2011 LG XXLV5500 SMARTTV / Impressions

I just bought this TV so my impressions are still immature but here's some specs.

Edge Lit LED
1920 x 1080
Dynamic Contrast Ratio - 4,000,000:1
MPRT - 120 Hz
No. of HDMI Ports - 4 (1.4a w/Deep Color)
LG Smart TV - Yes
Wi-Fi® Ready* - Yes (Adapter Included)
DLNA Certified® - Yes (Movie/Photo/Music)
USB 2.0 - Yes
Warranty - 1 Year Parts & Labor

Audio Output Power - 10W + 10W
Remote Control Type - Magic Motion & Standard (Backlit) Included

Power -
Consumption (Max.) - 155W
Consumption (Average) - 125W

TV without stand (WxHxD) - 39.8" x 24.3" x 1.2"
TV with stand (WxHxD) - 39.8" x 26.9" x 10.0"
Shipping Dimensions (WxHxD) - 46.5" x 29.3" x 4.3"
TV without stand weight - 29.1 lbs
TV with stand weight - 34.2 lbs
Shipping weight - 41.2 lbs

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To shed light on my situation, first I purchased a 42LV3700 last week. It's basically the same as this set minus 120Hz, MagicMotion and Backlit remotes and different chassis layout. The panel was a VA type, full model number 42LV3200 UD.AUSDLHR.

I found a sale price for the 42LV5500 exactly the same as I paid for the 3700 so I jumped on the opportunity to upgrade for free.

I noticed other 2011 LG panels on display at the store and they had much better viewing angles than the panel I had first purchased, the blacks were more uniform etc, so I checked the model number on these at the difference was the last part. UA.AUSYLUR. Following others discovery of the difference on last years models, it appears VA panels have similar numbers but IPS are now AUSY instead of AUSW.

The LV5500 I purchased is an IPS with chevrons, good viewing angle and from a quick glance uniform blacks. I can post a more thorough opinion after a few days use, but as of right now it looks good.

A big plus to this model versus the LV3700 is that most inputs on the back are either downward or sideways facing instead of straight out the back so you can mount very close to the wall.

Both of these SmartTV models LV3700/LV5500 have apps, internet browser,etc but a feature I didn't know anything about until buying the TV and one that's going to be huge for LG I think is MediaLink. MediaLink is LG's combined project with Plex Media Server which is a XBMC/MediaBrowser like interface previously only for Mac's. But now Plex has a Windows server also and just by setting it up on your home server and adding your media, you can access everything through a very nice interface on the TV. A power cord, coax and ethernet/wifi and you have your full media library wherever you hook up your tv!

I tried it and it works, very well, even with 1080p MKV's up to 20Mbit rate. I didn't notice any stuttering or degradation, very nice. There is a catch though and it's a big one, the tv doesn't support DTS audio and Plex doesn't currently transcode DTS so none of my blueray library plays with audio right now. This service just went live early last week and everyone know about the DTS problem and it's being worked on so we'll see what happens. Mp3, WMA, Dolby, AC3 is supported right now though so TV library and dvd's plays well.

That's all I have for now.

This set definitely does Soap Opera affect with Tru-Motion turned on. By default it's set to Low, have you disabled that? It's in the picture options at the bottom. That fixed it and no more soap opera. I also noticed what you mentioned about limited video options during network playback, not sure why that is.

That's real interesting what you said about the local dimming feature you saw. I noticed during menu transitions sometimes the tv shuts off backlighting similar to a dimming feature but haven't seen it while a picture is displayed. That would be great if this turns out to support dimming because from what I've been able to find it's not in the specs.

I don't have flashlighting on mine but there is a little bit of clouding affect on all black screens, still evaluating that though.

I'm pretty sure the AUSY means IPS going by the findings of the Panel lottery posts from last year, but the only real way to tell will be to wait for others to buy these sets I guess.

I had 03.01.15 from stock and it upgraded to 03.10.06 first thing after running initial setup.


I don't have anything connected except DLNA sources to try this on right now, but I'll look into as I'm curious myself. That's really curious that there was a Local Dimming feature in early firmware. If LG doesn't bring back a way to enable/disable the feature I wonder if someone could come up with a custom bios to enable that. It's possible there's something in the service menu for that also, stuff to be researched.


I'll have more to add to this after playing with the set for awhile, from a quick observation definitely no flashlighting even with the status light enabled. The LV3700 I had before this one had bad flashlighting from all corners.


