Posts Tagged ‘LG’

LG’s INFINIA LE9500 Series LCD TV

January 30th, 2010 zou

LG’s INFINIA LE9500 Series LCD TVs (available in 55- and 47-inch screen sizes) head up a broad line of LG LCD  TV and plasma models unveiled by the conference call companies today at CES. The THX-certified flagship models feature LED backlights with 240-zone local dimming, TruMotion 480Hz display, and an expanded suite of Netcast media-streaming that adds Skype video and internet voice communication and voip security Napster music to LG’s current Netflix, Vudu, and YouTube offerings.

In case you were wondering, the LE9500 series TVs are indeed slim and sleek:only92 inches deep with a 8.5 mm wide bezel.audio conference calls In addition to being wireless-ready via a USB WiFi dongle LG also says that the 9500 Series TVs will be its first “3D-ready” sets.

Posted in Satellite Receiver Tags: , , , Comments Off

Blu-ray Player LG BD390

December 6th, 2009 zou

LG Electronic has been manufacturing home appliances and electronics for over 50 years. In 1995,it acquired Zenith (the company that invented the remote control) and started to gain market share in North America with cell phone technology, digital set-top boxes, and Dish television. When the format war was in full swing in 2007, LG became the Switzerland of electronics house insurance companies by releasing the BH100 dual-format Blu-ray HD DVD player. It received tepid reviews due primarily to playback glitches on HD DVDs, but you have to admire the company for attempting to appeal to a wider range of consumers.

Thankfully, with the format war behind us, manufacturers can concentrate on making great Blu-ray players, and LG hasn’t stopped its innovation. It was the first to release a BD player with Netflix streaming (BD300) and has upped the ante with its latest player by adding YouTube, Cinema Now, and 802.11n Wi-Fi.

While it’s not as sleek as the Samsung BD-P4600 featured in this roundup, the LG BD390 at least fits into my equipment rack with its more traditional form factor. Aesthetically, it resembles the previous-generation BD300, with a sparsely populated front panel that includes six basic functions (Power, Eject, Play/Pause, etc.) and a covered USB port on the far right-hand side of the unit. Once powered on, the front LCD display is bright and clearly readable from across the room. Unfortunately, it isn’t dimmable.

Rear-panel connections include HDMI 1.3a with x.v.Color support, component, and composite video outputs. Audio outputs include TosLink and digital coaxial, stereo analog, and 7.1-channel analog for consumers with legacy equipment that lacks HDMI inputs. Not to be left out is an Ethernet port for hook-up to a home network security hardware. Users who have Wi-Fi networks can choose to go wireless with the built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi. My only beef with the rear panel is the lack of a second USB input to attach an external drive.

The BD390 is BD-Live compliant with 1 gigabyte of internal memory, which can be expanded by using the USB port on the front panel. It offers internal decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio and sends it via HDMI as PCM or analog from the 7.1-channel output to a receiver or surround processor. For newer AVRs that offer onboard decoding of the advanced codecs, the LG can also send loss less bitstreams, but the secondary audio with PiP and the clicks and beeps in the menu will be lost in the translation.

User Interface
One area that all three players in this roundup have in common is their remotes all are useless in a dark room. The remote doesn’t have backlighting, but the most common buttons are in the middle of the remote, so they’re easy to access with your thumb. The lower third of the device includes a difficult-to-open sliding section with a number pad, volume and channel controls, and an important Pic Mode button, which lets you access custom picture controls (more on this later).

The BD390’s menu is my favorite in this roundup due to its simplistic design and ease of use. If there isn’t a disc in the player, it greets you with eight icons (Movie, Photo, Music, My Media, Netflix, CinemaNow, YouTube, and Setup). Access to each of these areas is nearly instantaneous, and it’s extremely intuitive to navigate. If you start the player with a disc in the tray, the player will bypass this menu and start the disc.

Player setup is very straightforward, with the usual assortment of opt-ions for Display, Language, Audio, Network, Lock, and Others. Under the Display heading, you can configure your TV aspect ratio and the HDMI color setting (Y/Cb/Cr or RGB). This is also where you configure the resolution, with choices of Auto (using the EDID information from your display), 1080p (24 or 60), 1080i, 720p, 480p, or 480i (component output only).

The Audio menu has a variety of options depending on how the player is connected to your system. For HDMI, things are pretty clear cut either PCM multi-channel for internal decoding or Primary Pass-Thru to bitstream the data to your AVR or surround processor. If you use the TosLink or coaxial output, the BD390 provides a DTS re-encode feature that decodes the lossless formats (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) and re-encodes them as 1.5 Mbps DTS output to your AVR.

