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(More customer reviews)While this is my first HD TV, I have been looking at them for a while. I have had trouble justifying replacing a perfectly good 27" Sony. However, now that the networks are moving actual content into the bars that fall outside the range of what my SD Sony can display, I finally got tired of missing 1/3 of the show and decided it was time to upgrade.
I am a Netflix subscriber, and I have been using PLEX to stream Netflix content onto my TV as well as to stream other video content stored on my Mac to my TV. It works very well, but it is a little kludgey since I still want to be able to use the Mac wile using it to serve Video content to Plex. (The TV acts as a second monitor.)
I was VERY concerned that I could find no reviews about this unit anywhere. It's just that new. I was especially concerned about how well the 'net connectivity worked. So, now that I have one, I thought I would write a review.
It's an LCD HD TV. Picture quality looks fine to me, but standing in the store, they all kind of start to look alike. I'm not a video quality expert, I would say that I could see a slight improvement on the LED TV's over LCD, but I don't think it's drastic enough to warrant $500-$1000 premium. I was more interested in spending extra to get that Ethernet port on the back.
So, how does it work? In a word: Amazing.
I hooked my HD cable box up and got that working, then I plugged it into my home network. It recognized that I had plugged it in, and it DHCP'ed an address off and connected without any problems. I hit the Netcast button, and got my choice of Yahoo Widgets (There is also a Widgets button on the remote) Netflix, VuDu, YouTube and Picasa. I clicked Netflix, prepared to have to painstakingly enter my Netflix login and password using the arrow keys on the remote and a virtual keyboard. I was pleasantly surprised when it presented a URL for me to go to (on my computer) along with a code to enter. I went there (it was a Netflix URL) on a computer that was already logged into Netflix. I entered the code and BAM! my instant watch queue showed up. You can't browse movies here, just your instant watch queue. Put movies in the queue on your computer, and they show up here. Select a movie and after a few seconds, it just starts playing. You can skip forward and back and it shows the thumbnails very much like it does on the computer. It works great.
The Netflix video quality was good, but VuDu was Spectacular. They call it near BluRay, and considering it is streaming real-time over the Internet, it looks really nice. I have only watched a few short sample clips from New Moon, but it was impressive. You get a free rental to sign up, and I'm looking forward to trying it out.
I haven't done Picasa or YouTube yet, but I'm guessing those are just as easy. The TV came with a Windows-only Nero MediaHome Essentials 4. Since I don't have a Windows box, I can't load this. I'm assuming this is what LG expects you to use to access content directly from your PC. I did a little Googling and downloaded a trial of Twonky Media. A cross-platform DLNA server. Loaded it up, set up my directories for my content, hit menu on the remote and chose "My Media" and BAM! again! There were the files on my Mac. I streamed a couple of shows for a few seconds. Fast forward, rewind, it just works. It's amazing. I'm not sure I'm even going to bother hooking my Mac directly to my TV (who am I kidding, of course I will, because I can... but I doubt I'll actually use it much).
Yahoo Widgets work as you would expect. They pop up on the bottom of the screen kind of like the Dock in OS X or Windows 7 and you can scroll through them and select them to have them pop up a window. You can have the window pop up over the picture, or you can have the picture shrink down so you can still see it all. I haven't really played with them that much. There are several widgets to choose from, but my computer is very close to my TV, so I'm not sure how much I will use them on the TV.
Late last year, I got a Droid wireless phone with Internet, now I have a TV that, while it doesn't have a Web Browser (who wants to do that anyway), it DOES have Internet connectivity. I'm pretty sure I want ALL of my future purchases to have Internet Connectivity. (Buying my new Dishwasher may be problematic...)
Click Here to see more reviews about: LG 46LD550 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV with Internet Applications
This HDTV is Internet-ready. To view Internet apps on this TV, you may also need:
Broadband Internet service
A router
Cabling
A Wi-Fi adapter (if there is not one built in)
A PC for subscriptions or payments
To learn more about Internet-ready HDTVs, visit Internet-Ready TV 101.
Great for sports and fast action, the 46-inch LG 46LD550 LCD HDTV offers 1080p Full HD resolution for crystal-clear detail, TruMotion 120Hz technology for virtually no motion blur, and a super-quick response time of 2.4ms (milliseconds). With LG's NetCast, you get access to TV shows, movies and more, streamed directly from the Internet to your television screen. And the LD550 series also provides compatibility with Wireless 1080p Connectivity (wireless media kit required and sold separately).
Other features include an amazing 150,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio for more stunning colors and deeper blacks, two USB ports for connecting external drives for playing back MP3 audio, JPEG photo and DivX HD video files, stereo speakers with 20 watts of power and Dolby Digital decoding, and four HDMI inputs.
NetCast Entertainment Access NetCast Entertainment Access brings the best Internet services direct to your TV--no computer required. Instantly access movies and TV shows, news and weather and the world's largest library of HD movies in 1080p. (Note: Internet connection & subscriptions required and sold separately.)
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Buy cheap LG 46LD550 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV with Internet Applications now.
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