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Picture Quality Stood Out vs All the Others,
I’ve had this TV for just over 24 hours and so far I’m pleased. I chose the LG 5400 after visiting the local blue and yellow store as they were changing over their 2009 models to the 2010s. I was initially impressed by the Samsung LED LCDs and was getting close to buying the Samsung 7100 (7000 everywhere else with a red ToC vs. Grey at this store) when on my third trip to the store, they had just put the LG up on the wall. The picture stood out right away from the Samsungs and the Panasonic Plasma above it. The other decidng factor over the Samsung was the matte screen on the LG. The Samsungs have a high gloss screen just like a Plasma which is a problem for the room that I planned to put the TV in. It has multiple windows and lots of light so a high gloss screen would reflect way too much. As for the Pro’s and Cons, here’s what I have noticed so far:
Pro’s: Picture quality with deep blacks and sharp contrast, picture adjustment wizard and ability to tweak it to the Nth degree including judder, sleek case appearance, internet widgets (haven’t played with these too much yet so they might just be toys to brag about but, not too useful), Solid build
Cons: missing some features that others in the price range have like local dimming LEDs, PIP/POP, room light sensing, and a universal remote, 120hz instead of 240hz (not that I’ve noticed a problem yet).
Lastly, a note about mounting this TV on a wall; all of the permanent hook-ups are on the back surface (i.e not recessed into the case) so if you plan to use a low profile mount, you’ll need right angle adapters for everything (HDMI, Component Video, VGA, etc). You’ll need at least 1.75″ of clearance from the back of the TV to the wall to get all your connections made. You’ll also need to use a recessed outlet. I ended up scrapping the low profile mount and using a tilting mount that gave me 2.5″ of clearance. Made life alot easier at the sacrifice of some sleekness on the wall. This shouldn’t have been a big surprise given how thin the TV is but, I made the mistake. Oh well. After I’ve lived with this TV for a while longer I’ll post an update but, so far so good.
UPDATE 1-11-11:
I’ve had this TV for about 10 months now and I’m still very pleased with it. I should note that I made a mistake in my original review under CONS wich was that this TV does NOT have room light sensing to dim the backlight. To the contrary, this TV DOES HAVE ROOM LIGHT SENSING. My mistake which I didn’t notice until recently. There are only two observations that I can add since my original review and later comments: 1. One of the infrequent software updates seemed to have erased my custom picture and sound settings. 2. Occasionally the room light sensor gets tripped up in a dark room and ramps up the brightness then back to normal. The first observation was more of an annoyance and had only happened with one update. The second observation may be due to a software update or possibly something on my component stand below the TV throwing it off. I really don’t know yet what causes this to happen but, it is infrequent and did not start to happen until several months after purchasing the TV. Otherwise, I’m still very happy with it and expect it to last a long time.
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|Almost perfect,
This is written from the perspective of a first-timer in the world of HD and large screens. I held off until I was satisfied with the picture quality, thickness, and price of LCDs. After more than a year of research online and in person, LG won out over all others, for the above reasons and the matte screen. Our TV faces a wall of windows.
We had a tough time deciding on a 47″ or 55″. Our viewing distance is only 10′, and we didn’t want to overwhelm the room with an obnoxiously sized TV. In my exhaustive research on TV viewing distance, several points kept repeating, namely that 1) few people regret getting a TV that is too large, but many regret getting a TV that is too small; and 2) if a TV seems too large at first, it will rapidly become “just right”. Ours didn’t seem too large at first, and I’m VERY glad we didn’t get anything smaller, and we could even go a bit larger for HD material and more of an immersive feel. The only possible problem as I see it is there is more work involved in watching movies on a larger screen – your eyes have to move more. This is especially obvious when a scene cuts back and forth between two people talking, with one of them on one side of the screen, the other on the opposite side. It’s something to get used to.
Non-HD material: as expected, it doesn’t look as good as it did on a CRT TV. With some material, such as cartoons, it’s not just a TV size/resolution issue – there are compression artifacts everywhere that look awful up close. This is a function of the digital source, though, not the TV. The TV just makes it more obvious. Regular DVDs look better once you adjust the picture – the “Standard” setting is vivid but unrealistic.
