LG 42PQ6000 42-inch Widescreen HD Ready Plasma TV with Freeview – Black

Bullfrog

at 8:17 pm

I don’t tend to write many reviews, however I felt compelled to write a review for this TV. I ummed and ahhed about which TV to purchase, my budget wasn’t huge and I wanted to get the best value for money. I agonised over LCD v Plasma, especially with regards to the possibility of image retention on Plasma as I wanted to play my PS3 on the set, and also surf the internet with a feed from my PC. I also struggled to make a decision on whether to get Full HD (1080p) or HD Ready (720p) and lastly on which screen size would fulfill my needs.

I needed to get all of this right as this was, for me a one shot investment that would have to last me for many years, and I could not afford to make a costly mistake.

Anyhoo after many sleepless nights and days spent agonising the pros and cons for each I settled on the LG 42PQ6000 Plasma. After much research and lurking on internet forums I satisfied myself that image retention with Plasma screens was no longer the big issue that it used to be, provided moderate care was exercised and provided that the run in period was carried out with settings at 50%. I also found some excellent documents which suggested that if a 42″ screen is viewed from a distance of around 8′ then the extra detail of Full HD (1080p) would be lost as the pixels would appear to fuse together at this distance whereas 720p material at 8 feet provides the optimum pixelation/detail threshold (do a search on “tv screen size vs viewing distance”). As 8 feet is my optimum viewing distance I decided that I could live with 720p as the extra detail would be lost on me (well that’s the theory!)

I ordered the TV late Saturday night, and the TV was delivered first thing on Monday morning, in first class condition, not even a dent on the cardboard box – and I live in a remote part of Scotland. The TV took me around 10 minutes to install single handed and had no problems from detecting the freeview channels, Sky and DVD sources.

In my opinion the picture quality is first class, and the sound seems to be pretty good for a flat panel TV. I have reduced the display settings to those recomended during the running in period (and the picture still seems great). Have watched a fair amount of TV on a variety of sky channels with bright static logos in the corner and after around 1 hours viewing have yet to see any evidence of image retention. Can’t wait for the 100 hour burn in period to be up so that I can really set this beauty up!

I was worried that a 42″ TV was going to be too big for my lounge, and that it would dominate the room, on reflection it is probably the perfect size (it’s amazing how soon you adapt to the larger size) and my 32″ now seems positively puny – I could maybe just have got away with a 50″, but this would have blown my budget.

For my viewing needs which is heavily based towards SD sources such as Sky TV and DVDs this television meets all of my expectations and then some. I have yet to connect my PS3 as it is a chistmas prezzie, and I am forbidden until the 25th. So I am unable to comment on HD sources at this moment in time, but I expect to be more than happy, once it is connected, and may well post an update at a later date, if I can tear myself away from the TV

Very happy with my purchase this is a lot of TV for the money, and compared to my three year old 32″ LCD watching the new set feels like I have washed sand out of my eyes!

Rating: 5 / 5

N. Davidson

at 9:25 pm

I done a good bit of research before I chose this TV, and I am glad I did, as this TV is just brilliant.

Setting the TV up was a piece of cake, it was near enough just plug and play. All I had to do was a little tweaking with the settings to get the picture just the way I wanted. My Xbox 360 graphics look Superb on this TV, so the HD on the TV is excellent.

Found a dead pixel the other day, but only because I was really close to my TV at the time, when watching the TV you never even notice it, so it doesn’t even bother me.

So this TV is a excellent purchase and real value for money.
Rating: 5 / 5