LG 32LN5300 32-Inch LED-lit 1080p 60Hz TV

Nice basic television at a very reasonable price, July 2, 2013

By 

Paul S. Remington (Rochester, NY USA) –

  

We purchased the LG 32LN5300 32″ television for our toddler’s playroom, so we didn’t want anything too big or too expensive. I looked at all our options and narrowed down my search to the LG 32LN5300 based on image quality, features, and price. My basic requirements were that it had to be 1080P and offer at least two HDMI inputs. There was one other television that was $50 less than the LG, but I opted for the LG because the image quality was noticeably better and off-axis viewing was far superior. The other television was an Insignia.

The first thing I’ll say about the LG 32LN5300 is this television is mostly about image quality; the image quality is its most outstanding feature. Like most flat-screen televisions, especially on the budget market, audio quality is not its strongest asset.

It offers two 10W speakers (20W total) that produce a very nice volume that will easily fill a moderately sized room enough that you can probably hear it well in an adjacent room. Don’t expect to get a nice full-bodied sound with rich low end. Its sonic body is thin. With that said, the settings do offer the ability to tweak the audio and you can set the treble and bass. This helps somewhat and lessons the boxy sound a bit. Virtual surround settings also enhance the audio effect. Just be aware that the audio quality is enough to get by, which makes it fine for a bedroom, den, or play room. If you want added audio quality, consider purchasing a separate speaker system.

Where this television excels in its price range is in image quality. The monitor does an excellent job at projecting a clean image with crisp detail and very nice image contrast and color tone. There is an abundance of expert settings that allow you to configure gamma levels and many other complex settings that most users will never know how to set. Some of these settings can get you into trouble, so if you play with them, expect to possibly reset everything back to the factory default if you screw things up. But don’t be intimidated. The settings are easy to access using the remote and all the basics are there: brightness, contrast, color, tint, backlighting, etc.

After initially setting up the television, I wasn’t overly pleased with the image quality. After maybe twenty minutes of customization, I now have things configured and am very pleased with the image quality. If image quality is important to you, expect to spend a little time configuring the settings to your liking and don’t get upset if the first image you see isn’t what you expected. It’s designed to allow for user configuration.

This television is ideal for applications that don’t require extra features or an abundant quantity of inputs and outputs. The 32LN5300 comes with only two HDMI inputs, one on the back and one on the side. If you’re wall mounting the television, keep in mind that the back HDMI connector requires you to use an HDMI cable with a 90-degree connector or adapter. If you don’t, the television won’t lay flush against the wall because the cable will get in the way.

Along with two HDMI connectors, the television comes with one composite and one USB input.

The 32LN5300 is Energy Star compliant and sips power at a rate of approximately $6 a year when the Eco setting is configured (default).

There are a number of reviews that complain about faulty power issues. Some of these reviews are related to purchasing used equipment. I’m very concerned about this, but so far, we haven’t experienced this problem, perhaps because we purchased it new. If we do, I’ll immediately update this review and report it here. If you don’t see any added update regarding this, our television is working fine.

Overall, the LG 32LN5300 is a very nice basic television that produces a beautiful image. The sound is a bit thin, but the audio can be configured to make the out-of-the-box settings a bit bolder. It’s not built for sound; it’s build for economy of purchase and image quality. We’re very happy with the screen quality. Based on our experience, we would recommend this television for those who need a basic set without an abundance of features or connections.

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 Comments (7)

LG 39LN5300, July 5, 2013

I purchased the 39 inch. First impressions. Picture is excellent without making any adjustments. I have it hooked up to Directv through the HDMI input. I watched a movie on a non HD channel and the picture looked almost as good as an HD channel. I think the TV has some kind of up converter built in.

Common with most flat screen TV’s the speakers are under the front of the TV and sound is less than impressive. I compare the sound to listen to something through a tin can. Plan to get a sound bar in the next few weeks.

So far I really like this TV. As always Amazon’s price was by far the lowest. Got one for $314.99 it was originally 387.99 but Amazon marked it down several times. I would buy another one if I had anywhere to put it.

Update 7/17/13
I have had this TV for a few weeks now. I was worried about buying a 60hz TV but no trouble what so ever. I have watched NASCAR, Baseball, Football and all other types of programing. I see no motion blurring at all on this TV. The picture is just amazing. Crisp, clear and the color is really good. Thats without any adjustments. I’m using the standard picture setting and have the energy saver set on low. Have not purchased a sound bar yet. Adjusted some of my sound settings and is a little better. Some channels have really good sound and some don’t. DVD’s have good sound. And speaking of DVD the picture quality looks as good if not better than Directv’s 720p and 1080i HD. The DVD picture quality is so good I have not even considered a Blu Ray player. I have my DVD player hooked up through the component input. The Blue Green and Red. Really happy with this purchase.

