By Philip Wong, CNET Asia
25/07/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/home_av/tvs/0,39037585,43390660p,00.htm

Integrated Digital TVs or IDTVs may not be new, but they have yet to catch up on prime-time with LG being the second vendor to roll out such panels following Samsung. This slow pickup rate could very well be due to the relatively limited HD broadcasts in Asia. Nevertheless, it's an encouraging progression which could hasten our regional digital TV transition. After all, such quality-digitized telecasts are almost standard in the US, Japan and Europe. It's time to take a closer look at the Korean chaebolÂ’s latest offering, the LG50.

Design

From afar, the LG 47LG50FD may look worlds apart from its loud and attention-grabbing Scarlet siblings. Still, we're sure you'll be pleasantly surprised by its various special touches, including rounded corners, a slim frame, curvy power button, blue LED and silver accent. There's even a metallic red bottom which mirrors Samsung's Crystal Design and complements its overall piano finish well. Same goes for its matching thin swivel tabletop stand molded in the shape of an elongated D. Coincidentally, its designers have also concealed the speakers in the bezel's bottom, similar to its compatriot's Series 6 panels.

For the second year in a roll, the Korean chaebol has made the same old mistake of mounting the side A/V inputs on an overly recessed panel--a full 23mm deep, which most probably renders the ports redundant for most wall-mounted units. Fortunately, the situation is much better when it comes to the onboard TV controls. These are well within reach, comprising four clever directional arrow keys for one-glance broadcast station and volume adjustments, among others. To keep the rear tidy, simple cable management is catered for by a factory-installed extendable bracket wide enough to manage a sizeable bundle of cords easily.

It is about time a belated facelift was undertaken to liven up the stale 2007 remote design. Anyway, you'll still be greeted by a nice glossy top, plus multifunctional DVD and VCR control. While we care less about the obsolete analog recorder, its disc player portion is particularly versatile. It can be further programmed to operate 23 other brands and has auxiliary dedicated playback buttons. In addition, there're a couple more shortcuts to facilitate common chores, from firing up an electronic program guide to toggling between analog and digital TV broadcasts. Missing though are direct input keys to hasten external video source selection.

Diving deep into its software menu was another déjà vu, considering its structured albeit familiar user interface. Amateur users should be more than satisfied with its respectable spread of settings covering all the essential basic video and handful of in-depth XD engine post-processings. Most notably, a new backlighting adjustment to dial in the black level and options to disable automated contrast and color optimizations. These are stored in either User 1 or 2 preset with an independent memory for each video input. Alternatively, you can rely on the four factory-tuned picture modes such as the sensor-based Intelligent Sensor.

Features

Hard specs-wise, this midrange LCD TV offers both future-proof full-HD native resolution and a high 30,000:1 dynamic contrast. The former is pixel-to-pixel perfect for 1080i HD broadcasts as well as 1080p Blu-ray movies, while the latter is a 20 percent boost over Samsung’s flagship F8 IDTV. In the same light, its blazing-fast 5ms response time is a millisecond better than the above-mentioned. To further boost the panel's performance, the 47LG50FD has an overhauled 2008 XD Engine coupled with a Faroudja DCDi video processor renowned for its jaggie-free deinterlacing and hi-definition upscaling.

The 47LG50FD talks and breathes digital with an onboard DVB-T tuner. Like its Samsung IDTV counterparts already in the Asia market, this also has a companion MPEG-4 decoder which does HD programs, too. This enables the set to receive standard-definition (SD) digital broadcasts, as well as their HD equivalent such as Singapore’s MediaCorp HD5. That’s not all. There're other merits such as an eight-day electronic program guide and an inbuilt signal booster to strengthen weaker digital receptions. It would have been even better if not for the dual antenna input omission, which means you'll have to manually switch aerials between analog and digital stations.

For unadulterated pictures, the LG50 is 1080p24 input-ready via dual HDMIs and two component-videos. The native film 24-frame playback helps minimizes judder theoretically, though we have yet to encounter a deck supporting such component signal output. If you own a suite of LG A/V products, its Simplink function will power up all your compatible HDMI gears, etc., at the touch of a remote's button. Rounding up the video ports is an analog PC jack capable of accepting up to 1080p. Another interesting feature is its digital optical out with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound support.

Performance

So how did this LG beauty performed for its IDTV party piece? Compared to an Aquos D83, we were able to receive slightly stronger signal strength which maintained solid picture integrity. Singapore's MediaCorp HD5, particularly, was rendered in good clarity with minimal "blocky" artifacts, while enveloping Dolby Digital effects were an added bonus for selected TV programs. Taking a step back, SD digital broadcasts were not as sharp, but exhibited little or no sign of distracting noise. Switching to analog, it was able to keep up the rhythm, losing out only in fine detail against an LX Kuro.

It was all smooth sailing for the SpyderTV Pro-calibrated 47LG50FD moving on to the synthetic Avia test patterns. Not only did it resolve black shades convincingly during grayscale tracking, the panel was also spot-on for color decoding even after saturation enhancement via XD Color function. A quick check using our I,Robot DVD showed up pretty intricate textures on Will Smith's face and visible weaving patterns on the robots' arm and leg gyros. Nasty jaggies were less of a concern when we tried out our challenging HQV waving flag test. The same was noted for noise reduction and its noticeable effectiveness on and off.

When paired with a PlayStation 3 and playing back Casino Royale Blu-ray, this LG was a shining star with its nice warm hues, rock-solid sharpness and clean visuals. Though, we were not terribly impressed by its grayish blacks, this was offset by above-average saturation and natural-yet-contrasting flash tones of Bond and his foes. It was the same story for HD-HQV benchmarks which illustrated the set's effective noise and jaggie suppression capabilities. The strong showing was extended to the Video Resolution Loss test but not for its Film counterpart, indicating a lapse in recreating full 1080i details.

Despite the handicap caused by a lack of onboard 100Hz enhancement, motion reproduction was relatively fluid during our practice laps in Ridge Racer 7. But, we did pick up judder on the horizontal scrolling ticker which was nonetheless overshadowed by the brilliant eye candy. Testing 1080p component-video via an Xbox 360 yielded comparable results except for a slight softness at times. We definitely had better luck test driving its PC input, reproduced in its native full-HD resolution and crystal-clear text. Color gradation was outstanding, too, with no strong hint of false contouring on our banding test patterns.

For an awkward downfiring speaker system, its sound quality was surprisingly refined. We were delighted by a good presence of mid-bass and articulated vocals, garnished by balanced stereo imaging. You could blast comfortably with plenty of power to spare, though its mediocre treble and surround sound were two potential stumble blocks. The LG 47LG50FD stood out with a blend of sexy design, good performance and HD broadcast capability. The omission of dual TV aerial input is an oversight that will irk most couch potatoes, and for S$100 more, you could also check out the 100Hz Aquos D83.