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The speakers are two-way designs, with two 2.5-inch woofers and a 0.75-inch tweeter. The subwoofer has a side-mounted 7-inch woofer.
DVD, USB, and CD media playback
As mentioned, the LFD790 can upscale DVDs and other video files to 720p and 1080i resolution via the HDMI out port located on the rear of the main receiver. The LG seems to do a decent job of this when we tried out discs such as King Kong and Seabiscuit, but when it came to video benchmarking on test pattern material, the LFD790 didn't pass a single test. Most disappointing was the LFD790's inability to smooth out any jaggies whatsoever. Those shortfalls were manifested in real world material such as the opening scene of Star Trek: Insurrection, which was littered with a variety of noticeable artifacts.
While the LFD790 may fall short in regard to DVD playback, it makes up for that by including a well-designed onscreen interface for navigating through media files on optical discs or a USB drive. The interface is extremely easy to use and allows the user to compile playlists for songs and video files as well as slide shows for pictures.
A word on file formats--video playback is limited to DivX files (AVI or .divx file extensions), so you may need to encode your videos accordingly. MP3 and WMA audio files are supported (but not AAC), and the only pictures you'll be able to view are JPEGs.
Audio Performance
We put the LG LFD790 through its paces with the Dreamgirls DVD. The sound was beautifully balanced, so the vocals, especially Effie's (Jennifer Hudson), had lots of body and soul. The big production numbers were clear, and the subwoofer's lock on the deep grooves was never in doubt; it's one of the best subs we've heard in the LFD790's price class. There were two drawbacks to the sound: the virtual surround--which is supposed to simulate a surround effect from just the two stereo speakers--was virtually nonexistent, and the little LG didn't provide enough juice to play at all loud (we'd recommend confining it to rooms smaller than 150 square feet). LG's surround synthesizing modes, XTS pro and VSM, weren't particularly effective--we much preferred the LFD790's sound in plain vanilla stereo.
We did get a bit more volume when we played CDs, and the Clash's live From Here to Eternity disc rocked pretty hard--until it didn't, then the treble detail took on a nasty edge and the LFD790's power limitations became pretty obvious. Next we checked out Bright Eyes' new CD, Casadaga. This mostly acoustic disc fared better, but the instruments lacked their natural warmth. We wished the LFD790 had some sort of tone control, but it doesn't.
We went back to DVD and felt the LFD790 was at its best in home theater. That's not too surprising; most HTIBs stumble with two-channel music sources such as CD. One of our favorite Nicole Kidman films of the last few years, Birth, sounded excellent.
Up to the point the LG runs out of steam, it avoids most of the sonic pitfalls of inexpensive HTIBs. It works best in very small rooms, spaces that would likely not accommodate multichannel HTIBs anyway.
Assistant Editor Jeff Bakalar contributed to this review.
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Where to buy
LG LFD790:
$238.72 - $399.95
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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$238.72 | No |
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Amazon.com
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$379.95 | Yes |
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