LG TV 3760. I am very happy with my new TV. Picture is great, easy to hook up.
Has LG backlight that is really cool. Have had for only 1 week, but
can’t find anything not happy with. Stand that holds TV very sturdy
so don’t have to worry about TV getting knocked over. 37″ is perfect
for 14 x14 room. Would definitely recommend LG 55LH40 one to friends.
Great lil’ set. Especially for gaming.. Uses: mostly gaming (Xbox 360 w/hdmi input). Also movies (Netflix streaming & DVD’s both through the Xbox 360)
PROS:
-50,000:1 contrast ratio. They say the bigger this number, the purtier the picture. Check out other sets in this price range. Few offer such a ratio, (yet). Not even LG’s next model up in size, for some reason.
-2to3ms response time (or something like that) and 120hz = less “streaking”. LCD TV’s historically suffer from “streaking” when displaying some types of moving images (I think from the pixels staying on too long). Gamers also complained that early LCD’s were taking too long to react to game input, (and in games like COD4 distorted images and slow response time can equal death!) This TV is fast and clear. My roommate has a mid/high end Sony 1080p LCD HDTV from a couple years ago. It’s a fine set but we both agree that this little LG displays xbox 360 input notably clearer than the Sony. There’s less blur and streaking during motion, which is huge for gaming. As far as I could tell when shopping around a few months ago, the only sets that offer contrast ratios, 120hz, and response times near this one are in the mid to high end of things and none of them are smaller than 40″. So for comparable specs (Samsung >=600 series, Sony’s Series > “W”, etc…) you’ll have to pay a few hundred to a few thousand more dollars right now.
-tons of inputs: RF (antenna/cable), 2 or 3 Component video/audio, 3 or 4 HDMI, RGB PC, Composite video, usb. I only use HDMI so far but there you go.
-5:5 pulldown. If you don’t know what this is, just wiki LG 55LH40 along with 3:2 pulldown, 120hz etc. I don’t know how many DVD movies or broadcast movies preserve the original 24hz image content (why would they if previous TV’s couldn’t use the data?) but supposedly because this TV can display 120 frames per second LG 55LH40 can show movies without the “judder” that previous 60hz TVs suffered. I haven’t watched enough movies without “real cinema” (LG’s name for 5:5 pulldown) to compare it’s effects on vrs off. I’ll just say that they look great with LG 55LH40 on. I haven’t noticed any weird artifacts or problems. (Maybe Real Cinema doesn’t “preserve” original 24hz content, LG 55LH40 looks at 3:2 content and “unscrambles” it?) I also haven’t used “True Motion” much at all. True Motion is LG’s tech that puts interpolated frames between source frames, to smooth out image quality. I played around with LG 55LH40 a bit gaming and LG 55LH40 works. Ordinarily blurred text remained legible for longer on signs in COD4 as I moved and ran by them. Generally I leave True Motion off because I don’t like the idea of extra frames that aren’t actually part of the original content. I hear LG 55LH40 makes movies look really creepy, so I look forward to playing around with it!
-good User Interface. Playing around with the various settings was easy. The remote and menus are not overwhelming. They are intuitive and clean.
-tons of options: There are all sorts of bells and whistles. Options like “fresh color”, “fresh contrast”, “eye care”, “noise filter” etc I *sort of* understood at one point back when I was setting up the picture to my liking, but no longer remember what they do. Going into “expert” picture mode allows tons of fine tuning picture options for those looking to calibrate with pro-level precision. But don’t be daunted by all the bells and whistles. I found a picture that I am quite satisfied with, and I’m no AV expert. You can too.
CONS
-Overall asthetics of TV cabinet. The shiny red back I think looks kind of silly. Overall the set looks fine: it’s not unspeakably ugly or anything. Just a little cheesy, maybe. You may disagree. Obviously LG 55LH40 makes no difference whatsoever to the picture quality. The part of the TV that you look at, looks great.
