 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. |
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