Difference between revisions of "LG 42LB5D"

Revision as of 19:07, 18 November 2007

Basics:

• 42" (diagonal) widescreen LCD television
• Good build quality on the whole, though some edges on the plastic casing were left "sharp" (I'm OCD about fit and finish)
• Not that heavy for its size (one person can lift it, in or out of packing carton)

Special features and nice touches:

• RS232 port at the back to allow external control (by LinuxMCE for example)
• Power LED is red on standby, and switches to green when set is on (thank goodness, blue-LED fever is abating! :-)
• Brightness can be instantly adjusted via two remote buttons -- the only thing better would be a photosensor that adjusts things automatically for ambient light (but that's what hacking is all about ;-)

Picture fidelity:

• Crisp picture when provided with full quality source (e.g. true HD)
• Crisp picture with some ghosting when using the RGB-PC input with a standard (though longer than average) VGA video cable -- I will try to add a photo of the effect; the lowest-tech connections (S-Video, RF, and the like) for PC video are NOT recommended!
• A touch blurry with low-end sources (S-Video, RF) like older game systems, but still a fairly good overall picture; I have yet to test other signal methods with my game systems (requires special cables I don't yet have).

Usability:

• The OSD UI and remote are excellent. Both the menus and the buttons are laid out sensibly, and the system incorporates a great idea for settings that are cyclic (most are): the first time you press a button (e.g. aspect ratio), it brings up an OSD reminder of the current setting; subsequent presses will cycle through the available options. It's simple, and effective at preventing accidental setting changes by a single inadvertent button press on the remote.

Resolutions:

• 1024x768
• 1280x768
• 1360x768

Warning: This TV is not one of the Plug&Play TVs. It does have a serial port, but it is not recognized by the Media Player Wizard.