KEY POINTS:
I nearly killed myself and a friend getting this massive screen up the narrow stairway in my apartment.
And an unseasonably good summer has meant I haven't spent as much time as I'd have liked parked in front of the Sanyo LCD-47XR2 47-inch, testing its full high-definition capabilities to
the max.
But I've done enough watching to figure out its pros and cons and I'm happy to report there are a good deal more of the former.
Sanyo gets a bit of a bad rap in this country - most people associate the brand with middle-of-the-road Telecom mobile phones rather than sexy LCD screens.
Overseas the Japanese innovator is struggling to figure out the way forward with its TV business - it just unwound a deal with Taiwanese computer maker Quanta to develop LCD televisions and it said just this week it would off-load its mobile phone business to Kyocera.
The upshot is that while Sanyo makes good kit, a lot of it doesn't reach New Zealand and its brand is a bit murky at present due to all the uncertainty over the way forward.
And first appearances can be deceptive when it comes to the 47XR2. It has fairly bland presentation, a thick black trim with wide speakers down each side of it. It doesn't have the styling of the new high-gloss Samsungs or the Sony Bravia range.
But like its rivals it boasts a 1080p, full high-definition LCD panel (1920 x 1080 resolution). That won't help out much when it comes to everyday standard definition TV viewing. In fact, regular TV shows look decidedly grainy on the Sanyo's spacious screen and Sky's electronic programming guide shows some noticeable pixilation as regular programming struggles to blow up big and look good.
It's a different story when viewing high-definition content. I plugged in my Playstation 3 console and tested three types of high-definition content - a hi-def trailer for Kingdom of Heaven downloaded from Playstation Online, a Blu-ray movie Talladega Nights and a couple of hi-def games - Drake's Fortune and Resistance: Fall of Man. It's with this type of content that the Sanyo really shows off its true assets - size and picture quality.
All three hi-def sources look great on the Sanyo, with only slight pixilation in the games at 1080p and minimal visual noise on the video playback. Contrast that with DVDs played on the PS3 and up-scaled. The several I tried looked decidedly fuzzy.
DVD just doesn't cut it on the big screen. The Sanyo has a contrast ratio of 1000:1 which isn't as impressive as rival TVs in its class. I've seen better contrast on high-end Bravias, but that comes at a premium as I'll explain below.
One of my favourite aspects of the 47XR2 is how it handles computer feeds. The PS3's web browser blown up large on its screen looks good and with the addition of a wireless keyboard makes a fantastic way of surfing the web from the couch and checking email. An HDMI cable lets you plug in your laptop to play DivX files or display Windows Media Center.
The Sanyo's speakers are another great feature, delivering decent, rich sound. Less successful is the Sanyo's remote. There's a slide-down cover on it that reveals nothing but a warning about inserting the batteries properly.
I'll be ditching it in favour of my universal remote control. The Sanyo's box advertises integration with the Foxtel and Austar pay TV service in Australia but that doesn't appear to extend to New Zealand.
The position of the Sanyo's inputs are an annoyance. They are right behind the base, running along the centre of the screen and a pain to get at, especially if you're hot-swapping HDMI cables between video game console and computer on a regular basis.
With a retail price tag of $4299 the Sanyo compares well to other full HD TVs on the market - The 46-inch Sony Bravia X-Series costs $5999 and Samsung's 1080p 46-inch LCD sells for $6999. Both sets have better inputs, slicker design and higher contrast ratios.
But for the price, the Sanyo is a very good buy. Don't bother going that big if you're not into home theatre - watching movies and playing hi-def games and the like. That screen real-estate will be very much wasted if you plan on staying in the standard-definition world.
Good: Well-priced, full-HD, decent sound.
Bad: Position of inputs, remote control, contrast ratio not as good as rivals.
Price: $4299
