LG 50PM6700 50-Inch 1080p 600Hz Active 3D Plasma HDTV

LG 60PM6700 Not Bad So Far – See update 6/10/2012, May 16, 2012

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Ryan Lamprecht –

  

I ordered the LG 60PM6700 on Friday March 11th, with Free Supersaver Shipping, and it was already delivered this evening Wednesday March 16. That was fast! Two guys brought it in, set it up, and made sure everything was as it should be before I signed for it. I’ve only had it for about 6 hours, so I’ll give my initial impression, then update it in a few days after having more experience with the set.

I had previously purchased a Panasonic TC-P60S30 from WalMart for a really good price, but in the end, I was not happy with its extremely dark picture and overall substandard picture quality, so I returned it.

Right off the bat this LG blows away the picture quality of the Panasonic model I had returned. Granted, this one cost me about $300 more, but I can tell you it’s already worth it. So far I’ve tweaked the settings to where I like the color, brightness, contrast, and black levels. I used the Picture Wizard II, but then did a few more minor tweaks to suit my taste, which tends to lean towards a brighter picture. I did have an inexpensive Element Electronics 42″ LCD sitting here while I was shopping for a replacement. I can say, the LG doesn’t have quite the bright picture and vivid colors the smaller LCD has, but it does completely blow away the 60″ Panasonic plasma I had returned. From what I’ve experienced, heard, and read, Plasma’s just don’t quite have the bright brilliant pop that LCD TV’s do, but this LG looks pretty darn awesome. My tastes run towards a brighter picture, so I’m pretty picky when it comes to getting the settings I want from a TV. So far, I find this LG very pleasing. As far as the bright vivid picture I’m looking for, this set gets me where I want to be.

So far, I’ve viewed some HD Dish Network content (Restaurant Impossible on the Food Network), and it looked great. I then put on Rango through Netflix over the built in WIFI. The jury is still out on that since I’m not sure if my WIFI isn’t the best, or the TV’s WIFI isn’t the greatest, but WIFI over my Panasonic BluRay player seems to look fine. I then connected a LAN cable to the TV and went back to viewing Rango through Netflix, and it looks great; almost DVD quality. I’ll report back about the WIFI once I figure out if it’s my WIFI network or if the TV’s WIFI connection isn’t the greatest.

Next I watched part of a DVD I burned to back up one of my movies (a DVD copy of a DVD movie) through my Panasonic DMP BDT210 BluRay player. The picture was crisp and clear, but I noticed a lot of motion judder. Even messing with the de-judder setting didn’t help. It may just be my copy of the movie, but a couple of times I had previously watched it on the LCD I had and didn’t notice the judder at all, so I’ll have to watch a few more of my copied movies and report back.

I now have a store bought DVD of Alice in Wonderland playing, and it looks absolutely amazing, and with no motion judder at all. I still have to dig out a few of my BluRay disks to check that out, but I can’t imagine even a Blue Ray looking much better than the standard DVD already looks. My family room is huge, so I’m sitting about 15 feet away from the TV, and I can count the individual hairs on Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter wig.

I took advantage of the free two pair of 3D glasses being offered through Amazon when purchasing the LG set, but they have not arrived yet. I should have them in a day or two, so I’ll have to wait to report about the 3D experience.

I have noticed one design flaw in the TV stand. Due to the glossy black half inch beveled angle of the front of the stand, it tends to reflect brighter scenes, which is a bit distracting. It’s a minor flaw, but if I decide to keep this set, I’ll likely paint that thin strip of the stand with some flat black spray paint or use some flat black tape to cover it and eliminate the reflection. Of course if you mount this set on the wall, then this won’t be an issue at all. (Update 6/10/2012 – As it turns out, this reflection from the stand is really not an issue. I rarely even notice it at all.)

So far I’m very pleased with the set. As I said, I’ll report back in a few days.

5/20/2012 Update
It’s now been 4 full days of owning the LG 60PM6700 and thus far it has surpassed my expectations. The picture quality, color, brightness, and black levels, etc… ALL AMAZING! I’ve been through three other large screen TV’s. Let’s just say I’m pretty picky when it comes to being satisfied with a television. My first was a 50″ Samsung I had for exactly 4 years, and it died. I purchased a LG 55LW6500 LED 3D TV, which I sent back due to horribly intolerable motion blur and judder. I then purchased a 60″ Panasonic TC-P60S30, which had an incredibly dark picture and overall substandard picture quality. That one went back after trying to live with it for nearly 3 months. I also own two 40″ LCD TV’s which are in our bedrooms. Both of the LCDs have…

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Beautiful tv before firmware update – See update 7-28-2012, June 6, 2012

I have to agree with one of the other reviewers. I had the tv for about a week before the software asked to update. I wish I had known before I allowed it to update, because the picture was pretty good up until that point (I hadn’t done a lot of picture adjustments yet), but once the software updated, I got the same effects as the other reviewer. Ghosting motion whenever anything moves somewhat quickly. Soap opera effect on some channels – it seems to be more pronounced on certain channels. The blurry motion, or “ghosting”, happens all the time, no matter the quality of the input source, however the higher quality channels definitely look much better than the lower quality channels. It looks like a funhouse mirror effect around a face or body whenever the motion is quick or they walk in front of a fence or other object that has a criss-cross pattern. I too contacted LG via email and a phone call. They said they were aware of the problem caused by the firmware update & their engineers are working on fixing it. However, they made it sound like it would be done in a couple of days. It’s been just over a month, and no updates yet. I’m a bit frustrated because, as it is, the tv is worse than my cheap 40″ Dynex LCD flat-screen with a 60hz refresh rate, and I bought the plasma thinking that with the 600hz refresh rate, I would never have to see any blurred motion again.

I have since made several, and I mean several, adjustments to the settings to try and minimize the problem. So far, the best I’ve found is with the Noise Reduction set to “high”, and the TruMotion set on “user” and the effect all the way up to 10. This doesn’t always seem to be the best set-up, but overall, it did help. I still play with the settings when I get irritated with the ghosting, but it pretty much just frustrates me more.

I didn’t return the tv, because I am holding out hope that LG will get the problem fixed soon, and because I put another $100 into 2 more pairs of 3D glasses (got 2 pairs free) that I didn’t want to have to return. If LG does get the software problem fixed, I would definitely give the tv 5 stars. The problem is, how long will that take?

On a side note, the 2D to 3D conversion is a pretty cool function to have. It makes any show you want into a 3D picture. As I don’t have a 3D Blu Ray player yet, I can’t compare to what a real 3D movie would look like, but for now, it’s a pretty cool option on the tv.

One other negative – no Amazon Instant Video in the internet apps. The LG representative replied via email that he would put in a “request to the factory” to let them know that I had asked that this app be added, but who knows how far that will actually go. I have a Roku box I can use for access to Amazon content, but it would be really nice not to have to plug it into this tv just to watch my Amazon movies, since I already have the Roku hooked to a different tv.

UPDATE 7-28-2012

A couple of days ago I finally found a new firmware update available. I downloaded the newest firmware, and voila, the ghosting is gone…so is the soap opera effect. I have now given the tv 5 stars, as it really does have a beautiful picture. I thought about giving it 4 stars for not having Amazon Instant Video as part of the internet apps, and because it took so long for LG to update the firmware, but I bought the tv knowing that the Amazon content wasn’t there. Just remember to go back into your picture settings and turn off (or down) the Noise Reduction and turn off the TruMotion controls. This will now make your picture look much better during scenes with fast motion.

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