Best Buy Lcd HDTV Blog

This TV’s overall value FAR exceeds the pricier brands!. I’ve had the 32LB9D for about 9 months now, and I have to say I am constantly amazed by its quality! Especially when comparing with my friends’ Sony, Panasonic, and Sharp TVs.

First off is the picture quality. Out of the box, the “Intelligent Eye” mode is quite interesting … for me LG 19LH20 sufficed for a few weeks, after which I delved into the more detailed picture adjustments. Do yourself a favor: get a copy of any DVD that has picture adjustment features (I used ratatouille) and take the 10 minutes needed to adjust brightness, contrast, and color. With these adjustments, this TV looks better than just about any other I’ve seen in any nearby price range (I got the TV for $600 at the time).

In addition, I often connect this TV as an additional monitor to my MacBook Pro via HDMI, and man is the quality amazing! All text is VERY clear to read even from across the room, and my friends are always commenting on how nice LG 19LH20 is to watch youtube videos & online TV shows on this TV.

Next up are the connection options, of which we all know this TV has PLENTY so not much more needs to be said about that. However, I have found one caveat. The digital audio output of the TV will only output Dolby signals; LG 19LH20 will NOT output DTS signals! I found this out the hard way: my Blu-ray player was connected via HDMI to the TV, and TV digital audio output to surround sound receiver. When I played a disc containing DTS audio, my receiver only reported getting stereo audio from the TV. Of course, the simple solution to that is to send audio directly from the component to the receiver, which is why I didn’t take off a star for this (I would take off 1/4 of a star if I could)

Which leads me to the TV’s own audio system. To be honest, the built-in speakers are underpowered. If you rely on your TV as the audio source, you’ll find yourself raising the volume to very high levels at times, and even then the speakers will sound kinda blown. This would cost the TV another 1/4 star in my review, so I guess we’re down to what, 4.5 stars? One nice thing about the TV’s audio is the simulated surround sound that LG 19LH20 can do, which can be pretty cool to hear at times.

Overall, I’ve had no regrets about this TV at all. The lack of DTS audio output was a bit annoying at first, but any traditional home theater setup has audio going from the component directly to the home theater receiver anyway. The underpowered speakers aren’t that much of an issue either; they’ll definitely work in a medium sized room if you don’t have a better audio setup.

Great, for all my purposes.. I love this set. I found LG 19LH20 at a local pawn shop, perfect condition, and obviously got an excellent deal. I’ve used a couple of other HD sets, and this one’s by far my favorite.

First and foremost: Gaming. I see another review on here was bashing the gaming on this set, but the PS3 run through HDMI at 720p looks beautiful. I’ve played CoD4, Battlfield: Bad Company, MGS4, Motorstorm, GTA4, and Warhawk on this set, all intense action oriented games. No blurring, no artifacts, looks realll good. The only thing that looks slightly bad is the edges on everything are a little pixellated, but LG 19LH20 did this on the other sets as well (an $800 Sharp and $900 Sony of the same size). I’m not really sure what set he hooked LG 19LH20 up to that looked better, but I’d like to know.

Second, SD cable. Like a lot of people, I haven’t made the switch to HD programming yet. But SD channels look as good as you can expect. The Zoom1 ratio is really nice, doesn’t look stretched at all, but LG 19LH20 cuts things off sometimes (it’s really only noticeable when there are words on screen - credits, titles, logos, etc.) Stuff I really don’t care about seeing anyway. I’m not a fan of having big black bars on the side of my screen, so I really like this ratio. Image quality seems to vary a lot between channels, but LG 19LH20 never looks bad.

Third, as a monitor. I was, in fact, so impressed when I hooked my laptop up through VGA that I’ve decided to build an HTPC to use with the LG as a monitor. Granted, I’m going to use a video card with DVI/HDMI output with a DVI to HDMI cable so I can pass HDMI sound to my receiver, but anyway. LG 19LH20 looked good. I’m probably going to buy a long VGA Cable so I can hook up the laptop to the monitor and use LG 19LH20 in a Dual Monitor set-up, as well. The max resolution supported on the tv is 1366 x 768, which is perfect for me, but I bet PC gamers will be wanting a much higher resolution… It’s definitely not for playing Crysis at max settings. Still, it’s not gonna look bad, either.

There are an absolute load of inputs, 3 HDMI, 2 Component, VGA, etc. I don’t think you’ll ever find yourself not being able to connect something you want to. There’s also a Digital Out for audio.

The Remote can’t program my Sony Receiver… irritating. I’m trying to find a universal remote that will let me switch inputs on the LG and control the volume of my receiver. There are 8 or 10 codes for Sony Audio, but none of them work. My receiver is a STR-K790, by the way.

