Sharp Aquos 32-inch LCD Gaming HDTV
Model #: LC32GP1U
Reviewer: Dan
A few days ago, I got an e-mail from Best Buy advertising all of their online back to school sales. Now, I've been wanting a new TV ever since last Black Friday when I had to compromise on my old TV. I guess to appreciate where I am now, let me tell you about where I was.
Last Black Friday, Eric and I showed up to Best Buy waaaay too late in the morning. Showing up at 3 am, we were about 150th in line, which pretty much ruined my chances of getting the nice little HDTV I had my eye on that went on sale that day. Instead, we became the first in line at the nearest Target, which, after a 3 hour wait, I compromised and bought the pile of crap that was my old "HD" TV. I put HD in quotes because it was a 480i, the lowest resolution that is still considered HD. The picture on it seemed to only really make my PS2 games not as fuzzy and forget about anything looking as good as it could with my PS3. Not to mention, in less than a year of operation, it developed a "bright patch" in the middle of the screen that is very noticable when there is a darker scene playing.
So when I noticed the sale from Best Buy and realized that the Sharp 32"
part of the sale, it was bought at lunchtime and picked up in the store after
work. Now, this is slightly odd to say about a TV, but when you take it out
of the box, some assembly is required. The base of the TV comes detached,
but that is in case you want to mount this thing on the wall (wall mounting
kit sold seperatley, BTW). I decided it would go right where my old TV was,
on top of my dresser. It did, however, force me to keep my PS3 and PSGuitar
Hero Player behind the TV, but that is a small price to pay to make room for
an awesome screen /.
The picture is just what you would expect from a full 1080p LCD HDTV. To steal a line from Futurama, "...This is HDTV, it has better resolution than real life!" I don't have a cable line running to my room, so my only experiences with the full 1080p HD goodness has been 300 on Blu-Ray and Super Rub-a-Dub. All the games I own for my PS3 are only at 720p, but they still look very nice on this TV. My mom was actually creeped out by the fact that Madden looked so real, so I guess if you want to scare your parents with a TV, this might be a good choice.
The other great feature about the Sharp 32" Gaming HDTV is just that. This TV was specifically designed for gamers in two different ways. First and most obvious, is the multiple A/V inputs on the side of the TV, which makes hooking up consoles a very easy task. The second, and not as noticable, is the speed at which it displays the image on the screen. It has a 6ms response time, which means that it takes the TV 6ms to process the signal from an input and display it on the screen. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but there is a reason you can adjust Guitar Hero for screen lag.
There are, however, a few downsides to this TV. The sound quality on this TV is awful. Audio sounds very "tinny" and there is little to no lowrange. I guess the good people at Sharp realized this and decided to put not only your standard RCA audio out, but they also have an output for a subwoofer and if you feel like spending the money, optical audio output. This isn't a problem for me, since I have it hooked up to some fairly decent computer speakers. There is also the remote contol that came with it. It sucks. Period.
Final Verdict
I am so far super-happy I decided to drop $1500 (Includes Tax and 4-Year
Replacement Plan) for the Sharp Aquos 32-inch LCD Gaming HDTV. I know for a
fact that you can find it cheaper elsewhere online, but I like the fact
that I also got a replacement plan in case pixels decide to burn out and
I feel better about spending that kind of money if I can kick at least a
store manager in the balls. If you do decide to buy this TV at any store,
don't let the salesperson talk you into buying a $100 HDMI cable. Analog
signals require expensive cables, not digital. A $15 HDMI cable does
the exact same job at the same quality as the $100. Anyway, this TV (in
the three days that I've owned it) gets 9.25 out of 10