Customer Reviews

Lg Lht874

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

 

 

I tried deciding between the Sony Bravia, Samsung and LG versions of this home theatre system. Since there were no reviews on here on the LG, I had trouble deciding. I ended up going with LG since it was on sale for only $250. The Sony and Samsung versions were on sale for $350.

The unit is much sleeker and nicer looking than shown in the one and only picture available for this item (could not find another photo anywhere on the internet). It is all black with chrome trimming, which you can't see in the photo.

Setup - Out of the box, the system did not seem too complicated, but took me over an hour to setup. The wires are only color coded on one end, so make sure to plug that end into the receiver. The unit was also larger than I expected, and did not fit on my shelf.

Wireless - The "wireless" was especially confusing, as it took me about an hour to figure out how to make it work. Apparently the rear speakers only give sound in certain sound formats. Make sure to choose one of the Dolby Pro Logic formats. Wireless here means there is a small transmitter unit plugged into the main unit, and a larger receiver that you place in the back of the room, that you have to plug into the wall, which the 2 rear speakers wire into. So you don't have to run wires from the main unit to the rear speakers, just from the rear receiver to the rear speakers. The use of an additional AC outlet for the rear receiver was somewhat annoying.

Sound - The sound quality is the best feature of this system. It is clear and crisp, even at high volume, and once the rear wireless is setup the surround quality is great as well, you really feel like you are in a theatre. The only problems I have with the sound are the lack of a "bass boost" type feature, as the bass is not deep or loud enough, but there is probably an option I have not seen to give it a boost. The difficulty in choosing the "sound format" which will actually make the rear speakers work was confusing as well. Every time I turn the receiver off, I have to flip through the sound modes to one of the Dolby Pro Logic options to get rear sound. For some reason the default option is "bypass" which turns off the rear and center speakers. I have not hooked it up with the HDMI cable yet (just regular RCAs), so maybe that will solve the problem.

DVD Player - The 5 Disc dvd player has a unique method of loading the DVDs where you can see all 5 DVDs at once, and don't have to eject them one at a time, which I usually hate about 5 disc changers. This was a great feature, and I had no issues with the DVD play quality of the system.

IPOD dock - this is not so much a "Dock" as an IPOD wire with a cheap plastic stand which isn't really meant to house the wire. I have not hooked up an IPOD yet to comment on the performance.

Recommendation - If you can get this unit on sale for less than $300, then it is a good deal. If you can find the Sony Bravia (which my parents have, it is a better system) for less than $400, and you can afford the extra $100, go with the Bravia. Otherwise, the LG is a good system for the price.

2009 UPDATE: I switched out the regular cables (component) with an optical cable for the tv sound, and an HDMI cable for the DVDs. It has made a WORLD of difference. The sound is now twice as good, I really am impressed with it, especially when watching action DVDs, and the options are automatically set for the best surround sound! Make sure to get HDMI and optical audio cables with this system, you will not be disappointed! I tried moving my rating up to 4 stars, but it won't let me.

2010 Update: The DVD player skips alot and won't play some DVDs. It may just be dust in the system, but I now use my xbox to reliably play DVDs, making this thing useful only as a surround sound system, and not a DVD player. I guess 3 stars was the right rating for this thing after all!

This thing sounds great but the player glitches with most movies, I thought it was my dvd skipping so i put new dvd in did same thing, didnt get protection plan with it so I could only rely on the one year part plan where all they did was switch the guts and it still to this day does the same thing. Am now saving up to get a new system while this one's gonna sit and collect dust.

Quality is the key. This is a beautiful piece of equipment but I have told LG they need to improve their quality control. The first unit I received had two non-working speakers. I returned it to 6th Ave Electronics. They immediately sent me another one. That one was missing a power cord for the rear speakers. LG sent me a replacement. Now everything works and I'm satisfied with the unit with one exception. That is, LG designed the changer to not be automatic. In other words, when the CD in disc 1 finishes playing it does not automatically move to disc 2. You must manually intervene and press the remote or walk to the unit and press a button. A silly design error. They seem to agree.

I would like to say that 6th Ave Electronics was great in how it handled my problems. They were timely and courteous.

