Could Have Been A 5 Star… But……., July 22, 2009

Quick Pros:

Good Connection Options, Good Resolution, Bright Image, 240hz Refresh Rate, 1080P, Attractive Design, Excellent sound, and OneCall Sales Staff.

Quick Cons:

LG Customer Service Mediocre at best! Set Up lousy considering NO Printed Manual

First Off…. OneCall is awesome! Best Price (and I searched all authorized dealers I could find at the time) Most Friendly sales staff. Customer service even responded by email long after hours!!! Please NOTE: OneCall IS LISTED as “more buying choices” on Amazon.

Now on to the TV: Television arrived.

CONS:

Unboxed, hooked up all cables… then with the side button I tried to turn it on.. no such luck… I then tried the remote… no good there either. Figured I had a DOA set.. I searched for a manual… none found.. just a CD of a manual. Problem was:

1. This was a gift…person getting gift has no computer, therefore no way to view CD.

2. I was nearly 56 miles round trip to my house to have access to a computer to print up manual from CD.

3. Quick Start booklet was included with indications of all connections EXCEPT location of the power switch!!! The “standby” switch on the side of the television is NOT the power switch.

I found this switch accidentally after disconnecting all the cables to return the TV set… I reached under the set and felt something “click” What do you know.. a rocker master power switch…. You know.. the one NOT listed in the quick start booklet or indicated by an international symbol or words on the front of the set indicating it’s location. (I had two others read through the few pages of the quick start booklet to see if I missed it)

After turning it on… and pressing the “standby” switch.. I was able to start the setup…

4. After driving home.. I brought the CD Manual with me….. and guess what! CD would not read on any of my three computers. Being that this was a Friday night… It was Monday before I could get a hold of LG. They offered to send me a manual… Cool… why didn’t they just include one in the tv box??? IT WAS THE END OF THE WEEK BEFORE I GOT IT! AND… It was not bound!!! I had to punch my own holes in a thick manual (it was obviously printed from a laser printer) and buy an empty three ring binder and put it together. I also guess priority mail isn’t necessary to fix a screw up on one of their top of the line TV sets. They never did replace the CD. It was another week before I could drive it down to the owner of the TV set. I am sure that the idea behind the CD was to save trees… Well I burned lots of fuel to fix this issue at least 112 miles! GEESH! Remember this… If you don’t have a computer, OR a DVD player connected to another TV to review the manual, OR have a printer if you wanted a printed copy… you are &$%#$ out of luck!

5. I left a longer review than this on LG’s website and even said I was going to buy more of these TV sets… and they never posted my review!!! I contacted LG THREE TIMES by email and called!!! I NEVER got a response from them that wasn’t a CANNED response ….

SO: No Manual Included (except CD which didn’t work), Quick Start booklet needs switch placement listed, (including listing it in the troubleshooting guide in the back!!!). NO printed manual on a TV in this price range is not excusable!!! LG customer service and response needs improved, AND LG needs to not cherry pick reviews for their website. A person needs to come to a website like this that usually publishes all reviews.

PRO’S:::

1. Most LCD/Plasma sets for sale have lousy sound… let’s face it… no need to subtract stars or ratings for this generally because to make the TV look decent.. you got to use some small speakers… want good sound? …. Then get a home theater speaker system setup… EXCEPT this LG!!! Awesome sound for a modern set….. For something this size… I consider the sound OUTSTANDING compared to its competition, and far beyond my expectations. Biggest surprise I had outside of the printed manual incident.

2. PLENTY of inputs for a 37″ TV including VGA hookup for a computer with a mini jack input for the audio … Although I haven’t tried this VGA/Audio input… it’s nice to see it included. There isn’t a DVI input.. but you can get a HDMI to DVI gender changer for a few bucks if you need to go that route online.

3. The 240hz refresh rate is state of the art! I also noticed no backlight bleed through. Backlight bleed is common on LCD’s to some degree.

4. Black level and contrast is best I have seen for a non LED LCD. Black level isn’t even close to my plasma’s.. but best I have seen in an LCD to date. It’s too bad that Plasma’s don’t exist in sizes below 42″.

5. Since this TV set was a gift.. I haven’t got to use the remote control much… but seemed pretty intuitive as I was…

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First impressions of the LG 37LH55 240 HZ HDTV, November 27, 2009

By 

C. Sundberg (Texas) – See all my reviews

  

UPDATED: 11/28/2009; 12/31/2009.

Pros: Extensively customizable, plenty of inputs on back and on side, fits where our old 36″ tube TV did, got a great price on Amazon (I think it was a steal!)

