LG Electronics 42LA6200 42-Inch Cinema 3D 1080p 120Hz LED-LCD HDTV with Smart TV and Four Pairs of 3D Glasses

Fantastic TV, March 29, 2013

By 

Hans J. Storoy “Hans” (Fairhaven, Ma USA) –

  

I bought this TV (the 47″) to replace an older LG 42″ LCD that I broke. I was looking to stay with LG since my last TV was great, and I preferred the passive 3D just because I don’t want to pay an $50-$90 for a technology that will be lightly used at most. The 2D to 3D up-convert is just a bonus that makes it more usable.

Pros and Cons below, but one feature I was not prepared for that has been great, LG Cloud. Its a free 5Gb video, 2GB photo service. I can upload videos (including xvid) from my computer or phone and play via the cloud on my TV. Absolutely love that.

Pros
– Fantastic picture quality. Great blacks, very smooth.
– TruMotion, when used for stuff like sports and other high motion video (this is also a con, see below)
– Passive 3D with 2D to 3D makes this usable right out of the box.
– LG Cloud
– Huge collection of Smart TV Apps (Please add Amazon Instant)
– Price. I called and got the price dropped $120 to match BestBuy. Well worth it when you pay no shipping or tax (Prime)

Cons
– No Amazon Instant (at least not on the 47″)
– No Magic Remote, which was in the description, but not with the 47″ at least.
– TruMotion was on by default. It makes regular TV look kind of like a Soap Opera, that kind of cheesy looking filming, can’t think of a better way to explain it. I turned it off.
– Picasa App doesn’t seem to work, every time I click on an album the app closes.

Overall, the cons are about what I thought was included based on the description and 1 setting very easily turned off. The TV is a great, inexpensive Smart/3D TV. Nothing really I can complain about. Glad I stuck with LG.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comments (14)

Overall a Great Television, May 6, 2013

I bought this TV about a month ago, and have to say I have enjoyed almost everything about this set. Setup was super easy, and within just a couple minutes I was able to access everything, I do have a network hub with my entertainment system though, so that did speed things up. One thing to note that they don’t mention anywhere I could find is that the system says that it has both Component and Composite video inputs, which is true, but they use the same ports, so it is not possible to have both plugged in at the same time. This doesn’t affect me, but it might affect some of you.

I work in film/video, so when I got around to calibrating the image I was more than pleased. In the Cinema mode you have the ability to adjust every minute setting to make the picture as crisp and accurate as you could imagine. Which makes movies look like incredible, with minimal to no distortion in the blacks or highlights. If that is something that you don’t want to worry about most of the default settings looked pretty good straight out of the box, but even a complete novice can make there TV look 10x better just by running AVSHD. This guide is a great intro if that is something you want to do.
http://lifehacker.com/5858625/how-to-calibrate-your-hdtv-and-boost-your-video-quality-in-30-minutes-or-less

The smart features of this TV are nice, but since I have a number of other devices hooked up to the set I don’t really use any of them except for when I first got the set. It does have some apps that I could see being useful to exploit the 3D capabilities of the set, like a 3D movie rental front built in. During my initial tests of those I did find it extremely easy to navigate and adjust the home screen to a layout that is unique to what you want. Many of the built in apps are usable, but simple in comparison to their companion apps on the PS3 or Xbox. I would probably compare most of them to a Roku app, so still very usable, and capable of doing basically everything you want. Typing using the standard remote is painfully slow though, making searching a burden.

The 3D is actually pretty good, but goes wonky at about a 30-45 degree off angle, so for 3D viewing a deeper room is better than a wide room. I was skeptical of the of the 2D->3D conversion built into, but after using it for a couple of things it does a surprisingly good job, but you won’t see the effect on everything. It was really nice when I loaded up a 3D clip from YouTube. By default it displayed it in Side-by-side, but when I pressed the 3D button on the remote it detected the form of 3D and worked flawlessly. While both of those features are a little gimmicky my 3D blu-rays look spectacular on this set, and in some cases the 3D is even more discernable than when I saw the same film in 3D in the theaters.
Another side note on the 3D, this unit does use passive 3D which means that you don’t have to buy glasses from LG if you want more than the 4 pairs provided. Just start collecting them from the theater when you go, and they work just as well. LG’s glasses are lighter and easier to wear, but they wear a little funny when you wear glasses as well. It’s not unbearable, but I find the ones from the theater a little more comfortable, at least for me.

One of the things that I am not excited about with this set is that when you want to switch which input you are using it brings up a full screen selector. It does show you what is coming in on that connection if you leave the selector on the input for a couple of seconds which is nice, but if I just want to switch back and forth quickly between inputs I cannot do that. That same selector has the audio selector if you want an HDMI return channel, or are piping audio out through S/PDIF. To avoid most of the switching issue I have everything going through a receiver, but even then the TV will occasionally get a signal crossed or something and I will get duplicate sound through the TV speakers. It is easy enough to put back, but still the occasional annoyance.

The only other problem I have with the set, which probably won’t be an issue for most people, is that through my receiver I have one device CEC enabled, so I can control it with the TV remote. On my old television it would pass the commands through the receiver no problem, but with this unit I had to do a couple weird things with SimpLink (LG’s CEC protocol) and adjust some settings on my receiver. It was after I turned SimpLink on that I started having some of the weird issues with the TV changing the receivers audio settings mentioned above. The problems aren’t a deal breaker, but they do get slightly annoying sometimes, especially when anyone else has it happen while using it since they don’t know how to fix it.

Overall, this TV has been a great purchase. I looks great as a whole, and produces an excellent image. It is a little more expensive, but you are paying for a reputable brand, LED, and…

Read more

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comment (1)

Meets or exceeds expectations, May 19, 2013

By 

Charles E. Hall “Keys Konk” (Key Largo, Fl United States) –

  

For half the price of the other tv’s, I don’t know what else they can do. Beautiful picture. Smart controls and the sound is not bad. I do use a Bose for movies.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comment