LG 42PA4520 - 1 year ownership review

manindra.mukherjee

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Its been one year that I purchase LG 42PA4520 plasma tv from reliance digital . After some research , I had finally decided to buy either a Sammy PS43F4900AR or LG PA4520. Primary objective was 39"~42" 720p TV within 35-40K budget. Last year October LG was retailing around 35K and Sammy around 42K. Both had their own pros and cons , however I took a risk with LG as the 7K difference was too tempting. 3D was never a priority and hence didnot play a major role in my decision. Panny was out of consideration due to budget constraint.

Below are my observation after 1 year of usage. Viewing distance : 8 feet

1. Looks : (6/10) . Look is decent with narrow bezel and no ugly physical buttons or spekaers visible. Slimmer than most LCD's available.

2. Picture Quality :7/10 . Up-scaling of standard definition content is significantly better than the Samsung models I compared it to at the store. Color reproduction is excellent, there is no motion blur, blacks are black, off-angles are good. Screen is highly reflective as a mirror. Hence placement is of prime importance. The TV supports a mediocre resolution of 1024*768 and you have to take my word......absolutely no difference when viewing HD content from a distance of 8 feet or more.

3. Sound : (6/10) . The downward facing 10-watt speakers sound best when the set is on a table rather than mounted on the wall, so the sound is reflected off the tabletop. Was not a concern for me since I have connected the audio optical out to my AV

4. Connectivity : 7/10 . 2 HDMI Ports on the side panel . 2 HDMI at the back. 1 optical out . 1 USB 2.0 along with regular analog connectivity. All the ports (even the ones at the back) are easily accessible with the TV wall mounted.

5. USB Playback : 8/10 . Just awesome. Plug in a usb drive with NTFS or FAT partition and enjoy. Supports upto 1TB HDD. All popular audio and video formats like avi, mkv , divx , mp4 , wmv . Supports resolution of 1920*1080 @30fps. Till date have never ever come across a file which could not be played (mostly downloaded from net) . DD 5.1 supported through optical out (AC3, AAC). DTS not supported. No bells and whistles of a smart TV like Wifi

6. User Interface : 6/10 . Simple but could have been better. Its not a smart TV and the user interface is not feature rich but good enough to take care of basic needs. Picture settings can be be bit confusing but initial set up is a breeze. The inbuilt media player does a good job.

7. Image Retention : 6/10 . Watching the TV with contrast bumped up for the initial few days can be a problem. It has 3 modes for protection against image retention and burn. I did initially face problem where the black bars on the top and bottom were just reluctant to go away . However after 2-3 days it gradually vanished. Should not be a problem if handled well in the initial few months of viewing.

8. Power : 7/10 . Comes with a 5A power cord. There is an energy saving mode (not much of use though) but the overall consumption is not high as was evident from my electricity bills .

Conclusion : Great VFM . Recommended for anyone looking for a budget plasma. You will not regret for not buying a Sammy/Panny !
 
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Indeed a good review. Is it not good on PQ? a 7 out of 10 is a mediocre rating. Also please post some photos of the TV from all angles with the TV switched on.

7/10 is not for picture quality but bcoz the panel is slightly more reflective than the sammy counterpart :). and its not a full HD TV which again I said will not make much of a difference if viewing distance is 8ft or more. Also it doesnot have a native picture calibration s/w and you have to do it manually as per your taste. Will post pictures shortly
 
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My Brother also owns a LG Plasma 42PJ350 i guezz... He had bought if for around 42K.. Itz has been 3 yrs & it works flawlessly....

The colours are really good on the the TV and is much better than my Sony LCD :eek:hyeah:
 
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