Goa Miscellania

Various issues related to Goa... not in any particular order of importance.

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

TV Review: LG 37LH55 37-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV, Gloss Black

LG 37LH55 37-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV, Gloss Black

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Manufacturer: LG
Customer Rating:
List Price: $1,399.95
Sale Price: $799.77
Availibility: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Description
Additional Details
Customer Reviews

240Hz TruMotion Technolgy virtually eliminates motion blur for fast motion clarity
Intelligent Sensor automatically optimizes the picture to the lighting conditions of the room for an enjoyable viewing experience
Full HD 1080p resolution fro enhanced picture quality
80,000:1 Dynamic contrast ratio for deeper blacks and greater picture detail
Picture Wizard enables self-calibration for picture adjsustments

A pleasant installation experience for Jim and Theresa

Review Date: September 18, 2009

Reviewer: Jim Sutton, Myrtle Beach, SC

This installation involved removing a tube-type TV and replacing it with the 37 inch LG flat screen. I did read the instructions two times before the TV was removed from the box. I used it again for set up. The on screen help was fine. I had to make some trials of various setting before settling. Nothing was very difficult. I am amazed how well thought out the on screen displays were. Some displays and language was unfamiliar, but with time they were understandable. I love having a TV with this much quality in my small viewing room. Thanks Amazon.com and LG. You made this 70 year man happy. The installation even impressed my girlfriend.

First impressions of the LG 37LH55 240 HZ HDTV

Review Date: November 28, 2009

Reviewer: C. Sundberg, Texas

UPDATED: 11/28/2009; 12/31/2009.

Pros: Extensively customizable, plenty of inputs on back and on side, fits where our old 36" tube TV did, got a great price on Amazon (I think it was a steal!)

Cons: Extensively customizable, too many options for picture and sound to get a quick handle on them. There should be a course (maybe by that Vidoe Professor guy) on what everything means and how the different settings impact your viewing experience.

The TV was easy to set up once it arrived. The shipper (Pilot) was supposed to call us to schedule an appointment for delivery on 11/25 - but they never did. Instead, I ended up calling Amazon to get the shipper to fullfill their obligation in a timely manner. Others have said that the shipper unpacks the T.V., puts it together, and tests to ensure it works. No such thing here (Dallas area), but I was able to get them to take our old 36" behemoth tube TV out and off of the entertainment armoire's TV shelf. They just set it down on the floor, but that was 90% of the work.

There are so many options in setting up and fine tuning the TV, I don't really know where to start. So, as soon as we powered it up, there was a guided setup to get the clock and all of the local channels into memory. There are even independent settings to choose whether to show the Red and Blue power indicator lights during Power Off and Power On states! That makes no difference to me, but my son likes to have the room completely dark and those lights (on the lower right corner of the TV) were distracting to him. No problem, just turn them off in the options and everyone is happy!

For each input on the back, you can independently set and remember all of the picture and sound quality settings. So, if your DVD player outputs a little brighter than the DirecTV Satelite signals, no problem. Set the DVD Player's Input (Component 1 for us) brightness a little lower that DirecTV's Input (AV1 for us since no HD service from them yet). Every time you change between these two inputs, the TV will remember your settings and automatically adjust them. This really comes in handy when you throw in a more things like Playstation, VCR, Blu-Ray, PC, etc. Oh, did I fail to mention that you can view .JPGs and listen to .MP3s from a USB stick if you just plug it in to the USB 2.0 jack on the side? I haven't even tried that out yet as it is another thing I can already do through the DVD Recorder.

I knew there was no S-Video input, but I wish I had placed more importance on that. Most of our existing equipments' best video output is S-Video, as well as our AV receiver. They will all be replaced eventually, but in the meantime we either have to fall back to composite (current option), or purchase an S-Video to Component Upconverter (anywhere from $90 to over $200, plus shipping - use Google). These have the ability to split the color signals into component video for 1080i viewing! For many people, this will not be an issue unless like me you have become a slow adopter of technology.

