With an image resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, displaying in a 16:9 aspect ratio, the LC20AD5E from Sharp Electronics UK is a small, wall-mountable, HD Ready digital LCD television that will deliver a high quality viewing experience at the economy shopper echelon. Surprisingly, this model sports a relatively wide viewing area of 176-degrees. This 20-inch display is fairly standard for a small IDTV, though as you’ll see it leaves something to be desired when it comes to sound.

Let’s look at connectivity first, though. Again, because this digital television is small and designed for economy, it’s not out to win awards for innovative use of space connection space. This model carries only what it needs to get the intended job done, and in this case that isn’t a whole lot. The LC20AD5E comes with two SCART ports, one HDMI port, standard AV inputs, a component video connection, a PC AV port, and a Common Interface slot. This is certainly enough to get the job done, just don’t expect this to be a universally employable tech solution. Of course, at 20-inches it’s probably not your primary television to begin with.

The panel is given a 60,000 hour lifespan which is somewhere around the industry norm. There are digital televisions with incrementally shorter life expectancies. What does sixty thousand hours of operation translate to in more tangible terms? Well, precisely 2500 days, 6.84 years, 82 months, or 328 weeks — take your pick. The bottom line is that you are safe to assume that any digital television you buy today will still be in fine working order by the time a new technology puts you back in the market for another one, so long as you don’t abuse it or find that it has a defect of some sort.

Now, about the sound package that comes with the LC20AD5E, you shouldn’t expect to be blown away by a 20-inch television and this model is a good example of why. Included are two, 2-watt speakers and matching audio outputs. If you have a high-end optical connection for a really high-end surround sound system, don’t expect to use it with this model. While it does support surround sound, the required connectivity just isn’t there for optical. Sharp did include with this model dual NICAM and A2 audio format compatibility, but these days that’s not going to set it apart from the competition.