Configuring the player to connect to my wireless network was a snap. Unlike the Samsung BD-P4600, the LG found my network on its first try. Wireless performance is spotty in my home theater because of its distance to my wireless router. Once I tested the connection, I decided to hook up an Ethernet cable for the remainder of my time with the BD390 to ensure the fastest possible hookup.

Once I had the player configured to my home network security services and completed the user adjustments, I checked to see if there was a new firmware update a common practice with all Blu-ray players and there was (version BD.9.08.33.B). The update took about five minutes to complete, which was similar to my OPPO BDP-83.

As with all Netflix-enabled devices, in order to access this feature, you need a Netflix-generated setup code. You’ll need to enter the code on the Netflix Website in order to pair the player with your account. As with the Samsung BD-P4600, this took very little time, but it required the use of a computer. The BD390 also streams media from any networked PCs using the included software (Nero server). Since I don’t have any DivX or MPEG video files on my computer, I couldn’t test this function.

Video Performance
The BD390 was an excellent performer in all of our HD video processing tests, even on difficult 1080i 2:2 content found on most concert discs. The player sailed through all of the de interlacing tests on the Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark Blu-ray Edition. Standard-definition performance was just as impressive, apart from a failure on our 2:2 SD cadence test. When I tested for above-black and below-white data, I discovered that the Standard picture mode wouldn’t pass the above-white information. Luckily, if you press the Pic Adjust button on the remote, you’ll access a User mode, which lets you control contrast, brightness, and other adjustments. Once I clicked over to the User controls, the above-white information was restored.

The only downside to the BD390’s video performance is its scaling ability, which is only average when going from 480i to 1080p. Star Trek: Insurrection on DVD is a decent transfer that looked very good on the Pioneer and Samsung players, but the LG showed off its stellar deinterlacing performance with clear edges on the bridges, boats, and rooftops. But the image was also softer versus the competition. Bright backgrounds revealed ample ringing in the image, and both the foregrounds and the backgrounds lacked sharpness. When I checked the player on a smaller display (50-inch plasma versus 88-inch front projection), the image didn’t look as bad, so your mileage may vary depending on your display.

Real-World Performance
The BD390 is the fastest Blu-ray player I’ve ever used. Its startup time rivals the PS3 and the OPPO BDP-83 at less than 20 seconds. Even with the most Java-intensive titles, you’ll be at the main menu in less than a minute—now that’s fast.Blu-ray playback at 1080p/24 is flawless, and the LG played every title I threw at it, even Dollhouse: Season One and The Soloist, two titles that wouldn’t play on either of the other players in this roundup. Navigation through the menus on Blu-ray Discs is also very speedy, but I had to point the remote directly at the player versus bouncing the signal off of my screen. Granted, I placed the player at the side of my room, but the other players in the roundup didn’t have this problem with similar placements.

Besides superior audio and video quality, Blu-ray also features some neat interactive features such as PiP (picture-in-picture) commentaries and online access. Most of these features worked flawlessly on the LG, but the one exception was Watchmen from Warner. When I watched the film with its Maximum Movie mode, the graphic time line and menus wouldn’t display properly, although the video commentary and PiP worked as advertised. There have been widespread reports of this disc causing issues in other players, and even the OPPO BDP-83 pauses at the 46-second mark (which you can fast-forward through). This may point toward an authoring issue rather than a problem with this player. Other interactive discs from Universal such as Heroes: Season 3 and State of Play worked perfectly with Universal’s U-Control interface.

For the majority of my evaluation, I used the internal audio decoding and output it as PCM to my surround processor, and I never found the sound lacking in any way. Dynamics were excellent, with crisp highs, natural bass, and well-balanced and transparent dialogue, especially on lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks.

I don’t have an account with Cinema Now, and after looking over its Website, I’m not inclined to sign up. It has a decent assortment of new movies, but most of them are only in standard definition and cost $4 to rent or $20 to buy. When you compare its cost with Netflix, the latter wins hands down. Frankly, for $20, I’d rather go out and buy the DVD and have a hard copy.

Netflix has a large assortment of standard-def titles and a growing list of HD offerings. The standard-def feed is near DVD quality. The HD streams are nowhere as good as Blu-ray, and the audio is stereo. I never use this service for critical viewing, but it’s handy when you want to watch an old TV show or obscure catalog title without having to wait for it in the mail. The 720p VC-1 high-def feeds have decent quality, but the image doesn’t have the same visual depth and color saturation as Blu-ray nor should it, considering the low bitrate.

