television Review-LG 37LD450 37-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTV

Review by R. A. Livingston for LG 37LD450 37-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTV
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This model replaces LG's mid-range offerings from the past two years which are currently being sold or cleared out at the various retailers. I did a lot of research between brands and models, and am convinced that this is currently the best combination of price/performance/features. Sale prices are more than $100 less than the older models, too.

Size: 37" TVs aren't as commonly stocked in stores, but I think it's a great size with a bigger picture than 32" without many more $$$. 40" or 42" were just too big for me to use and usually entailed a significant price jump.

Picture: The picture is fantastic, and the Picture Wizard tutorial helps get the colors set to something pleasing in short order. Viewing at an angle is superb, and was a differentiating factor from the Sony EX series. The Sonys washed out considerably with only a small change in viewing angle. I was tempted by LEDs but found the reflectiveness of their screens too distracting. I also looked into the 120 Hz models but, in my humble opinion, found them to be much ado about nothing. I like to watch action sports and have found everything to be crystal clear at 60 Hz. Side by side in the store I found the LG and comparable Samsung to be nearly identical.

Sound: I was prepared for the worst after reading scores of reviews saying that the sound out of this grade of speakers was terrible. I've been delighted with the output and the "surround" enhancement was good enough to be disconcerting (only because I wasn't expecting it). There are 5 sound modes in addition to custom; I haven't reached an opinion yet about these being a positive or negative. I see no need to get external speakers at this point.

[as an aside, I found one station for which the sound was out of sync with the picture. I'm connected via HDMI to a FiOS HD box. I'm not enough of a techie to know the cause for this, but all the stations that are my regulars are fine. It was PetHD that was out of sync.]

Features: There are ample inputs, including USB, but to date I've only used the HDMI. Unless you are looking for cutting edge Internet connectivity and are willing to pay for it, this has everything you need. I personally don't see the world of TV moving to 3D anytime soon, if at all, and certainly the current offerings aren't ready for prime time. For a 60 Hz, 1080p LCD TV there wasn't anything better that I found (that was worth the extra money).

Bottom Line: Great picture, great price. I was surprised that I got mine at Sears (of all places) for a price that blew everyone else away. I usually order from amazon with Prime shipping, but until last week their price wasn't competitive. My research told me that the prices on all these sets are in constant flux and the best price this week won't be at the same place next week.

Review by Wm Sean Donovan for LG 37LD450 37-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTV
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We have been looking for a bedroom TV (had to be LCD and 1080P) for the past couple months. This was almost a no brainer, especially with the discounts we received from the store from which we purchased (HHGregg). It was even cheaper than Amazon pricing which is a shocker. This was our first LG purchase. We have typically been Samsung (love the 58" plasma) and Sharp (have a 32" 720P for the boys gaming), but the LG seems to be the most user friendly. I love the quick guide option off the remote which takes you quickly to areas of interest in setting up sound, video, etc…

Set-up was simple and the screen looks awesome. There are no Internet access points, but as this is just a TV for the bedroom we were not pressed on that front. I would recommend this TV for sure as a new model along with the most needed bells and whistles to make a typical buyer happy. Enjoy!

Review by Gail Peters for LG 37LD450 37-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTV
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There are a million choices in flat screens! Finding the right one was very daunting, but my friend had purchased this exact model and recommended it. I did my research on a number of sizes and models, but in the end, agreed that he had found the best deal on Amazon in this LG 37" flat screen. Delivery was prompt. The set is just big enough for a smallish living room – it's got a nice, large clear picture without dominating the room or overwhelming me. I'm very happy with this purchase.

Review by Q. Nguyen for LG 37LD450 37-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTV
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For the price, this LCD is phenomenal. I went to the local best buy looking for something to mount in the dining room so I can watch the news in the morning among other TV shows. After looking at all the 32s, 37s and 40s. This one stood above the rest. I have a Samsung LN46A650 and in my opinion, it was their best line of TVs and I'm glad I don't have to pick from their subpar line of TVs now. I've seen clarity, rich colors 1080p etc etc etc. The LG is comparable to a TV that was 3 times its price.

