LG Infinia 42LV5500 42-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED-LCD HDTV with Smart TV

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 39.8 x 1.2 x 24.3 inches ; 42 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 43 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B004OOVIEU
• Item model number: 42LV5500
• Batteries: 2 AAA batteries required.
  

Product Description

Size: 42-inch
Amazon.com Product Description
(March 2011)
Internet-Ready Devices
Internet-ready devices use your broadband connection to deliver dynamic content to your television, whether it's streaming video from Netflix, new music from Pandora, or a quick glance at today's weather forecast.
Although there is overlap, each manufacturer offers a unique bundle of free or paid services, including streaming video and music, social networking apps, online photo galleries, news and financial updates, weather info, sports scores, and a variety of other smartphone-like applications.
Manufacturers continue to add new content to their offerings, keeping customers current through firmware updates, and making a bit of research a prudent step in your buying decision.
Learn more about Internet-ready devices and HDTVs, how they work, what services are offered by different manufacturers, and exactly what you'll need to get started at our Internet TV 101 customer center.

LV5500 1080P LED TV
The LV5500 delivers LED picture quality along with a whole lot more. You can tap directly into instant entertainment with LG Smart TV, and with TruMotion 120Hz refresh rate, sports and action movies never looked better.
THE EASIEST ACCESS TO LIMITLESS CONTENT.
LG Smart TV lets you access a limitless world of entertainment in a way that's easier and more fun than ever before. It's smart made simple.

CUSTOMIZABLE DASHBOARD
We put all your LG Smart TV entertainment—from apps to streaming video to live TV—all in one place, and just how you want it.
INNOVATIVEMOTION-SENSING REMOTE
Our LG Smart TV has a smart way to control it. The Magic Motion remote is easy to use, with intuitive point-and-click control and just five buttons.

ACCESS UNLIMITED CONTENT FROM:
KEY TECHNOLOGIES

YOU WON'T BELIEVE YOUR EYES.
Tired of dark scenes or dull colors? LG's LED technology provides a slim profile and delivers amazing brightness, clarity and color detail, as well as greater energy efficiency compared to conventional LCD TVs.

LESS BLUR. MORE ACTION.
TruMotion 120Hz technology lets you see sports, video games and high-speed action with virtually no motion blur. Now your TV can keep up with your fast-moving entertainment.

