Customer Reviews

LG 55LE5400 55-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV with Internet Applications

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I've had this TV for just over 24 hours and so far I'm pleased. I chose the LG 5400 after visiting the local blue and yellow store as they were changing over their 2009 models to the 2010s. I was initially impressed by the Samsung LED LCDs and was getting close to buying the Samsung 7100 (7000 everywhere else with a red ToC vs. Grey at this store) when on my third trip to the store, they had just put the LG up on the wall. The picture stood out right away from the Samsungs and the Panasonic Plasma above it. The other decidng factor over the Samsung was the matte screen on the LG. The Samsungs have a high gloss screen just like a Plasma which is a problem for the room that I planned to put the TV in. It has multiple windows and lots of light so a high gloss screen would reflect way too much. As for the Pro's and Cons, here's what I have noticed so far:

Pro's: Picture quality with deep blacks and sharp contrast, picture adjustment wizard and ability to tweak it to the Nth degree including judder, sleek case appearance, internet widgets (haven't played with these too much yet so they might just be toys to brag about but, not too useful), Solid build
Cons: missing some features that others in the price range have like local dimming LEDs, PIP/POP, room light sensing, and a universal remote, 120hz instead of 240hz (not that I've noticed a problem yet).

Lastly, a note about mounting this TV on a wall; all of the permanent hook-ups are on the back surface (i.e not recessed into the case) so if you plan to use a low profile mount, you'll need right angle adapters for everything (HDMI, Component Video, VGA, etc). You'll need at least 1.75" of clearance from the back of the TV to the wall to get all your connections made. You'll also need to use a recessed outlet. I ended up scrapping the low profile mount and using a tilting mount that gave me 2.5" of clearance. Made life alot easier at the sacrifice of some sleekness on the wall. This shouldn't have been a big surprise given how thin the TV is but, I made the mistake. Oh well. After I've lived with this TV for a while longer I'll post an update but, so far so good.

UPDATE 1-11-11:
I've had this TV for about 10 months now and I'm still very pleased with it. I should note that I made a mistake in my original review under CONS wich was that this TV does NOT have room light sensing to dim the backlight. To the contrary, this TV DOES HAVE ROOM LIGHT SENSING. My mistake which I didn't notice until recently. There are only two observations that I can add since my original review and later comments: 1. One of the infrequent software updates seemed to have erased my custom picture and sound settings. 2. Occasionally the room light sensor gets tripped up in a dark room and ramps up the brightness then back to normal. The first observation was more of an annoyance and had only happened with one update. The second observation may be due to a software update or possibly something on my component stand below the TV throwing it off. I really don't know yet what causes this to happen but, it is infrequent and did not start to happen until several months after purchasing the TV. Otherwise, I'm still very happy with it and expect it to last a long time.

This is written from the perspective of a first-timer in the world of HD and large screens. I held off until I was satisfied with the picture quality, thickness, and price of LCDs. After more than a year of research online and in person, LG won out over all others, for the above reasons and the matte screen. Our TV faces a wall of windows.

We had a tough time deciding on a 47" or 55". Our viewing distance is only 10', and we didn't want to overwhelm the room with an obnoxiously sized TV. In my exhaustive research on TV viewing distance, several points kept repeating, namely that 1) few people regret getting a TV that is too large, but many regret getting a TV that is too small; and 2) if a TV seems too large at first, it will rapidly become "just right". Ours didn't seem too large at first, and I'm VERY glad we didn't get anything smaller, and we could even go a bit larger for HD material and more of an immersive feel. The only possible problem as I see it is there is more work involved in watching movies on a larger screen - your eyes have to move more. This is especially obvious when a scene cuts back and forth between two people talking, with one of them on one side of the screen, the other on the opposite side. It's something to get used to.

Non-HD material: as expected, it doesn't look as good as it did on a CRT TV. With some material, such as cartoons, it's not just a TV size/resolution issue - there are compression artifacts everywhere that look awful up close. This is a function of the digital source, though, not the TV. The TV just makes it more obvious. Regular DVDs look better once you adjust the picture - the "Standard" setting is vivid but unrealistic.

HD material looks spectacular. I thought Avatar would look great, but it's better than I hoped it would be. HD picture quality is a no-brainer with the LGs and you can see them in person compared to other sets at any time, so I won't go into more detail than that. The matte screen diffuses light and it's perfect for the room.

Now for the dreaded audio sync issue. The TV I received does have it, badly with the blu-ray player, very slightly with HD cable (you can't tell unless you really look for it, and some channels are worse than others). There seems to be a lot of misinformation about this, and people everywhere are returning TVs and blu-ray players, getting technicians to come out and update their firmware and even replacing the mainboard in the TV, none of which seems to help.

