AVForums Review

AVForums Review
08/11/2012 20:11
THE NO.1 HOME ENTERTAINMENT COMMUNITY
Sharp LC-60LE636E Review
60" LED LCD TV
Size: 60 inch television
Suggested price: £1,000
Key Features
Reviewed 11th October, 2012 by
Stephen Withers
LED Edge Backlight
1920 x 1080 Resolution
100Hz with Film Dejudder
Freeview HD
AQUOS NET+
Media Player
USB Time Shift
Wireless Dongle
Big screen entertainment at a very attractive price but is the Sharp 60LE636 too good to be true?
Introduction
Big screen entertainment is the dream of many but often other considerations get in the way such as cost, space and
spousal resistance. As modern TVs shrink in terms of their chassis depth and bezel size and take on a more pleasing
form in terms of their overall design, the last two factors are becoming less of an issue. That still leaves cost of course
but even here there are opportunities if you shop around, which brings us to the subject of this review - the Sharp LC60LE636. A quick search on the Internet will reveal that the 60LE636 can be picked up for just under £1,000 which is
remarkable value for a 60" LED LCD TV. It would appear that Sharp are even able to offer such sizeable girth without
skimping on the features, as the 60LE636 includes both their smart TV platform and full calibration controls. Obviously
some concessions have to be made, there's no Quattron panel (not necessarily a bad thing), the 60LE636 doesn't have
built-in WiFi (although Sharp include a dongle) and there's no 3D. However, given the general apathy shown by the
public towards the third dimension, the absence of 3D isn't really a big issue either. Is the 60LE636 too good to be
true or are we looking at a potential Best Buy award winner?
Design and Connections
The concessions made to hit such a low price point for such a large screen become apparent when you look at the
overall build quality. Whilst it isn't bad, the construction is entirely made from plastic, with the exception of some
metal parts in the stand and it has a slightly budget feel as a result. However the simple appearance will appeal to
many and we rather liked it, preferring the minimalist chassis and glossy black bezel to some of the other designs we
have seen lately. The bezel itself measures 2.5cm all around but there is also an additional lip 3cm wide along the
bottom. At the centre of the bottom bezel is the Sharp logo along with an illuminated symbol that thankfully can be
turned off and to the right of that are the remote control and OPC sensors.
At the right hand edge of the screen there are some basic controls, including power, menu, input, channel up/down
and volume up/down. The included stand uses glossy black plastic to match the bezel and it is easy to assemble and
attach. Although the stand can't be swivelled it does at least provide solid support for the 60" screen above it. The
back of the chassis is made of hardened matte black plastic and all the connections are positioned to the left hand
side, with the power cable more central and hardwired. Whilst the overall dimensions are not as slim as some of the
competition, a depth of 3.5cm is reasonably svelte considering the screen size.
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The remote control is made from black plastic, is well constructed and has nice feel to it, making it relatively easy to
use with one hand. The button layout is reasonably sensible but it does suffer from some of them being rather small
and closely packed together. All the standard controls are there plus some additional ones for time shift features and
Aquos Linked devices. Sharp's internet platform is called Aquos Net+ and is accessed via a button called Net but its
size and position shows you how little emphasis Sharp are currently placing on smart TV.
The choice of connections is excellent, especially considering the price and there are a total of 4 side-facing HDMI
inputs, with HDMI1 being ARC (Audio Return Channel) compliant. Also facing sideways are the Common Interface (CI)
slot, a USB port, a SD card reader and a headphone socket. We were pleased to see that the side facing connectors
are 20cm from the edge of the screen, so you can't see the HDMI cables, even if they're quite chunky. Facing
downwards there are two more USB ports, one for the supplied WiFi dongle and one for HDD recording, as well as an
Ethernet socket, an aerial socket, a digital audio output and an analogue 3.5mm jack. Facing rearward there is a
SCART connector, a VGA connector, composite and component video, both with analogue audio, and a RS232 serial
connector.
Menus
The 60LE636 uses the standard Sharp menu system that places all the options along the top and the sub-menus down
that right hand side. We appreciate that Sharp trying to preserve the picture whilst the menu is up but it does mean
that everything is crammed into a small space. We're not big fans of this particular layout and it's particularly
annoying when calibrating. We would prefer a more centrally positioned menu screen but, on the plus side, the menus
are clearly labelled and easy to navigate. Along the top there are choices for Tool, Link Operation, CH List and Setup,
with all the main controls residing in the latter option.
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The first of the Setup sub-menus is View Settings which gives you access to Network Setup, Quick Start, DivX Setup,
Individual Settings, Wall Mount Audio Setup, Language and Net TV Setup. The next sub-menu is Audio and provides
all the sound related controls including Auto Volume, Treble, Bass, Balance, Surround, Bass Enhancer and Clear Voice.
