 LH90 Series is an Excellent LCD HDTV |
| Review Date: August 1, 2009 |
| Reviewer: F. Jury, usa |
This TV was on my short list as soon as it was announced. It's a beautiful glossy black TV, with a subtle infused blue around the edges. The blue is only really visible in certain light, otherwise it just looks glossy black, but the TV looks beautiful either way. I don't care much for the "mole" that sticks down on the bottom left of the TV as I'm a fan of symmetry, however this is still a gorgeous TV.
The LH90 series is LG's flagship LCD this year featuring backlit "local dimming" LED's, and in my IMO it's one of the best buys on the market. Local Dimming allows for deeper blacks, that rival good plasmas, and easily beat normal non LED LCD's. The picture on the this TV is fantastic. Beginning last year and continuing this year, LG offers more picture/color adjustments then any other manufacturer. Colors are great out of the box, and your video modes include Standard, Natural, THX Cinema, Sport, Game or Vivid. In addition there are two Expert modes where you can create and save the exact picture you want. Also there is an intelligent sensor mode that automatically adjusts the picture for you based on the ambient light in the room. The OSD menus are color and icon driven and very easy to use. They are much better then what is offered by most other manufacturers. The OSD menus and pictures adjustments is one area where LG trumps all other manufacturers. I would rate Samsung second in this regard.
Connections are good and notably feature 4 HDMI ports and a USB port. You can plug in your flash drive to the USB port, and leave it there if you want. I have yet to be able to get my videos to play from the flash drive, and that is the only knock I have against the TV. Pictures and MP3s worked fine.
Sound is also pretty good, and while it won't compete with a sound system, its certainly more then adequate. Sound modes include Standard, Sport, Music, Cinema, and Game.
Standard Definition viewing is pretty good. Video processing for SD is another area where LG typically outdoes other manufacturers. Samsung also typically does a good job here. Some manufacturers though tend to offer poor to mediocre video processing which can leave your picture looking mediocre to downright bad on SD channels. Most people still watch a lot of SD programming so this is an important consideration when getting a new HDTV that shouldn't be overlooked.
This model features a swivel stand like most LG models, and I'm surprised that most other manufacturers, (with the exception of Samsung) don't have swivel stands on most of their models. A few Hitachi models offer motorized swivel stands that can be controlled from your remote, which is a very nice feature.
There are raised buttons on the left side of the TV, for things like channels, volume and power. The remote is quite good with this TV and one of the best I've seen. It is well weighted, has large buttons with good tactile feel, and in general is well layed out. There is a back light button on the remote that lights most of the buttons for about 5 seconds.
I run my coaxial cable directly to the TV, and the tuner works well. The TV takes about 5 seconds to turn on.
Best of all I scored the 47in on sale, and couldn't pass it up. Size wise you can also opt for the 42LH90 or the 55LH90.
This is a great TV, but there are some other sets you may want to consider depending on your preferences. Last year's 47LG90 is still available for about 3-400 less then the 47LH90. The 47LG90 was LG's first TV to feature LED local dimming. The biggest difference is the styling of the cabinet, although I prefer the LH's styling, I liked last year's as well. The only other major difference is the bump from 120hz refresh rate to 240hz, and quite honestly it's not really noticeable in normal programming. Blooming is the only downside to local dimming Tv's, however on this set, its subtle and I only noticed it when the screen is black and was rolling credits.
Toshiba is offering the 46SV670 and 55Sv670 which also feature LED local dimming. They are competitively priced and also beautiful TV's featuring some subtle gray around the edges. The Toshiba sets however lack a swivel stand, and also lack the great OSD menu controls and adjustments of the LG. The Toshibas have something called SRT+, which purports to improve the SD picture, but there are mixed reviews as to how well this works. The Toshibas do feature a true 10bit panel, and are one of the few models on the market to do so.
Another choice soon to be offered is the Vizio VF551XVT which will offer have LED local dimming and be offered at a price similar to 47LH90 or less.
Samsung is also supposed to offer its 9000 series featuring local dimming, however those sets will likely cost a lot more. I'd advise to stay away from the Samsung 6000, 7000 & 8000 series which feature edge lit LEDs. The edge lit system is inferior and doesn't allow for the local dimming that gives you the deep blacks. Worse, the edge lit system is said to cause screen uniformity issues. The Edge lit TV's only upside is that they are very thin, (if you care about that), however you also lose side TV controls and side connections.