Let me explain. You really have to literally take look all of the quailties of a TV in order to make an educated and smart purchase. Don't buy a sony becuase it's a sony. Don't buy a TV of the same size that's more expensive because somewhere in our upbringing we wer taught, expensive = better. Not the case. When looking for a TV, look at how choppy fast motion is. Do you see background pixelation around the central image? (like a fast moving car, a football player, etc.) Can you see inconsistencies in the back lighting? Are blacks rich while the rest of the picture is vibrant? (not bright, vibrant)Does the picture look grainy or are the textures smooth? Try not to get caught up in the technical aspects of the TV if you don't know what they mean. They'll just make you *think* one TV is better than the other. Look at the TV and let your eyes decide.

After comparing several models in a similar size range, and taking cost into account, this TV wins hands down. At the store, you have to try to remove the factor of the factory settings becuse stores don't take the time to optimize *each and every* TV. Most TVs nowadays have more customization than you can shake a stick at. Gone are the basic color, tint, brightness settings. Now it's gamma, RGB, temperature and so on. Most TVs have the ability to be tuned the way you want it and it's because of this that it is so important to focus in on the mentioned above items. This LG shows a wonderful smooth picture that isn't grainy, doesn't show pixelation and colors are rich and lifelike, not plasticy and bright. Yes the Samsung of the same size is just as good, but the extra $200 it cost isn't. Go and literally take a look at your local store and look for the things I mentioned above an you'll see that this is a great Tv.

Review by foslock for LG 37LD450 37-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTV
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I was very happy when I saw this amazing deal for a 1080p 37" HDTV, and even though I had never had any experience with LG's television line I expected it to be good.

I bought this TV for a college dorm room (approx. 15' x 20') for use with a PS3 and the cable provided by my school. I started out happy, used the TV for about 30 days, and unfortunately today I just dropped it off at UPS to be returned to Amazon for a full refund.

There were three main issues I had that lead to my final decision to return the TV. I hope that every one of these was just bad luck and were symptoms of a factory defect, but something in my gut says otherwise.

The first problem I noticed was before I even turned on the TV for the first time. If you looked closely at where the LCD screen is supposed to be mounted/glued to the inside of the bezel, it wasn't actually glued. It looked like there had been glue that before, but the screen had come loose in the top corners and along the top edge. You could visibly move the screen a few millimeters if you pushed gently against it. I was instantly worried, but after turning the TV on for the first time, it didn't seem to have an effect on how the image was displayed. I pushed it aside as a "design choice" of LGs since no one wants to admit they got a factory dud.

The second problem was the largest issue for me. If there was ever any sort of high contrast image displayed on the TV, all the rows of pixels that contained ANY of the very dark or very light image would be tinted towards black or white, respectively. This would be very obvious on the PS3 in Netflix, where you have movie art displayed on an off-white background. When changing between movies you can see all of the pixels from edge to edge change with it. I want to emphasize that this was something you would only seldom see when watching cable TV or playing an actual game. That's not to say that it wasn't there (it definitely was) but it's something that I could have lived with. So I chose to. Even after the screen being loose, I decided it wasn't worth the effort to get a replacement.

The third problem was the last straw. In certain games, the screen fades to all white (eg. when you die, or complete a level). When it would do this, there would be very slight reddish clouds across almost all of the screen. It looked very close to white, but if you squint your eyes or just look at it directly you can see that only 20% of the screen was actually true white. The red clouds were very close to white, once again this is something I think one could live with, but I decided I wasn't going to deal with all of these problems, or any that would probably arise in the future.

I decided to get a full refund and switch to the Samsung LN40C530 that I had been comparing against in the first place. The reason I didn't get a replacement is that when this many problems happen with a brand new product, it says something about the build quality of it in general. I know it is a little irrational to dismiss the chance that this was a lemon, but I was left with a very sour taste in my mouth.

I do want to mention that the refund and return process was very easy and I was incredibly impressed by Amazon in this regard. I had never returned anything (to Amazon) before and was worried it'd be painful and drawn out, but all I had to do was pack up the TV in the original box (always save boxes!) and drop it off at my local UPS pickup spot. Once they receive the TV they promised me a full refund. Also, I had bought a two year warranty extension from Amazon (LG service) and I emailed them telling them the situation hoping that I could get a refund on that since I hadn't even entered the original warranty. Within a few hours I had gotten an apology and a promised refund. I am so glad that these huge companies still care about individual customers. I would recommend to buy your TVs through Amazon (as well as any warranty extensions) but if you don't want to go through what I went through, I would avoid this model of TV.