sets)?

I am going back and forth because I am thinking of buying online (hundreds of dollars savings from brick/mortar stores) and dread the moment I flip it on and have to deal with the endless return process and not having a television at all to watch.

Any thoughts would be appreciated... is this TV worth the risk/inconvenience? It is really that much better than others in its price/size class?

Thanks all.

[elapsed]

I have four friends with the 46" D62U, and I personally have the 37" D62U. Not one of us has experienced any banding (or at least we haven't gone searching for banding, but the sets look great). A fifth friend has a 37" D62U, and she found her set is brighter in the centre than on the sides, but really this is not noticeable unless she is running test patterns on a calibration DVD. I personally contend than these are great sets, and I find that posters on AVS forum are borderline obsessive / insane and are going out of their way to find problems. No set on the market is perfect. Unless you go looking for problems you aren't likely to find any.

[gi32tgilkg]

Hmmm, that sounds strangely reasonable. Then again, it's exactly what I "wanted" to hear.

Thank you.

[otown47]

gi32tgilkg, I have had the LC52D92U for over a month now and it blows the doors off anything else I've in the stores at this time. My neighbour is pissed because my Sharp looks way better than his new Sony LCD which cost more than $1K more...actually closer to $1500 more.

I don't see any banding when I watch TV. Hockey games are wonderful. I can't say enough good things about this TV...

[macemuscle]

Any news on availability or pricing of LC65D93U in Canada?

[sifting]

Originally Posted by gi32tgilkg

Any thoughts would be appreciated... is this TV worth the risk/inconvenience? It is really that much better than others in its price/size class?

It's a lottery.

But for the banding, these sets are likely the best deal around. Such was my conclusion after several months.

I bought a 46D62U from Costco Canada last March. The set has banding -- visible on grey screens. But I don't see it during actual viewing -- unless I happen to watch the storm scenes in Master and Commander, in which case I see it in spades.

I almost returned the set after viewing the film. But then I realized that I wasn't seeing the bands in any other programming. I decided to keep it. My wife and I love it now. We are very happy campers.

As far as I can tell from posts here and elsewhere, there is is enormous variability in the seriousness of the banding problem. Some are far worse than mine. Some are better.

There are also some not terribly solid indications that the banding problem is less severe in more recently manufactured sets. The serial number on the outside of the box can give you the indication of the build. If the first three numbers of the serial number are 701, then the set was build in January 2007.
612 = December 2006. 610 = October 2006. 704 = April 2007.

If you can endure the hassle of returning these sets several times, you may get a really good one. But there are no guarantees.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[sifting]

I've just read a report of a D62U set (serial # starting with 705) with very faint bands but over-all poorer picture quality than earlier builds. Too few reports to form a trend.

[darrylr]

After talking about it for multiple years now I finally entered the HDTV world on the weekend. I picked up a Sharp Aquos 46D62U and am amazed at the quality of the picture on this set. Especially when viewing channels like HDNet and TMNHD with my Rogers 8300HD PVR.