The race to surpass the picture quality of plasmas continues, and LG’s 55LH90 sets its sights at doing just that. Boasting a slew of new features intended to bring consumers the best possible picture, LG has put a lot of effort into its LH90 series, but it doesn’t quite surpass the clarity and depth of most high-end plasma TVs.
While the LED technology in the 55LH90 does provide astounding black levels and energy saving features, it’s often hard to really notice the benefits of its 240Hz refresh rate. Most notably, there are no interactive features in the 55LH90 to speak of, a major differential in other recent high-end LCDs to come on the market, such as Sony’s BRAVIA KDL-52XBR10 or Samsung’s LUXIA UN55B9000, which both offer Ethernet connectivity.
Brief Specifications of 55LH90
- Resolution: 1080p (standard), 1920 x 1080 (exact)
- Panel type: LED Backlighting with Localized Dimming
- Contrast Ratio: 40000:1 (native), 2,000,000:1 (dynamic)
- 240Hz TruMotion processing
- THX Certified: YES
- Anti-glare filter: YES
- 24p cinema mode: YES
- Picture Wizard
- Intelligent Room Lighting Sensor
- Energy Star 3.0 rated
- Four HDMI Inputs
Pros & Cons
- Beautiful 1080p picture
- Deep black levels and color accuracy
- Great anti-glare matte
- Four HDMI and one PC input
- No interactivity
- Bad viewing angles
- No S-Video input
- No SD slot
Pros:
Cons:
Features
The 55LH90 is equipped with LED backlighting that utilizes local dimming, which allows certain parts of the LED lighting to be dimmed or shut throughout the screen. This greatly differs from Samsung’s 6000, 7000, and 8000 edge-lit LED LCD TVs in the LED’s placement. This arrangement is designed to boost contrast, giving the 55LH90 a huge 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio. The LH90 series has a 1080p resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate for preventing blurring in motion onscreen. LG’s set, as well as similar sets from Toshiba and Vizio, uses a scanning backlight technology expands the standard 120Hz technique of doubling a 60-frame signal with a backlight that flashes indiscriminately. Sony and Samsung employ a different type of technology to achieve the 240Hz refresh rate, which quadruples the original signal. The latter technology yields better results, but not by much at all.
LG LH90’s series doesn’t give its users any interactive capabilities, a huge difference from similar sets from other brands. In fact, LG’s only LCD models with interactivity is its LH50 series. This sets LG apart from many sets from Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung, which take full advantage of the push towards complete interactivity. LG will have to address this issue on future sets or be left behind.
LG’s dejudder processing makes viewers use its smoothing effect in order to reduce blurring. Toshiba and Samsung’s 2009 lines separate both features to give users full control over their picture. The 55LH90 has two levels of dejudder, Low and High. There’s even a Real Cinema function that is aimed at users with 1080p/24 sources.
One of LG’s strong points in LCD TVs has always been its complete picture control. The 55LH90 is no different, adding ingenious Picture Wizard, which uses internal test patterns to assist users with basic calibration. Users can save their settings to an Expert1 picture memory slot. It also has a THX picture preset designed to boost accuracy Panasonic’s TC-PV10 series allows users to adjust this setting, but LG prevents user from messing with it. There is even an eye care setting for users with sensitive eyes, adjusting the sets brightness accordingly.
Like many of the higher-end LG models, the LH90 has an intelligent room lighting sensor for energy conservation. This feature makes the set respond to ambient lighting conditions and optimizing the picture. The 55LH90 also has an Energy Star 3.0 rating.
Connectivity
The 55LH90’s connectivity might be one of its stronger suits, as it’s equipped with four HDMI ports, three on the back and one on the side. It also has an AV input with composite video, an RS-232 port, an optical digital audio output, two component-video inputs, an RGB-style analog PC input, and an RF input for antenna or cable all in the back. Its side panel includes a USB port for digital photos and playing MP3s files, as well as a second AV input with composite video. However, LG didn’t include a S-Video input or an SD slot.