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No frills, but probably the best TV in it’s class for the price., September 14, 2013

I purchased this TV for my 91 year old grandmother who decided it was time to spend a little money on herself (I purchased from Amazon and she reimbursed me). Before this, she was using a 27″ JVC CRT that was nearing the end of its useful life since the screen kept getting progressively darker and any programming showing dark scenes was almost impossible to see (and that was with the brightness turned all the way up). At the same time, she was getting sick and tired of paying for basic cable service (about $25/mo) so I purchased a cheap RCA antenna (ANT111) to take advantage of the free OTA digital channels. She lives 5-7 miles from most of the towers and was able to pick up 39 digital channels with this antenna (she was previously only getting 10-15 channels from Time Warner).

While searching for her new TV, I had to consider space and price. I felt that a 32″ TV would have been too small and since I couldn’t find any suitable options in the 35-37″ range I started looking at the 40″ TVs. Unfortunately, these were out of her budget probably due to their “smart” options – which she will never use and their 120Hz refresh rates. Also, I needed to keep the overall width of the TV to 35″.

I then turned my search to 39″ models and narrowed it down to the Samsung UN39FH5000 and the LG 39LN5300. To make an extremely long story short, I have a grudge against Samsung because I’ve been burned so many times in the past (google “Samsung panel lottery”). It was hard for me to consider the Sammy, but I think it was the next best option to this LG (even though the Sammy was four bills and the LG was just over three).

I had the TV shipped to my home so I could evaluate it prior to setting it up for her. Set up was easy and straight forward. Three Philips head machine screws attach the bracket to the base, the TV slips over the bracket and secures with four Philips head machine screws with washers.

BUILD QUALITY (7/10): The build quality of this TV is above average if you consider its budget friendly price. I am only disappointed with the quality of the stand as it’s as light as a feather and is made mostly from cheap plastic and a thin metal support strip. The stand for my Sony TV weighs 5 lbs and the one for my Panny weighs 10 lbs. Both are made from a combination of sturdy plastic and metal.

HD PICTURE QUALITY (8/10): The HD picture quality is actually better than I was expecting. I tested the TV with my HD converter box and BluRay player in 1080i. The quality closely matched my Sony TV which cost three times as much. Some of the OTA channels are 720p and they look very good too. You won’t be disappointed in the picture quality.

UPCONVERTED PICTURE QUALITY (8/10): I think this category should be taken with a grain of salt since the upconverted quality is likely to differ between DVD/BD players. My Sony DVP-SR500H player does an average job (maybe a 6/10) while my Sony BDP-S590 player is above average (maybe an 8/10).

SD PICTURE QUALITY (8/10): I was pleasantly surprised with the SD picture quality of this TV. It was much clearer compared to my Sony (both this LG and my Sony don’t even come close to my Panny). Jaggies were hardly noticeable at all. Just remember, 8 out of 10 here looks really good and helps the overall score, but this is just a rating on the SD picture quality. If I had to compare the SD to HD picture quality, the SD would be somewhere around a 6 or 7 if the HD quality were a 10.

MOTION BLUR & MOSQUITO NOISE (7.5/10): I watched a football game on ESPN and noticed some slight motion blur. It wasn’t very bad or even distracting, but it was there. Also, I noticed some mosquito noise around the players. What really disappointed me was the motion artifact when watching cartoons. I watched an episode of Family Guy and every time the camera moved the picture shook which was annoying. This annoying level of artifact was present when I streamed the first episode of Under the Dome especially during the part where the dome came down and Barbie witnessed the cow getting sliced in half. What an awesome show btw.

SCREEN UNIFORMITY (7/10): There are a few bright strips that run the entire vertical length of the screen on the far left and right sides. These bright strips fade significantly when the backlight and brightness are turned down. They are more noticeable if viewing 45 degrees or more from center, less noticeable when viewing from center.

BANDING (8.5/10): This TV does suffer from banding issues, but it’s only noticeable when white backgrounds are displayed or probably less than 5% of the time. I watched a few hours of cable programming the other night while testing this TV and only noticed it very briefly.

COLOR (7/10): Right out of the box I felt the color on this set was slightly faded or washed out. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I prefer my colors to have a little more pop…

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