-built in speakers suck. This, I feel, is pretty much a given these days. I suspect that HDTV manufacturers feel that most people buying 1080p HDTV’s are going to be running the audio through external systems and given this fact and the desire for thinner and thinner HDTV’s it’s a waste of time and money and ultimately kind of impossible to incorporate really nice speakers into modern HDTV’s. This LG doesn’t have great sound. It’s fine, it’s adequate, but it’s not a dolby THX sensorama aural party. This is not unusual. My roomate’s Sony’s sound sucks too. Most modern HDTV have bad sound, or no sound at all. Check out the reviews. That’s just how LG 55LH40 is. I’m using the built in sound on my 37lg60 because I haven’t gotten around to looking into entry level 5.1 systems, and I haven’t had any problems hearing content. The footseps in COD4 are pretty faint, but what are you gonna do? You need an external system if you want better. And you’ll want that system to use digital audio because,
-no l/r audio out. The 37LG60 has coax digital & optical digital audio outs and built in speakers but no old fashioned stereo audio out. Don’t know why not. Oh well.
-not huge. You already know this. it’s 37″. So not appropriate if you’re looking to build a home movie theatre. Not really a con, but thought I’d point out the obvious.
-poor documentation. Comes with a manual on disk (pdf manual is also available on LG’s website). But very little info is available concerning some of the options/settings. True Motion when turned on can be set to “high” or “low”. What’s the difference? I have no idea. I’m guessing “high” puts interpolations in all 120 frames/sec not provided by the source material (60 for 60hz content) and that “low” puts in…less fake frames? But I don’t really know, really, and LG seems not to want to tell us. I don’t really understand how true motion (interpolations) interacts with real cinema (the 5:5 pulldown function). Apparently having both on results in 3:2 pulldown, which is weird. You’d think it’d do like all 24 original frames, and add some extra interpolations, but that’s not what the manual says. Whatever. I pretty much never use true motion. I would like more info on what it’s *actually* doing, but I don’t use it. Another issue: does turning on real cinema merely enable the TV to use 5:5 pulldown if LG 55LH40 detects 24hz source material (or 3:2 source material that LG 55LH40 can unscramble) or does LG 55LH40 actually force 24hz output regardless of the source? No idea. I’m guessing the former because I didn’t notice a drop in image quality when switching realcinema on and off while running 60hz source material. I tried contacting LG for more technical specs, but they haven’t been able to help me. So you’re gonna own something with some options you don’t fully understand. But you’ll get the gist of it.
*true motion on & real cinema off = creepyvision. smooth and weird.
*true motion off & real cinema on = 5:5 pulldown. movies the way they were meant to be viewed
*true motion and real cinema both on = 3:2 pulldown (according to the manual)
*both off = no idea. I’m guessing LG 55LH40 just displays whatever LG 55LH40 can, as faithfully as LG 55LH40 can, with no interpolation. You’d think this would be 3:2 pulldown, but according to the manual: nope.
SUMMARY:
If you’ve read this far…congratulations, you don’t exist! Seriously though, I bought this a couple months ago when LG 55LH40 was briefly available directly from amazon. LG 55LH40 was around $900 w/free shipping. I felt that LG 55LH40 hit the sweet spot in terms of price point and features. It’s pretty damn close to current top of the line models in terms of specs that matter, but it’s small enough and unglamourous enough (who buys LG in america?) and just old enough, apparently, to not cost nearly as much as those top models. If you’re looking for a non-huge TV for gaming, this thing is ideal. The picture is noticably smoother than earlier gen LCD HDTV’s. Sure, in a year or 2 you’ll be able to get LCD’s that fly and do your taxes for the same price. That’s the way electronics work. But right now, you’re getting a TV that would have cost like 3 or 4 or 8 grand a year or two ago, and retailed at like $1,200 when LG 55LH40 launched. *Sweet spot detected!*
Great LCD TV. First of all, I’m coming from a 32in Vizio LCD to this one in a bedroom setup. This was the biggest TV that I’d be able to fit, and the what seems like a small increase.
This TV is great. LG 55LH40 arrived in LG’s original box only, unlike some others that ship more expensive items in double boxes, but LG 55LH40 arrived in perfect condition. No dead pixels and the audio sounds loud and clear enough for when I don’t want to use my AV receiver.
I’ve been using LG 55LH40 for a couple weeks now using LG 55LH40 for watching basic cable with both digital and analog programming and both look well enough on it. On the analog cables some ”fuzz” shows up, but it’ll show up with any type of TV used. On digital channels, even SD ones, LG 55LH40 looks good.
And of course I’ve used this with some 1080p content as well. I saw parts of Dark Night and LG 55LH40 reproduces the images perfectly. Even the dark pictures look great with this LCD. LG 55LH40 has many features that you won’t find in a 37in TV, and much less in one that costs less than $1,000.
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