Sharp LC37RD2E review

Sharp Aquos LC37RD2E Review

Reviewed by: Ian Morris

Reviewed on: 1 June 2007

Every year there are improvements to LCD televisions that make them a more attractive proposition.

The Sharp LC37RD2E is an example of this year's improvements, sporting 100Hz technology to make movies look smoother and reduce motion blur.

Design
We can't fault the design of the LC37RD2E, even though it's a pretty standard look these days -- the chunky plastic case is finished in piano black and the speaker system is concealed in a thin strip at the bottom of the screen.

The inputs for the TV are located, for the most part, under a removable panel at the rear of the television. This means you can wire everything in and then cover the panel up, never to worry about it again. Or at least until the next time you buy a piece of AV gear.

The inputs are to the rear right of the screen, and can be concealed by a plastic cover to keep everything nice and tidy

You can see a full list of the TVs inputs on our specifications page, but there are no nasty surprises, although the LC37RD2E does only manage two HDMI sockets. The only oddity is the component video input, which shares the VGA socket. You'll need to use the supplied adaptor to connect a hi-def source via the RCA style connections. This is okay in practice, but makes having a media centre and games console hooked up together slightly tricky.

Features
One of the key features of this set is its 'TruD' 100Hz picture mode. Using electronics to artificially increase the refresh rate is designed to decrease the amount of blurring and motion judder you see. The Sharp picture mode is one of the best we've seen -- it's really very obvious when you switch this setting on that the processing is working.

Freeview is built-in, as we'd expect, and there's an analogue receiver in case your area can't yet receive digital.

There's a composite side input to hook up a camcorder or games console

The menu system is incredibly basic, and verging on ugly. That said, the menus are all easy to use, and they are fast to respond, which makes setting the TV up or changing picture settings much easier. What it lacks in beauty, it makes up for in functionality.

The television's remote control is the usual crazy Sharp affair. It's wider at the top than at the bottom and it's pretty chunky. At the bottom is a flap that conceals four buttons. We really couldn't tell you why they need to be under a flap -- it's not like they control the nuclear deterrent for Great Britain or anything, they're just buttons for adjusting the picture control and putting the TV into sleep mode.