At first, Picture Quality (1080i - off-air) was not quite what we had hoped for with 240 HZ "Tru-Motion", especially for football (but read on, this was resolved!!!). Every time the camera panned across the field there appeared to be moire on the yard lines and this was especially bad when the camera shot was from the end zone. It turned out to be my lack of experience in setting up for the correct picture quality and video source. I had been using the HD tuner and the Component cable input from the DVD Recorder to watch football because it also outputs audio to my AV receiver for sound. When I changed that to use the OTA HD signal directly into the LG's tuner (TV Input), nearly all of the moire went away. Subsequently setting the 240HZ Tru Motion to its "High" setting completely annihilated the moire and the picture was a thing of beauty from end zone to end zone! I felt like I was on the field! (UPDATE 12/31: Have connected HDMI from DVD to the TV and now the picture and sound from it are perfect!)

I believe you can output sound from OTA programs on the TV to an AV receiver or other amplifier with a digital fiber cable, but I just haven't tried that yet (Update 12/31: I now have AC-3 Toslink from TV to Receiver. It passes all audio sent into the TV from various sources back out to the amp. We're now getting Dolby Digital through the speakers from all sources that send it). I have opted to use the HD tuner from the DVD player for now and it already has such a cable connected. For quick viewing directly OTA the LG's speakers work well enough without the AV receiver, I would say they are "good" quality.

Some have mentioned the absence of a backlight in the remote. This has not affected me yet as I tend to keep a 20W or so light on, and I have already added the TV to the Logitech Harmony remote - which does have a backlight. That setup took some time due to all the activities on the remote, but it works pretty much the same as it did with the old TV, so no real learning curve there (yet), until I learn more of the programmable functions available on the LG.

Unlike others here, I had no hesitation in placing a screw into our TV armoire cabinet's shelf to ensure the TV does not accidentally get bumped over. It will just add "character" to the shelf in the future (at least that's what the "designers" on HGTV would say - LOL). The best part of our viewing enjoyment will come as we are able to view more content in 1080 (i/p) format, as formats we are receiving now from DirecTV(composite 480i) don't even have the quality that our former 36" tube TV displayed.

Can't expect better...

Review Date: December 4, 2009

Reviewer: Mrinmoy De,

I got this TV in Black Friday deal and that the lowest price ever I have seen for 240Hz LCD HDTV. Initially the picture quality was disappointing.. but it as my fault. After the advanced setting the picture is amazing... particularly the HD channels and movies... it is like real. The sound quality is good but not as described by manufacture or other reviewers. Lastly it looks gorgeous and smart... and We like the TV very much.

Awesome Price! Thank You Amazon!

Review Date: December 2, 2009

Reviewer: David Rice, Wilmington, NC United States

Amazon posted this television at $649 during the week of Black Friday. It retails at $1,300+. The brand, features and price had me sold. I just received it yesterday and look forward to the quality entertainment.

Nice

Review Date: December 4, 2009

Reviewer: C. Bean, Miami, FL

I purchased this because it is the most versatile set I could find, with the best picture and viewing angle. I use it mainly as a monitor to edit photos, and for that it works great. The onscreen calibration tools work very nicely, and my Apple automatically recognizes the LG profile and applies it.

If you are connecting to a computer, you will need an adapter for the HDMI interface (works well with my Apple, even without a HD video card). There is also a port to plug in a regular PC RGB cable (the kind that connects a PC to a monitor), but that option will display a smaller image (only about half the screen size). Go with the HDMI interface - it gives a full screen size, and the display quality is the same (which is dependent on your video card).

I can't rate the sound since I have only used external speakers so far.

I could not find this product anywhere locally. It was nice to find it on Amazon, and even nicer for the price I paid. The delivery was a little slower than I expected, but the folks who delivered it were super - set it up and made sure it was working before they left.