LG's THX-certified LH90 LCD HDTVs now shipping in US
By Darren Murph 
posted July 22nd 2009 4:19PM
posted July 22nd 2009 4:19PM
posted July 22nd 2009 4:19PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
LG is a carp company
They sell fish?
LOL. Derek = failure.
haha, that is actually a joke between my friends, apparently I mess up enough to have created a new term: Derek Fail
I purposely put carp though...
I agree with this statement.
I approve of this statement.
A lot of LCD companies actually use panels from LG. The Apple Cinema displays and Dell Ultrasharp displays all use LG panels. Apple and Dell just basically build the housing for the LCD panel. If LG panels are crap, then I don't know what's good.
Dan, Judging from the Dells and Apples I have seen, neither of them rate as "good" either...
"dynamic contrast ratio" do you take us to be fools?
Other than that, looks awesome.
technically, since its LED based and the LEDs can turn off altogether, shouldnt the "Dynamic Contrast" be infinite? Or is this not using clusters and just LED sidelights?
Assuming it's like every other dynamic contrast "feature", it dims/brightens the sidelights based on the average brightness of the scene, with about a 2 second lag between scene changes and brightness adjustments. As you can probably guess, this negatively impacts color accuracy. If this feature can't be turned off, then this HDTV is worthless to those who know their stuff. My guess is it's being marketed at rich people who see big numbers in the stat sheets and feel an urge to buy. You know, the people who buy monster cables.
This unit isn't side lit so it can adjust contrast by tweaking the backlight in each field.
wonder how much they paid for that sticker from THX?
THX certification cannnot be bought. It is a standard of quality, and manus must meet specific technical specifications in order to display that "THX" logo.
http://www.hemagazine.com/node/THX_Certified_Video
http://www.hdtvetc.com/education/thx-video-certification-explained.php
I thought you get the sticker as long as it plays Star Wars
LOL @ Grammar Delinquent
Actually, THX 1138 should be the viewing requirement...
over $1800 for a 42" 1080p? Holy Christ, brand name must be worth a LOT
Also wtf is the point of 240Hz when your eyes can only see at about 30? Unless you're in bullet time there couldn't be any improvement over 120Hz
You sir, have obviously never seen a side-to-side comparison of a regular LCD with average Hz, to one with 120+hz
And you, sir, ignored the meaning of my post. Normal LCD screen with average refresh rate(60Hz) has to drop frames to match up with the 24Hz signal used in film. At 120Hz, it's exactly 5 times that frequency so there's no reason to drop frames. Since that's the case and it is refreshing faster than your eyes can see there can't possibly be any benefit to 240Hz vs. 120Hz.
Mark has a point.
Why 240Hz? So they can charge $500 for $100 worth of hardware.
I don't know bout you guys... but 240Hz bugs me. Anyone else notice a wave of super-smoothness every once and a while and then regular chopiness on those sets?
I want to know if thats how people see it or if my head is just messing with me....
@ZaxCG2
that'd be the THC actually ....
YOU THINK I'M CRAZY? I'M NOT CRAZY!
I'll SHOW YOU. I'LL SHOW ALL OF YOU.
So the de juddering in these are the best in existence?
is*
Dose it do the whole duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrriiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnngggggg thing whenever you turn it on? :D
Whatever happened to that in theaters anyway? We use to see it all the time. Now we don't even seen their logo in theaters anymore.
"2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio" = ratio between turned off and a white image with full brightness and contrast. it's worthless marketing talk.
So, the THX certifications on last years and this years Panasonic plasma TVs don't exist?
...
It should be first LCD's with THX I believe.
i thought THX is a sound reproduction standard?
Hey, I thought that FIRST!
I thought THX was about sound...
They're talking about THX video certification.
These sets have been in store for quite awhile, and the prices are hundreds less than the msrp, pretty reasonable for local dimming leds. And to answer some of the questions in this thread:
These lcds are actually 120 hz panels, they use backlight strobing to get there 240 hz claims, still pretty effective for helping with motion.
This is the first LCD with thx certification, so last years panasonic plasmas don't change the fact this is the "first".
And besides paying THX money to slap it onto the box, what your really paying for is THX mode, which like on the panasonic plasmas do a really good job of giving a near calibrated look to the tv automatically.
Super Glossy Bezel. WTF would I want that. My samsung has a glossy bezel. The screen itself is semi-matte and works great.
The damn glossy bezel sucks. It reflects everything, distracting and annoying.
Or just buy a Panasonic plasma that looks a lot better and has the THX cert. and keep $1000 in your pocket. Dynamic contrast, localized dimming, 240hz, it's all bologna.
Bigot Certified.
The Best Buy I work at has had this TV for almost a month now. We already have it on sale for $2699 this week.
F**k off BB, you wont have any of my $$$
Darren Murph likes to post pointless press release articles when he can't find anything original to talk about. This tv has been around for quite awhile, and is quite nice, much better then the Samsung LED backlit tv's.
***SSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM* If that thing really does have THX sound it would break the panel. I want more SED/FED news! Enough LCD's.
I've got to see this set in action. Amazing. Probably the best looking LCD I have ever seen. Amazing black levels, that even beat samsungs. The 240hz actually looks natural, not all floaty and weird.
Great set, if it ever drops in price, I'll find a way to get one.
Go jump off a cliff
The human eye/brain combo is NOT limited to 24hz. Our vision doesn't work that way. It's really complex how our vision works. There's not enough character count for me to explain it all here. Some points though.
24hz is not the same as 24 frames per second. The human eye perceives as little as 18 FPS of "motion picture film" as fluid only because of the blur effect inherent to capturing motion on film. Digital creations don't have this blur (exception some of the recent generation), so you need more FPS to trick the eye/brain into thinking something is moving.
Even at 60fps the brain of most people will perceive 60 still frames then go "oh, wait, this stuff is supposed to be moving and I don't want to be confused, so I think it's moving". Up the FPS to 120 and it's easier for the brain to convince itself of movement. For me, anything under 60FPS gives me headaches, at about 120 I'm good for a few hours, at 180 (my old Viewsonic 21" would do 1600x1200x32bp@188hz) and I was good for 12 hours and more. Notice I mostly talked about FPS, not hz.
The hz rating of a analog set has always related to how many times per second can the ENTIRE screen be refreshed. FPS is directly relative to the media source (film, cgi, etc.) as those images are "chunked out of time when imprinted". Analog displays "paint" from the top to the bottom of the screen X times per second to give you a hz rating. Ok, some displays split the screen in half horizontally, but you get the idea. So, a faster refresh means the eye/brain sees less "painting". You'll understand what I mean better if you find a TV show there they pan the camera view across a TV showing a flickering/scrolling image. It's out of sync with the recording camera.
Now, and this old school LCD tech that really annoys me has become ignored. LCD/Plasma screens refresh ratings aren't equiv to analog tube displays. Most LCD/Plasma screens only change specific pixels which need changing. The whole screen is not changed X times per second. Rating a LCD as 120hz is MARKETING mumbojumbo. The truth is that an LCD pixel can go from one state to another in a specific amount of time. You might say that each pixel can change at 120hz, but even then, some manufactures rate based on on/off, off/on/off, on/off/on, etc. The all fudge the numbers to make us want their product.
Lastly, you will never truely have more frames displayed than the source was created with. You're DVD is only going to give you 24 distinct frames on your 120hz screen. Sure, each distinct frame will be shown for five times the length of time, but it's the same frame.
However, if you talk about computers, many can push out a true 120FPS for a given resolution, bit depth and content. Put that out to your 120hz digital display and you would see all 120 frames per second. Depending on which pixels need changed, you might even be able to push a 240FPS game to a 120hz screen and not lose any "frames".
I have read lots of research over the past 30 years regarding this. No one can really agree. But it comes down that the average person can notice a difference between analog images at roughly 20fps, 30fps, 60fps, 100fps, 120fps, 180fps, and many others up to about 4000fps. Beyond that rough number, nothing seems better. How that would translate to hz, well, only you can say based on what you see.
Oh, one other important fact. If you're pushing and image designed for 60hz to a 240hz display, that display has to use processing power to "build" the missing images (or repeat if you will). Many people have noticed lag in games because of that. Some have "game" mode to help, but since everyone implements it differently, your mileage may vary.
You shouldn't watch TV for 12 hours straight.
Other than that, nice.
I got mine 2 weeks ago now, and it's a great set. I got the 55"
version, though I certainly didn't pay $3200! If you're not afraid
of internet buying, you can get it for under $2400 from at least 2
places I know of, including the place I got mine from.
I wasn't actually aware this thing was THX certified, but that's cool
I guess. Just another marketing label though, really. If you ask me,
the best thing about THX is their trademark sound that plays before
some movies and when my TiVo reboots. If you have good speakers, it
can shake the room. :) Other than that, it's more a selling point
than a real technological benchmark.
This really is a good TV, I'm glad I waited for it instead of picking
up the thin Samsung edge-lit LED LCDs that were in stock at Best Buy.
It was a little nailbiting to buy something like this sight-unseen
since nobody had them in yet, but I'm glad I took the chance.
BTW, don't fret too much about the bezel. It's a pretty big bezel,
true, and it is reflective, but it's also not flat. It's actually
contoured, so you don't get direct reflections like a mirror. And
the screen is NOT reflective at all, which is really really nice in
my opinion.
Anyway, from someone who owns one, I have no reservations
recommending this to anyone who isn't dead-set on plasma. It's
nearly as good as one for contrast ratio, black levels and motion.
Better than most any other LCD I've ever seen anyway.
Plasma Power B!tches!
Thank's Stromm for your great comments. If only we could have more like these...
Ok.
First of all... All of you guy