Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I nearly pulled the trigger on a Samsung 55" model but while chasing the cheapest price, ran across this LG at Best Buy for $1799. Detailed info is hard to find, but it was available for store pickup so I took a chance without seeing it first since I could return it easily. I am glad I did. I cannot imagine a better picture. Observations:
Container is 56-1/2" x 40" x 21" with 2 hand holds on each end. Two adult males handled it without much difficulty. Comes with stand attached. Clip the bands, lift the bottomless box up and put it where you want it. I did not, but plan on 3 people to wall mount it.
You are not going to get home theater audio out of any unit without a subwoofer. It is simple physics. This one sounds pretty good for what it is. You can easily connect it to a home theater system with the Digital Audio Out or RCA ports. It has no separate Subwoofer Out port.
I read an article that expounded on the limitations of the human eye to distinguish contrast at any one light level. Think of waiting for your eyes to adjust to bright or dark conditions. The point made is that contrast specs are BS. Test eqpt might measure another TV as having more range than this one, but I don't think your eyes would detect a difference. This TV has good black levels and maintains them as you crank up the brightness. I still think plasma has the best picture but can't live with its shortcomings. I question the benefit of LCD LED backlight beyond reduced energy consumption and a skinnier unit. Maybe it improves black levels?
If you have digital cable as a primary source, don't blame muddy dark areas on a TV. It is just excessive compression they use to save bandwidth. Sat TV is generally better. OTA broadcast is beautiful. Everything falls short of 1080P DVD. A gamma adjustment can help tweak this problem. This TV has some "expert adjustments" including gamma and black level. I haven't played with them, yet.
One of the imaging engineers I work with gave me a chart that shows the limitations of the human eye with respect to HD. Per the chart, you have to get a lot closer than normal viewing distances to see the difference between 480, 720, or 1080 resolution. This TV is big enough that it might matter to some folks and it looks great up close. I start to see the screen door effect at about a 24" viewing distance. Even with eagle eyes you would not see it at a comfortable viewing distance.
SD content looks very good but you can't make it HD. The interpolation algorithms work well. NTSC (the old analog standard, what you get from a VCR) is 320 x 240. Standard DVD is 480P. This is an area where you could see big differences between products.
TV's are moving toward becoming personal computers. I can see future units having a PDA for a remote and full capabilities. That will be cool. I can't wait. This one doesn't have any of that except a USB port for displaying pictures and playing music. It appears that computer capability is what makes a big difference in price. In my opinion, the most capable units are still pretty lame. This is the bottom of the line model but the only difference is the computer features. This TV has a PC port. Online streaming content is 480P, at best, and extremely compressed. I don't think it looks good on a big screen.
Menus are well designed. This TV makes it easy to optimize to your preferences. I did not like the "Auto" setting for picture brightness. I wanted it brighter. Otherwise, the initial setup wizard did the job.
No S-video. Seems like it is being dropped by the manufacturers.
I would like to have 2 antenna inputs but the only TV I found that has two is Mitsubishi.
Since broadcast frame rates are around 30 fps and interlaced only refreshes half of the lines, I think the effectiveness of 120hz (240hz)refresh rate is pretty subjective and content specific. Same goes for the 24 fps movie source stuff on DVD. This TV has settings for these features. If I find them useful, I will update this review.
I could gush awhile, but I think I will watch the TV instead. When you read other reviews that gush, apply them to this one.
Thanks to all of you who share your opinions and experiences with us. It helps a lot. For TV, even visiting a store will not help much because they do not optimize the picture and the store lighting is usually green. So the brightest one tends to draw your eye.
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55" LCD HDTV, 1920 x 1080 Resolution, 120 Hz, 70,000:1 Contrast Ratio, ATSC/NTSC/Clear QAM - 1 Tuner, SRS TruSurround XT, 4 HDMI input
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