LG 42LH55 42-Inch 1080p 240 Hz LCD HDTV, Gloss Black Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)First off, I should note that CNET is way too critical with their reviews and I'm so glad I went to look at this tv at bestbuy instead of just trusting their review. I don't think you could find a better tv for only 1140.00
To begin, the off angle is just fine and unless you have a living room wider than 15" and viewing from only 6" back, you'll be fine.
The remote that comes with the tv is so wonderfully simple that I'd trust my mother to use it. 2 simple buttons sum up this ease of use (input, and avmode). The buttons are not only labled well, but the resulting popups make it very clear what you're doing.
Hooking up the tv was incredible. The inputs are very easy to reach without moving the tv sideways. Aside from that, the available side inputs are also easy to plug in.
One feature I wish the tv had was avi/mp4 playback. Though it has usb functionality, the tv is only capable of loading images and (music? cant recall)
--- This should not deter you since the super low price makes buying a Play Station 3 with this TV a great option and one that I chose to do, especially since adding the PS3 means you can play video from usb, get wireless onto the tv, and stream shared files from your computer, in all, a major win, especially since the two combined keeps the price under the midrange samsung w/ internet plus you get the added blueray and upscaling bonus.
As far as picture quality goes, I have had the chance to watch HDTV, DVD, BLURAY, and PS3 games at 720 and 1080. The results of this viewing made me feel very good about my purchase. Though I'm sure the PS3's ability to upscale played a part in DVD looking superb, I have to say that Tony Soprano looked like he was in the livingroom. I also watched Princess Mononoke which has a lot of fog/type scenes (lots of greys swirling) and to my pleasant surprise, no noise, artifacting, nothing. I got off the couch and stood 4 inches from the TV and couldn't believe the picture was that good for only 1100.
Gaming is excellent. I really like the game mode (and I do recommend pressing the AV-Mode button and utilizing the feature). I tried out MGS4, Killzone 2, Ratchet and Clank, and Lego Starwars. The colors though not as vibrant as perhaps the 2700 dollar samsung, were none the less incredible and vibrant.
The sound on the tv is great and LOUD. I keep it at 14-20 (the tv goes up to 100)!!
Even still, I decided to take advantage of my surround sound, and purchased a 4.50 optical audio cable off Amazon to hook up my stereo.
Some other thoughts:
The tv is crazy light, I set it up myself (it really is only 37 lbs) so if you can pick up a 2yr old, you can pick this thing up.
The tv has a nice cable management feature, but I don't use it since I only have 3 cords going into my tv (HDMI from cable box, HDMI from PS3, Optical audio out to surround sound), ya, it's that awesome.
In short, buy the tv. You really can't go wrong.

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LG's TruMotion 240Hz technology uses proprietary scanning technology to virtually eliminate motion blur so you can keep up with the fastest paced entertainment.47" LCD HDTV, 1920 x 1080 Resolution, 240 Hz, 80,000:1 Contrast Ratio, ATSC/NTSC/Clear QAM - 1 Tuner, SRS TruSurround XT, 4 HDMI input

