LG 42LV5500 LED LCD HDTV Review

Conclusion

The LG 42LV5500 ($1099 MSRP) is a strong television in many regards, but we definitely prodded to find some weak points. First the good news. Color performance doesn't get much better than this. It will deliver exactly the colors that the movie and TV producers wanted you to see (provided you follow our handy calibration recommendations). Secondly, the multimedia options are excellent. LG did a great job creating a simple, easy to use platform that takes your TV beyond the living room and onto the interwebs for a myriad of streaming content and apps. So far, only the top-end Samsung TVs have matched them in this regard.

Now for the bad news. The LG 42LV5500 has a weak black level, like so many LGs we've reviewed. As a result, the contrast ratio is weak, especially when compared to similarly priced Sony and Samsungs. We can live with that, as the color performance is so damn good. Others may disagree.

The LG LV5500 series is pretty well equipped with special features like local dimming and a fancy magic wand remote control (in additional to a traditional remote control). Unfortunately, we really disliked how the local dimming was handled (in a word, sloppily) and there's no option to disable it. The remote is fun but you'll probably stop using it after the first few weeks.

Overall, the LG 42LV5500 may have its faults, but we heartily recommend it for the cinephiles.