Initial price, PIP format, HD capability

Broken after 1 year, Service Plan is a rip-off, GET WHAT you PAY FOR!

I have had my Sharp 55 Widescreen for almost exactly 1 year when the picture stop coming on. Luckily, I purchased the 4-year extended warranty. Everything was great until this happen earlier this week. The Best Buy service plan is horrible. They come pickup my TV & take it away to fix it for who knows how long. I wish I bought ANOTHER BRAND. You get what you pay for.

Clarity, brightness, color, sharpness, cost

no built in HDTV reciever. Could have used a third component input - but no tv has this yet...

Awesome tv. i too compared with all the other tvs at best buy, circuit city and tweeter. This tv was in the top 3 that I liked, but was also a good 1500.00 cheaper than the other two. I didnt realize the price was so low until I went to purchase it as all the stickers were missing. I had it calibrated by a specialist which was included with the best buy warranty, and he spent almost 3 hours fine tunning convergence and color and all kinds of stuff that made it look even better than it had in the store. If you are thinking about getting this tv - think no longer. It doesnt matter what your budget is up to about 3-4k. This tv is still very much a contender in the 55" widescreen genra. I also like the fact that it has two component inputs as right away i needed both for dvd and xbox. I will switch one of them out when I get HD, but thats not bad.. The only downside is the lack of built in HDTV reciever. I wish this tv would have had that so that I could at least check out the over the air signal until I was ready to go with direct tv.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, RCA

Price Problem Free

Wish it had more component video inputs

This is my first "Big" Screen TV. It took me over four months to decide on the Sharp. I almost purchased a MIT, but the price was too much. Bestbuy had the Sharp on sale for $2200 plus an additional 20% off sale. I paid around $2100 which included a 4-year service agreement. At Bestbuy the sharp was next to a Sony, Toshiba and Pioneer. Everyone thought the Sharp had a better picture plus it was $500 cheaper; it was a good buy because Bestbuy sold six of them within 10 minutes, including mine during the sale. I have it hooked up to Dish Network, a JVC DVD (pro scan) and a Xbox. Some of the channels from the Dish are not as clear as with the DVD (I'm still waiting for the SAT companies to resolve the merger problems, so I haven’t moved to HD yet) but still better than any TV I’ve ever owned. But the DVD and Xbox through the component video are awesome; the picture is clear and crisp. I can’t comment on the speakers because I use a H/K receiver and Bose speakers for the surround sound. I’ve had my Sharp for almost 1 year and never experienced any vertical or horizontal line problems. So far it has been problem free. For a TV under $2200 you can’t go wrong.

Similar Products Used:

JVC

line doubler and price

None

Sorry to hear about the first guys complaint, but I love this TV. I got an incredible deal through and EE purchase who hooked me up with the 55RWP5H at cost. So basically it was a no brainer for me. In the 2000-3000 price range there is no HDTV that compares. Realize, like I do now, that this is Sharp''s high end brand SharpVision, like Sony ES or something. The copied a lot of their tech from Pioneer Elite and we all know they make the best TV''s. I debated for a long time on the Mits, and Toshiba and even Sony and then realized that the line doubler is far superior in this TV. If you are watching analog TV and simply compare the TV''s it is a no brainer. Give sharp a chance and if you don''t believe me just go to stor where you can compare the picture.

Great line doubler.

Vertical lines and noise block at top of the screen.

I have been waiting to make this post as soon as the Sharp 55RPW5H was out of my house.

I bought the set from a local home theater specialty shop right before Memorial Day weekend.

Immediately I started noticing problems with the set.

I saw a vertical line about 3-4" from the left side of the TV. This line was not white, it was not colored. It was just there. There also appeared to be one on the right, not quite as noticeable. There was one also in the center of the picture but it was not as defined and was much harder to "prove" to the owner of the shop who came out to see what I was talking about. These vertical lines were present in all picture modes including the 4:3 gray bars (it was outside of the picture area but it was still in the gray bars).

In addition to the vertical lines I saw a fair amount of "noise" in the top 1/4 of the screen. It looked like an interference bar that stretched from one side of the screen to the other. It was most noticeable when watching a progressive scan DVD (and later I found out it was more noticeable as the picture got sharper).

Attempts to fix:

1st attempt: Sharp sent out a new chassis (motherboard) to be installed in the set. This new chassis looked horrible PQ-wise and still had the above problems under examination from myself and the repairman (not affiliated with the shop I bought the set at). The repair guy reinstalled the original chassis and said he would call Sharp. At this point I made the suggestion that since it didn't "seem" to move, could it be a tear or fold in the screen material (a little history, this is my first RPTV and I know just about nothing). Sharp seems to think this might be the answer so they send out the repairman again with a new screen.

