Probably the top 37″ TV out there, December 17, 2008

By 

Aaron Steffens (Wisconsin) – See all my reviews

  

I have owned the 37LG60 for about 6 weeks now and I am very impressed.

Setup: Out of the box, everything went fairly well and the packaging was good. The directions for attaching the stand are a bit lacking in that there are two different sizes of screws provided and it is up to the user to figure out which ones fit in which holes. The menus for A/V setup are clear and concise for basic set up and there are a plethora of advanced options for those that want to dive in.

Video: The picture is excellent. At the time I’m writing this, there is only one 37″ consumer LCD HDTV that supports both 1080p resolutions and 120hz refresh rates. Visually any HD content played on the set is stunning, and even standard definition looks fine for almost everything. Much better than some less expensive sets that I looked at. There are almost never any visible jagged lines on SD content. The color and contrast were a bit off out of the box but that is normal with HD sets and 2 minutes of adjusting fixed it. I didn’t even have time to run a calibration DVD or Blu-Ray yet and I’m already very happy. Just a note for those that are planning on purchasing a 1080p TV; at 37″, in order to take full advantage of 1080p (be able to see the difference between 720 and 1080) you need to be sitting about 4 feet from the TV. With smaller sets, the difference is less noticeable. If you are looking to save money, getting a 720p TV would not be a bad idea. That being said, I love the way the 37LG60 looks and would recommend it on picture quality alone.

Inputs: The good news is there are tons of inputs. 4 HDMI, 2 Composite, a VGA for use as a computer monitor and more. The bad news is that I use a Panasonic Blu-Ray player and a TiVo HD with the system, both plugged into HDMI ports and most of the time when pausing or fast forwarding/rewinding content from either player, I get a high pitched clicking/static type of noise coming from the speakers. It is very faint, but I can still hear it. Since this is my first HDTV, I wasn’t sure if that was a common problem, but after asking around, found nobody else that had ever heard of such a thing. I contacted LG online support and was told, “I am sorry, I have found out that can sometimes happen with digital but unfortunately there are not any adjustments that can be made for that issue.” I’m going to try the Composite inputs to see if the problem exists there as well. It is not loud enough to make me return the set, but this is the issue that keeps me from rating a full 5 Stars.

Sound: The only other place where this TV is lacking is the built in speakers, which work fine for day to day use, but if you want to fully enjoy a movie experience, you will want to buy a sound system to replace the onboard speakers.

Visual appeal: The set itself is sturdy and attractive. The “scarlet” back is beautiful and the edges can be seen from almost any angle. The gloss black front and mirror finish base give it a classy look. I prefer matte finishes on TV’s, which eliminate glare from other light sources, but this is easily overlooked, as the set is gorgeous.

Support: LG’s online support was prompt and friendly but not entirely helpful in dealing with the clicking/static noise I am experiencing.

Overall, I’m giving the set 4 stars and keeping it in my house. I will edit my review once I’ve had a chance to try Composite cables.

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Great TV for a decent price., November 24, 2008

I purchased this TV about two weeks ago for the price of 1.75 which is a pretty good price for the size and due to the fact that its full 1080p. Its got an awesome contrast ratio of 50,000:1. When using my PS3 hooked up via HDMI cable the picture is nothing short of perfect. Games look amazing and blu-ray movies look spectacular. Regular SD TV viewing leaves a bit to be desired but its about par with other HD TVs that I have seen on SD. Buttons on the TV are hidden on the side except for the power button which is placed on the LG logo on the front, and the power button is touch sensitive, meaning you just have to touch the logo not press it and on comes the TV. The TV itself is quite attractive with scarlet backing and a full black front except for the LG logo which is a sort of glowing red. Overall its a great TV for a pretty decent price.

September 24th, 2009

To add to my review:

Sadly my TV just gave out on me. The picture began to flicker and I suspected that the HDMI cord was the culprit but alas it was the TV. Not even a year old… Hopefully LG will honor their year warranty. . . Will update status again after discussing the issue with them tomorrow. This is quite disappointing seeing as how I spent 900 dollars on the TV. . .

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Great lil’ set. Especially for gaming., January 20, 2009

By 

B. Sarason – See all my reviews

  

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 it 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 it 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 it on. I haven’t noticed any weird artifacts or problems. (Maybe Real Cinema doesn’t “preserve” original 24hz content, it 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 it a bit gaming and it 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 it 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 it 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 it 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…

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