Customer Reviews

LG 26LG30 26-Inch 720p LCD HDTV

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a good TV. I previously had an Olevia (Syntax) 27" LCD HDTV, and I have to say that this TV is a significant improvement. I recommend this TV!

The Good Features

The speakers are good (no hiss or low quality digital sound). The speakers are hidden below the TV. So it's good for confined spaces. They're not as good as a $500 surround sound system with a sub-woofer, but you get what you pay for.

It has an option to turn off the TV power LED when it is not on, which is helpful if you sleep in the room with the TV. The LED also flashes when it receives a command from the remote control, which is good feedback when you don't notice something is blocking the remote control signal to the TV, like the edge of a TV stand. When the TV is off, the red LED looks like HAL 9000 from the movie 2001, which I got a kick out of.

I like the swivel stand on the TV, which is good for easier cable setup. It's Energy Star compliant. It has a great user interface for adding and removing TV channels after you have automatically scanned all the channels (tabbed panels with a preview pane). It can handle HDTV (ATSC) and analog TV (NTSC) signals.

The picture quality is much better than my previous LCD TV. I have no complaints when it's viewed from a typical viewing angle.

The Bad Features

Even though it has great side to side viewing angle, it has a slightly worse than average viewing angle from the bottom. So when mounting this TV up high, you should consider wall mounting it with a downward tilt. Viewing from 45 degrees from below washes out the colors, but this viewing angle isn't typical for most people.

The reflection from the border on the TV can be distracting in a room with a lot of lights when displaying a show with very low light levels (e.g. a horror movie typically has very low light levels). The border also shows dust a little more easily than a matte finish. It's a nice and shiny TV though.

Sound is nice for such a small TV. The speaker grills are underneath the housing and point downwards. They are also 'ported' on the rear so there's actually more sound eminating from the rear of the TV than towards the front. Because of that, this TV is probably best placed against a wall so the sound coming from the rear gets reflected.
Interestingly, although the treble and bass settings both have a typical range of 0 to 100, I can hear very little difference no matter where the audio settings are. Treble and (especially) Bass set at 0 sounds doesn't sound much different than when set to 100.

Color is excellent, but whites/blacks are still 'iffy' for me - playing with the settings, either the blacks seem too black, or the whites get too blown out. I admittedly haven't seriously sat down and tried to deal with it, though.

Left/right viewing angle is good. The image turns a little pink when viewed from an extreme right and left angle, but it has to be pretty extreme as I said.
Top/bottom viewing angle is sub par. Standing above the TV and looking downwards to the screen, the picture looks a little washed out. From below looking up, the picture is dark. You can see a difference in the image (but not too bad) when sitting upright versus laying down due to the elevation difference. (This is with the TV about 5' away.)

A 1/4" blue LED appears when the TV is powered on. Nicely, it's a somewhat dimmed LED, and not one of those nova-bright blue LEDs that so many electronics like to 'dazzle' with. When turned off, a red LED appears instead indicating 'stand by'. It's also not too bright. The settings allow either LED to be turned off permanently.

A power button is on the front, right underneath this power LED. Other buttons for volume, channel, input selection, menu are on the right side of the housing out of sight. They're not easily 'viewable' for those that might put this TV inside a small entertainment center.

It takes about 8-9 seconds from when the TV is powered on for the TV to 'boot up' and start showing the currently tuned-in channel. The blue LED blinks once a second or so during this warmup phase so that you know your hitting the power button actually did something.

The remote is *very* nicely laid out with easy access to commonly used features such as quick change of aspect ratio, quick change of closed captioning, Favorite channels, button for quick access to picture settings, another for audio, settings, etc. The remote was actually a deciding factor for me since a competitor's set of the same exact price, about the same specs, sitting right next to this LG had a horriblely huge remote filled with a massive array of tiny little buttons, probably one button for each and every feature. I do wish LG used some more colors for the buttons, though; most are black, a couple are light grey.

Got this on Black Friday. It is a fantastic set at a great price. Much easier to use and in my opinion a better picutre than Samsung.

The sound quality is fantastic. Many of these smaller sets have lousy sounds that is similar to an alarm clock. This has two powerful 10 Watt speakers designed by Mark Levenson. It is a great set at a fantastic price!

We are extremely pleased with the LG 26" LCD TV. The picture is bright and crisp, sound control is good, remote is responsive and easy to use, and it was plug and play. Good value for good product.

As a recent retiree travel trailering across the US, I bought this tv in Chattanooga at HH Gregg on Black Friday, as an in-store, unadvertised, NIB special for $399! It has an amazingly clear picture, and the colors are brilliant. The blacks are BLACK. I have only used it thus far to receive both analog and digital, including HD, over-the-air signals with rabbit ears and find it to be very satisfactory. The sound leaves a bit to be desired, but with such small in-set speakers that is to be expected. When I connect my small Altec Lansing computer speakers with separate subwoofer, the sound is awesome. All in all, a great product, especially at the price.............

I guess that's the name behind LG.....not very asian....although made by the upstart Koreans... assembled in China like everything else. Easy to set up out of the box...no surprises. Comes with a CD that explains the details of editing the TV....but, I was able to figure out most of the basics from the on screen prompts and the remote. Well designed HDTV with a good sound system and swivel base. Good value, and I did not see significant peripheral problems. The base actually has a shoulder to it, and is not flat as depicted. I was not ready for the 80 some stations I got on an antenna....compared to a dozen on my old CRT. Why pay for cable?

I'm very happy with this LCD television set from LG. Fantastic, natural colors which makes HD cable TV look stunning. Its size makes it an excellent TV for the kitchen or bedroom. The fact that it has so many HDMI inputs makes it a great buy. The sound might not be the greatest, but it is nevertheless good. Don't hesitate: buy it, you'll be glad you did.

I bought this television two years ago and it is already dead. I took exquisite care of it. It is sitting in the exact same place as where it has sat since the moment I brought it home. Today it has no scratches or scrapes and yet it died. I looked online and apparently LGs do this and LG knows about it. The screen just flashes black, but the sound works. If you want a quality television look somewhere else.

Very happy with my decision on the LG 26LG30 - excellent picture and great tuner! I have Comcast as my service provider and I don't use a converter box and this TV's tuner is able to display the HD broadcasts of the local TV stations right from the cable coming out of the wall! I used a Peerless Universal mount (not recommended for this particular model, but that's a whole other story) and ran the wires up through the wall for a nice clean install in a master bedroom. Totally recommend this TV - great value for the price. I looked at everything in the 26" category and by dropping down to a lesser priced product from another manufacturer, the difference in the picture quality was very clear - this one is WORTH paying a little more for without going for a higher end model. Best way to buy a TV is go look at them in the big box stores and then go buy on line - I ended up paying a lot less.

I am no geek, so sorry, can't give you technical opinion. But I love this TV. I've had it two years now w no issues, and even my friends and boyfriend agree its a great little TV. One friend tried to convince me to go bigger, but this is just perfect for me. Great picture quality, good sound, no issues, very happy.