Sharp LC-37B20E review

Sharp LC-37B20E Review

Reviewed by: Ian Morris

Reviewed on: 27 June 2008

The Sharp LC-37B20E is a 1080p LCD TV aimed at people who want a good quality, attractive TV that won't break the bank. At £850 direct from the Sharp Web site, it's looking good.

But price won't matter if the product isn't worth having. Sharp has a reputation for making good LCD TVs, but in the past, we've taken issue with the way they handle Freeview. We were keen to see if the company has made improvements to its picture technology.

Design
We were pretty impressed when we opened the B20's box. The TV is quite a sleek little beast: the bezel surrounding the screen is thin and the TV has a sturdy, classy look about it. Putting the TV together is also a cinch with a screwdriver thoughtfully provided in the box. Beware, though: there are a lot of screws to get through.

At the back of the TV are the usual inputs. You get three HDMIs for hooking up HD devices. There are also a pair of Scarts, a single component input and separate VGA in. We're pleased that Sharp has separated the VGA and component inputs: in the past, this was a shared system with a converter cable provided. You couldn't have a PC and component source connected at the same time, so this is an improvement.

On the top of the set are some basic controls in case you can't find the remote or you're having a marital argument about what to watch. On the lefthand side, there's a composite and S-video input for connecting a camcorder, but no fourth HDMI.

The remote on this TV hasn't changed much. It's got a slightly unusual shape, which comes across as old fashioned -- the sort of thing you might have expected on a TV in the 80s. Happily, the TV responds to remote commands rapidly.

Features
The Sharp is a simple set. It's not overflowing with special features, but what it does have is a nice, simple layout and setup procedure. When you plug in the TV, you'll be asked to choose an installation language and your country in order to configure the TV tuner to look for the right type of channels. It takes a few minutes to find all the channels, but it's painless.

Strangely, however, once the TV did its channel search, it ordered the various channels in a fairly illogical way. ITV1 was not, as you'd expect, on channel 3. This is a feature of the way the TV works and it'll probably annoy you. Of course, you can alter the channel list, but that's a fiasco.