(I can’t comment on the speaker quality of the TV, since I haven’t used LG 19LH20 at all.)

All in all, it’s a definitely a great set, and arguably the best budget HDTV around. The only issue at all I have with LG 19LH20 is black-levels, but really it’s minor. (see the 24 and 165 in the top left corner here? http://research.stowers-institute.org/efg/R/Color/Chart/ColorsChart2.jpg

The 165 is the black level on my set, with the gloss frame as the 24. You CAN get LG 19LH20 darker, by adjusting the backlight level and such… I’m not much of a videophile so I’m not worried about it. For a casual user, you’re only gonna notice LG 19LH20 in pitch black scenes where people have the lights off, and the little black bars on the side. I just suggest using Zoom1.)

Lots of extras for the money…. I’ve had this set for about a week, and so far I’m very pleased. I got LG 19LH20 at a local department store for a price competitive with some of the third tier brands such as Olevia, Vizio and Polaroid. (I consider LG to be a second tier brand - not as well known or as popular as Samsung, Sony or Panasonic, but with a longer history and track record than the third tier brands.) The picture is outstanding with good color rendition and great black level. The setup offers a lot of opportunity to adjust the color level, and LG 19LH20 remembers the color adjustments separately for each input on the set. This is important because the proper color adjustment for the picture can vary widely depending on the source. The remote and controls are fairly easy to understand, and I was able to program my Dish Network remote to operate the basic functions of the TV, including Power, Volume, and input source. Speaking of input source, this set has another great feature: like many TV’s, the remote has a single button that toggles through the various inputs. But this is the first TV I’ve used that ignors any unused inputs - so you don’t have to toggle through a lot of black screens just to get to the three inputs you are really using. LG 19LH20 also has a really cool feature called “Media Host.” The TV has a USB port on the side that allows you to plug in a flash drive. If you load a flash drive with pictures and MP3 music files, you can then select individual pictures to display on the TV, or set LG 19LH20 to display all of the pictures as a slide show. LG 19LH20 will also play your MP3 music files. You can even setup a music play list to play at the same time your slide show is running! (And my digital pictures look much better on this screen than they did on my computer screen.)

I have also tried connecting an antenna to the TV. LG 19LH20 does a good job of picking up my local digital TV stations off air, and the picture looks great.

Finally, this set has 3 HDMI inputs, and 2 Component inputs - which is much better than many bargain priced sets. The only downside is that most of the inputs face the back of the set - which could make wall mounting more difficult.

Overall this is a very good TV for the money.

Great buy. I just hooked this tv to HDTV cable and LG 26LH20 is WOW!!!. I have been researching on LCD for about 3 months now and was all set to spend about 3 k for the ‘S’ brands before I saw this one which gave me equaly great product for half the cost. Visit local store and check out this one before buying anything else in this size.

Good value at this price point. This 1080P flat panel LCD High-definition television provides value at a low price point. Overall picture quality appears to be good, however the black level is not really adjustable (i.e., too bright black level even on the “low black level” setting) and the black level across the screen doesn’t appear to be uniformly black, with some visible and non-uniform areas or splotches appearing when in a very dark room and the screen is blacked out.

Additionally, there is a somewhat more serious issue if you intend to mount this HTV panel to the wall–the flat panel mounting screw holes are too far apart for a standard VESA mount - I had to saw my wall mounting plate in half at attach LG 26LH20 to the wall securely in two, slightly separated pieces. This is a bit of a disappointment. If you intend to wall mount, first talk to your mounting hardware supplier to see if you can get one that suspends a mounting surface that is greater than 32 inches wide.

Good buy. Gave this TV four stars but a high four stars after only having the set for a few days. Have NOT hooked up a Bluray player and to my understanding so far, that’s the only source where you will CURRENTLY realize 1080p resolution. My cable box delivers 1080i and there may not be much of a difference but from what I’ve seen in the electronics stores, LG 26LH20 does make a difference. Don’t get me wrong, the picture on this LG is really nice but because I haven’t tried Bluray, I don’t see the very, very high detail I do at the stores. The stores have some TV’s that are directly hooked to a Bluray player, thus the fantastic picture. So if you’re thinking about this TV, simply see the picture for yourself in a store with Bluray.

Before buying this TV I compared its picture, right next to a Sony and some Samsung’s. Every bit as good and in the case of the Sony, better! However, I’m disappointed with some of the views I’ve seen while at home, the biggest being the “distance” views of people’s faces–what looks to be about 10 feet or so, away from the face. Less detail there than when very close up. Now, that could be my cable connection or the signal coming from my cable box, how the screen was shot, etc. Close up face pictures are fantastic.