Very nice high-end looking unit matches the LG tv perfectly with it's high-gloss piano black components, vivid blue lights, round speaker bases to match the round tv base and some matching chrome trim. The slide out drawer that lets you see and load all five discs at the same time is a really nice update from previous generation rotating changers(a removable cartridge would have been really nice). The sound is loud and clear, room rattling, but also sounds good with nice channel seperation at low levels. Another plus is that LG is the only model in this class that plays DIVX/XVID.avi's. (There's a half dozen other companies that are marketing basically the same set. Sony, Pana, LG and toshiba(or Samsung) all have a suspiciously similar looking theater at the same price range. I think they're all farmed out to one company).
OK, Now the cons. 1) DIVX/XVIDS.avi's default at the wrong screen ratio. DIVX Widescreen TV shows(16:9) should utilize the whole screen with no size stretching at the 16:9 setting on the tv, they don't, you have to use the zoom2 setting. This is a programming glitch plain and simple. I have alot of experience with AVI's and players. Trivial, but annoying. 2) The Simplink remotes are a useless feature. niether remote has even a fraction of the features on the other, including important buttons like Menu, input or even chapter +-, so you still have to keep both remotes next to you. Also no progamable Aux button for your cable or sat box(all reasonable quality dvd and vcrs used to come with pretty comprehensive universal remotes). 3) The one real FLAW is about every half hour the screen goes black for a second, whether it's AVI files or chaptered movies, same problem. The picture flickers and goes black for a second with no interuption in sound. I've read about this problem in a few reviews between here(Amazon) and C/net. LG customer service is about as useless as most. They said buy a disc cleaning kit(Gee thanks), They couldn't even tell me if the optic toslink on the tv was putting out 5.1, they said no, 2.0 stereo, false I found out it IS 5.1! 4) Wireless rear speakers are anything but. It's actually three times as many wires, you just don't have to run them to the back of the room. It equates to two transmitters, two more AC plugs, speaker wires to the transmitter, then speaker wires from the reciever also. Fortunately you can bypass and omit all that and connect directly. I would have liked a full function universal remote instead of the silly wireless crap.
All-in-all for what I paid it's a nice set, and it looks great under my TV. I bought it at 6th Ave. Electronics for $255US, about what it's worth. If I had bought it at BESTBUY for $425, or online for up to $700 I'd feel seriously disappointed.......Mediocrity rises to lowered expectations.

Most of the system at this price level usually has HDMI pass through which means a separate Toslink or SPDIF cable is required to get full 5.1 sound. This system processes the audio from the HDMI cable and send them to the surround speakers!

Pros:
1. Good price
2. Nice looking system
3. Wireless rear speakers support
3. Supports USB flash drive and can read DIVX movies.
4. Crisp sound even at low audio level. I haven't checked the decibel levels for the speakers but they do sound perfect for me.

Cons:
1. There is some noise in the rear speakers when connected through wireless
2. There is some delay when powered on. Audio comes only after 15-20 seconds

Sound quality is amazing and the best thing I liked in this Home Theater is its wireless speaker and appearance....would recommend it.......

At the price of ~ $300 this system is a steal & looks great. The rear "wireless" speakers are an added bonus by not having to deal with wires...although it is confusing to be able to use the Dolby modes & reset every time the unit is turned off.

The IPod works great but the stand does not hold the IPod but more or less just lays on it. For the 1000w rating it has great sound & value for the price

The sound quality and speakers are okay especially for the cost. The DVD player has trouble up-converting. There are times when the screen will cut out but the sound will keep going. If you take the video down to 720 or 480 that problem goes away. I exchanged this unit twice and have the same results. The features are minimal. There is no HDMI in. The built in EQ/Sound Setups are not great. The subwoofer is not too bad and the base response is decent. The center channel is not very strong and the front speakers will rattle if pushed.

My main complaint is that the video struggles to up-convert even with HDMI cable. The sound is not bad. If I were using this as a CD player I would like it, but as a DVD home theater setup it misses the mark.

The system only comes with a 90 day parts and labor warranty. If it fails after 90 days and before a year (which mine did) you have to pay $69 to have it fixed. I mistakenly thought that LG was quality. The wireless transmitter failed (which is physically separate from the DVD player) and now they say I have to return the whole system to them and pay to have it fixed.

Among other problems that are experienced integral to the unit are: (1) The DVD trays do not always push out, thus requiring small fingers to pull the tray out to load a DVD. (2) Only the center speaker would work on mono-sound DVDs. (3) The TV must be turned on first otherwise the sound system might not work (I mistakenly bought an LG TV, too). (4) Any audio input, such as from the Wii, must be turned on first otherwise no sound will come out.

This, along with an LG phone that died prematurely, causes me to conclude that LG is simply cheap quality. A person would be better off buying good quality.

So, when I finally moved out to my apartment, I decided it was time to upgrade my Home Theater system. I went from my 32-inch Westinghouse HDTV to a 46-inch Samsung. Got myself the PS3, which obviously comes with the BD Player. Now, all that was left was a Home Theater System. After looking for quite some time, I settled on the LG LHT874 for two reasons:
1. It has an HDMI input and an output, perfect for running the HD audio from the PS3.
2. The rear speakers were wireless, avoiding any cables running on the floor.
Well, needless to say the home theater performs just fine. It's pretty loud, and when cranked up to high volumes, the movie theater feel is very, very satisfying. Bass is not as loud as I have heard, but it does the job right. The rear speakers are loud when need be, and the set up was not hard at all. The center speaker is perfectly utilized, as on all movies, the dialogue is perfectly understandable. It has many features, like the iPod dock, that I really do not utilize, but the main thing that is missing here is the decoders for the new HD audio formats. Unfortunately, this HTIB does not support Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD MA or Linear PCM. It sounds great, but not phenomenal, like it could. All in all, a great HTIB that fails on that aspect, and that was the whole reason I wanted it in the first place.
4 out of 5.