LG Infinia 42LV5500 42-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV with Smart TV
- Smart TV allows you to access limitless content, thousands of movies, customizable apps, videos and the best of the web all organized in a simple to use interface
- TruMotion 120Hz technology lets you see sports, video games and high-speed action with virtually no motion blur
- LG’s LED technology provides a slim profile and delivers amazing brightness, clarity and color detail, as well as greater energy efficiency
- Full HD 1080p gives it superior picture quality over standard HDTV. You’ll see details and colors like never before.
- A contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1 delivers incredibly vibrant colors and deeper and darker blacks
The 42LV5500 delivers LED picture quality that along with a whole lot more. You can tap directly into instant entertainment with Smart TV and with TruMotion 120Hz refresh rate sports and faction movies never looked better?(March 2011)
Internet-Ready Devices Internet-ready devices use your broadband connection to deliver dynamic content to your television, whether it’s streaming video from Netflix, new music from Pandora, or a quick glance at today’s weather forecast. Although there is overl
List Price: $ 1,599.99
Price: $ 1,599.99
First day impression,
See my uploaded pictures. I selected this TV based on size and the good picture I saw on this model at Sears. Purchased from Amazon after price shopping. UPS delivered a slightly scuffed up shipping box. The shipping box said it had the AUSYLJR panel. This panel sure isn’t the wide view panel but in my bedroom this isn’t an issue. I compared the LG web site contrast ratio to the two different Amazon stated contrast ratio and none agree. Installing the base with eight screws was easy. After my DW assisted me in carefully lifting the TV to the top of my dresser I was ready for the smoke test. But first I noticed a small factory nick on the frame under the protective sticky tape. One star deduction for this blemish. On power up the set went into a simple set up mode but I was stopped cold when it first wanted to scan OTA channels. I hooked up some powered rabbit ears and let it automatically do it’s thing. Once that was done I switched the input to an HDMI cable from my cable box and all looked good. It was quite easy getting a WiFi connection. All I had to do was enter my Linky password. Then I clicked on Netflix and got an authorization message. Meanwhile the TV started updating its software which took maybe 10 minutes. After it rebooted I discovered that it erased my Linky password so I entered that again. Now for the Netflix test.
I selected the documentary Restrepo, hooked in my headphones and began the Netflix test. Immediately I was blown away by the video and audio quality I was watching. Trust me. It was outstanding ! !
Second day impression:
The few free LG apps are a joke.
The Facebook app is not very good compared to the Facebook PC web site.
The TV broadcast image seemed a lot darker than I liked so I turned off the energy saving mode which solved the problem.
I noticed that when my cable DVR, in pause mode, went to a black screen with a small moving screen saver image there was a less black area around the moving image.
The Amazon price just dropped on this model. Amazon then agreed to match their new lower price – one time only.
First week impression:
The LED lighting slightly leaks through the air vent holes on the back of the set.
This LG TV is still displaying an outstanding picture but I’m not much a fan of LED TVs. I prefer my older Samy 650 LCD only model in my TV room.
This TV was assembled in March 2011 and sold to me by Amazon in April 2011.
Amazon seems to change the price up and down on this TV nearly everyday.
The LG shipping box goes to trashman today because I’m keeping my baby.
Second week impression:
Discovered that you don’t need to install any LG supplied software to easily play mp3′s or see jpg’s that are located on any of your local network’s computers.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Good as regular HDTV, but Smart TV features mostly bad,
Picture quality is great. This is a matt screen and that’s a big plus for me. Speakers/audio is acceptable. That’s where it stops. The Smart TV and other features which were the main draw for me, are unsatisfactory and poorly executed.
The “Intelligent Sensor” to adjust pic brightness is a bit of a joke – it merely reduces it to the lowest level possible; nothing intelligent about that.
The Netflix streaming app works fine, and is pretty much the only one that works as expected; although it would be nice if LG had streamlined and standardized the menu choices for adjusting picture aspect ratio and video brightness presets (not available from within the app).
The YouTube app is complete garbage.
Hulu: I saw “Hulu” in a lot of the advertising materials but there is no app for it. You can access it via the Plex media server app, (which requires you to have the server running on your connected computer), but the menu steps you have to go thru to get to the show you want are so tedious I gave up, and continue to watch Hulu shows on my laptop. Much simpler. Which brings me to:
The BIG negative! The built in browser is useless without Flash. The LG brochure clearly indicates it does not support Flash Player 10 which is fine. That suggests it comes with an older version of Flash. It appears to come with Flash 9.x according to multiple version-check sites, but I haven’t been able to get it to work, Even on LG or Adobe’s site.
The menus for setting favorite channels are also tedious and not intuitive at all. There is an Add/Delete button on the Quick Menu – I haven’t been able to figure out what it is supposed to do. There are LG “apps” (horoscopes was the latest addition) but their purpose seems mainly to allow LG to brag it has this and that feature without being called out for false advertising.
Overall, I think I paid a premium for nothing special. Since the bells and whistles don’t work, or are so poorly designed as to be useless, the proper comparison is with a regular 42″ plus the cost of a Rokio or other Netflix device. If you can get this TV for a price that is comparable to that combo, this model is worth it, but not otherwise.
LG’s Answers forum (questions answered by LG) – four/five days since I asked how to fix the browser Flash issue, and my question hasn’t gone live, much less answered. Which is what promoted me to post this review here on Amazon.
Was this review helpful to you?
|