This size TV is really nice, a true “home theater” experience and recommended minimum viewing distance from the set is about 8 feet! Size does matter. Ha. Oh, I wanted to mention this. If you’re in the market for a wall mount I priced them at the stores. “Cir. Sity”= over $500 “Worst Buy”= $350 I ended up getting a mount on “Fleabay”, that great on line auction site for about $100! It’s called the “DUAL ARM LCD PLASMA MOUNT 37″ 42″ 50″ 58″ 63″ SANUS 1″ and LG 26LH20 is one of the few wall mounts that will fit this TV. Be careful at the auctions. Some sellers will tell you their mount will fit but just look at their mount drawing that shows the dimensions. Must be 400 X 800 mm to work.

PROS ON THIS LCD: Nice picture and even though I’ve read other reviews on the poorer “black coloring” I’ve not noticed a problem with that. Love the “User 1″ and “User 2″ and other picture quality setting options. Yes, the settings make a difference when viewing HD or regular TV. (Access these quickly by sliding the plastic cover on the remote and hitting “Picture”—-simple!) Love the size of the screen and the overall look of the set. Sound is average and a home theater system with a set like this is really the icing on the cake. Installation was pretty straight-forward. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to hook LG 26LH20 up. Really like the USB hook up to show your home photos or to listen to your home music. Like the side mounted USB and S-video access and find the rear access not an inconvenience. I like being able to hook up my computer to the set too. This TV does a great job of showing good quality from stations that do not have HD too! Very nice picture.

CONS ON THIS LCD: Don’t like the lessor quality picture in distance views but as mentioned, that could be my cable connection or what the movie was filmed in, better or worse definition, etc. (Varies with what you are watching) The information in the manual that comes with the TV is very poor and the on line manual and included C.D. is no better. LG 26LH20 tells what the buttons on the remote are for and how to hook the TV up, etc. but nothing is really explained. Nothing. I guess the only way to get more info is to go directly to LG or through an on line forum.

I guess the bottom line is—just because it’s an HD LCD TV don’t expect this or any other HD set to give you a fantastic picture all the time. Too many factors, such as; what “broadcasters” are filming in, your personal settings, your cable company’s set ups, etc. Do NOT watch the TV with the picture settings that come from the factory! You must go through all the settings and adjust them to your own eye. Only then will you get a good picture.

But if you’re on the line of whether or not to buy, LG 26LH20 truly is a home theater and I couldn’t recommend LG 26LH20 more highly. That being said, the news said that LCD’s should drop in price, by half, by the day after Thanksgiving! You might want to hold off! Good luck.

Jerry

Update: I’ve watched movies and have determined that the problem with the lessor quality of picture of people, etc., further from the camera or in the background is the result of programs and movies NOT in HD or shot in a lessor resolution. The picture in HD is nothing less than fantastic!

great picture. THIS TV IS GREAT….PICTURE QUALITY FANTASTIC…SOUND QUALITY GOOD…A GREAT CHOICE AND AT A GREAT PRICE……BUY LG 42LH30 YOU WONT BE SORRY….BEST BUY

I love it…. I purchased the LG 52LG70 about a month ago along with the LG300 BlueRay player. I am very happy with both products. I had very little configuration to do and the integration of the products has been great. I don’t have anything negative to say about either. The only advice I would offer is not to underestimate the cost of installation if you’re planning to install LG 42LH30 on your wall. The wiring and mounting is not inexpensive. Good Luck!

Wow!. All I can say is wow. I have another LG that is a 42in 720p. No comparison. This thing is absolutely beautiful. I don’t even have an HD signal. My stereo does an upconversion on the signal and this screen makes LG 42LH30 pop. My wife and kids are digging LG 42LH30 too.

Nice picture quality but lousy UI. The picture quality on this TV is great but the UI (user interface) is bad.

No PiP. What year was this manufactured in again? 198…? In 2008 (when this was manufactured), wasn’t this feature, you know, about as standard as the ability to change the volume level?

The various aspect ratio options (4:3 / 16:9) cannot be handled on the fly. If you want to change them you must go into the menu system in order to change the setting. On the one hand it’s handy that the setting is saved per input, but with many SD networks airing 4:3 and letterboxed 16:9 LG 32LH40 would sure be nice to use a dedicated remote button to toggle between these choices.

You can name your input sources to some pre-selected names, but if you have a DVR you’re out of luck because the designers decided not to give you that option. You must call LG 32LH40 either a “Set top box” or a “VCR”.