CUT LOOSE WHEN YOU'REWIFI READY.
Getting your LG broadband–enabled TV connected to online contest is easy when you are WiFi Ready. If you have existing wireless broadband, setting it up is simple and you don't need to worry about messy wires.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES
DOUBLE THE DETAIL.
This stunning picture is the reason you wanted HDTV in the first place. With almost double the pixel resolution, Full HD 1080p gives it superior picture quality over standard HDTV. You'll see details and colors like never before.
MAKE DIGITAL DEVICES COMPATIBLE.
To build a digital network, you need digital devices. That's obvious. But unless those devices are compatible, it won't be much of a network. DLNA Certified devices work together.
SAVE MORE THAN ENERGY.
Earning the ENERGY STAR means a product meets strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. For TVs, it means they save energy both in standby and active (when they're on) modes. ENERGY STAR–qualified TVs use about 30% less energy than standard units.
FIND THE PERFECT PICTURE.
Get easy self-calibration with on-screen reference points for key picture quality elements such as black level, color, tint, sharpness and backlight levels. Take the guesswork out of picture adjustments with this simple-to-use feature. It's not actually magic, but it will sure seem that way.
VIEW IT IN THE RIGHT LIGHT.
Let your TV do the adjustments for you. Intelligent Sensor automatically optimizes the picture to the lighting and color conditions in the room for a more enjoyable viewing experience.
WISE AND NOT WASTEFUL.
With our Smart Energy Saving Features, you can conserve money and energy.
ISFCCC READY.
LG's ISFccc Ready HDTVs contain the detailed standards necessary for professional calibration of brightness, contrast, tint, sharpness, color levels and much more to meet local lighting conditions for both daytime and nighttime viewing. Settings are added to preset modes for easy access from your LG remote.
Wireless Internet connection ; certain subscriptions required and sold separately. The Magic Motion Remote does not come equipped wtih all LG Smart TV enabled TVs and a separate purchase may be required. The Hulu Plus service is available via a firmware update. The LG web browser does not support Flash 10 or HTML 5, therefore, access to certain web content may be limited or unavailable.
Specifications (PDF)
LG 2011 LED/LCD Feature Comparison
Series
LW6500
LW5600
LV5500
LV3700
LV3500
LV2500
LK520
LK450
LK330
Models:
47", 55", 65"
47", 55"
42", 47", 55"
42", 47", 55"
37", 42"
22", 26", 32"
42", 47", 55"
32", 37", 42"
32"
High Definition Resolution
1080p
1080p
1080p
1080p
1080p
720p
1080p
1080p
720p
LG Smart TV
TruMotion
120Hz/240Hz
120Hz
120Hz
120Hz
Dynamic Contrast Ration
9M:1
8M:1
5M:1
4M:1
3M:1
1M:1
150k:1
100k:1
70k:1
LG Cinema 3D
2D to 3D Conversion
LED Plus w/Local Dimming
Magic Motion Remote
Y, sold sep.
Wi-Fi Ready
DLNA Certified
LED Backlighting
Intelligent Sensor
Picture Wizard II
ENERGY STAR Qualified
Smart Energy Saving
ISFccc Ready
HDMI/USB
4, 2
4, 2
4, 2
3, 2
3, 1
3, 1
3, 1
3, 1
3, 1The wi-fi adapter is included with this item.
The 42LV5500 delivers LED picture quality that along with a whole lot more. You can tap directly into instant entertainment with Smart TV and with TruMotion 120Hz refresh rate sports and faction movies never looked better.
See all Product Description

 

LG Infinia 42LV5500 42-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED-LCD HDTV with Smart TV

 

Technical Details

• TruMotion 120Hz technology lets you see sports, video games and high-speed action with virtually no motion blur
• LG's LED technology provides a slim profile and delivers amazing brightness, clarity and color detail, as well as greater energy efficiency
• Full HD 1080p gives it superior picture quality over standard HDTV You'll see details and colors like never before
• A contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1 delivers incredibly vibrant colors and deeper and darker blacks
• And the best of the web all organized in a simple to use interface

Customer Reviews

Update 7/6/11: Firmware update 4.0.11 adds hulu plus. This will be of interest to some users.
Pros:
Nice large crisp picture
Huge number of picture adjustments
Low Power consumption
Includes Wireless Network Adapter that can act as a router
Viewing angle
Cons:
Not many apps
Had to configure for best image quality for movies
Auto back light becomes annoying (disable it)
Some light bleeding is noticeable on black backgrounds with white text.
Bottom Line:
Nice TV. Remote is easy to use, controls are intuitive. It offers a huge number of picture adjustments for calibration purposes. Lots of inputs, and nice slim design.
The image is nice and sharp (and not overly sharp). Browse the internet review sites to find some values for setting image parameters up for best image quality (or at least a starting point). The "Cinema" mode isn't bad if you turn off the auto back light (this feature turns the back light off for dark scenes, but it is noticeable on this TV model as it is a global back light. The more expensive models have a localized back lights that might be less noticeable.
Power consumption with the back light at max is about 115 watts (nominal) and about 30 watts with the back light off (measured with my Kill-A-Watt). So even though this is a 46.9" TV, the power consumption is less than my older 32" LCD TV that used a fluorescent back light instead of an LED light. Plus it is a lot slimmer because of it.
Wireless network was really easy to setup. I plugged it in, entered my network settings, and was connected immediately. The software/apps are a little slow running, but the Internet stream seems fine (I only have a slow 1.5 mbps connection).
This TV also has a great viewing angle, better than many LCD TVs and nice in a room where you need a wide range of viewing angles.
Hopefully the selection of Apps improves soon. At least it does have Netflix and a couple others, but the number of total Apps I saw measured only a couple dozen.
I felt the default image quality mode wasn't really suitable (but it was in part due to the poor Harry Potter transfer). I still felt I had to make a few adjustments to it though. What I do like is that each input has its own configuration (i.e. you can have different configurations for HDMI and the TV, etc).
Since this isn't an edge lit LCD it doesn't have too many bright spots around the edge, but I still notice some white that will show through sometimes when there is a black background with white text.
Since it is running an operating system you get issues of things with operating systems. Apps aren't available immediately after startup (but the picture from the tuner is available immediately), it might take 30 seconds or so before you can launch the Apps. I also had a random reboot (just once). On the plus side is you can get firmware updates with new functionality, bug fixes, etc.
Overall it is a good TV with very nice image quality. The box that it comes packed in is relatively small (nice if you have to transport it by smaller car), and everything seems well thought out.

