Review: Acer AT3720 – Is Acer’s budget LCD a real bargain or a real eyesore? : HDTV UK

The propaganda

With media centre PC’s and games consoles blurring the lines between home cinema and home computer, it is little surprise that PC manufacturers are straying into big screen LCD territory. So far, however, most have been unable to keep up with the level of quality offered by traditional TV manufacturers. There is one compelling reason to consider a PC-brand LCD though – the price. Acer’s AT3720 is an HD-Ready, 37” LCD that can be picked up for less than £700.

Its other features are also impressive: there are two HDMI inputs, component video inputs, a noise reduction system and an 8ms response time. Of course, there are few drawbacks – you won’t find an integrated digital tuner here, nor is there an S-Video input – but on the whole, from the spec sheet alone it looks like quite a bargain. Find out how it performs on the turn.

The good

The first place you might expect a low-cost LCD to fall down is on the picture quality. On that count though, we were very pleasantly surprised. Highly detailed sequences enjoy crisp, rich textures with particularly sharp edge detail. Even blacks, which we would have expected to suffer from heavy amounts of ‘greying’, actually look decidedly dark and offset nicely against bright colours to produce a very rich final image. The bright colours themselves are well saturated although they can occasionally turn to looking a little jaded in particularly dark scenes.

The result is a TV that looks great when you’re watching bright, unrealistic scenes from more sci-fi or cartoon orientated material and, more specifically, when it is hooked up to a high definition games console. This feels like what the TV was made to do and it does it well.

Unfortunately, when viewing more natural colours and standard definition sources, the problems really begin to show…

The bad

The biggest flaw in the AT3720, is the way it handles SD sources. We can forgive the absence of a digital tuner because of the low price tag, but you’ll then need to rely on an ordinary analogue aerial input and the TV’s built-in auto-tuner. The auto-tuner leaves a bit to be desired as you’ll have to coax it into placing channels into the correct order and any that suffer from a weak signal will be completely left out. And that’s just the start.

The screen’s processing of SD pictures is pretty woeful. Motion smearing becomes immediately apparent and parts of image can start to lag behind the others, particularly in fast moving scenes, leaving it with a split-screen effect. Once you’ve spotted this issue, you start to notice that there is a bit of lag even in HD sources that seems at odds with the claimed 8ms response time.
Although the picture processing sits very well with things like an Xbox 360, if you try watching more realistic images you can also spot the set’s tendency to accentuate the contrast on edges which gives many things an unrealistic, somewhat cartoony effect.

The sound quality is also cause for concern, despite the fact that it offers a decent amount of power and volume. The noise it produces doesn’t lack aggression, but it has a pretty unfortunate lack of bass and overly strong treble that can produce some very harsh sounds.

Geek Sheet

Analogue tuner

Nicam stereo sound

Resolution: 1366 x 768

Contrast ratio: 1200:1

Brightness: 450cd/m2

Screen dimensions: 261(d) x 692(h) x 944(w)mm

PC capable

Noise reduction system

37in LCD TV

1366x768 native resolution

Inputs: 2 x SCART, 2 x HDMI, Composite video/audio, 1 x VGA

Overview

Despite the numerous flaws, the Acer AT3720 remains an incredible bargain. Although it struggles with the range and diversity of picture sources that you would expect a premium priced alternative to handle with ease, there are certain types of picture that it does do well – namely those from games consoles – and at an incredibly low price. For that reason, I can see it being an ideal choice for first-timers looking to upgrade into HD technology and get more from a high def console like an Xbox 360 or PS3, but hardcore videophiles are probably going better off steering clear.