Philips PUS8500 vs SHARP JP7765E

When it comes to HDR performance on the PUS8560, it's safe to say that it's rather average. The brightness of the panel is around 350 nits, so we consider this to be the absolute minimum for watching content in this format. However, it’s not a result that will impress viewers looking for the best possible picture.

On the plus side, it's worth noting that the PUS8500 series – including the PUS8560/12 tested here – is marketed as a QLED television. And indeed, we can expect a wider colour gamut here. This model is equipped with an additional filter (PFS), and the DCI-P3 coverage of around 90% should suffice for most users. This filter operates very similarly to quantum dots. As a result, colours are quite well-saturated. It's not an outstanding result, but it's entirely sufficient for watching movies and series from streaming platforms.

So how does the brightness of the Sharp JP7 perform in the most demanding titles? Honestly, we were quite surprised at first. The TV is able to achieve over 1000 nits of brightness, which is an outstanding and rare result for a device costing just under 2000 zł (for 55 inches). Watching bright, full-screen scenes, you can get the impression that you are dealing with really good equipment. But unfortunately, we have to return to the issue we mentioned earlier, which is local dimming management. When small, bright spots appear on a dark background (like in test scenes from the films Life of Pi or Sicario 2), it’s clear how poorly the JP7 handles these zones. The TV dims them almost to the maximum, crushing the whole HDR effect, which at such moments resembles a flat SDR image (less than 200 nits). This instability means that in demanding, contrast-rich films, the image on the JP7 unfortunately loses its appeal.

As a consolation, it's worth noting that the panel has the potential to display colours well. A PFS (phosphor) filter has been employed here, which allows the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut to reach a solid 94%. The manufacturer calls its product a “QLED,” even though it technologically relies mainly on the aforementioned PFS filter. Considering the recent market battles between manufacturers over what can and cannot be called QLED, we leave the issue of the correctness of this terminology to your judgement. However, it remains a fact that the potential for reproducing saturated colours in this panel is simply good.

We tested the television on the best available factory settings, that is, in Film/Filmmaker mode – this is the mode we recommend for everyday viewing. Unfortunately, it is not without its flaws. Both in HD and HDR content, the image had a distinct tendency to pinkness, caused by an excess of red and blue in the white balance. Another issue turned out to be excessive brightness of the image, as confirmed by both the gamma graph and the EOTF curve. This characteristic was responsible for the loss of detail and washed-out colours in more challenging HDR scenes we mentioned earlier. All of this led to quite significant colour reproduction errors – in extreme cases, the delta E value exceeded 7, while the threshold for visibility of errors for the human eye is about 3. This situation can be improved through calibration, and you can read about its effects below.

When it comes to colours straight out of the box, the Sharp JP7 was tested in the Film mode, which traditionally offers the most cohesive image compared to the yellowed “Eco” mode or the glaring blue of the “Dynamic” mode. Although this is the best choice among the available settings, the results still fall short of ideal. The white balance clearly lacked red and blue components, causing many scenes to take on an unnatural, greenish hue. Another issue was the gamma – in full-screen scenes, the TV produced excessively bright images, completely robbing it of its cinematic character. All of this resulted in colour reproduction errors, especially in shades of grey, which exceeded the Delta E 10 value. To remind you: errors above 2-3 are already noticeable to the human eye, so here we are dealing with a significant distortion of reality.

In HDR mode, the situation is reversed, but not in a better way. Here, the white balance is dominated by blue, giving the image an unnatural, almost “store-like” sharpness, reminiscent of aggressive demonstration modes. Moreover, the measurements of the EOTF curve emphasise the store-like nature of the image. The graph clearly shows that the TV generates images that are significantly brighter than the standards predict, resulting in an artificially boosted and unrealistic final effect. The Sharp JP7 is evidently trying to appear stronger than it actually is, but it does so at the expense of fidelity to the original content.

The Dutch manufacturer offers quite a large dose of settings in its products, so as usual, we decided to tinker with them a bit. The effects are immediately noticeable – we managed to correct the white balance, which made the image cease to appear overly pinkish. The brightness characteristics were also partially equalised, of course within the limits that the television itself allows. The picture is no longer so excessively brightened, and the overall reception after calibration is definitely better than in the factory settings of the Filmmaker mode.

You could only nitpick about the characteristics of the EOTF curve, which still indicates that the image tends to brighten HDR content. Despite our efforts, the darkest parts of the scenes can still be too bright, and the brightest ones do not always reach their full contrast potential. However, it must be clearly stated that we are dealing with a typically budget-oriented design – one cannot expect reference-quality rendering of HDR content from it.

Calibration has definitely helped this model – it improved the balance, toned down the aggressive colour palette, and brought the image closer to what one can expect from a well-configured movie mode. However, there are certain limitations that cannot be overcome.

We subjected the JP7 to our standard calibration procedure and honestly... the television gained a second life thanks to it, especially with SDR content (YouTube, traditional television, series, or older films). With our precise adjustments to the white balance and stabilisation of the gamma, colour errors dropped to a value of below 3. This is a level at which the human eye struggles to perceive discrepancies. In this scenario, the Sharp JP7 delivers an image with truly excellent colour accuracy, which is a significant advantage in this price range. However, the HDR content turned out to be much more problematic. Here, despite our efforts and interventions in the settings, the television simply refused to cooperate. In the JP7 menu, we won’t find any option to effectively control how brightness is managed (EOTF). Although a significant portion of the colour errors has been reduced, the image still remained unnaturally oversaturated. It’s a bit disappointing because the potential of the mini-LED backlit panel is great, but the software presents a clear barrier.