The quickest way to tell is to try to magnify the pixels with a camera or magnifying lens so much that you can make out the RGB colored pixels and see if they're shaped like ">>>". Also just by the size of your panel I think you're safe because I gathered from other discussions the panel lottery was mostly with 42" and smaller panels. The image on the LV3700 would shift highlights and dark contrast pretty quick as I moved to the side or above the screen. I think the IPS panels still do a little bit if your used to Plasma like I am, but barely noticeable.

bozzaj - You're right, this tv does have some sort of local dimming. I saw it most obviously on a picture of a smallish logo directly in the middle of the screen. The area directly above and below the logo went completely dark, but the area to the sides of the logo seemed like they went brighter. Maybe it was because the rest of the screen was so dark. I noticed it on other situations where there was a blank area at the top and bottom but haven't seen it with blank areas on the side. Maybe it's a horizontal dimming only. Interesting though.

That's not good having problems like that on a brand new set, did you buy it online or from a local store? I would seriously want to take it back and start over. The first few minutes after I buy something big like this, I'm looking over everything to make sure it's ok to keep.

If you unplug everything but the power cord from the set do you still hear the noise you mentioned? If not then you can plug things back in 1 by 1 until the noise starts and narrow it down. I know if there's a ground problem in your home and you have electrical components plugged in to different wall outlets sometimes you'll get a buzz.

I've had this set for almost a week now and am as happy as can be.

Good question, I remember hearing about Skype support when I was researching these, but I haven't paid attention since then. I already noticed a couple new features added to premium content, so maybe it will show up in there soon enough. I don't really care one way or another either though, I wouldn't want to see the people I talk to on a screen this big anyways.

DTS transcode support works with Plex 0925 now by the way. It's only 128kbps 2 channel stereo from what I can tell, but I noticed in a different discussion on Plex forums people were getting the same quality on other devices. It's a first step anyways and works fine for tv speakers which is all I use anyways.

Update from tray and autoupdate haven't worked for me, but the link is on the homepage.

Here's a video that demos the system and has the text input panel too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKjsVWwWhMU

The magic motion mouse does use bluetooth so it's possible that a bluetooth keyboard could be paired with the tv. Hmm.

http://sigalonmobile.soup.io/post/99...remotes-simple

The media streaming comes from a server in your house running the plex media server software, not the tv. You have to set up a server anyways for the MediaLink feature to work on LG stuff and for apple or android devices you just download the Plex app to your phone to stream your media from anywhere. I haven't tried the mobile stuff but that's what Plex was built for.

Thanks for the heads up.

I'm still searching for some sort of professional review of this set and it looks like we really are early to the game. Announcements I keep seeing in general say these 2011 LG's will be coming in April, hopefully next month a bunch of people will get these and we can get some good discussions going.

But here's a very interesting video preview of Plex on Lg's and some other stuff discussed.
http://youtu.be/ctoMFmYRE1w

It's an excellent set in my opinion. The color, depth and motion impress and to compare in my house I watched Tron Legacy on it last night and the extreme color contrast on that movie looked awesome! I then compared it to the experience on my living room plasma and there was no comparison. The plasma (2009 LG so take with it what you will) seemed very tame and sort of bland, a lot less pop. I'd ditch my plasma for a similar sized one of these in a second if money grew on trees.

The things I can see room for improvement and something professional reviewers would concentrate on I'm sure is that on all black screens during transitions there is a bit of clouding and unevenness. The dark shots have some glow in a dark room so that's the thing to consider when looking at other sets is if they handle blacks better. This isn't bothering me because I expect this with LCD's especially without full LED dimming and the shadow detail and contrast in bright and dark scenes is very good. I'm not sure what a professional calibration would do, but it can only help as I'm just using the built in Picture wizard.

There's also a couple things with the remote/menu system I'd change. I would like to have a dedicated sleep timer button instead of having to navigate the quick menu to turn it on, not a big deal for living room use though. Also just to get to the tv settings menu you have to navigate the smart tv menu with several clicks and that could be streamlined with a button on the remote that went straight to the TV Menu.

The included extra's you get with the set are nice, like a wifi dongle, magic motion remote which is more than just a gimmick, back lit remote etc. The position of inputs on the back is perfect for mounting real tight to a wall and viewing angles are good enough you don't need to point the tv perfectly at your seating position.