Sanyo 49” Full HD TV with LED-Backlit IPS Panel
Except for a few of what I deem as small, avoidable flaws, this TV has everything that one would expect in a top-end TV, albeit at less than half their price. Let me summarize:
Pros: What is the most important quality one looks for in any TV? It’s the display quality, of course. This TV has an excellent display quality.
A. White is Brilliant White, Black is very Dark (better than my 27” Monitor with an IPS panel), perfect skin-tones and mostly balanced other hues. Brightness is slightly on the higher side, but one can control that through the display Menu. Contrast, to my eyes, is perfect. And all these qualities are at out-of- the-box default settings! I am using this TV almost exclusively for watching pre-recorded mp4 or Amazon Prime HD or Full HD Movies, and my preceding observations apply to movie watching in the default display menu selection preset for “Cinema”.
B. The recommended viewing distance is 6’ to 10’. I was skeptical, but even at 5’ there is no pixalization detectable for mp4 HD and Full HD movies in a 49” display. That is remarkable! Some reviewers have compared its display quality with those of LG, Samsung and even Sony TVs, but I wouldn’t go that far, only because I have never used any LCD TV from any of those manufacturers. I have watched such displays in large TV shops in Kolkata and, off-hand, I wouldn’t vouch for those being distinctly superior or inferior to this 49” Sanyo TV.
C. Further, placement of the Menu button and the Volume and Channel up-down buttons clustered together at the bottom right hand corner in rear of the TV is a very thoughtful idea and will be very handy in case someone misplaces the remote controller, or if it malfunctions.
D. Connectivity options are plentiful, although I shall point out a few unsatisfactory things later in this review.
Cons:
1. As I have mentioned above, despite the most desirable display qualities, it has “mostly balanced other hues”. Blue, though bright, lacks just a bit in saturation, not much though. whereas green, in some cases, is too saturated to my taste. I say “in some cases” because it seems to depend on the movie being played back, and it is possible that the problem with the green color, mostly for foliage, is actually a flaw of the source file. Unfortunately, in the menu there is no option available for tweaking the saturation of the individual colors, but only a general control of all the colors (higher or lower). There is also a selection of overall display color temperatures (Cool, Medium, Warm, etc.), which is akin to having merely Bass and Treble control in an audio system, instead of a full-fledged graphic equalizer. But, hey, may be one shouldn’t expect that much from such an inexpensive TV!
The only other display “feature” that I am a bit vexed and rather perplexed about is: for most of the extra-wide format (18:9?) movies, the display is stretched to full screen, which is 16:9 and, consequently, all things on display, most distastefully the heads of characters, get elongated vertically! The “Aspect” button on the remote controller doesn’t help at all in this problem. Surprisingly, a few other similar (extra-wide format) movies run perfectly in the correct aspect ratio! On the other hand, if I playback the same extra-wide format movies in my computer through the “VLC Media Player” at the default aspect ratio and display them on this Sanyo TV through HDMI cable, all such movies run in the perfectly correct Aspect ratio! I, therefore, believe this to be a flaw of the software system controlling the aspect ratio of the display on this TV and I strongly hope Sanyo will fix this problem through a firmware update very soon.
2. My other complaints have something to do with the connectivity options. Although plentiful in number, some of them are flawed as follows:
A. The much touted two USB ports on offer are too close for convenience. If I insert one Sandisk Ultra pen drive (I have one each of 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB) in one of the USB ports, I cannot insert another of these in the second USB port. I cannot even insert a USB cable jack if one of the ports is already occupied by my pen drive! Fortunately, two USB cable jacks can be inserted side by side and I am resigned to using a USB male-to-female extension cable for my pen drive when one of the USB ports is already occupied by a regular USB cable jack. May be inexpensive, thin and small pen drives can be inserted in tandem, but I have none of those. I don’t understand what the big deal it was, technically or expense-wise, that Sanyo could not set the two USB ports just 2 or 3 mm apart.
B. There are two sets of Composite Video ports, but instead I would have preferred one set of Composite Video ports and another set of Component Video ports for better quality display from my DVD Player. I understand that it may be only my personal preference and may not be appreciated by others.
C. Contrary to some reports, the sound from the built-in speakers is quite usable so far as loudness is concerned, unless you are aiming to bring the house down! Depending on the source sound level, all one may need is to increase/decrease the TV sound volume. The problem lies elsewhere though, particularly in that the sound is rather flat (without much depth), even with the Bass set quite high through the Menu. I believe most people would have appreciated an AUX output, rather than to make do with the headphone jack or an adapter cable for an external speaker system. By the way, the Surround Sound option in the Menu is a big joke! It is totally useless. I have a nearly 18 year old 21” Sony CRT color TV that is still going strong and has a “Simulated Surround Sound” mode that would impress anybody even today.
Overall four stars, for an excellent picture quality, particularly for Movies, and plenty of connectivity options (though some are rather restrictive), usably loud speakers (even if with a rather flat sound), make this 49” Sanyo TV a great buy at <30K rupees for any first-time large screen TV buyer (like myself) who doesn’t have bundles of cash to throw around but still longs to have a great picture on his/her large screen TV.
However, the picture quality being the most laudable feature in this TV, the biggest question that lingers in my mind is how long this display quality will last. Even with all these apprehensions I have taken the plunge, but how much risk you want to take is entirely up to you. Just take look at the percentage of five and four star reviews this TV has received. You get the idea! Hope we would be the lucky ones!
Update: As I play more and more movies on this TV, I am now sure that over-saturated green color that I reported in a very few mp4 movies is definitely due the movies themselves, rather than this TV's display. Also, you can ignore my comment on a little bit of unsaturated blue. In any case, these do not affect the overall movie viewing experience, which is excellent nevertheless.
Further, IMHO we don't need to be too much worried by the negative experience reported by a few purchasers. Among mass produced electronic items there will always a few lemons, but as long as it's not too many, one doesn't need to be too worried before the purchase. Take a note of just how many five stars and four stars this TV has received. If you do receive a lemon, you can get it replaced. Only unfortunate ones are those for whom the TV starts malfunctioning shortly after the warranty period has ended. I don't see too many reports of those. Then how much will a panel replacement cost? I received no answer to that question.
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