Here's the scoop - it's a problem with the TV, not the blu-ray player, at least in the case of this TV. Apparently the HDMI input circuitry slows down the audio, causing it to fall behind the video. This has been a problem with several manufacturers' LCD TVs for years, including some from Samsung. There is no fix available from LG for this, and I don't think there will be until enough reviews complain about it. There are a few solutions, however:

1) Use component video cables for blu-ray instead of HDMI, which was my permanent solution.
2) I was able to eliminate the problem with HDMI/regular DVDs by setting the DVD player's output to 24hz (cinema) instead of 60hz. There's no flickering or loss of picture quality that I can detect. This trick didn't work with blu-ray DVDs, so I went with the component cables instead.
3) Use an A/V receiver that has a delay feature, and route your HDMI through that. I don't have one, so I don't have any more information on this.

I'm giving it 4 stars for the outstanding HD picture quality, low price, and the thin matte screen. If it wasn't for the audio sync problem, it would very easily be 5, but I can't reward LG for something that has been an issue with their sets for so many years.

Bought the TV a few weeks back from Amazon and have been impressed with the quality so far. I did reasonable research before buying this TV to replace an old 27" TV that I had for almost 11 years and wanted something that had good features.

I compared the LG with Samsung 6500 series TV at a local store and did not notice any significant difference between the two. Compared to a bunch of TVs next to this one, the brightness seemed a bit high (relatively less dark), but nothing concerning.

I ordered the TV through Amazon for a decent price and the service was good (Ceva). They delivered to the second floor but I had to setup the TV myself (no installation and check-up like a full-fledged white-glove service). It was not difficult but needs 2 people at least.

The picture quality is sharp and clear and the sports action (football) was quite good. The audio lacks punch, as can be expected from a 10w speaker. However, I wish they included better speakers by default. Also had to purchase a wi-fi adapter separately. Again, would've been nice if it were included with the system (hence 1 star less). That said, it is no different from its competitors.

The biggest reason I went for the LG compared to Samsung was the price (around $500 less for the same features) and the matte finish. The matte finish makes a huge difference if you are going to keep the TV in a well-lit room. In the store, I could see all the lights in the back reflected off the Samsung, while it was hardly noticeable in the LG. Same at home with large windows.

So far, I have not noticed any weird issues as mentioned in the other posts. The picture quality is good and the brightness, contrast, and colors are more than adequate for an average TV user.

If you are in the market for a 55" TV and if you have a bright room, this is definitely worth a consideration.

Pros:
- Excellent picture quality
- Standard set of Internet applications (Netflix, Picasa, YouTube, Vudu)
- Reasonable number of options to tweak
- Matte finish is great for a brightly lit room with large windows
- DLNA support works flawlessly to stream music from computer to the TV (haven't tried video yet)
- Input and Output ports are sufficient for most scenarios
- Very thin (around 1")
- Aesthetically pleasing

Cons:
- Speaker quality is average. A home theater system is strongly recommended for better quality
- Remote control is average. It's clunky to type using the remote
- Internet Widgets are slow, but functional. Not too many widgets. Removing widgets is not intuitive.
- Additional wi-fi adapter required for wireless Internet connectivity. Costs around $50-$80

I've had the set for a month. The LG 55LE5400 provides all the features I wanted for viewing TV, internet or other media I have available. That is a plus. Most important, it the very thin profile that I wanted for wall mounting. The picture is sharp and bright when viewing HD sources, however other than HD sources look a bit fuzzy. That's disappointing but expected. High motion scenes in sports action, are blurred. The TV has 120Hz refresh rate which is suppose to help this situation. This blurring takes some getting used to and becomes less anoying over time. Otherwise I'm satisfied with the picture except for a quality issue that has yet to be fixed. The set has had a problem with the backlighting from day one. The lower right fourth of the screen is noticably darker than the rest of the viewing area. LG was responsive and sent a technician to the house to look at it. He said at least one of the LED backlights is not working (this is new right out of the box) and ordered a new screen since the backlights are an integral part of the screen. I'm still waiting for the new screen. If it takes much longer to fix this issue my opinion of LG and this set will change drastically.

I spent way too much time looking for a TV, and was pretty sure that I did not want a plasma since I play a lot of video games and don't like the potential for burn-in and I think LCD and LED TV's are brighter and better for video games. So I decided that I was getting an LCD or LED and have been looking at this one, and a few others, for almost a year. I have a 40" Sony 720p that I was replacing, but I didn't want to spend upwards of $1500 more just for 3D. I have a 4 year old daughter and I don't have time to sit and watch lots of movies, so 3D isn't a big priority to me or us. I was looking at Best Buy for the most part since I have a Best Buy Credit Card and planned on getting 18-36 months of free financing, but this TV went down in price and I finally pulled the trigger. I have never bought anything of this size from Amazon and was nervous about not buying from a local dealer and the delivery from thousands of miles away. But it (finally!!!) came and I couldn't be happier.