The Eco sub-menu provides controls for all the energy saving functions, including ECO Picture Control, Energy Save,
No Signal Off, No Operation Off, Sleep Timer and Audio Only. Finally there is the Option sub-menu which includes
controls for the Aquos Link Setup, Terminal Settings, Screen Effect, Illumination, Time Shift Settings, Game Play Time
and Key Lock.
The 60LE636 has an excellent set of calibration controls, all of which are found in the Picture sub-menu. On the first
page you can select the AV Mode, turn the OPC feature off and set the Backlight, Contrast, Brightness, Colour, Tint
and Sharpness controls. You can also access the Advanced features from this first page and here you will find the
main calibration controls. There are controls for turning the Fine Motion Advanced, the Active Contrast and the DNR
off, as well as selecting the correct Gamma setting and Film Mode.
Also within the Advanced sub-menu there is a control for selecting the desired Colour Temperature as well as a two
point White Balance control to allow a calibrator to correct the greyscale more accurately. There is also a Colour
Management System (CMS) which allows a calibrator to accurately adjust all three primary colours and all three
secondary colours using controls for Hue (Tint), Saturation (Colour) and Value (Luminance or Brightness).
Audio and Features
We found that the audio on the 60LE636 was surprisingly good, which is probably due to the slightly deeper chassis,
larger screen size and the speaker positioning. The 60LE636 was certainly able to produce clear and well defined
soundstage, thanks in part to the larger speakers and their greater distance apart. Obviously the built-in speakers are
no match for a dedicated audio system but dialogue was clear and there was a noticeable degree of stereo separation.
The bass response was also reasonable, considering the limitations of the speakers themselves and we found that
some of the audio features did help to give the sound a more immersive presence without losing too much focus.
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The 60LE636 is easy to set up although it did take quite a long time for the Freeview HD tuner to scan all the
frequencies. Sharp's Electronic Programme Guide is rather uninspired compared to much of the competition, with no
picture-in-picture feature and small type that can be difficult to read, even on a screen this big. The EPG tries to cram
too much information onto one page, which means that along with the hard to read type, it often doesn't complete the
titles of programmes in the listings. Thankfully you can change the default setting, which shows six hours ahead, to a
setting that only covers three hours and makes the guide far more readable. You can also access the channel listings
from the main menu but then you can't check for upcoming programmes. There is also a search feature in the EPG
that uses either genres or dates which can prove handy.
Sharp call their internet platform Aquos Net+ but compared to the smart features employed by many other
manufacturers, it is fairly basic. The Home page offers a rather limited choice of apps and whilst YouTube is present
and correct, the BBC iPlayer is surprisingly missing. Other apps include Napster, Twitter, Picasa, iConcerts, Aupeo,
Viewster, TV5Monde, Meteonews, Euronews, CineTrailer and Dailymotion. There is an App Gallery where you can find
additional content like eBay, TomTom and TED Talks, plus you can also customise the layout, to a degree. However
compared to the all-singing, all-dancing platforms provided by other manufacturers, Aquos Net+ is something of a
disappointment. There is an open web browser included which actually works quite well but is rather slow to use, as is
the entire platform.
The 60LE636 offers media playback support, either through the USB ports or over a network via DLNA. When you first
connect a USB drive, the 60LE636 asks you if it is for Media or Time Shift. If you select the latter then you can use the
attached HDD and the timer features in the EPG to create a basic PVR, allowing you to record from the built-in tuner.
If you select Media then you can choose to look at photos or play music and video files from the connected USB drive.
File support over USB includes JPEG, MP3, MPEG2, AVI, MKV, ASF, WMV, MP4 and MOV. Alternatively, you can stream
content over your home network and here the file support includes JPEG, LPCM, MP3, MPEG2, WMV, ASF, MP4, MOV
and AVI.
Picture Quality
Whilst picture quality is always important, it becomes even more important as the screen size increases. After all a 22"
screen can hide a multitude of sins that will be all too obvious on a screen that is 60" or above. Thankfully the
60LE636 is strong in most of the areas that will determine how good such a large image will look. First and foremost,
it is capable of an excellent level of accuracy in terms of greyscale and colour gamut. This means that whatever you
are watching - standard definition TV or DV, high definition TV or Blu-ray - the image is exactly as the creators
intended. Secondly the 60LE636 has some excellent video processing, which means that with standard definition
content in particular, the deinterlaced and scaled images still look good, even on such a large screen.
The built-in Freeview HD tuner was capable of delivering some very nice standard definition images that when
deinterlaced and scaled top fit the screen, showed detail without appearing too soft or processed. The main problem
with Freeview broadcasts stems from the amount of compression involved, which is not the fault of the TV itself.
