LG 42PJ350 42-inch Widescreen HD Ready 600Hz Plasma TV with Freeview
Posted by Notcot on Jun 9, 2010 in Home Cinema & Video |
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If you are after a great looking slimline 42′ tv then this is for you, I have a 32’lcd of a different make and was a bit worried about getting a plasma. I had heard that plasma tvs were big and bulky and very heavy, but they must have improved over the years, as this is the slimest tv I have come across. The picture is superb although I had to tweak the settings a bit, sound is also excellent. I cant comment on freeview as its not in my area yet, but have it connected to sky HD box and it was very easy to setup the sky remote code rev.8 was hard to get but try 0206. This is not full 1080p hd, its hd ready i think 720p but my other tv was full hd and I cant see much difference.It has 2 HDMI ports and a usb port the user manual states that it can play photos, music and Divx movies but I havent tried it yet. I purchased it last week from Amazon for the lower price of £399 and with free delivery,ive seen it on other sites at far higher price tag,even at £449 I think its a bargain!
Rating: 5 / 5
I have had this TV now for around a month. At the the time of ordering there wasn’t too many reviews of this TV but decided to take a gamble anyway and went for it. Opening it up and setting it on the swivel stand provided was all very simple and required only a x-drive screwdriver. The TV is very stylish and elegantly designed with the sub-inch bezel making it seem almost as though the screen goes right to the edge. The piano key black looks great too, although dust and fingerprints do show up easily. The screen is like glass, not matt like LCDs so reflections might be a problem on dark scenes in your particular room but I have to say that it’s not been much of a problem for me and the swivel stand makes it easy to find an angle to overcome this, as well as allowing easy access to the connections on the side and rear. I was a little disappointed by the picture to start with, particularly the colour reproduction, but then used the Picture Wizard feature to set it up and have to say that there was a massive improvement – as such, all the following comments on picture quality are for after I’d set it up. I’m sure with a professionals touch, the fine tuning could go on and on and on but for me, the Picture Wizard was enough. So, the picture quality on SD is as good as any other TV (my viewing distance is around 9 or 10ft) and I can’t say I noticed any difference in HD between this and my father’s 42LH7700 which is Full HD (1080p) as opposed to this one being HD Ready (720p) but then I am just the average viewer – I’m sure a true TV geek would be able to point them out. The Xbox360 looks great over HDMI, as does my PC and upscaling DVD player. At distances of 4ft or less the image starts to look a little ‘grainy’ but I understand that this is something akin to all plasmas(?) and I never sit that close anyway. There are some complaints about a loud buzzing being heard from the set. Granted, there is an audible hum, but only when the set is muted and you’re stood next to it – any kind of normal viewing and with the volume even down low, and you’re not going to notice this, and you certainly wont with the volume on the surround sound cranked up while watching generic action film! My only niggles with this TV come from the connectivity. There are only two HDMI connections which for most would be fine but if you have a Sky+HD box, an Xbox360, an upscaling DVD player and a PC and you want to have all of them going over HDMI to get the best image quality you will need a seperate switcher as in my case. I could hook the PC up to the VGA and the Xbox360 to the components but I don’t want to. And secondly, there is a USB port on the side but you can’t for instance, plug in a USB pen or external HDD to view videos, only pictures or to play music. I did a bit of digging on this though and it seems that this model sold in other countries does have video enabled but is disable for Europe, probably to sway customers to a TV at a higher price point. Although this is a bind, it does mean that the TV could play video were somebody to find a way to get into the service menu and enable it, so will only be a matter of time. Not that I am endorsing this behaviour – it can also ruin TVs and is not advisable!
So in summary;
Great TV for the price once calibrated, which is a doddle.
No real great difference between this TV and those Full HD plasmas at twice the price.
Would have been nice to have an extra HDMI input.
Shame video is not an option without fiddling and voiding warranty etc.
Rating: 4 / 5
ok even though this is a plasma tv and it energy consumtion is going to be high than that of lcd screen of similar size this particular brand has a energy saving mode which does help on the bills, however it does mean lower picture quality and sound. Once you switch it to it’s optimum setting it is a great piece of tech. be warn though it is only 720p hd so it does mean you not getting the full 1080p. the invisible speakers are a nice touch to this allows user to stay focused screen on the screen. the touch button controls on the tv are a nice touch too guess it all part of moving into the future of tech, one thing though they provided a disc with the manual even though they gave apaper manual to which i thought was a bit point give one or the other!! all round a 4 star product i would suggest buying a black tv stand with it otherwise it simply does not do it justies if your not willing to hang it on the wall that is
Rating: 4 / 5
All I would say is that this TV has a great picture and excellent sound.It looks good with its slim surround.(I have this TV on a stand as against being wall mounted – the touch controls under the screen would be easier to see with the TV wall mounted,I didn`t even know they were there at first!) Straightforward set up (although the batteries in mine were duds-luckily I had spares for the remote). I have yet to connect the DVD recorder etc.;this is the only slightly annoying thing with this TV,although I suspect it will be common in future-the main instructions are on a CD!
Decided it justified a new stand which arrived today-that is just brilliant as well. At under £50 I think this was a bargain.
Top marks to Amazon;both items are first class and deliveries were made exactly as advised.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a great looking TV, with an excellent picture in standard 576i/p modes with the built-in Freeview tuner and HDMI cable respectively. However, in 720p HDMI mode picture quality is terrible. Unwatchable. And in all modes, although the sound is crisp it clearly lacks bass. It’s ‘tinny’.
But most of all the TV buzzes. It sounds like transformer noise from the back of the TV. You can mostly drown this out by having the sound up high, as you would for a movie. But for casual television viewing, the buzz is clearly distinguishable and unpleasant.
Some may be able to mentally switch off to this buzzing but I for one cannot. So, we exchanged for another unit to see if it was an isolated issue. No. Another unit had these exact same flaws. I don’t expect perfection. But I’ve never owned a television that wasn’t silent on mute or that you couldn’t watch at low volumes.
I think LG must be hoping people only watch TV at high volumes. Poor show.
We’ve given up and chosen a different model altogether – which does NOT buzz, I’m happy to say!
Rating: 2 / 5