Customer Reviews

LG 50PK550 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've had the LG 50PK550 and the LG BD570 for almost 2 weeks now and all I can say is WOW!
Over the past 7 years I've upgraded tv's 5 times with my firt being a panny plasma and then 3 lcd's 2 LG 1 Samsung and now the PK550 and none have ever impressed me half as much as this unit, it has great blacks(I think they rival panasonic's blacks) absolutely no motion blur or artifacts and the picture quality is the most vibrant and clear I've seen in a while...
I tested 4 movies and here are the results
Ong Bak 2 - bluray - awsome pictue no blur or artifacts great sound

Disney's Up - bluray "same as above"
(and just if anyone wanted to know here's little on the BD570
Ip Man - 720P MKV DVD - awsome picture no blur or artifacts & great sound
Chocolate - 1080P MKV 120GB HDD - "same as above
I would totally recommend this tv to anyone looking for good quality at an affordable price as well as the BD570 they make an great combo set
Oh yeah just in case here are my settimgs
(keep in mind I'm no professional calibrator)
LG 50 PK550: Just scan, energy saving off,pic mode: expret2,contrast 100,brightness 33,H Sharp 50,V Sharp 50,color 62,expert control: D Contrast off, noise reduc off,gamma high, black level low, color gamut standard,edge enhance off
LG BD570:User setting: Contrast 2,brightness 0,Color 1, Sharpness 2,Noise reduction 0

Well, I got my pk550 on tuesday. So far, i'm in love. Watching blu rays on my ps3 is a new experience. I want to go through all my movies and watch them again. The panel is just sexy. For my ps3 for blu rays, I use cinema mode (obviously recalibrated) and the picture is so smooth and crisp. My brother noticed right away how smooth and real the movement was. For my xbox 360, im using Game Mode (recalibrated as well). I've been playing mass effect 2 and it's way more vibrant and rich. I have no issue with IR or burn in. As long as you set your tv to Orbiter and do a "color wash" every so often it cleans away any IR in a matter of seconds.
I was very nervous as this was my first plasma and i read about burn ins and IR. But after only 3 days and doing research I feel more confident in the tv and plasmas in general. I just do the "color wash" mode sometimes when im gone to break in it/speed the break in process up. If im playing a game that has a HUD on for a while, ill pause the game, and do a quick "color wash" for about 10 seconds and set it back to orbiter and keep playing. Now, this may sound annoying, but honestly, it's not. You get used to it and get real quick at using the tv.

Also the pk550 has a load of calibration options. I love that. Anyway, it's a great tv, def best bang for you buck for a 50" 1080p plasma. This is my first plasma and it's an LG. I have much more faith in plasmas now. Especially lg. Pick this set up!!

***I returned a Samsung UN32C5000 and bought this one (see review of the Sammy here on Amazon)***

I purchased this set from somewhere else (Dad has a retiree discount) so I got it cheaper, but otherwise would had no problem buying from here.

I only had the set for a few days, but I really like it so far. I'm doing a break-in period for the set (not really necessary, but helps age the phosphor evenly) so the settings are a little low right now, but still fantastic. I watched two BD movies so far(The Hurt Locker & StarTrek) and they were awesome to watch. Colors were vivid and the detail kept my eyes popping out. lol I don't know if I ever could be happy going back to DVDs again. lol

**Note on plasma Tvs: Burn-In has not been an issue with plasma TVs for quite a few years, but you may still get some Image Retention. I have seen very little IR on this set, and what did show up quickly went away. I wouldn't even consider it an issue.

I know Samsung has been having problems with loud buzzing sound coming from their plasma TVs, and a few heard it from other manufacturers as well(including LG), but I cannot hear any buzz coming from mine. I even held my head up to the TV and the only hum I heard was the mini-frig in the room. :)

The screen is very uniform in lighting. Probably my only wish would be for darker blacks. My set is not calibrated yet, so I know it will go darker than it is now. It's not bad mind you, but you can tell where the black bars end from a movie and the black bezel begins, which would disappear with the darkness of the room.

