At a press event in New York City this morning, Sharp unveiled their first televisions to use the ELITE brand name, previously seen on Pioneer's ill-fated but much-respected HDTV line. Available this week in the 60-inch PRO-60X5FD ($5999.99) and expected later this month in the 70-inch PRO-70X5FD, the new sets feature Sharp LCD panels with full array LED backlighting and proprietary image processing technology developed in partnership with Pioneer. The TVs will be sold through Pioneer's existing stable of ELITE specialty A/V dealers including the Magnolia Home Theater stores located in select Best Buy stores.
Toward the end of the presentation, they dimmed the lights and ran a demo reel so we could see the 70-inch PRO-70X5FD in action. Doing a demonstration of any LCD or LED TV in a dark room is risky business as it can highlight any lighting uniformity issues as well as any weakness in a set's ability to produce deep black levels. I'm pleased to report that the set's image quality held up extremely well in a dark room. On many of the night-time scenes it was difficult to make out the edges of the screen against the black background and that's something we don't often see on an LED or LCD set.
The key to the set's performance is Sharp's proprietary Intelligent Variable Contrast (IVC) processing. Among other things, this processor adjusts the brightness of hundreds of different areas of the full array LED backlight independently using local dimming technology. This allows the TV to display high contrast images such as fireworks against a night sky cleanly and effectively. We also observed good shadow detail in darker scenes such as the rippling waves of a lake at night and did not notice any evidence of blooming in bright objects standing out against a black backdrop. Admittedly this was a demo reel, carefully selected for its ability to highlight the set's performance, but it was impressive.
Also impressive is the asking price: $5999.99 for the 60-inch PRO-60X5FD and $8499.99 for the 70-inch PRO-70X5FD. Does Sharp know we're in a recession? Apparently they (and the ELITE dealer network) believe there is a market for this: high-end clientele who want the best performance and style and are willing to pay for it. We shall see. The ELITE logo will be the only one visible on the front of the set and the IVC processing will be exclusive to the Elite line for the foreseeable future.
The sets also feature Sharp's Fluid Motion processing which reduces motion blur and judder from moving images. Sharp's Tony Favia stated that their effective refresh rate is far beyond 240 Hz. When asked to nail this down he said it was a proprietary spec, but "in the range of 720 Hz." The panel features Sharp's "RGB+Y" LCD panel, a tweak of the current "QUATTRON" technology in earlier Sharp sets - it uses a fourth sub-pixel (yellow) in addition to the standard red, green and blue sub-pixels in each LCD pixel. It is 3D-capable using active shutter 3D glasses (two pairs included with each set). It is also THX-certified for both 2D and 3D viewing as well as ISF-certified with the detailed calibration controls required to dial in the performance to suit each client's viewing conditions.
The ELITE sets also offer built-in WiFi networking and a suite of streaming and IPTV features including Netflix, Pandora, VUDU, Twitter, YouTube and even Skype so you can turn your TV into a giant video phone (requires optional camera). The black bezel features a fine, brushed aluminum finish and total cabinet depth of both models is under two inches.
If you want one of these impressive beasts, you'll have to venture out into the real world as they will not be available for purchase online. Only certified ELITE dealers will be allowed to sell the ELITE-branded televisions.
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