Cons: Extensively customizable, too many options for picture and sound to get a quick handle on them. There should be a course (maybe by that Vidoe Professor guy) on what everything means and how the different settings impact your viewing experience.

The TV was easy to set up once it arrived. The shipper (Pilot) was supposed to call us to schedule an appointment for delivery on 11/25 – but they never did. Instead, I ended up calling Amazon to get the shipper to fullfill their obligation in a timely manner. Others have said that the shipper unpacks the T.V., puts it together, and tests to ensure it works. No such thing here (Dallas area), but I was able to get them to take our old 36″ behemoth tube TV out and off of the entertainment armoire’s TV shelf. They just set it down on the floor, but that was 90% of the work.

There are so many options in setting up and fine tuning the TV, I don’t really know where to start. So, as soon as we powered it up, there was a guided setup to get the clock and all of the local channels into memory. There are even independent settings to choose whether to show the Red and Blue power indicator lights during Power Off and Power On states! That makes no difference to me, but my son likes to have the room completely dark and those lights (on the lower right corner of the TV) were distracting to him. No problem, just turn them off in the options and everyone is happy!

For each input on the back, you can independently set and remember all of the picture and sound quality settings. So, if your DVD player outputs a little brighter than the DirecTV Satelite signals, no problem. Set the DVD Player’s Input (Component 1 for us) brightness a little lower that DirecTV’s Input (AV1 for us since no HD service from them yet). Every time you change between these two inputs, the TV will remember your settings and automatically adjust them. This really comes in handy when you throw in a more things like Playstation, VCR, Blu-Ray, PC, etc. Oh, did I fail to mention that you can view .JPGs and listen to .MP3s from a USB stick if you just plug it in to the USB 2.0 jack on the side? I haven’t even tried that out yet as it is another thing I can already do through the DVD Recorder.

I knew there was no S-Video input, but I wish I had placed more importance on that. Most of our existing equipments’ best video output is S-Video, as well as our AV receiver. They will all be replaced eventually, but in the meantime we either have to fall back to composite (current option), or purchase an S-Video to Component Upconverter (anywhere from to over 0, plus shipping – use Google). These have the ability to split the color signals into component video for 1080i viewing! For many people, this will not be an issue unless like me you have become a slow adopter of technology.

At first, Picture Quality (1080i – off-air) was not quite what we had hoped for with 240 HZ “Tru-Motion”, especially for football (but read on, this was resolved!!!). Every time the camera panned across the field there appeared to be moire on the yard lines and this was especially bad when the camera shot was from the end zone. It turned out to be my lack of experience in setting up for the correct picture quality and video source. I had been using the HD tuner and the Component cable input from the DVD Recorder to watch football because it also outputs audio to my AV receiver for sound. When I changed that to use the OTA HD signal directly into the LG’s tuner (TV Input), nearly all of the moire went away. Subsequently setting the 240HZ Tru Motion to its “High” setting completely annihilated the moire and the picture was a thing of beauty from end zone to end zone! I felt like I was on the field! (UPDATE 12/31: Have connected HDMI from DVD to the TV and now the picture and sound from it are perfect!)

I believe you can output sound from OTA programs on the TV to an AV receiver or other amplifier with a digital fiber cable, but I just haven’t tried that yet (Update 12/31: I now have AC-3 Toslink from TV to Receiver. It passes all audio sent into the TV from various sources back out to the amp. We’re now getting Dolby Digital through the speakers from all sources that send it). I have opted to use the HD tuner from the DVD player for now and it already has such a cable connected. For quick viewing directly OTA the LG’s speakers work well enough without the AV receiver, I would say they are “good” quality.

Some have mentioned the absence of a backlight in the remote. This has not affected me yet as I tend to keep a 20W or so light on, and I have already added the TV to the Logitech Harmony remote – which does have a backlight. That…

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A pleasant installation experience for Jim and Theresa, September 18, 2009

By 

Jim Sutton (Myrtle Beach, SC) – See all my reviews

  

This installation involved removing a tube-type TV and replacing it with the 37 inch LG flat screen. I did read the instructions two times before the TV was removed from the box. I used it again for set up. The on screen help was fine. I had to make some trials of various setting before settling. Nothing was very difficult. I am amazed how well thought out the on screen displays were. Some displays and language was unfamiliar, but with time they were understandable. I love having a TV with this much quality in my small viewing room. Thanks Amazon.com and LG. You made this 70 year man happy. The installation even impressed my girlfriend.

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