You can also consider a regular LCD or a plasma. In fact LG's high end 50PS80 plasma can be had for about 3-400 less. You are getting more screen, great motion resolution, wide viewing angles and the deep blacks plasma offers, all for less. Also that model offers an ethernet connection for things like Netflix and Youtube, which is one of the only features lacking in the LH90 series.
Now that Pioneer has left the market, high end Panasonic plasmas, are said to offer the deepest blacks, however IMO Panasonic does a mediocre to poor job with SD video processing, which I watch a lot of.
UPDATE 9/5/2009- I have yet to be able to play videos of any format from my flash drive using the USB port. Despite menus indicating it will play videos, the feature either doesn't work as advertised or is extremely limited in function. Pictures and mp3s still work fine. I am having the same problem with the LG 390 blue ray player.
The LH90 series has a matte screen which helps prevent reflections off the screen. It works well, however my TV is in a dimly lit bedroom and in hindsite I might have actually preferred the glossy clear screen of the similarly priced Toshiba 46SV670. Glossy screens reflect more light but they also preserve deeper black levels and colors. I would have loved to have compared these two TV's side by side.
That said, HD channels look excellent and SD channels are very good. The TV's seamless tuner works quite well, but channel surfing is a little slower then I'd like. The tuners on my old DVD and VHS players, would take about .5 secs to change a channel versus about 1.5 secs with the LH90 tuner. Still perfectly acceptable though.
If you are budgeting, I would recommend getting the biggest screen you can afford. The 47in size is a good fit for my bedroom, but if I had it to do it over again I might have sprung for the 55LH90 and scrapped buying separate speakers and a receiver. The speakers on the this TV are good enough and I think I would have appreciated more screen a lot more then slightly better sound. If you have budget constraints, you should also consider that you might be better served getting a 55in regular Samsung or LG LCD TV for the same price or less then the 47LH90. You might appreciate the extra screen more then the marginally better picture.
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Definitely one of the best LCD sets on the market
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| Review Date: July 24, 2009 |
| Reviewer: KJN, USA |
Wonderful set. Picture is stunning with 1080 and 720 sources and looks good even with standard def. Set-up was straight forward. There is a picture wizard that gets you reasonable initial picture settings. Black levels are truly black, and depending on your brightness setting, you can make an all-black screen look like the TV is off. Colors appear to be accurate. The sweet-spot is quite wide, but once beyond 45 degrees or so off center, the blacks and colors fade a small amount. This being said, the picture is still quite good as you approach 70-80 degrees off center, and unless you are a true videophile, you won't really notice that much. The matte screen was a selling point for me as we have a large window across from the TV and it doesn't pose any viewing problems even with the sun shining right on the TV.
We also have an LG blue-ray player and the Simplink function works great. When you turn on the blue-ray player, the TV turns on and the input switches to the player automatically. Pretty neat.
I would definitely recommend this set to my friends. |
Finally a TV for my picky self!
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| Review Date: October 7, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Cody Bawden, Salt Lake City, UT |
I went through 4 HDTVs before getting this one. I knew I wanted 1080p and 240 Hz. I went to a local furniture store and got the Sony 46Z5100. When i got it home, I loved it, until the sun went down. In darker rooms, the backlight shines through and creates uneven colors and bright spots in darker display scenes. I got online and found out this is a common problem with the Sony LCDs.
I took it back and the sales rep talked me into a toshiba 1080p, 240hz tv. JUNK! I hated it. It was too bright and the colors were saturated. I took it back and decided to go to BB.
When I first went into BB my eyes were drawn to this LG, but the sales guy talked me into the Samsung 850. I took the Samsung home and it kept powering off every 2 hours. I took the Samsung back to swap it out and another sales guy said, "oh yeah, we have that proble with these Samsungs."
So I went and spoke to the first BB sales guy and he told me to get the Sony 46ZX5100 again. He swore that I wouldn't have the backlight issue again. So, like and idiot, I got another Sony. Sure enough, I was getting the blotchy flashlighting effect. So I took it back and told them that I want the TV I was drawn to in the first place. Before I took the last Sony back, I kept it for a week and did research on the LG. I even took my XBOX 360 into the store and hooked it up to the store model. I loved it in the store. The 240hz, although not true 240HZ, looked just as good as the Sony. The thing I loved was the colors of the LG and the local dimming. B-E-A utiful!! Better color than the sony, the samsung, and the Toshiba combined. No joke.
