LG 42LD520 42-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV

Review by Babak for LG 42LD520 42-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Rating:
I spent close to an hour in the store comparing LCD TVs. This LG stood out with its sharp and bright colors. I used the store’s Internet connection to check out the reviews but since it is a new model there wasn’t many. The older model however was popular among gamers.

The speakers on this TV are hidden on the back and this gives it a neat look. The speakers also sound great. There are different sound options in the menu plus advanced picture controls. In “Intelligent Sensor” mode the TV adjust the brightness and color contrast according to the room lighting conditions. The picture quality is easy to setup using the picture wizard option.

This TV has three HDMI connections in the back to use with your laptop or desktop plus an RGB (VGA Cable). There is also a USB 2.0 port in the back. I connected a USB thumb drive and was able to listen to music and display my digital pictures on the screen.

Over all I am very pleased with quality of this LG model and recommend it to anyone who wants to buy a LCD TV for under $1k, and I mean not for picture quality but the size of the screen since this had as good, if not better, picture quality as other more expensive models in the store.

Review by Richard L. Morrow for LG 42LD520 42-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Rating:
Might not appeal to the people who can afford a $2500 TV..aka the videophile, but I’m in love with this. For 95% of people this should be more than enough. After months of shopping around and doing my homework, I went against the grain and decided to try the LG. Purchased this set through Walmart site to store. It was $70 more than the LD450 model on the shelf. But in my eyes well worth paying a little extra and waiting another week for it. The extra hdmi port alone justifies the $$$$.

Picture Crisp! Bright. Color is deep! Pops off the screen when in high def. Nothing in 480 (standard) looks good on this though . Keep that in mind. Initially struggled with adjustments. In the end a couple of tweaks to cinema mode were all it took. Looks as good (maybe better) than the comparible Sony’s and Samsungs.

A word of advice… I saw one of the 450 models on a store shelf…which basically has the same picture with a few less features. It looked horrible next to a Sony. Huh? The sales guy tried to tell me that the LG wasn’t getting as good of a signal. Ummm…why does the 47″ inch version way down on the other end also look bad next to the Sony? Or even the Sanyo? Why do I see the same thing when I visit the store down the road in fact? The answer? LG’s ‘store demo’ presets are horrible. I’m not sure why they did this. But they badly misjudged something. Once you get the picture correctly adjusted, you’ll see what I’m talking about. It’s an “oooh and ahhhh” kind of thing when you see what it is supposed to look like.

Final Settings: Aspect Ratio 16:9

Energy Saving Off

Cinema

Backlight 30

Contrast 90

Brightness 75 (adjusted)

Sharpness 50

Color 50

Tint 0

Color Temp W50

Advanced Control

Dynamic Contrast Low (adjusted)

Dynamic Color Low (adjusted)

Clear White Off

Skin Color 3 (adjusted)

Noise Reduction Off

Digital Noise Reduction off

Gamma Medium

Black Level Low

Eye CAre Greyed Out/off

Real Cimema Off

Color Gamut Standard

xvYCC Auto

Trumotion Off

THOUGHTS:

Intellegent Sensor is useless. Makes the picture WAY too dim. It might have been good if they weren’t so conservative with the energy savings. I could achieve 100% power savings by unplugging it, but what would be the point? Options to adjust Itelligent Sensor are greyed out too. The IS logo that pops up on the screen is also annoying. Blech! . Strongly recommend disabling this feature.

Trumotion=much ado about nothing. Doesn’t add anything great to the experience and in many cases makes things worse. Thankfully it’s easy to disable. Interloping of frames just creates an artificial feeling to everything. Even on low it’s bad. If motion blur/judder is an issue to you, then you to look into Plasma. I really don’t notice it though. NBA finals and World Cup matches looked amazing WITHOUT this feature enabled!!!!!

60hz vs 120hz: The difference is slightly noticable. Will 60hz ruin your viewing experience? No. But for the slight price difference it’s worth it. You’ll notice the difference with Blue Ray movies for sure.

Glare almost non existant. Good job!!!

Off angle viewing isn’t flawless, but I don’t notice issues unless I’m watching tv from the other room.

Reported ‘lip-sync’ issues: I saw it do this once and the issue never resurfaced. So I’m writing this off.

Remote control simple to use. Well done. Although I can make all adjustments I need to with my Directv remote, so it will go into mothballs.

Noticed a bit of uneven backlighting when I’m flipping channels, on a pure white screen. But don’t let that scare you. You shouldn’t notice it 99% percent of the time. If it does become an issue to you, then adjust the intensity of the backlight accordlingly.

Sound could have been better. Meh! Having speakers in the back was a bad idea. Asthetics aside..they shouldn’t have done this. But I’ll be getting a home theatre system soon anyway. So it’s a minor issue to me.

The stand: I had heard rumbling about the stand not being very ‘secure’ on the LD450 models. Definitely not an issue with the 520 series. Seems perfectly stable to me. I’ve bumped it a couple of times and it barely moved.

Lack of an ethernet port: Would have been nice had LG included this feature just for pulling down firmware updates. But I can live without it

BOTTOM LINE:

This tv is great! You can’t go wrong….as people have said…for the money. If you are looking for something better….wait a year or two for the next generation of led-backlit sets to hit the mainstream market at a reasonable price. But I can honestly tell you that this unit provides the best balance of all worlds. It’s candy for the retinas!!!!!!!!!

I wish I could give it more than 5 stars.

Well done LG

-Rick

Review by R. Frease for LG 42LD520 42-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Rating:
Another reviewer stated that if I researched I would find that this is a 60hz TV and not 120hz. Ok I did the research and it’s 120hz as advertised.

Review by Jerome A. Mortenson for LG 42LD520 42-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Rating:
Picture looks great crisp contrast, vivid bright colors, excellent sound would recommend this TV to anyone. My only complaint is the lack of analog audio output connection.