2011 LG XXLV5500 SMARTTV / Impressions - Page 23

I couldn't help but notice you posted this shortly after you found a way into the service menu...

Seriously, though, I'd be checking the wiring from your cable box to your LG. You can't really compare what a cable box channel output looks like vs. OTA since they are two different sources/signal strengths, etc.

You said you installed a splitter (which is only going to attenuate the signal even further), but I would try to change out the wiring (coax, HDMI, etc.) to the LG. No help? Call your cable company. I don't know what the Geek Squad is going to do for you.

I was an RF engineer with my local cable company for 25 yrs and now work for a contractor that does work for the same company. I've worked every aspect from system design to head end equipment to the back of customer set. So I am qualified to handle the basic troublshooting of this issue as far as where the issue is.

The signal level when measured with a QAM meter is fine and there are no distortions both with and w/out the test splitter. Putting a 2-way splitter on the input cable (there is no cable box on my service) and running coax to two sets is one way to verify the cable signal isn't the issue. If it was, then both sets would have the tiling problem. I am comparing apples to apples here. If I have issues on local broadcasters via antenna then I will have the same on cable as all local broadcasters have direct fiber optic feeds from their studios to the cable company head end. I have tiling on the broadcast channels coming from the cable connection, not the antenna.

This points the issue to a pair of possibilities: 1- cable delivery issue or 2 - issue with LG tuner.
Cable company will do the following to prove it is not their issue; connect 2-way splitter to another set and monitor identical channels at same time (done that) & check signal levels, MER & BER's with meter, confirming no pre or post errors are present. (done that)

The frequencies of any network are in different bands of the spectrum depending on if they are coming over air or the cable company. I suspect the issue is with the tuner in the set having an issue locking onto the carrier until it's been running for awhile.
Actually this issue started about two software upgrades ago.

My past experience with BBuy's coverage is if the item is still being sold in the store, they bring a new unit out and swap them.

OK, well if they will swap the set, that's another story. I was just talking about their ability to actually troubleshoot this, which I believe is nil.

I would agree that if you had tiling on OTA channels, that would indicate your problem is not with the set, but if that were the case, it would be pretty global in your community, no?

Anyway, good luck with the swap.

I've noticed that particularly on my cable connection (HDMI -- input 1-- ARC OFF), that I have a pretty severe audio sync issue.

This is after I connected the optical out to my older Denon AVR that doesn't have HDMI in and after I did the EZ Adjust tweak to enable AC3 pass through.

Whereas the audio sync option has an impressive scale going to the the "+" side, it's limited to 5 steps to the "-" side. I find I'm toggling between -4 and -5 on the audio sync now on that input, almost if not full scale.

Most other inputs seemed fine until I just got a firmware upgrade on a Roku2 box. That seemed to exhibit sync issues, too, but that might be on a particular "channel" of the box (e.g. Netflix) vs. a global problem.

The sync issue is evident on both the TV speakers and the SPDIF out. Both need to be tweaked negative (which is tantamount to delaying video so audio can "catch up".)

I've done the requisite hard resets of the cable box to no avail.

Just wondering if anyone else has seen this sync issue.

Just a FYI...

Nick from LG posted a link in the PLEX forums where 2011 TV owners can complain about the lack of DTS (either direct or pass through) to LG directly. Apparently this form gets tracked in a customer service database. Perhaps if enough people complain, the feature will be added in a later firmware revision.

http://www.lg.com/us/support/contact...?countryCd=us#

I read that forum, and the LG guy didn't seem overly optimistic about adding DTS pass-through on 2011 models.

I don't understand it, to be honest. The LG rep in the Plex forum claims (from what he's being told) that DTS (the company) would require an expensive license to simply pass an undecoded DTS stream through the TV to a far-end already-licensed DTS decoder in an audio-visual receiver. That makes no sense to me. There's no reason DTS should collect a license for that.

And even if LG is not correct on this, they don't sound overly promising about adding DTS pass-through on our 2011 model TV's.

Now granted, people in the Plex forum are P.O.'d as they rightly should be, and so should everyone here. Perhaps we can add to the cacophony of complaints by adding our own 2 cents with the customer service template posted previously here.

What would DTS pass-through give us? The ability to run every HDMI device (up to 4, anyway) to our sets and output one stream to our AVR units, so we didn't have to switch inputs on the AVR every time we changed devices on the TV. I suppose it's not a huge deal for some, but if they're giving us AC3 (Dolby) pass-through, why not DTS? Complete the process!