The picture is AWESOME and the sound is great actually, sure it's not a surround system, but for anyone that downgrades the sound quality when compared to a surround system is just comparing apples to bananas. The sound is great, the touch sensors on the front right are just COOL! The basic menu items like power, volume, channel, etc are all hidden on the front of the panel but are touch sensitive areas that light up when the TV is on (the power one lights up if you want it to when it is off) really are a cool touch. Sure I won't used them a lot, but they are a really high-end feature on an affordable TV.

I have it mounted above our fireplace in the basement and it was easy to mount, shockingly thin, and it looks great on the wall. The shipping was longer then I thought, they quoted me August 26th, when I bought it on the 18th, but I didn't get it until the 31st, but all in all for free shipping I porbably can't complain too much. That was then only thing Amazon disappointed me on, but if you are considering buying a TV from Amazon, trust me don't hesitate any longer, I was a huge skeptic, and now am a very satisfied customer! Overall I got a GREAT TV for an amazing price, and saved the sales tax and a lot of $ over Best Buy, but all in all I couldn't be happier.

This TV is mainly going to be used for high-def sports broadcasts and video games. I play XBOX 360 and PS3 at night when my wife and daughter are asleep, and I LOVE IT!! I watched a Blu-ray after I bought it on my PS3 and couldn't believe how amazing it looks!

Overall this is the best TV I have ever owned. I have no regrets about buying from amazon and got this TV for about $400-$500 cheaper than Best Buy.

(I paid $1488 for mine on amazon in late August, with no sales tax, and free shipping. I did buy the 4 year warranty to be safe, but got an amazing deal!)

Pros: Everything...picture, sound, design, value, ease of use, features, and most of all the PRICE!
Cons: Maybe just the shipping time.

I've just acquired the 55LE5400 as a service contract replacement for a rear projection CRT 50" set. I was trying to get the best 55" set I could for a certain price level (around $2k) and after going through what was available this one jumped out. That, and good reviews on the web for it, even though the CNET review was kind of down on it.

This is an LED edge lit set, so as CNET points out, it will not be as effective at controlling brightness of certain scenes as one with a full back panel of LEDs. Sure, a year from now that will likely be common at this price level, but not yet.

The set was a bit of a pain to put on its stand (took 3 people), but once done it was very easy to hook up and get going. The MENU is a bit strange but is easily learned. It does not seem to allow for manual channel labelling, and input labelling is limited. Like most sets today, it does not have S Video (still useful if one has an S VHS deck or a Laser Disc player (not all LDs have DVD replacements still), and the only audio outputs are headphone (which cuts off the speakers) and Toslink. We have someone in the house at times with poor hearing, and we want to hookup a set of analog headphones so that person can set the volume to what he needs while others watch and listen via the TV speakers. To do this I'll need to spend about $130 to get a Gefen Dolby input digital to analog converter; it would have been nice to have a simple analog audio output that was independent of the speakers (without turning the speakers off); this is also a common problem with today's TVs.

The remote is a bit annoying; it is easy to hit the picture button (changing video attributes) when one wants to change inputs. One then has to go in via the menu to fix the error. Other then that it's easy to handle, and the codes for it were easily found for the TIVO remote by using the appropriate TIVO menu setup item.

Once I finished the basic setup and ran through the picture wizard, I looked at a number of programs; directly through the QAM tuner, via a TIVO Premiere XL, a Toshiba HD player with HD DVDs, and a Sony Blu Ray player with BD discs. I realized something right away; that what I was looking at seemed amazingly real in a way I've never before experienced on TV. My 16 year old daughter complains that on crime shows the blood and gore is now to scary to watch!

I've heard complaints about the audio; I've not heard any problems so far on my set. One cute thing; it seems there is a way to turn off video while leaving the audio active, thus cutting power usage to under 40 watts, presumably while one takes a nap. Even with video on the rated power use is under 200 watts; this is an Energy Star set. It probably uses a quasrter or less of the power needed by the TV it replaced. The TV has timers to turn it on and off as well as a sleep timer; this is a nice combo.

The set is amazingly thin. Its screen is reasonably glare resistant; we can see glare in our room with many windows and lights, but it is normally hardly noticable.

If one can afford 3D and / or full LED back lighting, great. If not, and one wants a 55" set, this appears to be an excellent choice.

