Hewlett-Packard LC3040N 30" Widescreen HD-Ready Flat-Panel LCD TV

by HP

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 140 pounds
• Shipping: This item can only be shipped to the 48 contiguous states. We regret it cannot be shipped to APO/FPO, Hawaii, Alaska, or Puerto Rico.
• ASIN: B0002ZFXMI
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 31, 2004

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Enlarge your entertainment world with HP's 30-inch widescreen LC3040N, a high-definition-ready flat-panel LCD TV that can serve both your living room and your office. The 1280 x 768-resolution set renders crisp, dynamic, true-to-life images using HP Visual Fidelity picture-processing technology, capable of enhancing virtually any video source. Integrated dual NTSC tuners give you picture-in-picture or side-by-side viewing of 2 programs (or 1 program and 1 input) simultaneously, while a rear-panel PC input lets the set double as a computer monitor.

LCD screens offer a number of benefits over CRT monitors and televisions, including general ease of use, freedom from eye strain (no screen flickering or radiation emissions), quiet operation (no high-pitch "flyback" noise, an issue with CRT TVs), accurate image geometry (no curvature distortion or susceptibility to magnetic interference from, say, speakers), long screen life (with no risk of image burn-in), space savings, and light weight/easy positioning. They also tend to be cheaper and, to some eyes, slightly more natural looking than their plasma flat-panel counterparts, which usually "spec" higher (higher brightness, higher contrast ratio).

The LC3040N's image enhancements include DCDi video processing by Faroudja (the acclaimed DCDi algorithm detects low-angle lines and smoothes out staircases and jagged edges, bringing greater realism to sporting events and movies), a Cross Color Suppressor (which removes cross-color artifacts from composite-video sources for consistently true colors), Fine Detail Enhancement (which identifies a picture's areas of fine detail, such as skin and hair, and enhances them to a more lifelike appearance), and the above-mentioned HP Visual Fidelity technology (which analyzes every pixel of every image for noise reduction, color enhancement, motion compensation, and detail enhancement to ensure a spectacular picture). Motion-adaptive noise reduction enhances the quality of standard-definition and off-air programming.

FilmMode processing with 3:2 and 2:3 pulldown accurately reproduces film-originated content from video sources. Digital video mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24-frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; 3:2/2:3 pulldown digitally corrects this distortion, removing redundant information to display a film-frame-accurate picture.

Inputs include a DVI-D terminal with HDCP (High-Definition Content Protection), which permits pure digital connections to DTV set-top boxes and DVI-enabled DVD players and PCs. The set also offers 2 HD component-video inputs, a VGA computer input, an RF antenna/coaxial input, and 2 each composite- and S-video connections for additional component hookups. A composite-video-based audio/video output lets you feed a TV signal to a DVR, VCR, or other device--perfect for recording one program while watching another using the set's 2 tuners. A dedicated subwoofer output lets you use an outboard powered subwoofer to augment the TV's speakers with full low-frequency response.

A pair of selectable features enhances the set's 15-watt (7.5 watts per channel x 2) sound system. BBE High Definition Audio improves speech intelligibility and musical realism, while SRS WOW/TruBass processing creates a perceptually larger sound field, enhancing vocals and instilling a sense of deep, rich bass even without the use of a subwoofer.

What's in the Box
TV, detachable stand, a remote control, remote batteries, a quick-start guide, a user's manual, a 75-ohm RF coaxial cable, 2 speakers, 2 speaker cables, an AC power cord, and warranty information.

Product Description

Hewlett-Packards new introduction to Televisions feature this 30" HDTV-Ready LCD Flat Panel model with resolution of 1280-768 pixels and 16:9 widescreen aspect ratios. It incorporates HP's Vidual Fidelity System picture processing technology and Faroudja's DCDi de-interlacing chip to scale images to meet display requirements with minimum picture artifacts. HP says its VFS will analyze all pixels for noise reduction, motion compensation, color enhancement to deliver a sharp picture. The LC3040N also features dual NTSC tuners and side-by-side picture-in-picture function. Panel inputs include DVI-D with HDCP and HD component video. BBE Viva and SRS WOW sound processing technologies enhance audio. Comes in black finish and includes matching table stand. Wall mounting brackets and subwoofer are optimal.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice Unit but Some Video-related Issues, December 6, 2004

By 

M. Bishop (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hewlett-Packard LC3040N 30" Widescreen HD-Ready Flat-Panel LCD TV (Electronics)

I've had this unit for about a week. I also own a 50" Pioneer plasma which I can compare the performance to.

