LG 32LB9D 32-inch 720p LCD HDTV

วันอังคารที่ 14 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

LG 32LB9D 32-inch 720p LCD HDTV Review

I love this set. I found it at a local pawn shop, perfect condition, and obviously got an excellent deal. I've used a couple of other HD sets, and this one's by far my favorite.

First and foremost: Gaming. I see another review on here was bashing the gaming on this set, but the PS3 run through HDMI at 720p looks beautiful. I've played CoD4, Battlfield: Bad Company, MGS4, Motorstorm, GTA4, and Warhawk on this set, all intense action oriented games. No blurring, no artifacts, looks realll good. The only thing that looks slightly bad is the edges on everything are a little pixellated, but it did this on the other sets as well (an 0 Sharp and 0 Sony of the same size). I'm not really sure what set he hooked it up to that looked better, but I'd like to know.

Second, SD cable. Like a lot of people, I haven't made the switch to HD programming yet. But SD channels look as good as you can expect. The Zoom1 ratio is really nice, doesn't look stretched at all, but it cuts things off sometimes (it's really only noticeable when there are words on screen - credits, titles, logos, etc.) Stuff I really don't care about seeing anyway. I'm not a fan of having big black bars on the side of my screen, so I really like this ratio. Image quality seems to vary a lot between channels, but it never looks bad.

Third, as a monitor. I was, in fact, so impressed when I hooked my laptop up through VGA that I've decided to build an HTPC to use with the LG as a monitor. Granted, I'm going to use a video card with DVI/HDMI output with a DVI to HDMI cable so I can pass HDMI sound to my receiver, but anyway. It looked good. I'm probably going to buy a long VGA Cable so I can hook up the laptop to the monitor and use it in a Dual Monitor set-up, as well. The max resolution supported on the tv is 1366 x 768, which is perfect for me, but I bet PC gamers will be wanting a much higher resolution... It's definitely not for playing Crysis at max settings. Still, it's not gonna look bad, either.

There are an absolute load of inputs, 3 HDMI, 2 Component, VGA, etc. I don't think you'll ever find yourself not being able to connect something you want to. There's also a Digital Out for audio.

The Remote can't program my Sony Receiver... irritating. I'm trying to find a universal remote that will let me switch inputs on the LG and control the volume of my receiver. There are 8 or 10 codes for Sony Audio, but none of them work. My receiver is a STR-K790, by the way.

(I can't comment on the speaker quality of the TV, since I haven't used it at all.)

All in all, it's a definitely a great set, and arguably the best budget HDTV around. The only issue at all I have with it is black-levels, but really it's minor. (see the 24 and 165 in the top left corner here? http://research.stowers-institute.org/efg/R/Color/Chart/ColorsChart2.jpg
The 165 is the black level on my set, with the gloss frame as the 24. You CAN get it darker, by adjusting the backlight level and such... I'm not much of a videophile so I'm not worried about it. For a casual user, you're only gonna notice it in pitch black scenes where people have the lights off, and the little black bars on the side. I just suggest using Zoom1.)