2nd attempt: New screen installed. Same problems. Nothing changed. The repairman installs the original screen back on the set and leaves to call Sharp to see what other options are.

3rd attempt: Repairman is sent out to go into the service menu and try a couple of things. Nothing helps the vertical lines or the noise at the top of the screen.

New Set: Sharp agrees to send me a new set. I receive the new set through the original shop I made the purchase with. Immediately upon installation I notice the same problems (they were slightly reduced, but still there) with the new set. The installation guys even see it and make their exit quickly, as I am sure they did not know what to say.

I call the owner of the shop I made the purchase at, and he invites me over to his showroom to look at his set on display. I make the trip and find the problems on his display model. He has a HD Sat box (which I didn’t have at the time) and we look at the HD signal on the set. The vertical lines are still present, but the noise in the upper part of the screen is gone. So the noise must be related to the line doubler converting NTSC signals to 1080i (but doesn’t explain why progressive scan DVD looks that way when showing on the TV at 540p…unless it was doing more something through the 1080i circuit to get the 480p to 540p).

Also playing around with the settings we see that the vertical lines are not nearly apparent when the contrast (picture) setting is 100%. This must be how they are QC’ing the TVs I thought.

The owner said he would talk to Sharp and see if they could deal with this. Supposedly Sharp in Japan had found a fix and was trying a newer chassis (than my second unit) in a model equivalent to the 2nd unit. This took about 2 months of me calling every week to see what the progress was to a shop that had sold me my TV 4 months ago. But they were great and worked with me.

Finally Sharp said they had something and wanted to send a new chassis to be put into my 2nd unit. I agreed, but told the shop owner I was tired and this would be it (I didn’t know what it was, but I would soon find out). Last Monday morning the repairman (yeah, same one from another shop) comes and installs a new chassis. After I came home from work and had time to look at the set I noticed the problems again are less, but not fixed and also the picture geometry is totally off. I called Sharp in total disgust and they said they would send someone right out to align the picture with the case.

Sharp called yesterday to set up a repair. I told them that I no longer had the TV. The shop I bought it from allowed me to do a full return and exchange it for the PIONEER SD533 (and even got some cash back in the difference).

Sharp is not ready with their HDTV monitors from my experience.

I am very happy with my Pioneer and have seen none of the above problems in the last two days. I am also very happy with the customer service I received from the home theater specialty shop. They are great and I would recommend them to any of my friends.

I should have wrote this a long time before now, but I was giving Sharp the benefit of the doubt (their line doubler to 1080i was impressive save its problems). If anyone would like further detail than this long and exhaustive message please e-mail me.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer SD-533

I have the 55-wp4h. It has no VGA input

Had to respond to Rodney's post. I've had the 55-4H since August and am VERY happy with it. I use an RCA DCT-100, Direct TV and Loacal HDTV.
The image is great, even watching 240 lined-VCR tapes. The HD is sharp (no pun intended), and mine too was off center, until I downloaded the latest DCT100 update.
I had to buy a VGA-Component box, which also works great.
My only gripe is I don't know how to get into the service menu.
It has 9 popint convesion, but I'd like to get additional convertion locations.
I really can't say enough GOOD things about the TV

Similar Products Used:

JVC 55" widescreen from about 5 years ago!

excellent line doubler, picture clarity, accurate color decoder

would be nice to have "one touch" type convergence adjustment

This has been a great set for me.

I too noticed the vertical lines Rodney writes about. In addition to the vertical lines, I also have a horizontal line about 2 inches below the top of the screen.

The lines He describes are not caused by the TV.

Depending on the locations of lamps, ceiling lights or other ambient light sources in the room, shadows can be cast on the screen. The way the screen is framed on this set, shadows are cast as straight lines vertically or horizontally on the screen.

I watch mostly DVD's, with the room dark. The shadows are not an issue for me.

This is a new product, and there isn't much service history with this set. Unfortunately, many service technicians are merely "parts replacers" rather than true technicians. The factory will send out the warranty parts as fast as they can- they want to keep their customers happy. I spoke with Sharp Service- I found them to be very responsive. They even followed up with a letter in the mail to be sure I was satisfied with their response.

Sharp is an excellent company that builds high value, quality consumer electronics.

Similar Products Used:

Mitsubishi, Toshiba