Introduction
For a TV brand that used to be one of the best-known and most widely respected in the UK, Sharp has been mighty quiet for the past couple of years.
Its range of available TVs has shrunk markedly, and review samples have been few and far between. But it's snapped right back onto my radar, for sat before me is a new Sharp TV that combines a large 60-inch screen with my favourite feature-du-jour, a native 4K/UHD resolution.
The fact that the 60UD20 is a native UHD TV is actually quite a relief given that Sharp has previously been keen on a 'pseudo'-4K technology, Quattron+, that uses extra sub-pixels to produce a resolution that supposedly sits somewhere between HD and UHD/4K. With other brands already doing native 4K TVs at pretty aggressive prices, the time for pseudo-4K tech seems to have passed, frankly.
Design
The 60UD20 houses its 3840 x 2160 pixels inside a very attractive body. Its exceptionally slim bezel minimises the impact owning a 60-inch TV has on your living space, while the mix of a silvery trim and glossy black for the main frame works handsomely. Even the desktop stand arrangement is eye-catching in its use of striking half-oval 'legs' at each end of the bottom edge.
Just bear in mind that putting the legs at the 60UD20's edges means you'll need to sit it on a piece of furniture that's at least as wide as the TV.
Connections on the 60UD20 initially look spot on. Particularly welcome are its four HDMIs, which are built to the latest 4K-friendly v2.0 standard to support 60p 4K playback. Also good to find are two USBs and an SD card for playing back multimedia files (SD card slots remain bizarrely rare in the TV world), as well as both Wi-Fi and LAN network options. What's more, the Wi-Fi options are truly 'built in' with the 60UD20, rather than requiring a slot-in USB dongle as has been the case with other recent Sharp TVs.
No Netflix UHD
Deeper exploration of the 60UD20's connections, though, uncovers a fairly significant shortcoming. Namely that the streaming support doesn't extend to decoding the 4K HEVC format used by Netflix (and, very likely, other 4K streaming services in the future).
With Netflix being the only widely available 'mainstream' source of 4K/UHD material, the 60UD20's inability to play it is clearly a significant blow. Though it's a blow that may be softened in the coming months by the arrival of external streaming solutions.
Shifting focus to the 60UD20's picture specifications, the native 4K/UHD panel is clearly a great starting point. It's something of a relief too, to find that the screen is built in Sharp's own factories rather than being one of those troublesome low-contrast IPS panel types from LG that have found their way into rather a lot of TVs from various brands over the course of 2014.
Note, though, that the 60UD20 doesn't employ one of Sharp's Quattron panels, where a fourth yellow sub-pixel is added to the usual RGB sub pixels.
Sharp drives the LEDs producing the 60UD20's pictures with a degree of local control to boost contrast, and provides a huge roster of picture calibration tools, including full gamma, white balance and colour management.
THX approved
So extensive are the 60UD20's set-up options, in fact, that they've helped it earn the endorsement of the independent THX quality assurance group – an endorsement which also, crucially, shows that the 60UD20 is considered by THX as being capable of delivering a high performance standard.
So far as picture processing is concerned, as well as the usual noise reduction systems, local contrast controls and other contrast boosters there's a circuit that delivers a pseudo-800Hz motion system.
Any relatively high-end TV these days needs some sort of smart TV system. So it's a shame this is an area where Sharp continues to struggle to keep up with most of its big-name rivals, with the system on the 60UD20 looking basic and providing relatively little content.
The only apps of note available during my time testing the set were Netflix and YouTube. There are a few other more niche video streaming offerings, but key stuff like the ITV Player, 4OD, Demand 5 and Amazon Instant are all AWOL. In fact, even the BBC iPlayer wasn't there during my time testing the TV, but Sharp promises this is due any day now…
Picture quality
First impressions of the 60UD20 in action set a few alarm bells ringing. The problem is that whenever any dark scenes came up they were afflicted by impossible-to-ignore backlight clouding problems, caused by difficulties in keeping the backlight levels even across the full expanse of the screen. The four corners of the image are particularly badly affected.