While I agree with you in theory on the DTS pass-through, I don't see it as that big of a deal. My AVR switches inputs automatically as does my tv when I use the Harmony remote. One button for whatever I want to do and it's done. Unless I've missed something here (that's always a possibililty).

I have an Harmony remote as well. Switching inputs isn't the issue for me, but the lack there of.

I have four devices, (PS3, HR20 HD-A2, and the TV) and three inputs(two toslink, 1 RF) on my receiver. I would have five, but I gave the Bluray player that came with my TV to my mom. I have my HR20 passing through AC3. My HD-A2 ouputs DTS only. I would have to turn off DTS for the PS3 to pass through AC3. With the HR20 passing through, this allows me to have the TV connected and allows me to use the smart TV functions. It aslo lets those who need to, use the lip-sync option.

I see. Your setup is much more complicated than mine. I opted not to get a smart tv and leave all of the WiFi connections up to the BD player. More robust, easier to upgrade without worrying about messing something up on the tv and easier to repair without losing the tv should something go wrong. TV reception is OTA so the audio (which is discrete 5.1) just passes thru the tv via optical to the AVR. All of the other audio/video devices pass thru the AVR for audio and to the tv for video via High Speed HDMI. Harmony controls everything with a single press of a button.

Sure, but, of course, not everyone has a Harmony remote. I do have one in another room, but I'm using a Home Theater Master MX-600 for my LG and other associated devices.

So, having a Harmony remote is a workaround, in my view, and doesn't answer the real question as to why LG can't pass DTS, given that other brands do and it does pass AC3.

That is obviously a marketing/design decision on LGs part. If DTS pass-thru was that important to me, I would have made sure that the tv I purchased had that capability. There are trade-offs on all brands unless money is not an object, and even so, not all are the same at any given price point. Our tv (LG) reception is OTA only, so AC3 is perfect for us. All other audio is handled by the AVR (DTS-HD Master, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, etc) and matches what the BD player can do.

I don't think there's any other way to read what you wrote other than "if DTS pass-through was that important to you, why didn't you do your due diligence?".

And to that, I'd say "well, thanks for your opinion."

Sure, I can use workarounds, and sure, I can use other AVR inputs. So, it's not like I don't get DTS when I need it. But that's not the point. The point is can LG implement this via a simple firmware update, and if so, would they?

If this truly is something that would effectively raise the cost the sets and was a conscious decision to keep costs lower, that's one thing. I find it hard to believe (as mentioned earlier) that DTS would charge a license fee to a manufacturer for merely allowing an undecoded stream to pass-through to a licensed DTS decoding device down the line. Maybe I'm wrong.

And maybe it was just an oversight. They don't make it "EZ" to allow AC3 pass-through as it is. You need a remote that can access the proper menu, and you need to know the process.

Anyway, I guess we'll just agree to disagree on this one. You seem to be in the camp that says "aahh, leave well enough alone". I, on the other hand, believe it can't hurt to ask for more functionality if it can be delivered. That's what firmware updates often do.

Ok. I will agree with you that this is something that LG could have probably easily done and chose not to, for whatever reason. A bad decision on their part considering there are probably quite a few folks in the same situation as you. As far as updates go, if the "hardware" is on board and configured as such, an update would certainly be the way to go. However, it appears that most of the updates are for netapp's and not necessarily for increased tv functionality, unless there is a glaring problem and clearly LG doesn't consider this a problem. I hate to even bring this up but maybe there is a service menu way to enable that feature, if it's there.

One question though, you said you need a remote to access the proper menu and process to enable AC3 pass-thru, what exactly do you mean?

I mean if you want to take in digital audio from some device via HDMI on the TV and output it (pass-through) on the optical out to an AVR, it by default is only going to pass two-channel PCM audio. You need to go into the "EZ Adjust" menu and run one of the options to enable the TV's optical to pass AC-3 (Dolby) to the receiver.

The EZ Adjust menu is not accessibile without a remote that can enter the certain code to bring it onscreen. People have found that Harmony remote users can download and create a custom code to access the menu. Others have found that cheap RCA remotes can also easily access this otherwise secret menu.

Search back here in this thread for EZ Adjust and AC-3.

So you're saying that this requires access to the service menu to enable the pass-thru from an HDMI source? Interesting. Guess I never gave it much thought cause we don't have cable or sat and just send OTA AC3 audio out via optical to the AVR.

