HDTV Reviews

Other than AQUOS LC-57D90U larger size, there is little to distinguish the LC-57D90U from its smaller Sharp brethren. Its bezel is the same burnt-gold finish (they call it titanium) that is nicely different from the black and silver found everywhere else in the flat-panel community. The remote, too, is the same as those found with other models. The menus are colorful and are pretty easy to follow, although it is often hard to distinguish between what is selected and what is unselected since the colors are so similar. There’s an average amount of adjustments, but I was hoping for a bit more from a premium panel. So, why is this panel so expensive? Well, it uses different glass than the rest of Sharp’s LCD line. It’s from their brand-new Kameyama factory in Japan. They claim a 4-millisecond response time (more on that later), a 1,500:1 contrast ratio (about twice what they claim on their other panels), a greater viewing angle (more on that later, too), and a bunch of other improvements. The proof, though, is in the pudding, or, in this case, the liquid crystal.

Feed the LC-57D90U a signal from a decent scaling DVD player via HDMI, though, and this LCD’s character changes rather significantly. The image is far more natural, with none of the scaling issues and noise that’s apparent with the analog input. If you get one of these, don’t bother inputting anything analog, as the digital input looks much better. In fact, had the whole set looked as good as it did with the digital inputs, its performance numbers below would undoubtedly have been a good 4 or 5 points higher.
Source: http://www.hometheatermag.com/lcds/806sharp/