LG 55LH55

Pros: Remarkable clarity and detail as compared to the Samsung LED and LG, Samsung Plasmas.

Cons: Perhaps the blacks weren't quite as deep, but they were pretty good to my eye! I had this set right next to the top of the line Samsung 55 LED and the LG 60 plasma set.

Summary: To start this discussion off, I really went to buy a plasma or LED set and was looking in the 55 to 63 inch size range. I was pretty sure that I would end up with a Samsung model, but I was intrigued with the LG 60PS60 plasma set. I first looked at the LG 60PS60, but was very disappointed in the overall clarity of the image. I then looked at the Samsung 58 and 63 inch sets, which were a bit better, but still not stunning by any means in this respect. The 8 series Samsung 55 LED set was just a tad bit better than the other sets. In the midst of all these sets was the LG 55LH55 and it started to catch my eye. I was having a hard time with this, since I was pretty "anti-LCD" going into this purchase. All the sets were playing a NASCAR race on ESPN HD and this LG set just made all the other sets look fuzzy. It wasn't even close! The detail in the racetrack fence as the cars were blasting by was amazing and you could actually read all the sponsorship material on the race car! In my mind clarity is the number one item as the number of lines of resolution is what we are all paying for right? The other kicker was the fact that the LG set was $1000 less than the 8 series Samsung LED set for the identical 55 inch size. Also I did not notice the off-angle degradation that CNET mentions. Perhaps the 55 inch set just does better than the 42 inch set they chose to review? BTW, I had the store rep bring all the sets down to reasonable settings unlike the totally driven ones used on store floors for comparison and the results were the same. I agree with the CNET review regarding the built in calibration wizard, which made the setup pretty easy even for newbies. Is this the best 55 inch set? It is hard to say, as this point is quite subjective at many levels. It's all about what you think is the most important viewing feature. This set is very sharp and the colors were very realistic compared to the other sets. One other interesting point I noticed was when the edge of the race car caught a bright reflection from the sun, you actually saw that pop out at you, whereas the other sets did not show this at all. This again was quite noticable. In conclusion, I bought this set for the reasons that I have delineated above. So when you are out there shopping for a new set, I recommend that you give this one a bit of your time during comparisons. Perhaps others will disagree, but I don't think they will.