However with such a large screen, any compression artefacts can easily become apparent. This is not a problem with
high definition broadcasts where the 60LE636 was capable of delivering accurate and detailed images that really suited
the larger screen size. We found that motion handling was also good for a LCD TV and whilst there was a degree of
smearing on fast pans, overall the 60LE636 handled both standard and high definition content well.
When we tried DVDs we were genuinely surprised at how good the ageing format looked and thanks to the superb
video scaling, well encoded DVDs were genuinely impressive. Once we moved onto Blu-ray, the 60LE636 stepped up a
gear, delivering some absolutely spectacular high definition images. The picture had real 'pop' to it and a wonderful
level of detail and clarity that brought the huge screen to life. The images were so good, in fact, that we had to remind
ourselves how cheap the 60LE636 actually is. The motion handling with 24p content was also extremely good, with no
judder or other issues evident on any of the content that we watched.
As mentioned elsewhere in this review, the 60LE636 only real weakness in terms of picture quality is the uniformity of
the backlight, which could manifest as bright patches on dark scenes viewed at night. However we did find that this
could be mitigated to a degree through careful setting of the backlight and we rarely found it to be an issue with most
content, even when viewing at night. In fact for a LCD, the black levels and dynamic range are actually very good and
as a result images often had real impact. This was no doubt helped by the larger screen size and the accurate gamma
but overall the picture quality of the 60LE636 far exceeds its price point.
Summary
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There's no question that the Sharp LC-60LE636 offers fantastic value for money, with a 60" screen size and an allround solid performance for less than £1,000. Certain concessions have been made of course but none of these
directly impact on performance and if you're not interested in 3D - and most people aren't - then the 60LE636 offers
some genuinely impressive big screen entertainment. The build quality is reasonable but the simple design and gloss
black plastic construction betray the display's budget ambitions with a look that is best described as minimalist.
However, the remote control is well made, sensibly laid out and comfortable to hold and at the back are a decent set
of connections including 4 HDMI inputs.
The menu system is the standard Sharp design, with most of the information along the top and right hand side of the
screen. We aren't huge fans of this layout but the menus are easy to navigate and reasonably informative. We're
pleased to see that the 60LE636 includes a complete calibration suite, with a two point white balance and a full colour
management system. The 60LE636 also includes a reasonable set of features including Sharp's Aquos Net+ smart TV
platform, DLNA compliance, media playback and basic PVR features when attached to an external HDD. However
compared to some of the competition, Sharp's smart capabilities are somewhat limited but this applies to their entire
range and not just the 60LE636.
The out-of-the-box performance of the 60LE636 was quite good, with reasonable accuracy in both greyscale and
colour gamut. Thanks to the inclusion of a full set of calibration controls we could get an excellent degree of image
accuracy. Whilst not quite reference, the measurements were very close and any errors were too small to be perceived
by the viewer. The video processing was also excellent, passing all of our tests and delivering very watchable images
from standard definition, despite the large screen size. When it came to high definition content, the 60LE636 stepped
up a gear, delivering a wonderfully detailed and enjoyable big screen experience. The motion handling was also very
good and free of any unwanted judder or other artefacts. The 60LE636 has plenty of brightness, even with such a
large screen, and once setup properly it is also able to deliver some fairly decent black levels for a LCD TV. The
contrast ratio and dynamic range were also very good, delivering images that had plenty of punch.
Our major issue with the 60LE636 is the backlight uniformity, which could be patchy in places, especially when
watching dark scenes at night. The 60LE636 uses edge LED lighting and it was always going to difficult to create an
even backlight with such a large screen but we would have preferred greater uniformity. In fairness, clouding and
bright edges are a problem with just about any TV that uses edge LED lighting and the 60LE636's other strengths
outweigh this one issue. The other possible issue is that the 60LE636 has an input lag of 57ms, even in Game mode,
which might be too high for hardcore gamers. Energy efficiency was excellent however and in its calibrated mode the
60LE636 was using only 71W which is impressive for a 60" screen.
Ultimately the Sharp LC-60LE636 offers big screen entertainment and excellent all-round performance at an incredibly
attractive price. There really is very little to compete with the 60LE636 at this screen size and definitely not at this
price, so if you're in the market for a big TV put it at the top of your list - an easy Best Buy.
Scores
Contrast ratio/dynamic range
Black level
Colour reproduction out of the box
Colour reproduction calibrated
Greyscale out of box
Greyscale calibrated
ISF or calibration controls available
Video processing SD/HD
Sound quality built in
Networking
Features
Ease of use/menus/remote/settings
Value for money
Overall
Our feedback for Sharp
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Our feedback for Sharp
Backlight uniformity could be improved
Input lag is too high for serious gamers
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