It's just as well, then, that you can largely solve this up-front problem with some judicious tweaking of the 60UD20's picture set-up tools. In particular I found I had to reduce the TV's backlight to almost its lowest setting, but it also helps to leave the local contrast feature set to its mid or low setting.
The good news is that, while pushing the backlight setting so low reduces the image's brightness significantly, it also results in dark scenes enjoying a more natural black colour free of the slightly bluish-grey tone you get at higher brightness levels.
Strong native contrast
It's also a relief to find that tackling the clouding flaws by slashing the backlight output doesn't stop the 60UD20 from producing decent levels of shadow detail in the darkest parts of the picture. This shows that the actual native contrast performance of Sharp's 60-inch panel is quite strong.
Backlight problems mostly satisfactorily sorted, I can finally focus on the 60UD20's main event: its native UHD/4K resolution. And happily the fact that the 60UD20 is Sharp's debut 4K TV (so far as the UK is concerned, anyway) hasn't prevented the brand from delivering an excellent picture with native 4K sources.
The tell-tale 4K/UHD blend of gorgeous pixel density, detailing so acute images resemble real life and extra image depth is delivered with aplomb. When fed a pretty view across a city or national park (the sort of shot that's a staple of the 4K demo we still have to use with 4K TVs that don't have built-in Netflix UHD streaming).
Poetry in motion
Upping the ante by piping in 4K sporting action at 60fps, I was surprised and relieved to find the 60UD20 handling motion really effectively, with only minimal reduction in resolution over moving objects. What's more, this relatively clean look to action scenes and sport can be enjoyed without having to apply the TV's motion processing circuitry. Though actually this motion processing doesn't throw up as many unwanted processing side effects as I'd have expected from past experience of Sharp TVs.
Good picture quality isn't just about detail and resolution, of course. So it's good to see the 4K detailing being underlined by some very fine colour blend resolution. The 60UD20's palette isn't as extreme and dynamic as those of some of this year's TVs – most notably Sony's X9005B and Samsung's HU8500 series – but pictures still have some decent punch to go with the 4K-friendly levels of colour finesse. Even after you've removed luminance to tackle the backlight clouding.
Upscaling prowess
Sharp has put on some convincing demos of its picture scaling processing at various electronics shows in recent years. So I wasn't entirely surprised to find the 60UD20's mostly good showing continue with its upscaling of HD sources.
In particular it delivers that key upscaling feat of adding all the necessary extra pixels you need to convert HD to 4K without exaggerating any noise – dot crawl, mosquito noise, MPEG blocking etc – that might be in the source.
It's this ability to spot the difference between noise and 'real' image content that separates the men from the boys in upscaling terms, and Sharp definitely falls into the 'man' category.
The 60UD20's upscaling is also strong when it comes to calculating the colour tones of all the extra pixels it's creating when upscaling HD. This can be seen in the way you consistently make out subtle blends and minor colour shifts in rich expanses of colour, rather than such upscaled areas looking monotone and cartoonlike.
Upscaled motion
Even the 60UD20's motion handling holds up reasonably well to the challenge posed by the upscaling process, largely avoiding the treacly, blurry impressions underpowered upscalers can cause.
If I was being picky I'd say that the 60UD20's upscaled HD pictures aren't quite as crisp and detailed looking as those of some rivals – especially Samsung's 4K models and Panasonic's AX802 series. But at least in adopting this slightly softer approach Sharp's 4K debutante avoids making upscaled pictures look gritty, stressy or unevenly sharpened.
Feeding the 60UD20 standard definition sources yields less agreeable results, with much more softness and video noise, and less credibly toned colours. But if you don't do everything in your power to avoid feeding a UHD TV standard definition content, then frankly you don't deserve to own one!
3D
While the 60UD20 impresses with its 2D pictures, it comes a major cropper with its 3D playback. There are two main reasons for this.
First, the 60UD20 suffers pretty badly with crosstalk double ghosting noise around stand-out bright or dark objects in the mid or far distance. As well as making pictures look softer than they should on a 4K TV, this ghosting noise is very tiring, as your eyes keep trying to 'refocus' the ghosted images.