I have read all of the reviews posted so far for this T.V. and after having owned this set for more than six weeks I went with a 5-Star rating for this one. I wish (as the title suggests) that a 4 1/2 star was available to me. But .....I also thought that the lower rating(s) given were not warranted either. So I just rounded up instead of down. The "lip sync" issue is my ONLY reason for not wanting to give a full 5 star's without any hesitation. This product gives me everything and more that I desire. I do wish that the PIP (picure-in-picture) was rescued in our products offered once again. That is a feature that I really do miss (not featured from most any manufacturer).

The audio problem (lip sync) did seem to improve after I bought and attached the wireless dongle. It found and ran the LG updates automatically. I love the use of the Netflix, Yahoo, YouTube, and Picasa widgets. I use all that are available to me (except Vudu) and I look forward to the many other(s) that I hopefully will see soon. The thin & lightweight feature as well as the many other options of this product are just incredible. I love the "Aspect Feature" & "Picture Mode" that this set has. The remote is smartly arranged and well thought out. The screen is bright and amazingly clean and sharp to the eye at most any angle that you could/would attempt to place it in. I am still learning all of the options and settings that this unit has available. The default settings are acceptable to me but I am amazed at the plethora of choices that are offered anyway.

I am so happy with this product that I am now looking seriously at the LG Blu-ray surround sound systems that (should) easily interact with the T.V. remote. I hope that I will be able to reduce the number of remotes that are needed to operate all my viewing desires. I would appreciate any comments with info/experience on this subject. I also have enjoyed NOT needing the LG support team so far. Because of this I (happily) cannot report accurately on this subject.

All in all the "LG5400" has the best value that any product has to offer anywhere close to this price point! I would NOT hesitate to purchase this product again......EVER!!

I reviewed several different HD TV's for several weeks. I needed one which had a Matte finish as my living room is Very Bright and I did not want alot of glare. So I choose LG. I also got a free Blu-ray player with this model. I did not buy from Amazon but from a store in my area. I did not want to risk my inexperience. It was delivered and set up. First, I was dissapointed in the lack of paper manual. I like a to have a paper manual and this one is on a CD not even a DVD. So I had to view the manual from a different room. Of course, I could print out the 144 pages.. Next I find the remote a tad awkward. The Input for changing from Sat/cable to DVD and Blu-ray is at top of remote while the enter button is down towards the end. When Input is pressed, you have to be quite quick to slide down entire length of remote to press enter or else the screen reverts to current picture. Kind of annoying. But the BIG ISSUE is last night while watching a show, the screen split on half (not picture in picture). On 1 side was the clear picture but the other side turned into this thermal-imaging looking view of the picture. Not pixelating- never seen anything like that. I thought it was the satellite but trouble-shot with Sat staff-nope.. Called LG and the guy was dumbfoundered and told me he'd never heard of that issue and I better call for service. OH GREAT!!! This unit is Less than 2 weeks old... Does not bode well... So I'm calling the purchase place today and we'll see what happens. I am requesting a New set. Will do an ammendment later.

i bought this tv through amazon.. like most things i buy.. the delivery was early.. Video Audio Center..

1. don't believe the people telling you you can wall mount this alone.. get help..
2. i bought the mount from LG and it is strong heavy and fits perfectly on this set.. and mount it to a wall stud on at least one point of the mount..
3. the Picture Quality is very very good.. anybody talking about fuzziness or movement needs to check their tv provider don't blame the set.. i get some of those things but i realized it was the different channels and the fact that when the set is getting a perfect signal it gives you a perfect picture.. it's scary sharp on some shows and makes you feel like youre on the shows set.. kinda too good almost.. watch "House" and you'll see what i mean..
4. the internet features work great but its obvious that you could get Google is they would simply write it into the firmware.. if you can get youtube(you CAN).. then Google is doable too.. youtube will rock your world on this set.. full screen..
5. the remote is very nice and has good functionality learn how to use it..
6. the inputs are good so you can hook up almost any way you have available to you from your boxes and tv provider.. it has an internet input in back so you can plug right in from your router and get whatever speed your provider gives you.. mine is TWC and its broadband and its fast.. no glitches..

all in all good price.. good tv.. good delivery..

i didnt give it all five stars cause i think maybe i'm not used to it enough yet.. i might change the rating up later..
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okay i am back to tell you it is worth 5 stars.. i have my Cirago streamer box hooked up to the 2nd HDMI and i watch British mysteries like Poirot and Morse and it is amazing.. i have my Panasonic DVR hooked up with composite cables and it too is amazing.. and i have my cable hooked up to HDMI 1.. and it is most excellent.. great buy for television watching.. one more thing Amazon has sold me which has been great..

Great picture, love the size, brightness and clarity. Guests have commented on how bright and nice it looks so many times. Only negative is the sound quality - the internal speakers are not very good but I plan to get some external speakers or a home theater sound system anyway so I am not that concerned.