Personally I would go with the Sharp. I have a 37" Sharp LCD and it works really well.
I have bought 2 smaller Philips LCD TVs and I have had to return both.
The first because the picture quality was really poor.
The second was even worse! I had been told that philips had done a lot to improve the picture engine since I had bought the first TV.
When we got it home we found that it couldn't be wall mounted as the picture wasn't visible from below - the screen went black when viewed from below.
Also the sound was terrible - it sounded like it was still in the cardboard box - we tried all the audio settings and nothing could improve it!
It could be that these problems only affect the smaller Philips LCDs but I am not going to buy Philips again.
I would go to the store and check the sound on each unit and check the image quality from all angles.