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LG 60PG60 60-Inch 1080p Plasma Frameless Edge HDTV Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I was originally considering a Panny 800u, but that's not due out til early fall and after reading about the CES award LG took and its stunning design elements, I decided to include it on my list.
My final decision came yesterday when a local sales manager called me to let me know he had gotten is 60PG60 shipment and was hanging his display unit. I asked him what he thought and he said, "OMG...you gotta come see this. I'm hanging it next to the Panny 750u for comparison"
So, I headed on over and his explanation was well founded. With an identical source, the LG was far crisper, brighter, and had deeper blacks. Still not as bright as the Sammy 650 LCD nearby, but that Sammy was more $, only 50", had far less features, and less dark blacks.
I said... "Wrap it up!"
Purchase Experience
I purchased my 60-PG60 at Brandsmart; if you are located in Georgia or Florida, I highly recommend them.
I opted for the 5 year warranty, which was deeply discounted as well.
Set Up and Use
This sucker is heavy; part of that weight is a very nice and sturdy stand that allows 20 degree movement in either direction; I am using the stand.
Beneath the stand are several rubber feat that make it darn near impossible to slide into place, so be sure you have someone to help you position it.
Out of the box, the color settings were fine for me, but I might opt for one of those calibration disks since the LG includes two custom expert settings. I'll need some advice on that from you guys.
The THX mode is kind of a mixed bag, it looks cool on some movies but not so good on others. Specifically, it looked great on Blu-ray "Night in the Museum," but kind of crappy on DVD The Matrix. I'm not sure if its been calibrated for HD or if the dark greenish nature of The Matrix made it a poor fit for this setting. The standard setting looked great.
The invisible speakers worked fine, but I find myself listening to things at a setting around 50 rather than about 15 on my Samsung, which means just about nothing, but I figured I'd include it for reference. UPDATE: The sound is definitely interesting. After a couple days use in a live environment, I've found myself really using a range of volume from about 25 to 75. My initial, and a bit stupid, reaction was, "Why do I have to turn it up so much to be able to hear well?" The reality is two fold. First, at the low volume range all was quiet, 2am everyone asleep kind of thing. At the 75 end, dishwasher going, kids yelling upstairs, a vacuum running, and a teenager mucking around with iMovie within earshot. Every other set I've owned get's very loud and somewhat distorted after about 40% of its max volume. I've taken the PG60 all the way up to 75 (or 75% of max) without any distortion. It has evidently been designed to use the full range of its volume capabilities. The main downside I see is that you will likely be adjusting this set's volume more frequently than others due to environment and it would be nice to have some presets to save a bit of time as the volume increments or decrements. A minor quibble since it really doesn't take much time.
Aesthetics
Obviously this is personal, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think the PG60 is one of the nicest looking sets ever.
It reminds me a lot of my iMac in that the glass is flush with a recessed matte. Unlike the 700/750 Panny, there are no doors to fold down and, for whatever reason, I just don't like fold down doors.
Everything is black except for the pivot point on the stand which a sort of brushed aluminum, thus creating even more iMac comparison.
Issues
The included manual is woeful. There is a better one available online, but it pretty much sucks too. I really wish manufacturers would create one manual per model and explain each feature...oh well.
The remote is a bit crappy too, mainly because it does not allow rapid access to some features by way of advanced buttons hidden behind a secondary door or some such. This is little more than a nuisance for me because I use a Harmony and can program many of those features directly from Logitech's site, however if the LG will be your primary remote, you might be a bit disappointed. For example, by remote alone, there is no way to go directly to a specific aspect ratio without cycling through them. One caveat, Logitech does not yet have the PG60s in their Harmony database so you'll need to go with last years 60" flagship. It works fine, but you lose access to new features like Just Scan until they get it updated, which should be soon. [UPDATE: Logitech's databases have now include the 60PG60 and you can directly access nearly all functions...yay!]
Someone had asked me to baseline this unit against others...here it is:
Here are my personal baselines for your 1-10 scale:
1) Insignia NS-PDP42
5) Samsung PN58A550
7) Panasonic Viera TH-58PZ750U
9) LG 60PG60
10) Pioneer Kuro PRO-150FD
My ratings do take into account aesthetics, features, and picture quality. The Pioneer's amazing inky blacks and uncompromising build quality/component selection pegs it as the best of the best IMHO. That said, my eyes are not as good as the instruments used by Elite engineers and my wallet is not as fat as those who might purchase that unit.
Picture quality aside, I think the LGs aesthetics and feature set surpasses that of the Kuro. Sacrilege, I know, but there you have it.
The Panny's glare reduction is a bit better than the LGs, but its feature set and picture quality are inferior. The new 850u might be a better comparison, but I haven't seen one in the wild. That said, pricing on the 850u looks to be significantly higher than for the PG60 in that I paid for the 60" what some major folks are charging for the 50" Panny.
Finally, I may be repeating myself a bit, but I cannot overstate the Aesthetics of this set. It really is "iMac-ish" in its form factor. I really like the frameless design and invisible speakers. That is completely subjective and personal though...

