Customer Reviews

Should be a Bestseller
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.

Great big honking TV!
I bought this because of the great price on Amazon. I was going to wait until Christmas and get the best price on a large 52+ inch LCD or plasma but saw this model on sale at Worst Buy for just under @1500. Checked Amazon and they had it for $1418.19 and thought with free shipping and no sales tax, I was getting it for a super bargain.

I was concerned about some consumer reviews I read. They all said the picture quality was fantastic, but there was a problem with the sync on the sound. I already had sound system hooked directly from my Comcast Digital Cable box so the sound sync problem never was an issue. In playing with the TV, I did try the speakers to hear how good they were and I wasn't very impressed. There is a sync problem when using the internal speakers so I just turned them off and will forever use my sounds system and get great sound.

The picture quality is really great. I was watching a few of our favorite shows on the first night we had it, and I noticed how much more detail I could notice with this TV. My old LCD was a Sharp 46 inch and while the picture was fantastic too, the detail level that this 55 inch provides is so much better.

Shipping was free and very fast. The item shipped from Phoenix and took a total of 7 days (ordered on Sat and delivered on Friday to be in my home.


Just a quick follow up. I have seen that the price on this TV has dropped.....but I also have noticed that the availability of this item is also very scarce. When you factor in free shipping and no sales tax, the price I paid wasn't bad at all. Also, the home delivery and set up is a great value.
I am very happy with this purchase. The low price and free shipping made this deal a super value! The only negative I can point to is the sound quality of the internal speakers and the sync problem. I read on another forum that they were able to overcome this with composite cables but I wanted the advantage of HDMI cables.

Overall, super TV image, super seller, and outstanding quality for the money!

Great TV for a very good price
I have had this TV for a few weeks now. Actually it is my second. The first one delivered came with the backlight not working correctly. It would turn on/off flicker all the time.

I called Amazon and got referred to LG customer service. LG customer service after going through an unsuccessful over the phone troubleshoot attempt opened a case for repair. Called Amazon back, gave the LG case number, and got the TV promptly replaced (old one picked up when the new one was delivered).

The new TV works great with standard and HD programing (cable), up-scaled DVD and Blue Ray content. Media PC output- connected via HDMI is equally crisp and clear. Controls are simple and intuitive, would definitely buy again.
Amazon service including customer service was outstanding, easy to reach and very helpful (native English speaking support - NOT some difficult to understand, outsourced service)!!