HD material looks spectacular. I thought Avatar would look great, but it’s better than I hoped it would be. HD picture quality is a no-brainer with the LGs and you can see them in person compared to other sets at any time, so I won’t go into more detail than that. The matte screen diffuses light and it’s perfect for the room.
Now for the dreaded audio sync issue. The TV I received does have it, badly with the blu-ray player, very slightly with HD cable (you can’t tell unless you really look for it, and some channels are worse than others). There seems to be a lot of misinformation about this, and people everywhere are returning TVs and blu-ray players, getting technicians to come out and update their firmware and even replacing the mainboard in the TV, none of which seems to help.
Here’s the scoop – it’s a problem with the TV, not the blu-ray player, at least in the case of this TV. Apparently the HDMI input circuitry slows down the audio, causing it to fall behind the video. This has been a problem with several manufacturers’ LCD TVs for years, including some from Samsung. There is no fix available from LG for this, and I don’t think there will be until enough reviews complain about it. There are a few solutions, however:
1) Use component video cables for blu-ray instead of HDMI, which was my permanent solution.
2) I was able to eliminate the problem with HDMI/regular DVDs by setting the DVD player’s output to 24hz (cinema) instead of 60hz. There’s no flickering or loss of picture quality that I can detect. This trick didn’t work with blu-ray DVDs, so I went with the component cables instead.
3) Use an A/V receiver that has a delay feature, and route your HDMI through that. I don’t have one, so I don’t have any more information on this.
I’m giving it 4 stars for the outstanding HD picture quality, low price, and the thin matte screen. If it wasn’t for the audio sync problem, it would very easily be 5, but I can’t reward LG for something that has been an issue with their sets for so many years.
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|Great picture quality, acceptable sound, good features,
Bought the TV a few weeks back from Amazon and have been impressed with the quality so far. I did reasonable research before buying this TV to replace an old 27″ TV that I had for almost 11 years and wanted something that had good features.
I compared the LG with Samsung 6500 series TV at a local store and did not notice any significant difference between the two. Compared to a bunch of TVs next to this one, the brightness seemed a bit high (relatively less dark), but nothing concerning.
I ordered the TV through Amazon for a decent price and the service was good (Ceva). They delivered to the second floor but I had to setup the TV myself (no installation and check-up like a full-fledged white-glove service). It was not difficult but needs 2 people at least.
The picture quality is sharp and clear and the sports action (football) was quite good. The audio lacks punch, as can be expected from a 10w speaker. However, I wish they included better speakers by default. Also had to purchase a wi-fi adapter separately. Again, would’ve been nice if it were included with the system (hence 1 star less). That said, it is no different from its competitors.
The biggest reason I went for the LG compared to Samsung was the price (around $500 less for the same features) and the matte finish. The matte finish makes a huge difference if you are going to keep the TV in a well-lit room. In the store, I could see all the lights in the back reflected off the Samsung, while it was hardly noticeable in the LG. Same at home with large windows.
So far, I have not noticed any weird issues as mentioned in the other posts. The picture quality is good and the brightness, contrast, and colors are more than adequate for an average TV user.
If you are in the market for a 55″ TV and if you have a bright room, this is definitely worth a consideration.
Pros:
– Excellent picture quality
– Standard set of Internet applications (Netflix, Picasa, YouTube, Vudu)
– Reasonable number of options to tweak
– Matte finish is great for a brightly lit room with large windows
– DLNA support works flawlessly to stream music from computer to the TV (haven’t tried video yet)
– Input and Output ports are sufficient for most scenarios
– Very thin (around 1″)
– Aesthetically pleasing
Cons:
– Speaker quality is average. A home theater system is strongly recommended for better quality
– Remote control is average. It’s clunky to type using the remote
– Internet Widgets are slow, but functional. Not too many widgets. Removing widgets is not intuitive.
– Additional wi-fi adapter required for wireless Internet connectivity. Costs around $50-$80
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