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60" PDP 1080P HDTV, 1920 x 1080 Resolution, 30,000:1 Contrast Ratio, 1,000 cd/m2 Brightness, ATSC/NTSC/Clear QAM- 1 Tuner, Dual XD Engine, SRS TruSurroundXT, 4 HDMI input, USB 2.0, Swivel Stand

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Panasonic VIERA G10 Series TC-P42G10 42-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV Review

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(More customer reviews)This is based on my experience with the TC-P50G10, which is identical to P42 but with a larger screen. I bought it three weeks ago, and am very happy with it. I did a lot of research and tried out a number of TVs before settling down on this one, so I thought I would share some of the information and my experience with the TV, and hopefully make your decision in choosing the TV a bit easier.
First thing first. According to my research, the Panasonic G10 probably has the best picture quality among all TVs in mass production as of the time of this review (May, 2009). Most importantly it has pitch dark black level, scorching brightness, high color accuracy, and good motion processing.
I chose the Panasonic plasma over Sony and Samsung LCD for a few reasons. (1) Compared to 120Hz LCDs, Panasonic is significantly cheaper than Sony and Samsung. (2) I think the G10 is better in handling motion than the 120HZ LCDs. (3) The colors on the plasma are more appealing to me than those on the LCDs. (4) It has superior viewing angle. It looks perfect from any angle you will actually watch the TV without washing out the color, prserving the quality of the color.
The third point on color appeal is subjective and calls for description of subjective experience. There are lots of technical comparison of the colors on different displays on the internet, but my perceptual experience is that the colors on the panasonic plasma is very vibrant, punchy, tantalizing, and mesmerizing. The colors look like things in real life, but they are more intense than real life. A friend said "it's prettier than real, but not distorted. It is just like an enhanced colorful world." If you prefer high fedelity to real life colors, you can use the THX mode to tune it down to be very faithful to studio color measures. LCD in comparison is also very vibrant, but it doesn't look as realistic. It's more like computer graphics and less like colors of living things. Technically, this may have to do with the deeper black level on the plasma than the LCD.
Before the G10, I had the Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ80U 46-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV. Both TVs have very appealing colors, but I returned the PZ80U and got the G10 because the G10 has a number of important improvements over the PZ80U: it has a brighter plasma display, has a VGA PC input, lower energy consumption, and more accurate color. Also, its frame is more compact, so I can fit a 50" G10 into the space that would only hold a 46" PZ80U. In fact, the G10 is brighter and more contrasty than last year's top model Panasonic TH-50PZ850U 50-inch Viera 1080p Plasma HDTV.
What else do I like about the TV? It is very bright for a Plasam TV. According to tech specs and online reviews, it is the bightest plasma ever made. In Custom Mode, it is more than bright enough to watch in my room with direct sun light (sun light in the room not on the TV). In Vivid Mode, "you should prepare to put on your ski googles". In fact, it's too bright and overly constrasty and saturated for regular viewing. However, it is quite useful in displaying low resolution and low quality online video such as YouTube or Netflix Instant Watch. The extra boost in brightness, contrast, and saturation make the low quality online video look much more appealing and lively.
VieraCast is kinda cool. Not a deal maker but certainly not a drawback. I used third party firmware DD-WRT to set up a Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router as a wireless bridge. So the TV can get online without running a cable to my main router.
I find this TV fits my needs perfectly. But no TV is perfect, at least not for the technically savvy.
So here are the cons:
(1) The sound is mediocre. It is fine to watch a TV show, but lackluster to watch a good movie or music show.
(1.2) True Cinema 24-frame mode flickering is perceptually disturbing because the refresh rate is set to 48 Hz in the mode. It is a pitty because motion does look much more life like and less video like in True-Cinema mode. Wish the TV could run at 72 Hz.
(2) My PC only has VGA out but no DVI out. (This point does not matter for those with DVI out on their computers. A DVI to VGA cable will work fine) The VGA input on this TV does not support 1080 HD. It only supports up to 1280x768. Panny should not cut corner here. Although this problem doesn't really matter for video contents because most computer video resolution is less than 1280x768. And the pixel interpolation effect on the Plasma is more like a CRT and less like an LCD. So the set is reasonably good at displaying contents with resolution lower than its native res.
(3) VieraCast needs improvement. The content is still limited. The search function of Youtube on VieraCast is not as easy to use as on a computer. The Amazon video on demand price is way too high (but this is not really Panny's problem). I would kill for a firmware upgrade that enables Netflix streaming.
(4) The remote is not as well laid out as the one on PZ80. The 3 big buttons above the directional keys are occupied by the rarely used VieraLink, VieraCast and VieraTool. The commonly used Menu key is moved to a small key. Totally wrong choice of ergonomics.
(5) VGA PC input is paired with RCA audio input. I wish it is a 3.5mm (1/8 ") mini jack instead, which will allow a single cable cable integrating VGA video and mini jack audio. Now I have to use two cables.
(6) The stand does not swivel.
Regardless of the above drawbacks, overall I find this TV to have the best picture quality and price combination. The pros by far outweigh the cons. The picture quality of this TV is truly amazing, as such some calls it "The New King of Plasma." Anyone seriously considering an HDTV should take a look at this one, now that the Pioneer Kuro exited the market.
I highly recommend it.