Hi Otto, yes access to the "EZ" adjust menu was brought up several times in the "home" xxLD550,xxLD520,xxLD650" thread. You can enable all HDMI inputs for some pass through functions, but there is a LOT of stuff there. No real problem as long as you watch your button pushing and don't change anything else. There are , as I remember, 2 or 3 pages of options there and people have been know to screw up basic white balance to bricking their TV by accessing the wrong points. There are some selections in the EZ adjust menu that will reset functions just by entering the point in the EZ adjust menu. Mainly folks with the XXLD450 and XXLK450 like to get in there to enable the USB port on the TV for video file playback.

Thanks. I must of missed that or forgot about it entirely. I was a little late in joining the thread so maybe it was "before my time" So now ya'll have me curious as to what is there and is there anything I want. Should probably talk about this later.

Hey guys,

great thread you have going here. I was looking for information on this and other models and have just finished reading the whole tread (Ok, I might have skipped a paragraph or two, but mostly I read all 23 pages). Mostly I really like what I read. Too bad about the differing panels creeping in, but I will just try and see.

One thing I am still not sure about is audio. I am using my old stereo with my small CRT now. Old as in no digital inputs. I just found out (to my surprise) that analog (cinch) audio out is not a given with modern TVs.

So from my understanding this set also doesn't have an analog audio out. Will I be able to use SCART to get at the audio signals? This seems to be a possibility with some other LGs at least. Anyone know for sure?

I hope someone can help me with this question, since I am anxious to finally pull the trigger (I've been researching TVs for about three weeks now and it is going to drive me mad soon).

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Sebastian

I am having the worst problem with this TV, the 42LV5500. I posted several pages back about how the TV was constantly power cycling and was advised that the TV was probably faulty. It randomly turns itself off, then back on, off again, etc. I've gotten up in the morning and found it power cycling, which means it *turned itself on* just to turn itself back off again and repeat. Sometimes it'll do it just once and I'll get some use out of it, sometimes it'll just loop indefinitely. Other evenings, not at all. We had friends over two weekends ago and we used it all evening without issue, but the next day it was power cycling every few minutes.

LG has been out three times to service it. The first time they replaced the two circuit boards, the second time the panel and the third time the boards again. The tech is as stumped as I am. I've written LG to complain and requested replacement with a whole new unit (since I'm beyond the return period at the retailer I purchased it from), but in the interim, is there anything else I can check to make sure it's not something environmental to my house? So far I have:

-Removed the batteries from all the remotes in the vicinity
-Plugged the TV into a different outlet (both on the same power strip and across the house entirely)
-Replaced the power strip
-Unplugged everything else from the outlet entirely
-Removed the wireless adapter
-Unplugged all the devices plugged into the TV (currently an HTPC, a PS3 and an Apple TV, all HDMI)
-Updated the firmware (currently at 4.01.36)

The LG tech verified there was adequate voltage in the outlet, and like I said, I've tried different outlets. I do live in an older house, but we have plenty of electronics that function without issue and the 32" Westinghouse LCD TV the LG replaced certainly functions without issue in the same place. Heck, it probably draws more power than the LG.

So, am I missing anything? What else might be causing the TV to do this after replacing the guts of it, twice? I don't want to get a new unit and have it do the same thing, so I just want to make sure that there isn't something in my house that might still be doing it. Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.

The TV has a headphone jack.

Interesting, I'm experiencing a very similar issue on my 47LV5500. Used OTA antenna, no problem on digital or analog channels. Switched to cable, and analog channels are okay, but I experience pixilation every ten seconds or so on my digital channels. This is only on my LG, all other TVs are fine. The higher I go up in channel number, the worse it gets (more frequent as well as severity).
I can't call my cable company on this, as I was "turned off" and this is only whatever feed they provide free of charge, basic channels, thus no support.

That is interesting. It sounds like the LG tuner is more sensitive than your other tv's to whatever your cable company is giving you for "free". I'd be more concerned if it happened on OTA as well.

The LV5500 is 120hz .... So the games will be flowing better (without blurring of the TrueMotion) than a 60hz LED ...

But in the game mode, is still as 120hz? Or in game mode down to see as 60hz?


(Sorry for the bad english)

Hi - Brand new poster here...

We got this tv yesterday. Replacing a giant Panasonic 32 inch CRT. We have just a standard Directv box with red/yellow/white connections. The box does not allow for any different connections.