With my movie-watching schedule, I rarely have time to watch YouTube videos on my computer, let alone in my home theater. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this added feature, although the entertainment value varies greatly depending on the creator. The interface is very fast like everything else on the player with selections for the top-rated and most viewed videos. YouTube also has a search function, but without a keyboard, it’s cumbersome. The videos start playing in a small window, and you can expand them to full screen by pressing the Display button on the remote. But don’t expect the video quality to blow you away.

Wrap Up
The BD390 has improved its video processing over the BD300, but its scaling of DVDs doesn’t measure up to the category leaders, Pioneer and OPPO. But if you’re looking for a player that’s lightning fast in its user interface and offers a bevy of media streaming options (now including VUDU, which was announced as we went to print), this one is worth a look. Recommended.

Features
BD-Live: Yes (1 GB onboard expandable via USB)
BonusView: Yes
Firmware Version: BD.9.08.33.B
Audio Decoding: DOLBY: Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus; DTS: DTS-HD Master Audio
HDMI Video Resolutions: 1080p/24, 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p
Compatible Playback Formats: BD-Video, DVD, DVD-R/-RW, CD, CD-R/-RW, MP3/WMA, JPEG/Kodak PictureCD, VideoCD, AVCHD, DivX HD, MKV
Dimensions (W x H x D, inches): 16.9 x 2.3 x 10.9
Weight (pounds): 6.6

Connections
Outputs: Video: HDMI 1.3a (1), component video (1), composite video (1)
Audio: Coaxial digital (1), optical digital (1), 7.1 channel analog, stereo analog (1)
Additional: Ethernet (1), USB (1), Wi-Fi 802.11n (Draft 2.0) compatible with 802.11 b/g networks

search Keyword:

Posted in Satellite Receiver Tags: , Comments Off

HDTV Tuner LG DVR

October 31st, 2009 zou

HDTV increasingly expanding horizons,the role of independent HDTV tuner has diminished but certainly not disappeared. Of course, this year, the FCC ordered TV manufacturers to start incorporating internal ATSC tuner to a new 36-inch-or-more TV that has NTSC tuner, but what if you have built your home theater around a high-end projector or a flat panel with no internal tuners? Sure, the satellite and cable companies are offering more HDTV content by the minute and adding DVRs to their new HD set-top boxes, but that doesn’t help the person who can’t have a satellite dish, isn’t getting much (if any) HDTV from their cable company, or doesn’t want to pay a monthly fee to watch and record HDTV.

If you fit into any of the above categories,LG Electronics new LST-3410A is worth a look. This attractive silver box contains an ATSC and an NTSC tuner to pull in over-the-air signals, a QAM tuner to decode unencrypted cable channels, and a 120-gigabyte hard drive. The TV Guide On Screen user interface unites them in a user-friendly package that both the novice and veteran will appreciate.

Making the Connection
Setting up the LST-3410A is a breeze. The owner’s manual is logically laid out and thorough, but LG includes a Quick Setup Guide to make the process that much easier. Just connect the tuner to your HD display via the component, RGB, or DVI output, connect your indoor or outdoor antenna’s RF cable to the Ant In RF input, and choose an audio connection to your TV or audio system.

If you want to pass standard-def digital or analog cable signals through the LST-3410A to utilize its DVR, you can use either the second RF input or one of the tuner’s A/V input sets; LG recommends the latter if your cable box has A/V outputs. Not surprisingly, there’s no component or DVI input to feed your HD cable box’s signals through this box, but I was a bit surprised that the box doesn’t at least offer an S-video input for slightly better signals from your cable box. However, many standard-def cable boxes don’t give you anything better than composite anyhow, so it’s not a critical omission.

After you power on the unit, you need to make sure it’s configured to match your TV, which is a no-brainer, thanks to the clearly labeled front-panel buttons. Use the Display Format button to first select your video connection (DVI, component, etc.—only one output is active at a time) and then your desired resolution—in my case, 720p to match the Epson TW100 (LCD) and Sharp XV-Z12000 (DLP) projector I used for this review. The large front-panel display always shows what resolution and output type you’ve selected, how much hard-disk space you’ve used, and other useful info. It’s a vast improvement over early generation boxes that offered only a power light on the front panel.

Lastly, the onscreen interface walks you through a simple process to set up the TV Guide On Screen program guide and prompts you to run your first channel scan a relatively quick endeavor, even when I included digital cable channels in the scan. After that, you’re good to go, but you need to turn off the LST-3410A overnight to let it download the necessary program info. (After the initial download, you can leave it on all the time.)