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42" Plasma, 1080p, THX, Viera Cast, H.264, IP Camera Ready, PC Input, NEO PDP Panel which is brighter, Full-time 1080p TV lines of moving picture resolution, 3 HDMI, Native contrast ratio 40,000:1, Dynamic contrast infinite black 2,000,000:1, Game Mode, Anti Reflective Filter, 600 Hz Subfield Drive

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Panasonic TC-P58S2 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV Review

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(More customer reviews)I've had this TV for a little over a week and am proud to say that I have no buyer remorse at all. I've calibrated this TV to the best of my ability and the picture is stunning compared to the 50" Samsung it replaced. The Samsung was only a year old, I just wanted a bigger TV and this one fit the bill perfectly.
The blacks are better and colors more accurate to me. I have the ability to watch the same source on two different displays at once thanks to my Onkyo 1007 having dual outs. The Panasonic just flat out beat the Samsung.
This is the best bang for buck for this size.

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Building on its award-winning 2009 Plasma line, Panasonic's 58-inch VIERA TC-P58S2 Plasma HDTV features a new panel with NeoPDP technologies that provide the best balance of black and white under brighter environments while also offering higher energy efficiency. The new NeoPDP Plasma panel also further reduces reflections and creates sharper pictures with higher contrast in brighter environments. This S2 series model provides 1080p resolution, full-time 1080 TV lines of moving picture resolution, and 600Hz Sub-field Drive for superb motion clarity.


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What's in the Box Panasonic S2 series Plasma HDTV, removable stand, remote control (with batteries), operating instructions