Design
The 55LH90 has a glossy-black frame around its matte screen. Perched on a swivel stand, the 55LH90 has an illuminated power indicator and the letters L, E, and D stenciled onto the bottom-left edge. Its remote has been improved from previous years for LG’s higher-end TVs, adding backlit buttons and a better button layout overall. The main menu is laid out the same as last years’ models, but it includes a new guide that gives users basic setup and function information.
Performance
The LG LH90 series gives users astounding black-level, though it doesn’t have the best off-angle performance. Its THX mode seems to be less precise than on other THX-equipped TVs. This is based on the set’s color temperature, which had an overall blue result, although, LG provides users with plenty of picture options for tweaking the images. Users can change the light output and play with the color management system.
Black Levels
The 55LH90 can often provide transposable blacks when compared to the Samsung B7000, A950, and B750 LCDs. However, its blacks can’t touch those of Panasonic’s V10 or Sony’s XBR8. The 55LH90 pays great attention to shadow detail when compared to Samsung’s B7000, although it still doesn’t touch the detail offered by most plasmas. LG’s set also handles brightness variations much better than similar sets from Samsung or Panasonic.
Color Accuracy
The 55LH90 might be one of the best LCD TVs on the market for color accuracy, beating out similar models from Samsung, like the B7000, and Panasonic, such as the TC-P50V10. LG’s grayscale is able to provide a consistent reproduction, though not as confidently as the Sony XBR8 or most plasmas. Also stronger in plasmas is the overall saturation and depth of colors, although most users won’t notice the difference.
Video Processing
The LH90 series outperforms many LCD TVs in preventing blur, providing around 900 and 1,000 lines of movement resolution, making it comparable to the best sets from Samsung, but not quite as good as Panasonic’s plasma line. One difference in 55LH90 from other brands is LG prevents users from turning off its antiblur effect without also cutting its dejudder processing. Samsung’s B750 and B7000 sets separate these processing features, allowing users to retain the anti-blur but eliminate the dejudder processing for fewer artifacts. The 55LH90 doesn’t de-interlace film-based sources well at all, something most LG sets can’t seem to get right. LG’s Real Cinema setting seems to preserve the true frame rate of film, which is great but it only works when its 240Hz function is turned off.
Standard definition
LG’s 55LH90 gives users less artifacts and a much smoother response when on Standard than Sony’s dejudder modes. Overall, it gives acceptable SD performance and works to reduce noise quite well. The LH90 series interacts with 2:3 pull-down just fine as well.
Glare and Reflections
Much like Sony’s XBR8, the 55LH90 has a matte screen designed to reflect lighting less vigorously than Samsung’s shiny screens or most plasmas glass screens. This allows the 55LH90 to perform beautifully in rooms with lots of windows. While the Samsung shiny screen often retained black-levels a bit more consistently than Sony and LG’s matte LCDs, most consumers won’t notice.
Conclusion
The 55LH90 suffers from little extras to offer consumers, such as no interactivity, but it attempts to make up for it with its LED backlighting and picture controls. When compared to similar sets from Samsung and Sony, the LH5590 surpasses both in color accuracy, however Sony’s sets have deeper black levels. Despite the LG 55LH90’s lack of interactivity, it has plenty of connectivity options, with its optical digital audio output, two component-video inputs, an RGB-style analog PC input, and USB port for digital photos and playing MP3s. However, without an SD card slot or a S-Video input, this set lacks the features of Samsung’s 7000 or Sony’s XBR8. The 55LH90’s matte screen is a welcome addition to the set, reflecting less light Samsung’s glossy screens, though its viewing angles aren’t quite as wide as Sony’s sets. Also, like Toshiba’s Regza 46SV970, LG’s set has TruMotion 240Hz scanning, which displays 240 scenes per second by combining 120Hz technology with scanning backlight. This will basically kill any of the action blur, though some users may not notice the difference between it and 120Hz scanning. But with its ISFccc capability, the LG set offers much more for users to optimize the perfect picture. Lastly, its 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio is quite impressive and viewers will notice the difference. Overall the 55LH90 is a great television with lots of control over the picture and flexibility for inputs, but for its value and performance, it might not be what some users are looking for because of the lack of interactivity.
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