I have to say we are extremely disappointed! The picture is not sharp at all, especially from far away shots and around any words. Everthing looks a little blurry. Even on the directv guide, the words are not sharp. My son hooked up his PS3 this morning, and the picture is awful. We again are using the red/yellow/white connection. The writing is so blurry, its hard to even choose plays (Madden 12). We have the picture set to vivid because any other setting is too dark.

We have a Vizio M 26 inch model upstairs, and that tv comes in perfectly with just the standard box and red/yellow/white connection.

I tried playing with all sorts of settings last night, including changind the de-judder and de-blur, but I can not get the picture even close to our old CRT tv.

Can anyone please help? We really don't feel like we should have to update our directv box and pay more per month just to get a decent picture on a brand new tv.

There could be something in the forward spectrum of the cable signal, such as reference carriers for system "sweep/balancing" equipment that the LG tuner is picking up on and causing issues that I wasn't getting on my Vizio or off-air HD? Cox cable just offered a special for 6 months that was too good to pass up that included the HD tuner, so now I'm running HDMI off their tuner w/ no issues.
I will hand it to LG cust care though, they called back the next two days after my initial call to them about the issue to check on the progress of the situation and update the ticket. The rep then gave me the case number and her direct line to contact her in the future if need be.

I would add that I started to suspect a possible issue with my cable modem being a possible culprit. When I turned off or removed the coax feeding my modem, the tiling issue stopped or was drastically reduced. My hookup was cable jumper from wallplate to 2-way splitter, 1 leg to modem, other to TV. I suspect since my modem was transmitting at 42dB for the return path, and the isolation between ports of the splitter was only 25dB, that some of the upstream data may have been heading towards the tuner. Prior to getting the cable box, my plan was to swap the splitter for a directional coupler, which has much higher isolation between the "tap" and "through" ports of the device.

A few issues. First, I'm going to assume that you're viewing standard definition programming as opposed to hi-definition, as you're moving from a CRT television to a HDTV. Standard-def pictures are going to look blurrier on a HDTV as the HDTV supports more lines of resolution. The second issue is that you seem to be using composite cables (red, white, yellow) as compared to either component (red, blue, green, red, white), or HDMI (one cable).

Third, I'm gessing you're having the same issue with the PS3 because of the composite cable issue. You can't get a hi-def signal through a composite cable. You need either a component cable, or a HDMI cable. After changing cables, go into the PS3's output settings and change the output from 480i (standard def) to 1080p (hi-def).

I know that you don't wish to change your service, but HDTVs don't magically make regular definition programming look better...in fact they do just the opposite. You need to match the programming to the TV. This means signing up for hi-definition programming for your hi-definition TV. You will also need to upgrade the cable used to connect both the DirecTV box, as well as the PS3 to the TV. Don't overpay for them in retail stores. Go to monoprice.com, and you can get good HDMI cables for around $4.

Thanks for you help! Yes, definitely standard defintion signal. I thought I might be able to use component cables, but the directv box only has inputs for red/yellow/white. I will buy an HDMI cable for the ps3 - thanks for the tip about monoprice. I guess I am disappointed in the standard picture on the LG because the standard picture on the vizio is so good. Are there any settings i can use to make the standard picture better on the LG, or is upgrading our only option?

Thanks again!

ETA: Wow - lots and lots of HDMI cables on monoprice - how do I begin to choose? - does anyone know what kind to buy for this tv and for the PS3? Thanks again!

Here is a link to a standard 8' HDMI cable:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

The reason that the standard def picture looks better on the Vizio than the LG is because the Vizio is much smaller. Because the picture is smaller, the lower resolution pixels of the standard def feed are more compressed together. Pixel compression makes a picture look sharper.

Use this analogy: If you take a deflated balloon and write something on it with a marker, whatever you've written is nice and dark. Now blow the balloon up. What happens? What you've written on it now becomes faded and spread apart. Same thing happens with a low-resolution picture "blown up" onto a large HDTV.

There really isn't anything you can do to make a standard definition feed "look good" on a large HDTV. The low resolution of the signal gets spread out too much over the surface area of the television screen. If you really want a good looking picture (and I know this TV provides one as I have the same TV), then you will need to upgrade to HD programming from DirectTV.

If you really want to see what this TV can do, once you get the HDMI cable for your PS3, rent a blu-ray. That is what HD is all about.

Thank you for the link, and also for the solid advice. You explained it very well. I am going to have to make the call to directv. Thanks again for your help!!

No problem.