Unofficial LG 32/37/42 LG30 Owner/Info Thread

Well the 2008 series is here from LG, and it seems to me like they're really coming out swinging.



The cabinet sports a piano black clean look. The button switched from a power button along the side of the cabinet to being at the front of the television. It's a tab-styled power button with a red(off) and blue(on) LED.

Specifications:
Resolution: 720p 1366x768
Contrast Ratio: 12,000:1
Brightness: 500 cd/m
Digital Convergence
3 HDMI inputs
2 Component Inputs
PC Input (RGB)
Digital TOSLink Optical Out
Dolby Digital
Energy Star Compliant
5ms Response Time
VESA 200m x 100m compatible (32")
VESA 200m x 200m compatible (37" / 42")

Special Features:
Backlight Control
Four color temperatures
Enhanced Line Doubler
Video Noise Reduction

Measurements:
Height : 23 4/5" With Stand, 21 2/5" Without Stand
Width: 31 3/5"
Depth: 3 1/10"
Weight: 29.4 lbs With Stand, 26.1 lbs Without Stand

I bolded the features I consider to stand out over other features, such as the 3 hdmi inputs, the contrast ratio, the brightness and the response time.

These are my custom settings. I'm not that good of a calibrator, but for medium-high lighting, these settings are rather impressive:
Backlight: 57
Contrast: 70
Brightness: 52
Sharpness: 21
Color: 62

My thoughts/impressions: I'm definitely happy I took the Toshiba 32AV500U back to get this model. I know at retail price it's a $220 price difference, but I'm a BB employee. I can't share my price, but I'll say it was a worthwhile upgrade. The ironic thing is that the Dynex 32" I had before the Toshiba had BETTER picture quality than the Toshiba LCD. I wouldn't recommend the Toshiba to anyone. It's almost as bad as the Westinghouse 1080p we have. The Westinghouse 32" and most other Westinghouse TV's look really good, but the Toshiba 32AV500U and the Westinghouse 1080p 42" are becoming recognized at our store for having incredibly terrible picture quality, even with slight calibration.

Compared to the Samsung A330 and Samsung A450, the LG has a higher contrast ratio, a faster response time, higher brightness. Some people swear by Samsungs, but I'm only impressed with their 1080p panels.

Teaser Shots: >>> This is on a REALLY crappy camera. I'm talking... 3.0 megapixels, Samsung from like 2002. Only two shots came out to my standards.

"Mr. Beach, or is it Mr. Bond? I'm a little confused."


"I've got an itch... Down there... Would you mind?"


"No wonder he was in such a foul mood."


(Vroooooom... I'm a car I can't talk.)

I haven't had any trouble flipping through channels. It picked up all my cable and digital channels from the auto program. I can't speak for his issues, I know how frustrated one can be when one has issues with a product and people point finger at you and say, "USER ERROR!" But his issues were definitely isolated.

We've sold roughly 15 LG30's from all different sizes and we haven't had any come back. We've had a couple 450's and 330's come back. (Even a couple 550's and 650's, but that belongs to the 1080p set discussions) Of course that's not to bash Samsung, but really we have had fewer LG's come back versus any other television. Westinghouse tops the return list.

Almost all the customers I deal with are exclusively cable TV/Satellite watchers, so I'd imagine if the set had widespread issues with the tuner, we'd have been one of the first stores to know.

As for display pictures. I plan on using my sister's SLR camera this weekend to take some Bluray shots. Of the titles I'll be displaying:
Fifth Element - Obligatory Leelo face shot, plus a few other shots I feel show the sharpness, PQ and contrast.
Casino Royale - One of the best Blurays to date, shows how this screen can compete with the 1080p panels at 720p.
3:10 to Yuma - Just because it has Christian Bale and he's so dreamy.

I'll take some PS3 shots, of Heavenly Sword and Uncharted, mostly because Nariko melts my heart (Her CGI luscious body calls for it).

The thing about the LG30 versus the 450 though - At employee price, the LG30 is VERY neck and neck with the A330. But at MSRP, they're totally different classes of televisions. $150 price difference. The LG30 in terms of PQ should compete with the A450. It's hard for me to make that comparison being an owner of the LG30 but never personally calibrating and experiencing a 450 on a home use.