Sharp AQUOS LC-52D92U 52" HDTV LCD TV

Migrating from old CRT TV to a flat-screen HDTV, I wanted to get the best value with enough connectors and controls to support future expansion. Sharp Aquos LC52D92U appeared to have the best combination of price, size, picture quality, connectivity, and control. My concern was with some reviews mentioning banding. Nonetheless, I took a risk and bought the TV. I am glad I did. I found no banding problem and liked everything else with the exception of the screen being susceptible to finger/palm smudges. But it is inherent with the LCD screens unless a special, usually expensive, coating is used. The black is absolutely wonderful for LCD TVs. The controls are easy to understand, and the remote is fairly well designed although is not truly suitable to be a universal remote for the complete home theatre. Out of the box, the TV came with a default setting that do not work well in a home environment; the colors were too sharp and bright. Spending a few minutes with a remote control in hand solved the problem. The inputs are plentiful, but moving among them with a remote is taking some getting used to. Also, while one can select new names for the inputs, the selection must be made from a few hard-programmed choices. There is no way to create a custom input label. A minor annoyance is the block with the input type and screen resolution that remains in the corner of the screen a few seconds too long every time a setup or input is accessed. I found no way to turn it off in the setup menu. The only truly disappointing part of this TV is the sound. It produces no bass whatsoever. However, my assumption is that people who buy 52-inch TV would run it with external speaker to achieve 5.1/7.1 sound.