**For the Gamers: As far as I can tell, there is very little lag or none at all. I tried a couple games (ie GTAIV & Crackdown) and got into a Semi-truck. What I would do was pull the right trigger as fast as I could to go into reverse which causes the back-ups lights to come on with the beeping sound. Even closing my eyes I would hear the click from the trigger at the same time as the reverse beep. The controls even felt the same coming from a computer (TN Panel) monitor.

Just to point out, this TV does have a glossy screen. My complaint with the Sammy was they stated it eliminated reflections, but it was mirror like. The reflections are not as bad on this set and at least I knew about it ahead of time.

So overall I am real happy right now with this set.

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Encrypted Neuron

I was actually forced to buy this TV. We wanted a 50" plasma that would fit our 47" entertainment center in the family room. I really wanted a Panasonic plasma since I love the 65" Panasonic that we have in our theater room. But this LG was the only 50" that fits in our ent center. I could not be happier with the LG. The picture is stunning in all AV modes. We bought it at Sears and they threw in the LG BD550 which is also excellent. I have to say the PK550 picture is on a par with the Panasonic plasmas. Blacks are excellent and colors are beautiful. I tried the Picture Wizard for calibration and found the pre sets to be dead on. We have had the TV for about a month and have used all the AV modes for general viewing, sports, and movies. Everything looks great. My only minor complaint is that the TV's virtual surround sound is not as good as I expected. But I have the TV connected to a Pioneer Amp and it sounds great. Besides, the important thing is a TV's picture. I highly recommend this TV for anyone looking for a beautiful television at a reasonable price.

This set is everything and more than I expected. After adjusting the video settings for the room the picture is the best I have ever had or seen. Note, I have have 65" Mitsubishi Diamond DLP which is a tough act to match. This picture is better than that, just smaller.

The sound from the THX implementation is of excellent quality from the set. As this is a bedroom set I actually use the sound system from the TV.

Yes, it is also thin!

Great TV, I highly recommend it!

I won't bore you with the specs or feature sets of this t.v, or what I have my setting at. If you are looking at purchasing a new t.v and are on a budget then this is the t.v for you. However for 200 bucks more you could move up to the 750. LG has done an impressive job with there sets. I love my 550 and will stick with LG for the foreseeable future, as should you. They are truly beautiful sets.

I have had this set for two months and it still has considerable "wow!" factor. First, it was a steal. (A few years ago a set approaching this quality could been priced at 2500 bucks.) This TV has an excellent image, especially for movies and sports. High resolution black and white movies look especially sharp, "resonant" and film-like. The 550 affords lots of fine tuning depending on the program one has. An unusual degree of sharpness may be dialed in if one wants it. I'm not sure this is a criticism, but with certain settings, the facial make-up of performers in news casts and made-for-TV dramas (like "Dexter") is obvious, but the image may be adjusted to soften the "hey, I see their make up" factor. I know many viewers may not use the on-board speakers of big TVs, but the 550's on-board speakers are quite good. These speakers are NOT thin or boxy sounding--even rock music sounds nice, but they are great for dialogue. Read reviews of other TVs--speaker quality is often neglected in contemporary TVs (and I have beheld many junk speakers--I think Samsung sets' speakers are often weak). Also, this TV affords a visual difference between 720 and 1080 broadcasts--1080 is a visible, not a hypothetical, benefit. I watch a lot of up-converted-to-1080 DVDs (the DVD players do the up-convert) on this set, and they look great, so one doesn't have to have a new library of Blu Ray to get real benefits from the 550, if like me, one has scads of old movies on conventional DVDs. The 550 also has lots of inputs, and a useful and intuitive remote, and, as I say, lots of available color adjustments. I am a nut for color adjustments, and I'll note that this machine has layers of fine-tuning for tint adjustments that I haven't ventured into yet.