Picture quality is great. This is a matt screen and that's a big plus for me. Speakers/audio is acceptable. That's where it stops. The Smart TV and other features which were the main draw for me, are unsatisfactory and poorly executed.
The "Intelligent Sensor" to adjust pic brightness is a bit of a joke - it merely reduces it to the lowest level possible; nothing intelligent about that.
The Netflix streaming app works fine, and is pretty much the only one that works as expected; although it would be nice if LG had streamlined and standardized the menu choices for adjusting picture aspect ratio and video brightness presets (not available from within the app).
The YouTube app is complete garbage.
Hulu: I saw "Hulu" in a lot of the advertising materials but there is no app for it. You can access it via the Plex media server app, (which requires you to have the server running on your connected computer), but the menu steps you have to go thru to get to the show you want are so tedious I gave up, and continue to watch Hulu shows on my laptop. Much simpler. Which brings me to:
The BIG negative! The built in browser is useless without Flash. The LG brochure clearly indicates it does not support Flash Player 10 which is fine. That suggests it comes with an older version of Flash. It appears to come with Flash 9.x according to multiple version-check sites, but I haven't been able to get it to work, Even on LG or Adobe's site.
The menus for setting favorite channels are also tedious and not intuitive at all. There is an Add/Delete button on the Quick Menu - I haven't been able to figure out what it is supposed to do. There are LG "apps" (horoscopes was the latest addition) but their purpose seems mainly to allow LG to brag it has this and that feature without being called out for false advertising.
Overall, I think I paid a premium for nothing special. Since the bells and whistles don't work, or are so poorly designed as to be useless, the proper comparison is with a regular 42" plus the cost of a Rokio or other Netflix device. If you can get this TV for a price that is comparable to that combo, this model is worth it, but not otherwise.
LG's Answers forum (questions answered by LG) - four/five days since I asked how to fix the browser Flash issue, and my question hasn't gone live, much less answered. Which is what promoted me to post this review here on Amazon.
Update Sep 26,2011: Lot's of other issues that have made this "Smart TV" frustrating to use except as a basic TV. I will just mention the most important ones: What's so difficult to understand about QWERTY keyboard layout? It's standard, universal and even a child knows where one letter is in relation to another. Relocating letters arbitrarily and making it harder to find and use is incompetent design. The latest software update - version 04.01.30 - not sure what it fixed but now I get a "Software update available and updated" message on turning it on but the premium panel on the Home screen says "software downloading" and I have to go to the full premium screen to pick the service I want.
I'm now wondering if I should pay $120 for the LG 5 yr service plan or just chalk this up to a bad decision and sell it for whatever I can get and move on. I could stick it in another room down the road to drive guests crazy.

 

LG Infinia 42LV5500 42-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED-LCD HDTV with Smart TV