LG 55LH90 55-Inch HDTV Review

Date: 2010.12.03 | Category: LG | Tags: 55-inch hdtv,lcd hdtv,led hdtv,lg hdtv

The LH90 series, LG makes the first trip to LED-backlit, like fluorescent (CCFL) backlight used in a traditional LCD TV, however. The 55LH90 uses a full range of LED backlight behind the screen (compared to the new crop of LED TVs, the only place LEDs at the edges of the plate), and local-dimming technology, which react the LEDs dynamically to the Content means employed on the screen to turn off in order to create a deeper black level if necessary.

LED technology is not the only function in the 55LH90 repertoire. The 55-inch 1080p panel also offers THX certification and TruMotion 240Hz technology, and LG Intelligent Sensor-screen mode, USB playback of digital files, a ton of picture settings, a new automatic calibration tool and the Invisible Speaker System. The two things that are missing, you can find in other LG TVs are wireless HD video transmission and LG NetCast entertainment platform that gives you access to Web-based services. The MSRP is 55LH90′s $ 2,800.

The Hookup

The 55LH90 boasts an attractive design: the high-gloss-black case includes a clear acrylic tapered edge, subtly but effectively improved the overall appearance. The Invisible Speaker system features speaker actuators into the display itself, so there is no obvious speaker on the bottom or sides. The TV has a rounded swivel base with a matching black finish and silver accents added. Frankly, the swivel mechanism has me a bit nervous, as the large 55-inch screen just seemed not quite stable, you will probably want to mount this disk in a safe manner, especially when you got the kids in the house. The included remote has a clean layout, with full lighting, it lacks dedicated input buttons, but the TV will automatically detect which inputs are active and provides these inputs on the front of the list when you press the remote control input button. The remote also has a button called Q. Menu (Quick menu), which pulls up choose a miniature screen, which you can work together to make adjustments, such as aspect ratio, picture and sound mode, sleep timer and USB playback.

This TV has a comprehensive set of video inputs including four HDMI, two component video, an RGB and an RF input to the internal ATSC and Clear-QAM tuner access. The HDMI inputs accept both 1080p/24 and 1080p/60 signals, and one is on the side panel for easy access. Also on the side panel is a USB port that allows for quick firmware updates, and supports playback of film, photo and music files. There is no Ethernet port for Internet connection, and the TV is missing a program and picture-in-picture feature. Unlike some high-end panels to integrate 55LH90 has a RS-232 interface to the TV in an advanced control.

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The 55LH90 has a wide range of picture adjustments, starting with three preset AV modes (THX Cinema, sports and games) that automatically both the picture and sound quality parameters, the type of the found content you are viewing suit. The remote control can AV-mode button to scroll easily through the selection and I left the AV mode to OFF, so I make manual adjustments. In the picture setup menu, there are a whopping nine picture modes, including an intelligent sensor mode, which is automatically the picture quality to the room ambient light is based, as determined by a front-panel sensor. Since this is a THX-certified display, it also offers a THX picture mode, theoretically provide the optimal settings to be to optimize the disk. I would soon discover is that not really the case, but more on that in a moment. Unfortunately, in contrast to THX-certified plasma from Panasonic, LG has not let you make changes to the picture when the TV is in THX mode, nor can you even have access to the Advanced menu to see how certain parameters configured. If you choose this mode, you lose access to a lot of desirable image settings that are available in the Expert 1 and fully Expert 2 Modes, including TruMotion 240Hz and Real Cinema setup options, noise reduction, color space, gamma, white balance adjustment and management of all six individual color ink dots. If you calibrated the display, or at least an advanced set-up disc like Digital Video Essentials (DVD International) plan, the experts modes definitely the way to go.

For those who do not plan to those who have calibrated LG TV has a fantastic feature called Picture Wizard, an automated setup tool that guides you through a basic picture calibration by a series of photos, letting you, brightness, contrast, color , tint, sharpness and backlight until the “recommended” image. The results do not produce the exact settings I have in the use of Digital Video Essentials, I have small corrections to control the color and sharpness, but otherwise was happy with the settings. It is a great tool to encourage people to look their image better without that advanced set-up knowledge. I especially like the fact that Picture Wizard shows people what looks like edge enhancement (an artificial sharpening of the edges) and encourages them to get rid of it. Ironically, this TV Edge Enhancer feature, which is enabled by default and in high mode-locked for most image modes, with the exception of the expert mode. (If you use Picture Wizard, it stores the settings in the Expert 1 mode.) The 55LH90 also offers horizontal and vertical sharpness control in some of the picture modes. If this is too high, edge enhancement is clearly noticeable, but if they are set too low, the image grows softer. You want to find a good balance.

With regard to LG TruMotion 240Hz technology, the 55LH90 not actually have a 240Hz refresh rate, but it has a 120Hz refresh rate, with a scanning backlight that generates a 240Hz effect. The goal of TruMotion is twofold: to reduce motion blur and judder in film-based sources eliminated. Unlike some manufacturers to use different features to address each of these questions individually, TruMotion addresses both problems with a single menu option, with, low and high settings. TruMotion uses motion interpolation, which interpolates information from the existing frame to create new frames and means to produce 120Hz. Motion interpolation produces a smoothing effect that the film look more like video sources and the low and high TruMotion settings offer different smoothness makes. LG Real Cinema and a mode that, according to the instructions 24p Blu-ray content at 48 Hz when TruMotion shows off 120Hz (5:5 pulldown) when TruMotion, both of which should reduce judder, compared with the typical 3:2 – pull-down process in a 60 Hz. (If you select the THX picture mode, you can not access the TruMotion or Real Cinema set-up menus. Real Cinema is on, and TruMotion is off, giving you an indication of what THX is thinking of moving interpolation.)