Pluses: Nice styling, fit and finish. It looks ultra-modern. Tons of connectivty from the back including DVI (sorry, no HDMI). Speakers mate securely, and complement the unit. They look like they belong there. Speakers sound fantastic for such small attachments. For big movies you'll still need to channel the sound thru your home theater - but the included speakers don't suck. Images are bright - but somewhat grainy compared to plasma. If you are about 4 screen heights away from the screen the picture quality is close to plasma - but I could see differences. Also no dead pixels on this unit so far as I can tell.

Minuses: Unit has trouble syncing to 480i component video. I tried a Sony and a Denon DVD player and it lost sync on anamorphic widescreen material (2.35:1). The problem was horrible on the Sony - but not as bad using the Denon player. I had to switch to 480p to get the HP LCD to settle down in component mode. The remote control is nothing special. It is not backlit and is somewhat hard to use. Could not program it to understand basic functions of my Denon DVD player - although it is supposed function with other brands of electronics. Also, sometimes you have to press the remote twice to get it to register on the unit. But the two biggest drawbacks are: Only 3 aspect modes: 4:3, Panoramic (more commonly known as Wide mode for stretching 4:3 material to fit 16x9 aspect), Normal (which is commonly known as Full mode and used to show anamorphically encoded DVDs). There's no "through" mode or native pixel mode - as far as I can tell - although I have not used the DVI connection yet - but I plan to soon. The biggest drawback is that this set is not a true 16x9 aspect ratio. It's 1280x768 native resolution, and the pixels are square. This means the set is 15x9. The scaler built into the unit has trouble properly scaling for this aspect ratio. For instance, when showing a DVD in component mode - it scales 4:3 material to the exact aspect ratio defined by the 720x480 pixels on the DVD - without taking into account that the pixels are not encoded gemetrically as squares on a DVD. This means that (in component mode only) that the resulting image is slightly stretched horizontally. This is not a problem in S-video or composite mode where it scales the NTSC image correctly to 1024x768 (a 4:3 aspect). But for component video - this same image is scaled to 1152x480 or 1.5:1 aspect ratio - which is not the true aspect ratio on the DVD, because the DVD pixels are not square. Which means in component - the horizontal axis of the LCD image is stretched by 12.5 percent. So instead of getting 1.333:1 aspect (the normal NTSC aspect ratio), you are getting a 1.5:1 aspect ratio. Not a good thing. For normal mode (e.g., Full Mode anamorphic)- the image looks correct (no stretching) so I can only assume that some of the left and right portions of the image are cropped in order to fit 16x9 material into a 15x9 aspect ratio. On my Pioneer unit - which is also a native 1280x768 display - the pixels are rectangular (slightly longer than tall) - so 16x9 material fits perfectly on this display. Here, 1280 means 1366 virtual pixels - so 16x9 material is scaled to a virtual 1366x768 and aspect is preserved. But because the HP LCD used square pixels - and the scaler blindly maps 720x480 to 1152x768 in component mode, the image is compromised. And you can tell. The HP scaler should scale 720x480 component to 1024x768 - but it doesn't.

So bottom line - this is a nice unit - but there are these issues for anyone who cares to know about them. As a new TV brand, HP has a few lessons to learn on doing HDTV (and regular TV for that matter) properly - so that aspect ratios for 4:3 material are properly rendered in component video. And HP needs to figure out why the set has trouble syncing to 480i component video. Also, this set runs quite a bit warmer that my 50 inch plasma. Obviously, the designers were not too concerned with how much power they burned to achieve a fairly good image. If you want to buy HP, you may want to wait for the next generation of LCD sets - and perhaps some of these issues will be resolved by then.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Component inputs don't work, January 31, 2005

By 

timothy-ny "timothy-ny" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hewlett-Packard LC3040N 30" Widescreen HD-Ready Flat-Panel LCD TV (Electronics)

The TV generates a lot of heat, and after about 10-15 minutes of use with component video inputs, the colors wash out. This happened with 2 different HD cable boxes and 2 different DVD players. The display is not a problem for composite video (yellow RCA) input, but if you are looking for HD, don't get this!