We purchased this TV as a replacement for a 32" Olevia that had issues with the remote and we were ready to upsize. I made the decision on plasma after visiting a local store and comparing the quality and price of several similar models in the same size. Plasma definitely has great color, and this is a very big difference from the old LCD. I am surprised at how thin this TV is, considering it is a plasma. I ran through the picture wizard, but I find that the Vivid color scheme is sufficient for our viewing most of the time. The USB viewer is a great feature and very easy to use, although it does not have the ability to sort pictures by name or date, so you can only view them in the order they are on the disk. The ability to play background music during the picture viewing is very convenient. The number and type of inputs on this TV are more than sufficient for our needs as we use a receiver for most of the video switching. The biggest problem we have with the TV is the glare, but I was aware of this before my purchase, and it is something that can be controlled with curtains and a few small tweaks to our room lighting. The picture quality is worth it!

The biggest problem I had with this TV was the delivery. I ordered it a week before Black Friday and scheduled the delivery for the day before Thanksgiving so we could enjoy it over the holiday. Unfortunately, the first one arrived with cracks all over the screen. The delivery people inspected the unit but suggested the cracks were just the protective screen covering. Since the temperature was below 50 degrees F, they would not unpack it any further and would not power it up. I only discovered the cracks shortly after they left as I began to unpack it so I could install the mounting hardware. I called and was immediately given a new order for a replacement unit, however they would not reschedule the delivery immediately. I figured it would come quick since the first unit came with Amazon Prime 2-day delivery, but I was wrong. I was given a link to a web site to schedule my delivery, and the earliest date was 8 days away! I had to wait until Black Friday to call the shipper, who agreed to deliver the unit on Saturday, the next day. The new unit arrived on schedule, and the shippers did a more careful inspection, including completely removing all packing and protective materials, and they took the old unit away at the same time. I finally had a working TV.

***Update March 1, 2011***

The TV is now well past its break-in period (500+ hours) and it exhibits image retention issues. This is not a deal breaker since its only visible for a brief amount of time as the screen powers on/off, but still an annoyance and I am worried about long-term effects. As a result, I took off 1 star from my original review and adjusted the review title.

***Original Review***

I purchased this TV 2 months ago and I think it's a good time to share my thoughts about it...

Overall, I am happy with my purchase. TV produces great picture and handles fast motion well, unlike most LCDs. Plenty of inputs/outputs on the back. There's a USB port, but it is somewhat gimmicky as it can only display the pictures off the USB device. Higher-end LG plasmas include the ability to play video files, but of course, you pay more for that privilege.

The internal speakers actually manage to produce tolerable sound which some may even find sufficient. It was a pleasant surprise, but I still went for a 5.1 surround sound setup.

I have not calibrated it yet, but people at AV Forums say that this TV actually outperforms some of the higher-end LG plasmas when properly calibrated.

Many recommend "breaking in" the plasma by running the special slides which is supposed to minimize any image retention issues. I did not run the slides, but did make sure to run all video in full-screen mode for the first 100-120 hrs. The image retention showed its ugly head once -- after watching a letter-boxed Norwegian movie (shaking fist at Norway :) ), but it did disappear very quickly. Generally, it's best to stick with wide-screen picture to avoid this issue.

Aesthetically, the TV is a beauty. Very thin profile for a plasma, a very slick look. The base that attaches to the stand, however, is quite wobbly and makes me a little nervous when I have to move the TV. Also, as others mentioned, screen glare can be an issue in bright lit rooms or if there's a light source facing it.

All things considered, it's a solid 4 stars. A great purchase with only minor reservations. Definitely one of the best televisions in this price range.

It would be difficult to write the review without devolving into nothing but superlatives: Fantastic!, Marvelous, Extremely Groovy!

But that's what this TV is. The picture (when customized) is As Good As It Gets. Bar none. I shopped for quite a while before ordering this TV, and it lived up to every expectation. The price I got it for was outstanding. The shipping was spot on. The set-up was easy.

I own a Panasonic 55" plasma, and I love it. I brought this new 50" LG up to my cabin, and it's given me another reason to never want to leave. I just watched the Wild Card football weekend, and I had a better view of the game than the people on the 50-yard line. Watching sports on this TV is reason alone to buy it.

Go out to Best Buy or Ultimate Electronics and compare this TV with any of the others. Then go to Amazon and buy it.

It is simply the best.