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The Sharp Aquos LC-46D64U's menu system is, like the rest of the TV, functional but lacking in any style or beauty. Getting back to functional Sharp seems to have forgotten about the importance of a table of contents or index to the function of a manual.
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Ease of Use (4.5)
The Sharp Aquos LC-46D64U's menu system is displayed as a tabbed interface, as is typical, arranged along the top of the TV screen. You move left to right between the tabs starting with Picture then Audio, Power Control, Setup, Option and Digital Setup. As you activate a tab a menu will appear below it with the options for that section. You move up/down to navigate to those options. Many of them are sliders, which you can adjust using left/right while they are selected, a few open sub menus and others are simple on/off switches. The menu system isn't particularly pretty, but it is simple and straightforward. We did find the slight translucent effect a bit annoying, it makes it difficult to focus on the menu items if there is a fast paced scene on the TV, but otherwise we were happy with the interface.
A simple tabbed interface offers nothing too fancy or attractive.
Picture Controls (5.5)
Picture controls are the first item in the Sharp Aquos LC-46D64U's menu system. The main menu gives you access to a familiar selection of options including Backlight, Contrast, Brightness, Color, Tint and Sharpness. Each of these can be adjusted with a slider so fine increments are possible. In addition to these there is an option to look at Advanced picture controls. This opens one of the few sub-menus in the Sharp Aquos LC-46D64U's menu interface.
We like the array of options available in the Picture menu.The Advanced controls offer their own tabbed interface with items listed on the left and settings for each item listed on the right. From top to bottom the picture options in the advanced menu are C.M.S.-Hue, C.M.S. Saturation, Color Temperature, Active Contrast, Fine Motion, I/P Setting, Film Mode, Monochrome and Range of OPC. Some of these offer an array of different sliders that can be adjusted, while others are simple on/off switches.
You have a lot of options in the advanced picture menu.
Audio Controls (5.0)
The Audio menu on the Sharp Aquos LC-46D64U is exceedingly simple. The top three options in the menu allow you to adjust Treble, bass and Balance. There is also an option to turn the simulated surround sound system on/off and another option to turn Bass Enhancer on/off. You can read more about what we think of the Sharp Aquos LC-46D64U's audio quality in the Audio section.
Audio controls are pretty vanilla.
Other Controls (4.5)
In addition to Picture and Audio controls the Sharp Aquos LC-46D64U has several additional menus available to make adjustments. The Power Control menu offers two options to turn power saving options on/off. The Setup menu allows you to skip an input, change input labels, adjust screen position and language. You can also set parental controls using the V-Chip from this menu.
The parental controls only appear when you have something plugged into the RF port.The Option menu offers options for Sharp's Aquos Link system, that allows you integrate your TV with other Sharp products. There's an option to play back Audio only, Digital Noise Reduction for particularly noisy video, HDMI Setup, Output Select and Game Play Time for those parents that want to control how long their kids sit in front of the TV blowing up monsters.
Manual (4.0)
On the plus side the Sharp Aquos LC-46D64U's manual is pretty comprehensive and has good illustrations. On the negative side there's no table of contents, no index and the headers at the top of the page don't stand out much, so good luck finding what you want.
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