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LG INFINIA 50PK750 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is one of the Best TVs available on the market, especially considering it's price. I've had this TV for about a week now and have nothing major to complain. I was nervous getting a plasma TV due issues like glare, buzz, weight, form factor, ghosting, burn-in etc. But this TV proved to live out most of the disadvantages of plasmas.
Pros:
1. Color Accuracy - Color accuracy great without even tweaking any calibration settings. I like the THX cinema mode the best.
2. Slick - The TV has a slim form factor and the uniform glass top (Bezel does not pop out of the screen). We absolutely love it's looks.
3. DLNA - This is the first TV I owned with DLNA capability. I installed the Nero Home media essentials that came with this TV, on my laptop and I was able to watch photos and videos that are on my laptop, in no time. The video quality also feels upscaled and close to HD.
4. Plug and Play USB - I connected my USB hard drive and instantly there is a prompt on the TV to play videos, music and photos.
5. Netcast and Widgets - The TV comes with Netflix, Youtube, Vudu, Picasa widgets and it also supports the Yahoo widget gallery. I haven't yet tried Netflix or Vudu. But Youtube and Picasa were really good. The picture quality of the youtube videos was not great, but it really is a matter of the video itself, but not the TV. Yahoo widgets were good too. I especially use the Twitter widget a lot.
6. Games - The TV came with some games pre-installed. I haven't explored this feature much. But I tried Sudoku and it was simple to use.
7. No Buzz - Since I read in one of the earlier reviews about the buzz sound, I tried hard to hear it from my typical viewing distance (about 10ft) and I heard nothing.
8. Ease of use - The menus and features are very easy to navigate and operate.
9. Remote - The remote is really slick and with big keys and very easy to operate. Also has decent short cuts to most of the frequently used features.
Cons:
1. Black Levels - Black levels are not as dark as I'd hoped for, in a Plasma. In fact in some cases I tend to think they are not even on par with some of the latest better performing Sony and Samsung LCDs. I was a little disappointed with this. But hey, you get what you pay for..!
2. Glare - Like any other plasma TV, this TV produces a bit of glare. But this is much better compared to a lot of other plasmas I've seen and in most cases you wouldn't really notice it unless you are looking for it.
3. PIP/POP - I'd hoped that a 2010 TV comes with the basic PIP/POP features. But seems like this TV does not have it. It's not a deal breaker for me though.
4. Zoom - The picture zoom feature is a little cumbersome.
5. Typing - Netcast widgets use the number pad for typing. But Yahoo widgets (twitter) rely on the visual keyboard and entering each alphabet takes a lot of strokes. I wish LG offered a remote with QWERTY keyboard, something similar to the one that comes with Vizio VF552XVT.
6. Video format compatibility - I tried playing several videos of different formats - divx, divx HD, mpeg, mp4, wmv, avi etc. It was able to handle all formats. But within a given format some videos were not recognized (videos that I have are, even though of the same format, are different in bit rate, compression, resolution etc). Sometimes it does not recognize the audio. I wish LG comes up with a firmware update to expand it's support.
One feature I haven't tried is the wireless connectivity. This TV is both WiFi ready and Wireless 1080p ready. But both of these optional accessories which I do not currently have.
I haven't played around with a lot of picture settings yet (Mostly, because I didn't need to). But as I explore more, I shall come back to update this post.
This may not be the best TV on market. But for a little over 1000 bucks, you can not go wrong with this TV, especially if you are not a videophile and picky about deep black levels.

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Setting a new standard in picture quality, the 50-inch LG INFINIA 50PK750 1080p Plasma HDTV features THX Display Certification, 600Hz Sub-Field Driving, a protective Skin Glass, Dual XD Engine, and a TruBlack Filter to provide superior picture quality in a bright room. It also comes with LG's NetCast, enabling you to access to TV shows, movies and more, streamed directly from the Internet to your television screen.
The 600Hz Sub-Field Driving improves moving picture response time using a 10 sub-field per frame driving process for a clearer picture. The Protective Skin Glass system reduces the gap between the outer glass and filter by 70 percent, virtually eliminating double imaging and helping to reduce glare. And LG's exclusive Dual XD Engine facilitates up-conversion of standard definition content to near high-definition quality, so you can enjoy improved image quality with everything you watch.
Passing more than 30 rigorous tests, this LG INFINIA Plasma TV achieved picture quality worthy of THX Display Certification--the industry standard for having the correct gamma, luminance, and color temperature. This certification demonstrates that this HDTV can recreate the cinema experience at home, making the picture resemble movie theatre quality.
Other features include an incredible 3,000,000:1 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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