PICTURE QUALITY. It did an excellent job displaying the finest detail of HD content, though we noted some added edge enhancement processing which we could not turn off, but it wasn't distracting. Color accuracy was very good, with image content, and flesh tones in particular, looking natural. Color temperature was slightly on the warm side, lending images a reddish tone. Contrast—the difference between the darkest blacks and brightest whites—was good, so images had depth and dimension, typical of most models we test. The brightness level was good, making it a suitable choice for most rooms. The model had fairly deep black levels, just shy of the best models. In scenes with subtly shaded light-to-dark areas, such as a sky during sunset, the model did an excellent job producing a smooth transition without distinct, coarse bands. The deinterlacing and film mode operations were excellent on HD content; there was little or no trace of jaggies on the edges of objects for video and film-based 1080i video content, such as from cable.
VIEWING ANGLE. This Sanyo has a narrow viewing angle overall, below-average performance among TVs for this attribute. Only those seated directly in front of the screen will see the best picture quality. When we viewed the TV from the sides image quality degraded significantly. The picture showed a moderate loss of color, so flesh tones looked a bit washed out, along with a slight color shift. Black levels visibly brightened, reducing contrast especially on dark scenes. When viewing the image from above or below eye level to the screen, the vertical viewing angle was good. The picture showed some change in color, contrast, and black level.
MOTION BLUR. This Sanyo TV has only fair motion performance, with significant blurring on our motion tests. This is typical of LCD TVs with the basic 60Hz frame rate. Though this model includes Sanyo's "BMR120", a feature designed to reduce motion blur, we found it was ineffective. The visibility of blurring on typical program content is often subtle and may not bother most people, but keen-eyed viewers may detect some loss of texture and detail on scenes with movement.
SCREEN REFLECTIVITY. Though not as mirror-like as on some models, this screen surface is glossy and therefore susceptible to reflections from a nearby lamp or window. It does a good job reducing glare from ambient light and maintains contrast in a brighter room environment.
SOUND QUALITY. This model has fair sound quality with below average performance. It's acceptable for typical programming, but shortcomings become obvious with movie soundtracks and music. With movies, dialog was generally clear but background music and other sounds were slightly recessed. Bass was lacking, as was treble detail, and the overall sound was a bit thin and closed in. The speakers produced a good volume so this model should play sufficiently loud in typical room environments, though sound quality does degrade at the highest volume settings. Also, at higher volume, dynamic compression kept the sound from distorting, but also limited the clarity of peaks in loudness, which can be a bit distracting on some audio content. If sound quality matters to you, you might want to add a soundbar or other external speaker system.
EASE OF USE. Overall, it was very easy to setup and fairly easy to do routine things. The dark labeling of the connectors on the TV console is very difficult to read. On first power up there is an on-screen guide that helps you through setting up the TV. It lacks the ability to add custom labels to different input sources.
STAND ASSEMBLY. The TV's base does not come pre-attached, so some assembly is required. Mounting the support stand to the TV is straightforward, though the stand requires the assembly of one part before mounting.
INTERNET FEATURES. This TV does not have access to the Internet.
CONNECTIONS. This model has three HDMI inputs {and} one "component/composite shared" input (which means you can only use one type or the other at a time). It also has one USB port, an optical digital audio out, a headphone out, a VGA video input. Note: HDMI and other cable connections made to the rear-facing panel will protrude beyond the panel's slim depth.
INCLUDED IN THE BOX. A printed user manual. A quick start guide. A remote control without batteries.
ABOUT ULTRA HD TESTING: We test UHD picture quality using 4K movies, videos, photos, and test patterns to confirm these displays deliver performance to this format's full potential. We check the TV's ability to reproduce 4K image detail, as well as high dynamic range (HDR) for TVs that support this capability. Image quality is tested using a 4K movie player connected to the TV's HDMI input, as well as from files stored on flash drive plugged into the TV's USB port. We also check the quality of 4K streaming from Netflix or YouTube (if the service is supported by the TV), and how well the TV can upscale HD movies to the display's higher UHD resolution while keeping artifacts such as "jaggies" along the edges of image content to a minimum. The best UHD TVs, and HDTVs, present high fidelity images that reveal the full quality of the best source content without degradation.