The other big 3D problem is that camera pans and objects moving across the 3D frame both look seriously weird. Moving objects seem to almost fade in and out of the picture, losing solidity as they go on their not-so-merry way. Not surprisingly this sort of insubstantiality runs totally counter to the way 3D is supposed to immerse you in tangible, real-looking worlds.
There are other problems with 3D viewing too, such as harder to avoid (as the panel has to run brighter) backlight clouding, some off-key colouring and the removal of more brightness than I'd like by Sharp's active shutter glasses. But the 'big two' 3D issues had already killed the 60UD20 as a 3D display for me well before I clocked these secondary issues.
Usability, sound and value
Usability
The 60UD20 isn't the easiest TV to use. Its remote control isn't bad; it's large enough to provide big and well-spaced buttons, and it even has a stab at catering for the smart generation by including a big, boldly labelled Netflix button that takes you straight to the streaming giant's home 'page'.
Its onscreen menus, though, aren't the friendliest. Sharp uses a double axis menu approach wrapped around the top and right edges of a reduced version of the TV picture you're watching. This sounds sensible on paper, and it is nice to be able to still see your TV picture while you're making your adjustments. But the limited space available for the menus leads to excessive sub-menus, and the use of some rather small, spidery text.
Sound Quality
The 60UD20's basic audio quality is pretty strong. Despite the TV's skinny frame the speakers produce a soundstage large enough to sit well with the 60-inch screen, and it can go loud enough to keep action movies company without things starting to sound muddy or hissy.
The set is unusually good at reproducing the sort of subtle treble details that bring good soundtracks to life too, and while the 60UD20 can't go very deep with its bass, at least what bass you do get sounds clean and doesn't overwhelm the mid-range.
The only problem I have with the 60UD20's audio is that sometimes when watching programmes on the digital tuner or 3D Blu-rays I noticed dialogue slipping out of sync with pictures, leaving people's mouths moving distractingly independent of the words they were supposed to be speaking.
Value
With most premium-quality 65-inch 4K/UHD TVs costing north of £3000, the £2700 you need for the 60-inch 60UD20 doesn't seem like a bad deal. Sony does a 65-inch model, the 65X8505, for around the same money as the 60UD20, but its picture quality isn't as good.
We should say, though, that if you can cope with going smaller (not something we'd especially recommend if you want to optimise the benefits of 4K) you can get decent 55-inch 4K TVs now for as little as £1200.
Verdict
The 60UD20 sees Sharp coming out of what was starting to feel like early retirement with a bang. For a start it jumps on the UHD/4K bandwagon, sporting 3840 x 2160 pixels and up-to-the-minute 4K connectivity, though it sadly falls at the Netflix Ultra HD streaming hurdle.
It's also on-trend with its exceptionally slim design, carries a (limited) smart TV system, and ships with a decently approachable price for such a large 4K TV. I also think its 60-inch size represents a potentially popular compromise between the usual 55-inch and 65-inch screens.
Best of all, once you've worked around some initial backlight problems the 60UD20 delivers a mostly strong picture and sound performance – so long, at least, as you're not a 3D fan…
We liked
2D picture quality is good, the set's design is space-saving but still pretty, it's packed with picture calibration tools, and it's good value. The unusual 60-inch size feels like an attractive compromise between the more common 55 and 65-inch screen sizes too.
We disliked
You have to reduce the picture's backlight quite a bit to counter some backlight clouding, which means the 60UD20 may not be the best option for a fairly bright room. 3D pictures are a mess too, tuner and 3D sources sometimes suffer with audio sync issues, and the set's smart features are currently limited.
Verdict
The 60UD20 certainly isn't perfect. Its 3D is pretty much unwatchable, its smart features are limited, there's no Netflix UHD streaming, and you have to work round some initial backlight clouding issues, at least when you're watching films. But when it's set up right the 60UD20 is capable of delivering genuine 4K thrills – and good HD upscaling, too – for what looks, all things considered, like a pretty fair price.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1DnLgRz
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