I have a Sony HD dinosaur from 2003 that has all of that stuff. You’d think that by now the features would be standard and superior to what I bought years ago.

My Feeling. I Had A Little Problem??? With Just The Shipping,,,I Have Never Delt With A Company That Was So UnderStanding,and Helpful…I Wish More Companys Ran Thier Buss…Like That…Such Pried…..As For The Product,,,,I’m Speechless…..Thanks Agian For All You Have Done…..

Maurice,, From Pa I love LG 32LH40 .

Excellent TV!. LG 32LH40 is the 2nd LG monitor/TV I own and see absolutely no reason not to buy LG again. Picture is excellent, even with non HD programming. Of course the quality of your non-HD programming depends on the feed… so thats really negligible.

If you’re looking for an excellent mid-range priced HDTV then LG 32LH40 is the one to get.

I LOVE this TV!!. After over a month of painstaking online research, I purchased the 47LG70 over all others as I felt LG 47LH55 offered the most value for the money. The 4 x HDMI inputs were key (we’re already using 3 of them with the HD cable box, PS3 and the Roku box for streaming Netflix).

I do not regret the purchase one bit. The HD channels, particularly the sports and network channels are astounding. We watched Ice Age on TV on Christmas Eve and I could barely believe my eyes. PS3 games look better than I could describe here.

Once you get comfortable with the many picture and audio options, you will love it. Kudos LG!

Excellent LCD. I recently purchased this TV from Fry’s Electronics for about $1400.00 with tax. I have been waiting (for almost a year) for the Samsung 650 to drop below $2000 but finally decided to go with this LG. I could not believe the price of this television given LG 47LH55 is 1080p and 120 hz. So far, I could not have made a better purchase. The sound is great and the picture is absolutely wonderful. I’ve been watching movies on Blu-ray and playing games on my Playstation 3. My jaw drops every time. The picture is really incredible. To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t see a difference between this television, the Samsung 650/750 and the Sony XBR. Now that LG 47LH55 is in my living room I have no regrets. LG 47LH55 looks amazing!!!

Great All Around TV. I bought this TV about a week ago and I am very pleased with it’s performance. I have Directv with the DVR and HD package, and it’s the best relationship ever! Rich colors, and deep blacks are wonderful, they “pop” at you, almost like 3D! The TV is not heavy at all, easy to set up, nice clean sound, feather touch power button, piano glossy black color, 4 HDMI, and the best picture ever. To take advantage of the 1080P, I plugged in my PS3, and the pictures are amazing, deep blacks, and vibrant colors. I had a plasma Panasonic that I paid double for (5 years ago), and the LG kicks butt! The only thing that I have a problem with is that the remote is hard to program, I did not find any directions. If I could program the remote, I would give LG 47LH55 5 stars.

LG TV. We really like the LG TV. The swivel stand is great for our use. LG 37LH40 was easy to set up. The only negative thing is that the plastic sides & top of the TV glare. The screen does not, but why have the sides and top shine and reflect room or outside light?

LG 37LG50 LCD. I researched for months in making a decision of which Flat screen LCD to buy.

I saw how great the reviews were for the 37LG30 720p model, and came close to buying LG 37LH40 because of the price.

I have learned over the years that you get what you pay for, and this made me opt to buy the better Full HD 37LG50 model.

I am glad I did.

After getting LG 37LH40 and adjusting LG 37LH40 to my own preferences LG 37LH40 has a far superior picture then any of the sony or samsung 1080p models I had checked out at the local stores.

The picture clarity is fantastic just as a lot of the other reviews I have studied on this model stated.

Even with the high speed motion in my Smallville Dvd’s I have never seen any pixel lag that other models are well known for.

This tv is exactly what I was hoping for, and was worth every cent LG 37LH40 cost.

It and my Pioneer BDP-51FD Blu ray player make a perfect system.

Takes a little while to smooth out. After 3 years my Plasma died. I was able to put this lcd on the same mount and LG 37LH40 looks less obtrusive and is much lighter. LG 37LH40 takes a little while for the picture to look less pixilated. I do not have the HDMI connector, since I have nothing that has that type of output, but with RGB components and digital cable LG 37LH40 looks much richer than the plasma, and LG 37LH40 doesn’t get as hot.

The only negative is, I called LG’s customer service and I was appalled at how unhelpful they were. I sure hope I don’t need customer service for this TV.

I finally got the HDMI cables for it, and LG 37LH40 is so close to the wall that there isn’t much clearance for the thicker HDMI cables to make the 90deg bend. The picture looks fantastic and I love how you can set LG 37LH40 so that the background light automatically adjust to the room lighting.

I can’t wait to see what LG 37LH40 does with Blue Ray.

