Sharp LC-22L50M LCD TV

The entry level segment of any market is probably the space where brands should concentrate most, especially in a country like ours. Sharp as a group, gets the credit for being one of the pioneers of the LCD technology, with a string of “firsts” under their belt, but now times have changed, and true glory comes through volumes of sales. Thus we have a humble 22 incher LCD TV by them, aimed at you know where... the budget segment.

Design and features
This model really looks quite old fashioned, with a stout bezel and speakers jutting out the side. The finish is a glossy black, a common norm these days for LCD aesthetics, with thin metallic strips de-lineating the top and bottom edges of the speaker grille. The bottom panel has the centrally printed Sharp Logo, and tiny round push buttons lined up in a row next to it. Overall, the design is nothing to shout about, it’s rather bland and not to mention old fashioned looking. But of course we are interested in what’s under the hood.

The connectors available are one each of an HDMI in, a component video and an S-video in, and 2 composite video ins. Besides we have the regular analog audio in(RCA plug), VGA in( 15 pin D-Sub) and Rs-232 in. The rated specs of the TV are actually quite healthy, with a 350 cd/m2 brightness, 1500:1 contrast ratio and 4 ms response time. The native resolution is 1366 x 768 according to specs, thus this can be termed as “HD ready”. But, on turning it on, our Nvidia card’s CP mentions the native res as 1920x1080, plus it looks better in full HD. Strange. There is no dynamic contrast rating given, which is perfectly fine by us as we never really believe some of the ludicrous ratings today.