The Tuners
The LST-3410A did a commendable job of tuning in and holding HDTV over-the-air signals, both with an inexpensive RCA indoor antenna in my apartment and with a rooftop antenna at our testing facility. It didn’t find as many channels as a few tuners that have passed through our doors, but its performance was on par with most and better than some. At home, the initial scan didn’t find the Fox and UPN DTV channels; at the studio, it didn’t find ABC, UPN, and PBS. However, it did a reasonably good job of holding the signal once it found it—more so with the rooftop antenna than the indoor one, which isn’t terribly powerful and often loses the signal when police helicopters circle my neighborhood (an all-too-frequent occurrence, I’m afraid—no, really, I’m afraid).

Adding channels is easy with the Channel Edit function: A numerical grid appears onscreen, and you select the channels you want. If you’re uncertain where a channel falls in your local UHF/VHF band, go to www.antennaweb.org to get this info. For instance, in Los Angeles, Fox is on channel 11, but their DTV feed is on channel 65. Once you add the number, if the tuner can find a signal, it will label the “DTV channel” by its common local delineation (i.e., 11-1, not 65). I successfully added Fox but couldn’t tune in UPN at home or our studio. I never got ABC or PBS at the studio, but I received strong signals for these channels at home, which likely means the problem was with the rooftop antenna’s orientation. I recommend that you do your homework about signal locations before putting up a rooftop antenna.

The DVR
The LST-3410A’s 120-GB DVR doesn’t have all the gee-whiz features you get with a TiVo or ReplayTV unit, but it also doesn’t cost anything extra or tie up your phone line. It can record up to 12 hours of  HDTV; with SDTV, you can choose between four picture-quality settings for up to 120 hours of recorded content.

The hard drive doesn’t automatically back up programming the way TiVo does; you must hit the remote’s Time Shift button to begin the backup process that allows you to pause, rewind, and fast-forward pseudo-live TV. Once you end a Time Shift session, the last 30 minutes of saved content will remain on the hard drive until you begin another Time Shift session.

The TV Guide On Screen program guide contains eight days of programming info and kindly lists SD and HD channels on the same grid, grouping the HD channels at the bottom of the lineup. The guide is easy to maneuver and customize. If you see a show you want to watch or record, just select it; the LST-3410A will figure out if it’s an antenna or cable broadcast and take care of the rest.

You can access a recorded program by hitting the Program List button on the remote; in addition to providing a list of the recorded shows, this screen tells you how much room is left on the hard drive. Unlike its fee-based counterparts, the LST-3410A’s DVR won’t let you begin watching a program that’s still recording or watch one recorded program while it records another; again, we’re talking pretty basic functionality here.

But How Does It Look?
In terms of color and detail, HDTV content looked wonderful from both the DVI and component outputs with the projectors I used. It was difficult to conduct an A/B comparison because the two outputs aren’t active at the same time, but the DVI signal appeared to be just a hair sharper. I also saw no discernible difference between a live HD broadcast and a recorded one. Overall, I was quite pleased.

Fun with FireWire
The LST-3410A features two four-pin FireWire ports, to which you can connect a D-VHS player or a few compatible camcorders. After I connected the LG box to the JVC-HM30000U and pressed the remote’s 1394 button, I could watch and control the JVC’s signals through the LST-3410A without having to switch any connections or find other remotes. The quality of D-VHS signals didn’t appear to diminish when passed through the LST-3410A. The shuttle launch at the start of Digital Video Essentials looked absolutely stunning.

Through that FireWire connection, you can transfer content from a D-VHS tape to the LST-3410A’s hard drive, provided that content is not copy-protected. I was able to transfer PBS HD demo footage from a D-VHS tape to the hard drive, but not a segment from the Digital Video Essentials tape. Perhaps the best feature of all, though, is the ability to archive HD recordings from the hard drive to D-VHS for permanent storage; not only is this a rare and much-desired ability in an HD device right now, but it couldn’t be easier to do than it is with the LST-3410A.

Living Easy
Easy is the best word to describe the LST-3410A: It’s easy to set up, easy to use, and easy to get used to. It’s also the perfect HDTV source component for the person who hates monthly fees. For $1,299 and the price of a good antenna, you can enjoy over-the-air HDTV (and NTSC, for that matter) without paying a cable or satellite company, and you can experiment with a basic DVR. For those of us who are committed to paying too much for cable or satellite, the LST-3410A would make a great second tuner for recording one HDTV program while watching another.

HDTV tuner may not hold the place of prominence they once did, but the LST-3410A’s performance and its DVR and FireWire perks make it a viable and valuable piece of the HD puzzle.

search Keyword:

Posted in Satellite Receiver Tags: , , Comments Off