LG 46LD550 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV

Review by Todd Whitehead for LG 46LD550 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV
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While this is my first HD TV, I have been looking at them for a while. I have had trouble justifying replacing a perfectly good 27″ Sony. However, now that the networks are moving actual content into the bars that fall outside the range of what my SD Sony can display, I finally got tired of missing 1/3 of the show and decided it was time to upgrade.

I am a Netflix subscriber, and I have been using PLEX to stream Netflix content onto my TV as well as to stream other video content stored on my Mac to my TV. It works very well, but it is a little kludgey since I still want to be able to use the Mac wile using it to serve Video content to Plex. (The TV acts as a second monitor.)

I was VERY concerned that I could find no reviews about this unit anywhere. It’s just that new. I was especially concerned about how well the ‘net connectivity worked. So, now that I have one, I thought I would write a review.

It’s an LCD HD TV. Picture quality looks fine to me, but standing in the store, they all kind of start to look alike. I’m not a video quality expert, I would say that I could see a slight improvement on the LED TV’s over LCD, but I don’t think it’s drastic enough to warrant $500-$1000 premium. I was more interested in spending extra to get that Ethernet port on the back.

So, how does it work? In a word: Amazing.

I hooked my HD cable box up and got that working, then I plugged it into my home network. It recognized that I had plugged it in, and it DHCP’ed an address off and connected without any problems. I hit the Netcast button, and got my choice of Yahoo Widgets (There is also a Widgets button on the remote) Netflix, VuDu, YouTube and Picasa. I clicked Netflix, prepared to have to painstakingly enter my Netflix login and password using the arrow keys on the remote and a virtual keyboard. I was pleasantly surprised when it presented a URL for me to go to (on my computer) along with a code to enter. I went there (it was a Netflix URL) on a computer that was already logged into Netflix. I entered the code and BAM! my instant watch queue showed up. You can’t browse movies here, just your instant watch queue. Put movies in the queue on your computer, and they show up here. Select a movie and after a few seconds, it just starts playing. You can skip forward and back and it shows the thumbnails very much like it does on the computer. It works great.

The Netflix video quality was good, but VuDu was Spectacular. They call it near BluRay, and considering it is streaming real-time over the Internet, it looks really nice. I have only watched a few short sample clips from New Moon, but it was impressive. You get a free rental to sign up, and I’m looking forward to trying it out.

I haven’t done Picasa or YouTube yet, but I’m guessing those are just as easy. The TV came with a Windows-only Nero MediaHome Essentials 4. Since I don’t have a Windows box, I can’t load this. I’m assuming this is what LG expects you to use to access content directly from your PC. I did a little Googling and downloaded a trial of Twonky Media. A cross-platform DLNA server. Loaded it up, set up my directories for my content, hit menu on the remote and chose “My Media” and BAM! again! There were the files on my Mac. I streamed a couple of shows for a few seconds. Fast forward, rewind, it just works. It’s amazing. I’m not sure I’m even going to bother hooking my Mac directly to my TV (who am I kidding, of course I will, because I can… but I doubt I’ll actually use it much).

Yahoo Widgets work as you would expect. They pop up on the bottom of the screen kind of like the Dock in OS X or Windows 7 and you can scroll through them and select them to have them pop up a window. You can have the window pop up over the picture, or you can have the picture shrink down so you can still see it all. I haven’t really played with them that much. There are several widgets to choose from, but my computer is very close to my TV, so I’m not sure how much I will use them on the TV.

Late last year, I got a Droid wireless phone with Internet, now I have a TV that, while it doesn’t have a Web Browser (who wants to do that anyway), it DOES have Internet connectivity. I’m pretty sure I want ALL of my future purchases to have Internet Connectivity. (Buying my new Dishwasher may be problematic…)

Review by SW for LG 46LD550 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV
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I ordered this TV thinking I was compromising and would just put it in my bedroom after a couple years and upgrade the main TV anyhow. Boy was I wrong! This TV, when hooked up through HDMI, has an amazing 3D like picture with dark blacks and vivid colors. I am beyond shocked how well the picture and quality is for the price. The widgets and streaming video also work well as I purchased the wireless adapter and it took only a couple minutes to hook up to my wireless router. Overall I cannot recommend this TV more highly!!!

Review by Bob for LG 46LD550 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV
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The 46″ LG LCD 120 Hz/1080p is my first HD TV. I wanted to make the right choice for my budget, and spent hours and hours looking a different brands and models, comparing prices, and reading countless reviews before deciding on this TV. All I can say is that all of my experiences so far indicate that I made the right choice. The HD picture is exceptional, there is virtually no glare on the screen, and the set-up is extremely user friendly. If you are looking for a fairly large, high quality TV for HD television, Blu-Ray, and PS3/Xbox360 for around $1k, this is the TV for you!

Review by Lev Bekker for LG 46LD550 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV
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The quality is wonderful. With an HDMI cable the picture is so clear and perfect. If you have a PS3 or any blu ray player, this is the right choice to make.

Review by Maryellen John for LG 46LD550 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV
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I didn’t think I’d be writing a review this evening. Figured we’d be enjoying our new TV. We set it up today and were into the second DVD, when the picture and sound began to break up. UNBELIEVABLE!!! It wasn’t a cable problem, it wasn’t the disk (which was new), it was the TV….which lasted a total of 4 hours. We’re returning it to Best Buy for another brand. This is my first and last experience with LG.

Update: Within 15 minutes (while processing my refund) the staff at Best Buy saw the same pixeling problem while testing it with their own DVD.