LG 32LG30

Reviewed by

David Katzmaier

on 05/20/2008

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More so than with any HDTV we've reviewed recently, calibration really benefited the 32LG30. Armed with those extensive picture controls, we were able to take the quite-blue color temperature of the Warm preset and turn it into a grayscale that was superb, especially for a small LCD. We didn't have to mess much with the color management system, for its part, owing to the LG's already-accurate out-of-box color points. Check out our complete picture settings for all the nitty-gritty, including our calibrations for both 2- and 10-point methods--as with the 47LG60, the 10-point method improved grayscale linearity quite a bit. Of course, to set those controls yourself you'll need specialized training and equipment.

For our comparison and image quality tests, we lined the 32LG30 up next to the Samsung LN32A450, the Sony KDL-32M4000, the Toshiba 32CV5210U, and Insignia's NS-LCD32-09 and checked out The Golden Compass on Blu-ray from the PlayStation 3.

Black level: The darkest areas of the picture--such as the letterbox bars above and below the image, the black screens and star fields during the opening credits and prologue, and the night sky behind Lord Asriel--appeared a bit lighter than the other sets aside from the Insignia. These scenes looked a bit less rich and realistic on the LG as a result, but the difference wasn't drastic, and it didn't affect our perception of more brightly lit scenes much. Shadow detail in the standard Medium gamma position, the best to our eye, was about equal to the Sony and not as distinct as on the Toshiba or Samsung.

Color accuracy: In most areas the LG's color was the best in our comparison after calibration, edging out the also excellent Samsung by a nose. Saturation was rich and deep, which was more especially impressive considering the LG's slightly lighter black levels (which can limit perceived color saturation significantly). The key, along with excellent color decoding, is the set's superb grayscale after adjustment, which made delicate skin tones like Lyra's sunlit face as she challenges the gypsy children look warm and natural. Primary color accuracy was also excellent, as evinced by the green of the trees and grass on the Oxford campus and the solid red of the airship, which looked indistinguishable from our color reference.

Unfortunately, the 32LG30 suffered from the worst case of bluish blacks among any of the TVs in our comparison. Black areas had a distinct bluish tint, which happily didn't affect brighter areas, but which we couldn't ignore, especially in dark scenes.

Video processing: Unlike many HDTVs the 32LG60 passed the test for proper deinterlacing of both film-based and video-based 1080i content. It also resolved more detail via 1080i than a couple of the other sets in our comparison, so you can set your HD sources to any high-definition resolution without having to worry about truncating detail.

Uniformity:The LG's screen remained fairly even across its surface, betraying only one somewhat brighter area in the upper right corner, which was subtle enough to escape notice during program material, including letterbox bars. Off-angle performance, on the other hand, was below average; black levels suffered quite a bit when we moved even a seat to the right or left of the sweet spot directly in front of the screen. We also noticed reddish discoloration begin to appear in the darkest areas from those same slightly less-sweet seats.

Standard-definition: The 32LG30 acquitted itself well with standard-definition sources. It resolved every detail of the DVD format according to the resolution patterns, and details in the stone bridge and grass were crisp and relatively sharp. We appreciated its ability to smooth out jaggies from the edges of moving diagonal lines, however. LG's noise reduction did a fine job of cleaning up the "snow" and moving motes in HQV's low-quality shots of skies and sunsets. We were disappointed to see that the LG fell briefly out of film mode, failing our 2:3 pull-down test, which may cause artifacts when watching film-based material via 480i.

PC: Via HDMI, the LG resolved every pixel of a 1,360x768 source, according to DisplayMate, and as a result text looked crisp and clean. Via RGB, on the other hand, resolution was truncated quite a bit, making text appear broken up and alternating light/ark. The fault may be in the set's aspect ratio selection, which didn't allow us to choose the "just scan" mode, which would allow perfect scaling, with an analog PC source.

Geek box

TEST	RESULT	SCORE
Before color temp (20/80)	7,290/7,429	Poor
After color temp	6,577/6,449	Good
Before grayscale variation	+/- 891	Poor
After grayscale variation	+/- 50	Good
Color of red (x/y)	0.63/0.332	Good
Color of green	0.29/0.607	Good
Color of blue	0.145/0.057	Good
Overscan	0.0 percent	Good
Defeatable edge enhancement	Yes	Good
480i 2:3 pull-down, 24 frames per second	Yes	Good
1080i video resolution	Pass	Good
1080i film resolution	Pass	Good

Juice box

LG 32LG30	Picture settings
LG 32LG30	Default	Calibrated	Power Save
Picture on (watts)	117.88	61.7	N/A
Picture on (watts/sq. inch)	0.27	0.14	N/A
Standby (watts)	0.99	0.99	N/A
Cost per year	$37.10	$19.71	N/A

Score (considering size)	Good
Score (overall)	Good