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By Philip Wong, CNET Asia
Jun 13, 2007

LG has clearly gone back to the drawing board, and the results are a series of TVs built upon new classes of display panels and an upgraded video-processing engine. On the plate for 2007 are four lineups of plasma and LCD TVs. Besides the flagship full-HD models, the next most promising range has to be the LC7R. Let's narrow this down to its 42-incher and have a quick look at its specialties.

Upside: In-Plane Switching technology or IPS is fast becoming the new darling of TV manufacturers. Hot on the heels of Hitachi and Panasonic's 2007 offerings is LG, one of the key global suppliers of Super-IPS (S-IPS) panels. An enhanced variant over the original, it offers the same excellent viewing angle and color reproduction, plus the advantage of improved response time. To match the promising picture offscreen, its Korean designers have elected an alluring black piano finish frame mounted on a sleek 88.5mm-thick chassis.

Another interesting feature which immediately caught our attention is its ultra-high 10,000:1 dynamic contrast. This topples the 8,000:1 numbers hawked by the Editors' Choice Samsung Bordeaux Plus, though the LG's modest 1,000:1 average contrast indicates a rather unrealistic 10-fold leap. Having said that, we are pretty sure this LG is still an enticing model on paper, taking everything into consideration, particularly the panel's blazing-fast 5ms response time and industrial-leading 178-degree viewing angle.

Like most current midrange entries, comprehensive 1080p support is also implemented in this lineup. For starters, the 2007 XD Engine--LG's proprietary video-enhancement processor-- is now fully capable of handling this high-quality display format. In addition, the onboard HDMI terminals support all flavors of this bandwidth-intensive video signal, from film-centric 24Hz to the more common 50 and 60Hz versions. Simplink or HDMI-Consumer Electronics Control, for multi-A/V device control via a single remote, is also available out of the box.

Downside: Thanks to the above-mentioned Samsung LCD TV, the HDMI connectivity yardstick has changed. Three is the new standard for midrange models and the pair sported on the LG pale against the competition. It may be a tough act to follow but with HDMI fast becoming de facto in consumer electronics, it will just be a matter of time before we crave for more. You may argue that there're always component-video sockets to fall back on, but these usually deliver softer pictures and are not HDCP copy protection-ready.

Outlook: Using S-IPS LCD panels for living room-sized TVs makes perfect sense. Not only do they nullify (well, sort of) the plasma's advantage in viewing angles, color reproduction for these sets has also received a healthy boost. All these less the infamous screen reflections and burn-in issue plaguing the competing camp. If you are not at all concerned about these potential hiccups, their plasma equivalents can be had for at least a couple of hundreds less.

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