Sharp claims that gold is a particularly difficult colour for conventional RGB sets to reproduce and, as luck would have it, there was a scene in a recent episode of Doctor Who on BBC HD that was set in a cave with strong golden-yellow backlighting. The colour reproduction on this scene really was striking, suggesting that Sharp might indeed be on to something with its yellow-pixel technology.
Looks like a big iPad?
Even so, there’s still some room for improvement in a couple of areas. The contrast could have been a little better on deep blacks, and the audio quality was little more than average. The 20W stereo speakers are quite loud but the bass output sound rather thin, despite the inclusion of a built-in 15W sub-woofer.
Power consumption also seemed a bit steep – peaking as high as 120W, and only dropping to Sharp’s quoted 85W when the brightness-dimming "Eco" mode was turned on. Standby mode was more in line with Sharp’s estimate at a modest 0.2W.
Verdict
Sharp’s Quattron technology really does produce excellent colour reproduction, and it’s good to see Sharp doing something genuinely innovative at a time when all its rivals are following the 3D bandwagon like a herd of sheep.
However, £2000 is quite steep for a 46in screen these days, so you are paying a big premium for those extra yellow pixels. As a result, the 46LE821E will probably appeal mainly to Sky HD subscribers or Blu-ray buffs who will appreciate the richness that the 46LE821E brings to HD content. ®
More HD TV Reviews |
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Sharp Aquos LC-46LE821E 46in quad-pixel TV
COMMENTS
Sound
Why does every review ALWAYS comment on the built in speakers?? No one in their right mind would actually use them. If you're blowing the better part of £2k on a TV you're going to have/be getting a proper sound system too... or so one would hope! But interesting article and tech none the less, but I'll stick to my projector and substantially bigger screen for far less than a weeny 42" TV and that's WITH the sound system.
Errm...
> Maybe we should start thinking about cyan and magenta pixels as well.
> It worked for the photoprinter market.
To complete your idea, you'd want black pixels as well.
They missed the basics.
"The set supports DLNA networking, so you can connect it to a home network and stream photos and music from a networked media server – although you can’t stream video for some reason. There’s no internet connectivity or any kind of web-based service either."
(quoted from article)
What use is a TV that can't stream video?
I swear, I will not be buying another TV until someone comes out with one that has a built-in capability to stream DVD subdirectories from a NAS device (i.e. I can ditch my DVD player.) That will be either official support, or a modified firmware. I own a lot of DVDs, and I am beginning to view a DVD player in the same fashion as a floppy disk drive - yet another type of media to swap whenever I want to watch something new.
I basically want the lot on my NAS, my media in the basement, and my shelf space reclaimed.
more black thoughts
Fly in ointment "The contrast could have been a little better on deep blacks".
Next time they could add black pixels (although SONY might have patents), it helps to spot the black helicopters.
Not the first time
I remember when Sharp actually tried this early in the last decade with 4-color CRTs as well, with the fourth color being, surprise, surprise, yellow. They shelved it after a while for no reason. I'm surprised that it took them that long to reintroduce the technology to LCD.
As for why they're not interested in the 3D race, well, they already won it, in 2003.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/117303/sharp_ships_3d_monitor.html
And the technology has been improved since and will make it's first consumer appearance outside Japan on the upcoming Nintendo 3DS.
Black helicopter. Because 3D displays that don't need glasses are truly ahead of it's time.