The conclusion is simple: when watching less demanding content (SDR) on the JP7, you can expect an image that is more than satisfactory, but in HDR you will have to accept a certain degree of "artificiality" that cannot be bypassed even with professional equipment.

Philips PUS8560 offers a deinterlacing function, hidden under the name “distortion reduction”. And while it indeed serves its purpose, smoothing out problematic tonal transitions, it operates a bit too broadly. In practice, it affects not just colourful gradients but also softens faces, clothing textures, and furniture surfaces. This undermines the authenticity of the image – especially in films where natural texture is of great importance. However, if someone is looking for smoothing at any cost, it’s best to set this option to “Low”. For cinema image enthusiasts – we definitely do not recommend it.

On the plus side, the quality of scaling older materials is worth noting – the PUS8560 model handles them surprisingly well. The image retains a natural softness without artificially boosted sharpness. It’s also worth mentioning that the TV correctly displays very low-resolution content, avoiding issues with image cropping (so-called overscan).

When it comes to lower quality materials and how Sharp JP7 handles them, the situation is ambiguous. Let's start with the upscaling itself – here we have no major objections. The process of scaling the image to a higher resolution is correct; the picture remains readable and clear, without the overscan effect, which means no cropped edges. Of course, it's not at the level of top models and at times you can notice slight tearing on the edges, but in this price range, the effect is fully acceptable.

However, the actual digital image processing performs much worse, as aside from the scaling, it practically doesn’t exist. In the JP7 menu, we won’t find any options that would effectively smooth out unwanted tonal transitions or reduce noise in the image. As a result, the signal hits the panel in a very raw form, which with heavily compressed materials (e.g., from YouTube) results in noticeable posterisation. Either this is a programming error or a very strange design decision, because in earlier Sharp models this function was available and, more importantly, worked with noticeable effect. Here, we are stuck with what the source delivers, without any digital support from the image processor.

The Philips PUS8560 is a television equipped with a 60 Hz refresh rate panel, which already limits its capabilities for displaying dynamic content right from the start. Watching sports or playing on a console is not one of the more enjoyable experiences. The situation is further worsened by the absence of any option to improve film fluidity. In the menu, you won’t find settings that would allow for the activation of motion smoothing or even a slight motion blur for films recorded at 24 frames per second. You can imagine the effect. The image can appear choppy, especially in shots with panoramic camera movements.

The motion fluidity on the Sharp JP7 is quite average, and the reason is simple: the TV uses a 60Hz panel. This immediately makes it hard to recommend for watching sports or serious gaming, where higher refresh rates are already the standard. The only real plus is the presence of a motion smoother, which we can control in films with a slider called De-judder. Lower settings give a more raw, “cinematic” (framey) image, while higher ones add artificial fluidity. We suggest setting it somewhere in the middle of the scale, around 3-5 – this is the best compromise to avoid the soap opera effect while also getting rid of the annoying image skipping. Interestingly, in the menu, we also find a slider for "motion blur reduction," which usually indicates the presence of a 120Hz panel. However, in the case of the JP7, it doesn’t actually enhance the image and serves more as a dummy – it looks good in the settings, but technically it shouldn’t work on this panel.

Although the Philips PUS8560 is not designed with gamers in mind, the manufacturer has equipped it with a few features that may prove useful when connecting a console. Onboard, we find automatic switching to game mode (ALLM), as well as a simple connection status information bar – the so-called Game Bar. It doesn't make a particularly visual impression, but it serves its purpose. The presence of variable refresh rate (VRR), operating in the range of 48 to 60 Hz, may come as a surprise. This is not a wide range, but for less demanding games or titles with unstable frame rates, VRR can help reduce the tearing effect. However, this is the only element that can be considered beyond the minimum.

It must be clearly stated that the PUS8560 is not equipment for gamers looking for a responsive screen and full support for modern console features. It lacks HDMI 2.1 ports, the refresh rate is limited to 60 Hz, and the panel's response time is not among the fastest. This model may at best suit people who play occasionally and want to enjoy the Ambilight system.

As we mentioned earlier, the 60Hz panel is not a feature that will attract gamers to the Sharp JP7. Perhaps for the casual gamer, whose console still generates most titles at 60 frames per second, there might be something interesting? When it comes to specific additions, we find here:

• ALLM mode: Automatically switches the TV to low latency game mode (input lag).

• Player menu: Which is hard to call a fully-fledged “Game Bar,” as the functionality is minimal. Aside from enabling ALLM, there’s only a dedicator for gaming which we advise against as it introduces very noticeable artifacts and spoils responsiveness.

• Dolby Vision Gaming: For Microsoft's consoles.

Unfortunately, the list of shortcomings is much longer and more painful than the positives. The biggest disappointment is the lack of support for 120Hz, even when reducing the resolution to Full HD. The presence of 120Hz would allow for performance modes to be activated in many games on the PS5 or Xbox Series X. Another shortcoming is the VRR, which means that during frame drops, we are susceptible to screen tearing. Very problematic is also the lack of proper implementation of the HGiG standard. This results in the fact that during HDR calibration in the console menu, it is very easy to "overshoot" the brightness settings. As a result, instead of clear details in the highlights, we end up with an unnaturally oversaturated image with cut-off details. The Sharp JP7 is a proposal only for those who game very occasionally.