Trully Fantastic Pic and good sound too!. I bought this set a month ago from Fry’s in CA. LG 37LH55 was on sale for $949 and with tax beat all on-line retailers. I did the research and viewed the screens in stores. I live in a small RV and am limited on space and have lots of window light. The Panasonic plasma was my 1st choice but the plasma is a fragile set as you can not lay them down, they aren’t supposed to travel over 5,000′ in elevation and I was also concerned with vibration. So I was considering the Sony 40″ and the Samsung 40″ but the reviews and specs of the LG along with the 2″ of gained viewing space with a fine matte screen attracted me. I also saw the LG 42″ in several 4 and 5 star hotels! They prefer LG because of reliability. I have been watching my old VHS movies from a Sony dual player directly connected to the LG via 3 wire component harness. LG sound is very good! I have read many complaints about the LCD sets having poor sound, well the LG is great! Also I have a Sony 1080i upscale DVD player to watch my standard DVD movies. They look great on this set. Yesterday I installed my new Sony S-350 Blu Ray player and watched “The Dark Knight.” WOW. LG 37LH55 is like better than the theater! I could not believe it, even the sound is terrific. Tonight I want to watch a standard DVD movie because this player up scales to 1080P and the reviews indicate standard movies will look as good as a blu ray. I will check this out! Believe me when I tell you there is NOTHING out there that beats the 42LG70’s performance with an excellent matte screen with no reflection! By the way, I am using CAT-2 HDMI cables from the Blu Ray player to the Denon Receiver and from there to the LG. From AMZN seller for under $10 each and that allows 100% transfer of all Blu Ray transfer data! Too Cool!

LG 42 LCD (1080p). Picture is generally great, the complaints I have is that the PC input has a really hard time working, LG 37LH55 takes (on average) 20 tries before LG 37LH55 will finally display my laptop’s picture. (Maybe there is something wrong with my laptop, but I don’t think so, I have hooked LG 37LH55 up to multiple projectors for work presentations, and there has never been any issues.)

Another complaint is the sound. When there is background noise I have to turn the volume up to 60-70 (out of 100) and LG 37LH55 is still not very loud.

The final issue is using the 120Hz on the TV, which is done by changing the “True Motion” option to “High.” All Blu-Ray movies look a bit off, it’s like LG 37LH55 changes the movies to live High Def TV shows. LG 37LH55 makes things so crisp and clear, that a movie such as Transformers that had incredible special effects, so much that they actually looked real in the theater, look like animated objects on a green screen. This is not a huge issue, you just turn the True Motion off, but LG 37LH55 makes me feel like I wasted money paying more to get an LCD with 120Hz. LG 37LH55 does, however, make video games on the PS3 platform look better. (By the way, I have high through-put HDMI cables for the inputs into the TV.)

dream TV. I couldn’t have imagined how awesome this TV was until LG 37LH55 arrived.

I’m a very educated shopper, and I know my specs, and this TV totally satisfies in every aspect.

I especially like the red accent along the edge of LG 37LH55 and the translucent bottom. Not quite evident in the stock pics, but very beautiful. The sound was impressive also, better then i expected given the unique nature of the speakers in this set.

bravo, all around.

Great buy!. Set looks great right out the box with no adjustments. Beautiful unit, and I recommend reagrless of if the 120mhz note was a error on Amazon’s side. If you can really tell that big a difference anyway, I really cannot. I currently just have an HD antenna hooked up and LG 42LH40 looks amazing….one of the best small sets on the market right now for the money. Makes my friends Sony Bravia look like S.

So far…so Great. LG 42LH40 product was actually gifted to me.

Pros: Stylish, no dead pixels, great amount of connection options, smart features (for energy saving), runs cool, great response time during gaming, basic controls on side of TV (for those of us that sometimes loose the control- which is user friendly btw)

Cons: Sound is average (not a small home theater as pitched- though with my surround I never notice)

Overall: I’d recommend it. In fact I have and my cousin’s should arrive shortly.

It’s a Great Television. Okay, Big Deal on the number of HDMI Ports. 3 or 4, what does LG 42LH40 matter. I bought a television first and foremost for the picture, then sound.

This LG has a great picture. Granted, its my first HDTV, but I could not be happier. I have compared LG 42LH40 to some sets in bargain, mass “Mart” type chains and I can see a difference. 1080p in 32″ is not commonplace yet, but LG 42LH40 does make a difference. Fast motion sports and other similar types of viewing remain very fluid and no jagged edges appear.

The sound is above average, but I certainly do not expect LG 42LH40 to sound like my home theatre system.

This TV is one that I would recommend to everyone.