LC-22SV6U AQUOS™ Liquid Crystal Television
Sharp's
AQUOS™ Liquid Crystal displays have attracted customers looking for
alternatives to plasma technology with similar qualities such as high
contrast with a bright picture. One of the greatest advantages of LCD
technology is the lack of burn-in on the screen associated with plasma
and CRT displays when fixed images such as computer video or network logos
are displayed. Sharp has introduced, among other AQUOS™ products,
the new LC-22SV6U. The LC-22SV6U produces a bright picture (up to 430
cd/m2) with a high contrast ratio (500:1), making it ideal for rooms with
ambient light that may be difficult to control. The LC-22SV6U includes
a stand along with an easy-to-grab handle on the top rear of the unit.
The detachable swivel base rotates 25 degrees right or left and also tilts
5 degrees forward or 10 degrees backwards. Sharp's 1-Bit digital audio
amplifier (5W + 5W) is included with detachable speakers. A headphone
jack is also provided on the front of the display. Although the 22"
AQUOS™ does not have native high-definition capability, it will display
a high definition signal (1080i) scaled to it's native (854x480) resolution.
The LC-22SV6U is loaded with features including a 22" Active Matrix
(a-si TFT) Advanced Super View LCD with Sharp's proprietary panel with
Black TFT low reflection coating, a 60,000 hour life, a 170º viewing
angle, and three full sets of A/V inputs as well as a component video
input. Sharp also boasts their Quick
Shoot technology that is said to optimize the display's response
time of fast moving images. The
EZ Setup helps new users configure the display quickly.
Viewing Modes
The LC-22SV6U has four viewing modes that include Stretch,
Smart Stretch,
Zoom and Side
Bar. Stretch
is used for displaying true 16:9 DVDs in the proper aspect ratio. This
display has the resolution to fully reproduce the capabilities of the
format. Smart Stretch
is designed to fill the 16:9 screen when watching 4:3 content. This is
accomplished by stretching the sides more than the middle resulting in
a more natural looking picture without the obvious horizontal stretching
seen on many displays or when using the standard Stretch
mode. According to the manual, the Zoom
mode is intended for movies with a wide aspect ratio (2.35), but it seems
to be better suited for watching older letterbox DVDs. The Side
Bar mode fills the sides of the 16:9 screen to accommodate
a 4:3 picture.
Connectivity
The rear of the LC-22SV6U has two removable panels covering the area where
cables connect to the display. Each panel has a slot in the lower section
to allow the cables to route through the bottom. The left
side panel has the input power connector (using the 13VDC AC adapter),
speaker terminals (2 x 5 Watts at 4 ohms), antenna (via F-connector),
component video (3 x RCA) and the associated two-channel audio connections.
The right side panel has inputs to accommodate
up to three sets (AV-IN1, AV-IN2 and AV-IN3) of standard A/V inputs, each
including composite video and two-channel audio. The AV-IN1 input also
includes a single s-video input. AV-IN3 can be configured to be either
an input or an output depending on the user's needs. There are no RGB
or digital video inputs on this display. The top
of the display has buttons for Volume Up and Down, Channel Up and
Down, Menu, TV/Video and Power for quick access.
Remote
Control
The remote included with the display has a unique design that fans out
at the top. The buttons are logically arranged and provide the user with
quick access to the most commonly used functions. The TV/Video
button selects sequentially from AV1, AV2, AV3, Component and TV inputs.
The AV Mode button
controls the screen settings based on Dynamic (Fixed), Dynamic, Standard,
Movie and Game viewing modes. Each mode is unique by providing predetermined
settings for different types of video being viewed by the user. A different
AV Mode for each
video input can be selected. The Bright
button controls the brightness of the display by cycling through Bright
(Maximum brightness), Normal
(60% brightness), Dark
(10% brightness) and Auto
(Changes based on ambient lighting conditions) settings. The Freeze
button captures and freezes the image on the screen. There are four Color
Temperature settings (Standard, High, Mid and Low). We took color tracking
data on the last three settings for reference. The Pic Flip button selects
between one of four different screen orientations (Normal, Mirror, Rotate
and Upside down). The Audio
Only button turns off the display when listening to music through
the LC-22SV6U.
