A high quality, convenient, and increasingly more affordable HDTV set for small spaces

The Sharp AQUOS LC-32GP1U 32” LCD TV is a top-of-the-tier television for its size and price range; probably the best looking and most feature rich in its class.


Looks

While the piano black glossy frame is initially distracting, after a week or so it settles into a sweet spot in your familiar mental surroundings and strikes a rare balance between blending in well and nicely accenting the room.


Picture quality

With a few caveats, the picture quality is outstanding. The viewing angle is far above average and sitting on either side of the TV the small drop-off is barely evident and in no way distracting from the picture. Brightness is excellent at half-level and off the chart at even 75%, however the contrast ratio, while good, is hard to balance with it and suffers when the dynamic setting is turned off. The contrast on this set is the biggest caveat to the picture. While the 2 available dynamic settings dramatically improve the contrast ratio and provide a deeper black, the fixed dynamic option prohibits any picture adjustments (brightness, contrast, etc…) and shares an auto-adjusting brightness issue with the regular dynamic option, whereby (in certain scenes) the brightness is raised or lowered automatically based on what the processor thinks is necessary. The problem is the auto-adjustment is extremely noticeable, timed incorrectly, and distracting. The flaw appears to be tied to another built-in picture adjustment option, “OPC”, which automatically adjusts brightness levels based on the screen content. Turning the OPC off in many of the pre-defined AV modes does indeed turn it off, but if either of the 2 Dynamic AV modes is selected, even if the OPC is set to ‘off’ in the menu, it still auto-adjusts the brightness. A number of users on the AVS High-Definition forums have identified this issue. That said, I found the Dynamic AV modes distractingly oversaturated despite the flaw, and the picture to simply be better when user-defined or fine tuned via one of the other built-in AV presets (Standard, Movie, or Game).

The dot-by-dot picture display mode and various content stretch options are excellent, and whether displaying 4:3 or 16:9 content the picture looks amazing. Many users have argued that 1080p content on this screen size is not noticeably different than a 720p set unless you are sitting relatively close to the screen. In my living room the TV is positioned roughly 8-12 feet from the couch and I can vouch for the picture being much and far noticeably better than a 720p display at the same distance, and even when viewing it from the kitchen (an additional 10 feet back) though the precise detail is less distinguishable, the picture overall looks better and more fluid. HD-DVD’s at 1080p look stunning, and even upscaled 420i and 420p sources are unbelievably sharp, clear, and detailed.

Out of the box, 3 dead pixels were apparent on close inspection, and over the course of a year another 3 have gone, however they are unnoticeable from any reasonable distance. Mileage varies from set to set even among the same television model, but if your set has over 6 dead pixels you can contact Sharp for a replacement within the first year of ownership.

The inclusion of the DVI port on this model (over the LC32D62) is a boon for computer users who want to pull double-duty with the display as a TV and computer monitor. Used as a monitor the picture is equally outstanding and the additional resolution and resulting screen real estate is another reason to favor the 1080p over the 720p model at this size, however if you will be sitting far back from the screen a 720p set will make it easier to see icons and read text on screen.


HDTV reception

Using a $10 Target brand HD antenna I was able to pick-up nearly every over-the-air ATSC channel distributed in the Los Angeles area with 60-80 % signal strength. I live approximately 40 miles away from the nearest broadcast tower and my previous experience with HD channel reception using a ATSC tuner in a desktop computer was the complete opposite – it couldn’t sustain a strong enough signal for any channel. This leads me to believe the quality of the tuner within the Sharp 32GP1U is superior in quality to others. Signal dropouts do occasionally occur and the antenna needed to be finely positioned in a window-ceil, but overall the experience has been wonderful, with only the PBS and ABC channels difficult to sustain reception for.


Sound

It’s much better than most people are letting on and has plenty of audio-output ports if you have a better dedicated audio system.


Adjustability

Not really. The stand is not adjustable, but the viewing angle and default position is perfect in my experience.


Menu design and navigability

The transparent blue overly menus are easy to navigate and adjust, channel favorites are simple to set, however adjusting HD reception can prove difficult as the picture drops out if the signal falls below a certain percentage and doesn’t return even if the signal strength percentage increases to a normally working level. In addition there is no way to change channels while in the signal adjustment menu, making adjusting for the best balance among multiple channels challenging.

Button responsiveness is sometimes just a hair slow on both the remote and set. For instance pressing the ‘input’ button on the top of the TV often results in a quarter second delay before the input changes.


Gaming factor

Though this model has been marketed as a gaming centric set, the so-called Viper drive has no documentation or real explanation on how it works and therefore to a great extent requires blind faith in its functionality, but whether a gamer or not the additional side ports on this model are welcome and useful.


Remote

The look and feel is pretty nice and intuitive. It is strangely long but provides a lot of breathability between buttons and pivots nicely in hand. Pluses include pressing a favorite channel button to switch right to the TV input without having to select it with the input button, and dedicated ‘game’ button for switching right to the side source inputs. There’s a dedicated backlight button and a ‘freeze’ button which very simply freezes the on-screen frame when pressed. It’s strangely nice to have even though I haven’t found much occasion to use it.


In sum

The LC-32GP1U is a beautifully designed television with outstanding picture quality and a few quality control bugs that thankfully don’t drastically interfere with or impede usability. If you can banish the Dynamic Contrast modes from your expectations you’ll find yourself with a near perfect set.