LG 42LB5D

Summary: I have been researching TV's for quite awhile trying to determine the best one for me. I have watched the technology continually improve and am amazed by the progress. I finally decided to take the plunge and purchase a television and was certain I was going to purchase a DLP set. I made one of my many trips to the local electronics store to do more comparisons of certain models I had picked out and had not even considered an LCD TV, let alone an LG television. I was walking along the displays when my girlfriend actually pointed out the TV to me. I took a brief look and didn't see anything special and it was only upon closer inspection that I discovered what an awesome TV the LG 42LB5D is.

First, I set all of the neighboring 42" Televisions to the same HDTV signal (which anyone can do- just select the input on the tv's until they all show the same signal). I was never a fan of LCD TV's due to the pixelation in fast scenes-usually sports. This TV did the best job of displaying fast-moving sequences with very little pixelation, even better than the nearby Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, and Sharp models. My curiosity was piqued. I don't know if it is because of the proprietary software they use to render the image or if it is because the LCD panel has a 5ms response time. In case you don't know, a 5ms response time for an LCD panel is very, very fast. Alot of the other manufacturers have an 8ms response time. The faster the response time of the panel, the better it is able to render fast changing images.

Next, I switched the channels to a standard definition signal. Since most of what is on cable and satellite is broadcast in SDTV, it would be a good idea to pick a TV that does a good job of displaying that signal without making it look so bad. This television does an amazing job of displaying SDTV signals. Of course, it'll never be as good as a plain old CRT TV, but it does one heckuva job! Now I was getting really impressed.

The colors were bright and looked as good as the brand new Samsung LNT-4265, though the Samsung had a little deeper blacks. I don't think the extra few hundred dollars I would have had to pay would be worth that. Especially considering the better pixelation performace I noticed on the LG. (Pixelation annoys the heck out of me, by the way.)

I started checking out the specs. It has a clear QAM tuner that allows you to receive digital cable signals without the cable box. That usually means you can get all of the local network (ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, PBS) hi-def and secondary digital channels for free over your cable line (as long as you're not using a cable box connected to your TV). After I took it home, I found I had all of those channels. It has 3 HDMI inputs. It accepts 1080p via HDMI, Component, and VGA inputs. The VGA input was especially important to me because I have the XBOX 360 HD-DVD player and the only way to view movies in 1080p is via the VGA output from the 360. If not for that, I'd only be able to view my HDDVD's in 720p or 1080i.

I am incredibly pleased with this purchase and I gotta thank my girlfriend for noticing it or it would have slipped right past me. I know to take a review from a website with a grain of salt because you never really know who is writing it. The only thing I can tell you is to find a store that has one on display and do exactly what I did. I guarantee you'll see what I'm talking about.