More Menu Controls
The menu displays six categories (Sleep
Timer, AV Adjust, Preset, Closed Caption, V-Chip Block and Setup).
The Sleep
Timer keeps the display active and changes in increments of
30 minutes up to a maximum of 120 minutes. The AV
Adjust menu has two submenus, Video
Adjust and Audio
Adjust. The Video
Adjust submenu has controls for Picture, Tint, Color, Black
level, and Sharpness. The Audio
Adjust submenu controls Bass, Treble, Balance and Dolby Virtual
(on/off). The Preset
menu allows the user to configure the display with a predetermined setup
when the user selects this option. Finally, the Setup
submenu configures the Blue Screen (on/off), Speakers (internal/external),
Language, Channel Settings (air/cable), Clock and Color System).
Color Tracking
Measurements
were taken with our Sencore CP5000 color analyzer and VP300 video generator
connected to the component video inputs. Using 480p video, we set the
black level using the PLUGE pattern and checked the stair step levels
to ensure we had properly adjusted the display. We selected the Movie
Mode and set the Color Temperature to Mid.
We measured the color temperature in 10 IRE increments starting with 20
IRE. The measurements came fairly close to the ideal 6500 °K level
with the exception of the lower 20 to 40 IRE levels, where the color temperature
rose significantly.
Display
Primaries
We measured the primary colors produced by the LC-22SV6U using the GretagMacbeth
Eye-One Pro Spectrophotometer and ColorFacts System from Milori Software.
The CIE chart shows where the ideal primaries are located with the smaller
three points making a dark triangle. The measured primary colors have
the red, green and blue markers connected together with the white triangle.
Only colors inside the white triangle can be produced by the display.
The LC-22SV6U came very close to the ideal primary colors and as a result
produced accurate flesh tones with excellent color saturation. One of
the important aspect we noticed with this display was the rich colors,
particularly with animated DVDs.
Performance
We connected our Sony DVP-NS900V SACD/DVD player to the component inputs
of the LC-22SV6U and set the player to use the interlaced output mode.
The internal tuner was connected to our Terk TV38 rooftop antenna. We
wanted to evaluate the performance of the built-in deinterlacer to see
how it affects the picture quality. We found out that the LC-22SV6U has
the Faroudja FLI2310 DCDi™ deinterlacing/scaling chip even though
it is not indicated in the literature. This is great news for potential
owners of this display. In addition, the LC-22SV6U uses a 3D digital comb
filter to separate the Y/C information for optimal results from composite
video signals such as over-the-air analog video. The picture had all the
positive attributes of a good CRT display with the exception of deep blacks.
The bright picture had no problem combating the ambient light in the room.
High definition content from our JVC HM-DH30000U D-VHS VCR and Samsung SIR-T165 worked with the display, but was scaled down internally to the native resolution. This is one limitation that may convince consumers to buy a higher end high-definition model offered by Sharp. However, given the size of the display and the distance in which it was viewed, this didn't cause any problems for us and the picture still looked great.
We evaluated the display's picture quality using the Movie AV Mode with the Color Temperature set to Mid. This provided us with the best color tracking from the factory. Lower IRE levels resulted in the color temperature shifting higher. The light output of the LC-22SV6U is very good. The Standard AV Mode produced a full screen raster of 38 fL. The Dynamic (Fixed) Mode produced an impressive 56 fL and the Movie Mode produced 20 fL. Blacks were acceptable, but not as dark as we would have liked to see. However, we still measured a respectable contrast ratio of 600:1 using our GretagMacbeth/Colorfacts system, which is actually higher than the numbers printed in the literature.
Conclusion
The Sharp LC-22SV6U performed very well for us in our setup. The display
not only looks attractive, but is capable of producing an impressive picture
with a variety of source material. The internal video processing is excellent
with the help of the Faroudja DCDi™ chip. For those looking for a
high performance standard definition flat panel, the LC-22SV6U is a great
find.
- Kevin Nakano