Just to share to the community.
We were initially torn between the LG 42LS3450 and the Toshiba 40PU200.
Scouring reviews from the web yielded good performance results and positive user experience both locally and abroad.
In the end we decided to get the LG 42LS3450. Got it in SnS Shang at Php25K with its standard LG wall mounting for free. Got it as a post holiday present from my wife.
Here’s a personal experience.
Once we got home, I immediately unboxed the unit, screwed up the stand (no wall mounting for the mean time), plugged-in the power cable and fire it up for the second time (first time was inside the store).
I first hooked it up on our cable TV and performed the auto-search function to download TV programs. It probably took the unit 6-10 minutes to complete the process. The results were horrible, a lot of horizontal line, interference with loud staticy noise. I felt that I must have done something wrong, so I checked the settings again. What seems to make sense to me is the location settings of the unit, by default it is set to “Singapore”. Instinctively, I modified it but can’t find “Philippines”…(Darn you LG!). My 7 year old kid suggested “Malaysia” instead…as he said: “Upin and Ipin is from Malaysia”…obviously referring to that Disney channel show he always watch every day, which is working on the other TV, a bulky 30 inches slim fit Sammy that probably weighs a ton.
It was an absurd idea but…I tried it otherwise…wala namang mawawala e…LOL! So I set it to “Malaysia”, redid the auto-search and lo and behold….the static and noise went away replaced by the usual analog cable TV picture quality…still horrible to my standards (can’t really expect that much from Destiny), but acceptable to my kids.
Picture quality with an analog cable TV is blocky – but not the TV’s fault I figured.
This hunch I have proven to be correct when I tried my daughters downloaded TV series “Avatar: The Legend of Korra” at 720p. It looks really astounding. Images are really fluid and vivid, but a bit warm to my taste. Sound quality is a bit lacking too in the bass section. But this is out-of-the-box settings mind you. With a little adjustments here and there, I got the color and sound settings that I wanted…and true to what a LED TV has promised, picture quality is astonishing – with deep blacks and rich true to life colors. Tried “Finding Nemo” at 1080p and it was a visual treat! I think the IPS screen makes it more impressive.
But with any DTS encoded movies, no sound can be heard. Not a disappointment though, as I have expected this anyway. It’s a fact, it can’t process DTS audio. (My wife, upon learning we can’t have audio from most of my 1080p movies, raised her voice and said: “O e ano pala gagawin natin jan? Ganda ng TV mo pero walang sound?”. I reminded her about the AC Ryan unit I told her when we were in the store earlier. She said: “Magkano ba yun?”. I told her it’s around 5-6K but without HD installed. She then said: “Pambihira ka…e di sana bumili na rin tayo kanina!” in an irritated tone! Believe me…these were music to my ears!
And alas…we finally plugged-in my son’s PS3 via HDMI, my daughter excitedly inserted their Tekken Tag Tournament 2 game disc (almost fumbling), and both of them were squealing in delight of the visual spectacle from the intro movie and the cut scenes of the game. Sabi ng son ko: “Daddy – I can actually see the characters na!!!! I can see them na!!!” during the character selection, as it was really tiny and blurry on the 30 incher standard display Sammy. After playing for an hour – with a bit of trash talking between them(kids version)…we then tried God of War III. Again, the picture quality continued to amaze us.
This was our first Full HD TV.
Summing it all up, here’s what I can share:
Highlights:- Out-of-the-box, PQ it’s a bit warm but will be really great with a few adjustments. Did I mentioned that there’s no “blotching” effect when you press your fingers against the screen, thanks to the IPS panel. The sales guys even knocked on the screen as if it’s a door to show me how durable it is. This is a plus factor for me as I have a 2 year old kid, my youngest, who sits in front of the TV watching Baby TV, touches/hits the screen occasionally when excited. Pero sinabihan ko na yaya niya…not to let him near my precious TV….LOL!
- Viewing angle is great. I tried somewhere around 180+degress I think, and PQ still looks great, although the black looks a bit faint – not grayish. Acceptable still though, as I intend to watch directly in front of my TV.
- The price is really competitive. Ansons and Abenson sells it a bit higher though. SnS’ offer was better. Savers in Munoz offers it 1 peso lower vs Sns.
- Interface is ok. No fancy transition effects…just pop-in-pop-out. Pretty much easy to learn. The circular OSD volume adjustments looks cool. I hope I can change the color theme though…default is light pink! Ampf!
- Plays all my MKV’s, MP4’s, VOB’s, Divx’s, WMV’s from 480 to 1020p.
- Remote control response time is better than average. This can be a bit subjective as my only comparison is my old Slim Fit Sammy. No irritating lags or repeat pressing though.
- Has multiple display modes. There are subtle differences between Standard, Movie, Game etc which I’ve yet to determine. I probably need to play with it more to tell the difference.
- Comes with the LG standard wall mount. The 40PU200 offered in LIS doesn’t come with any.
- Warranty is 30 days unit replacement. 2 Years parts and service. Better than what was offered to me by LIS for the Tosh 40PU200: 7 days unit replacement – 1 year P&S.
Lowlights:- Stand is wobbly and feels unsecure. I think it’s really meant to be wall mounted. Funny as it comes with a screw to let you secure the stand on a table by screwing it in. Not a big help actually. Plus it ruins your table surface.
- Sound Quality is average. A bit tad when out-of-the-box. Adjustments can be done easily. The Tosh 40PU200 has better SQ thanks to the front firing speakers.
- 1 USB and 1 HDMI connectors are available. The Toshiba 40PU200 has more - 2 HDMI and 2 USB ports just to compare.
That’s it folks, I hope this helps.