The only concern I had from the reviews was the sound sync issue. I called LG before getting the TV and they said that it was a known issue and if I got one that had the problem, then I can call them and they will send me an update for free or I can download it from the internet and flash drive it to the TV. So far, I haven't had to do this.
Obviously, I am very picky. I LOVE this TV! I got it for $1399 on sale and in my opinion, that is a steal. LG continues to pump out quality products and this is the latest and greatest. I rated the sound high because it blows all 4 of the other TVs out of the water. Yeah, its perfect, but it rocks compared to the others. It's also LED so it uses less ower than my electric toothbrush!! |
Good quality at a good price
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| Review Date: October 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: San Jose Reviewer, San Jose, CA USA |
This is a great TV. It's large. It's 240Hz for smooth motion. The quality of the color is excellent when you select the THX picture setting. The menu is simple for things like channel selection, but it has the advanced picture settings when you need to do minor tweaks to the picture quality.
I was trying to decide between the Samsung 8000 series and this one. The Samsung model had network connectivity, but no Netflix connectivity. Other LG models had Netflix connectivity, but this model has no network connectivity. The Samsung had a glossy display, and the LG has a glossy border with a matte finish for the display. Due to the lighting in the room with the TV, the matte finish made more sense to reduce the reflections from the lights in the room. Both have no significant picture difference between them, and they're among the best picture quality you can currently find. The Samsung is much thinner and lighter than the LG model. Both currently have the lowest energy consumption ratings for their size, and that's because of the LED light usage in the TV. The LG model has no S-video input, but it has several HDMI inputs, which is what you really need.
The biggest difference between the two models was price. This LG TV was a few hundred dollars cheaper for the same picture quality. At least I couldn't see the difference in various TV stores.
Some other people mentioned that there were some sound sync issues, but I haven't noticed it (with and without my audio receiver). Based on other reviews, it seems like it depends on the version of the TV firmware version and the video devices you're using. You can request an update if you encounter it, but with over the air TV and the Dish Network receiver, it wasn't a problem. If sound quality is really a concern, get a real sound system with a subwoofer.
If you still occasionally watch standard definition TV, and you're watching within 12 feet of the TV, I wouldn't go larger than this size. This issue is not unique to this model. Pretty much every TV this size or larger has a fuzzy picture for standard definition video when viewed up close. Also if you're not using HDMI cables for your video, like RCA cables (yellow/white/red colored cables), you're reducing the quality of the video. You really need to use HDMI cables when viewing a local high definition source. |
The TV to end all TV's
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| Review Date: October 12, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Kenneth Koers, Chicago, IL |
This is, quite simply, the best TV out there. Don't bother looking at more flashy, expensive models. All those reviews you're probably read, disregard all of them and buy this TV.
I spent several months researching TV's, and trying to weigh in on the battle between LCD and plasma. I finally decided on an LCD because the power consumption of plasmas can be daunting, plus we have a very bright living room that would have caused a lot of glare. Then I saw one of these bad boys as a Best Buy, and was practically sold on the spot.
The colors are extremely bright, even if you have the brightness turned to a lower level. Clarity was much better than on many of the other Samsung LED TV's I also looked at. The screen was much more uniform, too, with the backlighting compared to the edge-lit. The contrast is also very impressive, with blacks that are darker than the depths of my soul. I played some Halo 3 on it the other day, and it was glorious to behold. I did have to tweak the settings a bit to get exactly what I was looking for, which really just meant switching it to another pre-set display option. This was because in some very dark areas of the game the few bits of color that there were seemed to meld right into the dark scenery around it. After turning off the local dimming, though, it went right back to sweet. And on this point, I want to also add that I haven't seen any of the "jutters" that some people notice when the 240hz is turned on. Everything looked smooth and fluid on both Halo 3 and Too Human.
When watching movies, it's almost surreal how life-like it is. Me and my girlfriend both commented on it during out first viewing. Our cat is even intrigued by it (watched a whole episode of Flight of the Conchords with us), and he's never been one to bother with TV's. I did notice a little bit of haloing during credits, with white lettering on a black background, but it was only because I was looking for it. It's actually not very apparent, LG did a good job with this one.
At the end of the day, when it comes down to it I have not a single complaint about this set. I was expecting to pay upwards of $2500 or more for what I was looking for in a TV (I had high standards), so was pleasantly surprised to find this gem for $1400. I don't think you could find a TV half as nice for this price, I looked. |
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