I've read a few threads where people talk about turning of the sharpness. I've done a search and checked the manual. Any help is appreciated.

Push the custom preset button located on the back of the handle. Use the scroll wheel to turn custom preset on, then scroll down to the sharpness setting, select it, and use the wheel to dial it all the way to the left. Press custom preset again to exit.

For examples of different sharpness settings on the VX-2000 see the following: http://www.greenmist.com/dv/vxsharp. In these examples the setting of -3 would be equivalent to "off."

That did it, thanks.