LCD TV Reviews

The LG30 series if the entry level TV of the 720p LCD televisions by LG for the year 2008. As is the case of the other entry level TV offers by the other manufacturer’s, these entry level TVs of LG are also for people who are willing to enter the world of HDTV without paying off all their savings. The HD technology, being a high end feature, these TVs have features that were considered ““Hi-End” a couple of years ago such as, improved contrast ratio, hidden speaker system and multiple HDMI inputs. A little upgraded version of the LG30 series is the LG50 series which has a native resolution of 1080p.

Attractive, sleek and glossy black:

LG 32LG30 Table Top LCD TV has a sleek design as any other HDTV with its dimensions being 23.7 x 31.5 x 3.1 inches (H x W x D) and weighs 26.2 pounds. It has the trade mark glossy black finish of LG, its bottom edges are slightly curved with a thin pedestal and is mounted on a swiveling stand. It features a two inch black bezel along the sides and the top. It has a large but dim power indicator in the right end which has an option of being disabled. It glows red when the TV is off and blue when it is switched on. As mentioned earlier, the two seven watt speakers are hidden behind the front cabinet. Some minute vibrations turns the entire bezel to a speaker system. This kind of a system helps to create a natural surround sound effect.

Non-user friendly Remote control:

The remote included is same as the one in LG60 which is LG’s 50PG60 plasma set, and is not an attractive one. There is a cluster of similar kinds of buttons under the cursor control and it is very hard to differentiate between them and you will have to look at it constantly to use them. There is no back lighting, a feature that has become a very essential one in the current trend. A dedicated toggle switch for aspect ratio settings is missing, rather a Simplink option is available for compatible HDMI connected gear, which you might never need.

Logically designed attractive menu system:

The menus of LG 32″ Flat Panel LCD Television are an absolute pleasure to work with. The black texts on light-grey backgrounds are very legible and they are large too. Our choice was the input menu whose options were available horizontally with the active inputs indicated in their respective coloured pictures. The text explanations for the menu options could have been given. The navigation with the Expert menu might seem quite tedious. The quick menu, as the name indicates, allows you to control some of the commonly used options like the aspect ratio, picture presets and some of the other audio and video adjustment options without having to search them within the main menu. Over-all the menu is simple and attractive.

Perfectly assorted connectivity:

The LG has well equipped LG 32LG30 LCD HDTV in the case of connectivity. Perfect assortment of HD compatible video ports can be witnessed in this small HDTV.  LG 32LG30’s HDMI ports are compatible with 1080p24 video signals as well as the more common 1080p60 format.

Loads of features in small HDTV:

LG 32LG30 32-inch High Definition Television has loads of features included in it, but the native resolution is the standard 1366 x 768 that is, 720p and not 1080p which is not of much use for this size of screen. The LG 32LG30  being an entry level TV, you would expect that, it might have some of its corners cut with the picture settings. But for a picture fiddler’s surprise, it includes the extensive set of the manual picture controls that is found in the high-end LG60 series. These controls help you greatly in improving the picture quality. There are about seven picture modes that can be adjusted individually and is independent per input. With nine input sources, there are about sixty three memory areas allocated to store the picture settings. The five major picture modes do indicate if they are at default or custom setting with the indication word user present after the mode name. There are two modes called Expert 1 and Expert 11 that allow you to control the entire range of picture settings. The gamma and noise reduction adjustments can also be made.

No compromise with performance too:

Talking about the performance, the colour accuracy seems to be LG’s major strength and on the other hand, the black level and off-angle performance of LG 32LG30 Widescreen LCD TV is less than satisfactory and was not good enough to compete with the other small LCD TVs. The results of calibration were very attractive. Very little overscan was exhibited while playing 720p and 1080i/p video material. Each of the colour temperature settings looked superb especially on a small LCD like this. The saturation is rich and deep even with the lighter black levels which can limit the perceived colour saturation significantly. Primary colour accuracy is excellent too. The uniformity of the screen was good but the off-angle performance was awful. While playing standard definition, the LG 32LG30  made no flaws. Each and every detail of the DVD format was resolved and each of them were relatively sharp.

The audio from the seven watt speakers were actually good but is not loud enough to be used in large rooms or noisy environments. The base stand allows fifty degrees of of total swivel.

Less power consumption:

The power consumption of LG 32LG30 was less too. The usage cost is much lesser when compared to Sharp and Toshiba LCD TVs.

Box contents and warranty:

The LG 32LG30 HDTV LCD Television comes with one year manufacturers warranty.

Verdict:

The LG 32LG30 HD Ready LCD Television is priced at an average cost without much compromise on the features and style. But, we must also keep in mind that many of the similar sized TV’s offer a better HD quality picture for around the same price. Though the black levels of the TV is disappointing, some of the other good features still makes it one of our favourites. If you are looking for low budget TV with plenty of manual controls and acceptable amount of features, then LG 32LG30 is the one you are searching for.

Read reviews of 19-inch LCD Televisions, 40 inch LCD TVs in this website.

LG 32LG30 32″ Flat Panel HD LCD TV – Technical Specifications, Features

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