The 55LH90 has an energy saving function that the panel brightness of the backlight to reduce power consumption cuts. The Energy Saving mode includes starting, minimum, average and maximum settings, and an automatic that the backlight according to the room’s ambient light (with the same sensor for intelligent sensor mode employed) fit and a screen-off mode, with you to shut down the video when you only hear music, to audio. Speaking of audio includes audio setup menu, LG’s Clear Voice II function, which does a nice job of educating the level of the song in order to more easily recognize. You also get five sound modes, plus bass, treble and balance controls, and SRS TruSurround XT processing.

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Performance

To evaluate the performance 55LH90, I have included it in comparison with my reference display, the Samsung LN-T4681F, a first-generation LED-based TVs, earned high praise from many, myself. In many ways, the new LG performs similarly to the Samsung and actually shows the improvement in several categories. (Samsung has the second-generation all-LED model, the A950 series has been released, but I did not have on hand for comparison.)

The advantage of a local dimming, full-array LED backlight, disable it, the LEDs around parts of the screen to “true” black to create, yet allow bright areas remain bright. If there is a night sky at the top of the screen, for example, the LED backlight to be switched off while the LED backlight at the bottom of the screen to stay on … and remain bright. The resulting image has excellent contrast, with a greater sense of depth and richer colors. A comparison of the two televisions, black parts of the image were comparable, but the 55LH90 appeared even have a better overall contrast, creating a wonderfully rich, three-dimensional image.

I have the backlight at about 20 to 30 percent, which proved a good fit for dark or light conditions in my viewing environment, but the record can be very bright when you turn on the backlight. I do not recommend a zero adjustment of the backlight, as the panel is too dark and makes flattens the image. The 55LH90 used a matte screen, light reflectivity is not an issue, but I will say that (the reflective but to reject ambient light), the Samsung Ultra Clear Panel is a little deeper acting black done during the day.

With 1080p HDTV and Blu-ray content that 55LH90 did slightly better job making fine detail. On a larger 55-inch screen, the picture is not so sharp you often look to see a smaller LCD, but it is not lacking in the detail department.

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One of the drawbacks of LED technology in the early generation models is that, since the number of LEDs in lighting is not used in a 1:1 ratio with the number of pixels, the light effect inaccurate. For example, if you look at white text on a black background, the text is to glow, something that not happen with a plasma TV, in which each pixel produces its own light is not. In a demo scene from Lost: The Complete Second Season on DVD (Buena Vista Home Entertainment), in which two people sit in front of a campfire at night, produced to the court some accidental ignition by lit areas, and the transitions from light to dark occasionally to the “local dimming”, caused, as to see which LEDs should be on and what should be off to fight. Compared with the first generation Samsung LED, but this LG model was more accurate to less light edges, so the technology is clearly ahead.

Colors denote the LG and Samsung show similar. Both TVs have an out-of-the-box color temperature turns too cold, even in the Warm color-temperature mode. With the LG, this is true also in the THX picture mode, and there can not do that all the picture settings in this mode, you can not choose a neutral color temperature. Whites and blacks veer blue and skin tones look a bit flat, with a touch of red. On the positive side, the LG’s color points are very close to those of the Samsung, which is accurate in that regard. The 55LH90′s red and cyan needed some optimization, which in turn can not do in the THX mode. In Expert mode, but I had all the controls I use for fine-tuning of the individual points of color and face of a more neutral color temperature, color and skin tones require more inviting.

In its dealings with 480i DVD and SDTV content 55LH90 has a much better job than the Samsung, in particular through the HDMI inputs. As long as the Real Cinema Mode is turned on, the LG went all my tests with deinterlacing 480i content, both with test discs and the real world demonstrations of Gladiator (DreamWorks Home Entertainment) and The Bourne Identity (Universal Studios Home Video). It’s a bit difficult to standard-def content to make it look high on a large 55-inch screen, detailed, and the LG performance is only average in this respect. They will not mistake 480i sources for HD, but it was a solid level of detail in both DVD and SDTV content.

I was also impressed with the attitude of some of my favorite DVD 55LH90 tests for black detail, noise and bit-depth. While some black detail was missing from the THX mode, the expert mode set a good job with fine black detail in The Bourne Supremacy (Universal Studios Home Video) and Ladder 49 (Buena Vista Home Entertainment). The TV played a clean image with minimal noise in the smoke-filled background of the 49th Ladder Facial contours and light-dark transitions were to smooth with both standard and HD content.

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The common problem of LCD motion blur is easier in a larger 55-inch screen as to recognize them. That’s where TruMotion into play. With the detailed tests on the FPD Software Group BD produced the 55LH90 a cleaner image with TruMotion activated, one of my favorite tests shows a camera panning slowly and then quickly on a world map. With TruMotion off, you can not read much of the text. With TruMotion on, it was easy to read all the place names. While a high-soccer show, the finer details in the background will enable better TruMotion. If you are particularly sensitive to motion blur, I recommend you TruMotion with sporting events.

Conclusion

This proved to be reviewed as an interesting. Two of the 55LH90′s big-ticket features – the THX mode and 240Hz TruMotion – not exactly wow me. I recommend the THX calibration mode, and I would only TruMotion with sports or video games. But the success of the 55LH90′s marquee feature – LED backlight with local dimming – overshadowed the other issues. Take some time to correct this TV, and you are with a large image can be rewarded-looking. In addition, the 55LH90 is loaded with image settings and connections, and the body design is pleasant to the eyes to boot. If you are a higher power than a conventional CCFL LCD for you in the market for a large-screen flat-panel display and the desire, then LG 55LH90 is definitely worth a closer look.

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