Had a friend in town this past weekend that was commenting how great the picture is on my 4 year old plasma. He just got a fairly highend LCD last year and noticed the difference at my house. It is timely to see this article because so much focus has been on LCD and LEDHave your friend run through the settings. I missed something when I first got my LCD. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why it looked so much better in the store. Then a friend got a Vizio that was about 2/3 the cost of mine and the picture was amazing, and again making me wonder why mine looked so lousy in comparison.
I flipped to the menu on mine and changed a single setting and the change was dramatic. Sharp Aquos 52" (almost 2 years old). I think the setting was changing the picture to cinema from where I had it set. In the past, I had tinkered with all the obvious settings (color, contrast, etc...), but they just didn't work.
Have your friend run through the settings. I missed something when I first got my LCD. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why it looked so much better in the store. Then a friend got a Vizio that was about 2/3 the cost of mine and the picture was amazing, and again making me wonder why mine looked so lousy in comparison. I flipped to the menu on mine and changed a single setting and the change was dramatic. Sharp Aquos 52" (almost 2 years old). I think the setting was changing the picture to cinema from where I had it set. In the past, I had tinkered with all the obvious settings (color, contrast, etc...), but they just didn't work. TV displays are set by default to look good in a large, fairly brightly lit store. If you're going to invest in a good TV, spend the $30 or so to get a "test pattern" DVD that you can use to tune the settings to match the room it is in.