 Nearly Perfect!! CES 2008 Award well earned. |
| Review Date: June 7, 2008 |
| Reviewer: rwross, Atlanta, GA USA |
I was originally considering a Panny 800u, but that's not due out til early fall and after reading about the CES award LG took and its stunning design elements, I decided to include it on my list.
My final decision came yesterday when a local sales manager called me to let me know he had gotten is 60PG60 shipment and was hanging his display unit. I asked him what he thought and he said, "OMG...you gotta come see this. I'm hanging it next to the Panny 750u for comparison"
So, I headed on over and his explanation was well founded. With an identical source, the LG was far crisper, brighter, and had deeper blacks. Still not as bright as the Sammy 650 LCD nearby, but that Sammy was more $$, only 50", had far less features, and less dark blacks.
I said... "Wrap it up!"
Purchase Experience
I purchased my 60-PG60 at Brandsmart; if you are located in Georgia or Florida, I highly recommend them.
I opted for the 5 year warranty, which was deeply discounted as well.
Set Up and Use
This sucker is heavy; part of that weight is a very nice and sturdy stand that allows 20 degree movement in either direction; I am using the stand.
Beneath the stand are several rubber feat that make it darn near impossible to slide into place, so be sure you have someone to help you position it.
Out of the box, the color settings were fine for me, but I might opt for one of those calibration disks since the LG includes two custom expert settings. I'll need some advice on that from you guys.
The THX mode is kind of a mixed bag, it looks cool on some movies but not so good on others. Specifically, it looked great on Blu-ray "Night in the Museum," but kind of crappy on DVD The Matrix. I'm not sure if its been calibrated for HD or if the dark greenish nature of The Matrix made it a poor fit for this setting. The standard setting looked great.
The invisible speakers worked fine, but I find myself listening to things at a setting around 50 rather than about 15 on my Samsung, which means just about nothing, but I figured I'd include it for reference. UPDATE: The sound is definitely interesting. After a couple days use in a live environment, I've found myself really using a range of volume from about 25 to 75. My initial, and a bit stupid, reaction was, "Why do I have to turn it up so much to be able to hear well?" The reality is two fold. First, at the low volume range all was quiet, 2am everyone asleep kind of thing. At the 75 end, dishwasher going, kids yelling upstairs, a vacuum running, and a teenager mucking around with iMovie within earshot. Every other set I've owned get's very loud and somewhat distorted after about 40% of its max volume. I've taken the PG60 all the way up to 75 (or 75% of max) without any distortion. It has evidently been designed to use the full range of its volume capabilities. The main downside I see is that you will likely be adjusting this set's volume more frequently than others due to environment and it would be nice to have some presets to save a bit of time as the volume increments or decrements. A minor quibble since it really doesn't take much time.
Aesthetics
Obviously this is personal, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think the PG60 is one of the nicest looking sets ever.
It reminds me a lot of my iMac in that the glass is flush with a recessed matte. Unlike the 700/750 Panny, there are no doors to fold down and, for whatever reason, I just don't like fold down doors.
Everything is black except for the pivot point on the stand which a sort of brushed aluminum, thus creating even more iMac comparison.
Issues
The included manual is woeful. There is a better one available online, but it pretty much sucks too. I really wish manufacturers would create one manual per model and explain each feature...oh well.
The remote is a bit crappy too, mainly because it does not allow rapid access to some features by way of advanced buttons hidden behind a secondary door or some such. This is little more than a nuisance for me because I use a Harmony and can program many of those features directly from Logitech's site, however if the LG will be your primary remote, you might be a bit disappointed. For example, by remote alone, there is no way to go directly to a specific aspect ratio without cycling through them. One caveat, Logitech does not yet have the PG60s in their Harmony database so you'll need to go with last years 60" flagship. It works fine, but you lose access to new features like Just Scan until they get it updated, which should be soon. [UPDATE: Logitech's databases have now include the 60PG60 and you can directly access nearly all functions...yay!]
Someone had asked me to baseline this unit against others...here it is:
Here are my personal baselines for your 1-10 scale:
1) Insignia NS-PDP42
5) Samsung PN58A550
7) Panasonic Viera TH-58PZ750U
9) LG 60PG60
10) Pioneer Kuro PRO-150FD
My ratings do take into account aesthetics, features, and picture quality. The Pioneer's amazing inky blacks and uncompromising build quality/component selection pegs it as the best of the best IMHO. That said, my eyes are not as good as the instruments used by Elite engineers and my wallet is not as fat as those who might purchase that unit.
Picture quality aside, I think the LGs aesthetics and feature set surpasses that of the Kuro. Sacrilege, I know, but there you have it.
The Panny's glare reduction is a bit better than the LGs, but its feature set and picture quality are inferior. The new 850u might be a better comparison, but I haven't seen one in the wild. That said, pricing on the 850u looks to be significantly higher than for the PG60 in that I paid for the 60" what some major folks are charging for the 50" Panny.
Finally, I may be repeating myself a bit, but I cannot overstate the Aesthetics of this set. It really is "iMac-ish" in its form factor. I really like the frameless design and invisible speakers. That is completely subjective and personal though... |
Oh baby! It is stunning!
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| Review Date: October 20, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Alex Vox, Winnetka, IL |
I was initially looking at 65" Panasonic's plasma but after watching this one at ABT I was knocked out by its terrific quality! The movies, I got it as a screen for movies, from LG BD300 look stunning! The movie experience just above anything I ever saw! In blu-ray it is simply almost like 3-D!
The design, the slick appearance, makes it nice part of the room. Despite its huge screen it doesn't look heavy. The invisible speakers produce very nice sound, the ability to play music and photos from USB port is amazing.
It is the best TV screen I ever owned or watched.
As LG goes "life is good", man I agree! |
EXCELLENT!!!
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| Review Date: December 26, 2008 |
| Reviewer: L. Curry, |
First off, delivery from CEVA was great. Ordered on a Monday and recieved on Saturday morning. Picture quality is great, on par with or exceeds my Panasonic 50" who aside from Pioneer makes the best Plasmas on the market.
Once the tv was fully connected it took me a couple of days to settle on what color choices to make since I cant seem to get behind one of the default settings called "THX Cinema" mode. It's supposedly the best calibrated picture but in my opinion it's just too dark and carries a orange hue.
After using all of the latest consoles, hd-dvd, and blu-ray I'm finally sattisfied with this size panel and the overall quality.
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Fantastic
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| Review Date: February 8, 2009 |
| Reviewer: M. Roush, Levittown Pa. |
We had been looking at many plasma and lcd flat screens and even tossed around a large screen dlp. We have a 52 inch lcd Toshiba that is in a family room and wanted a larger screen in what we call our gathering room off of the kitchen.After going around to many electronic stores we went with the LG60PG60.Being able to view the many flat screens together it was obvious. For the money and picture quality it was LG.
We also went with a Samsung surround sound system ,Sony Blue Ray and a APC H15 line conditioner and surge protector. And you have to hang it on the wall,looks fantastic ! |
Very nice TV, great value
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| Review Date: September 25, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Greg Morgan, NY |
I was shopping for big screen plasma and watched this in BestBuy. It is very impressive, slick, modern, tv with very nice picture and sound. I am not tv guru so I can't say how cool is it from professional point of view but hidef program on it looks stunning and I ordered one!
I read about movement artifacts on plasmas and was concerned but I couldn't find any on this set. The picture is silky smooth. |
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