Why You Can Trust CNET LG 55LM760T review: LG 55LM760T
There's more to the LG 55LM760T than its impressive looks, including smart apps and excellent passive 3D performance, but it's not perfect.
LG has really pushed the boat out with the styling of its new 'Cinema Screen', no-bezel design. The 55LM760T sits in the middle of the line-up of these models and includes 3D support, as well as built-in Wi-Fi and LG's smart TV apps platform.
LG 55LM760T
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
It will set you back around £1,900.
User interface and EPG
The 55LM760T employs the same user interface as the other models in LG's new range, including the 47LM960V, 42LM670Tand 42LM660T. This centres around a home screen (known as the Home Dashboard in LG speak), which is accessed simply by pressing a dedicated button on the remote.
Across the top of this screen is a series of four panels. The first displays icons for the Premium Smart TV apps. The second shows content from LG's 3D online video streaming service. A third has links to apps from the LG SmartWorld app store. And the fourth displays icons for videos shared to the TV from your computer over a network.
Below this is a banner running across the bottom of the screen. Here you'll find icons for a range of stuff including the electronic programme guide (EPG), AV input selection screen, manual and settings menu. You can also add shortcuts for your favourite smart apps here, so you don't always have to jump into the Premium Apps menu or LG SmartWorld to get them.
The home screen is bright and colourful, with funky 3D-style animations. There's also a neat video preview window on the top left so you can keep track of what you're watching when tweaking the settings.
The system is initially a little confusing to use. There are a fair few instances where you can achieve the same thing via different routes. For example, if you want to stream videos to the TV from your PC, you can do this by using the Smart Share panel at the top of the home screen, by selecting your PC via the AV inputs list (it's shown alongside other inputs such as HDMI ports), or by selecting the Smart Share icon in the My Apps list.
It's a similar story when accessing apps as there are two app stores (Premium and LG SmartWorld). Apps can also be accessed both via the banner at the bottom of the screen and by using the Apps button on the remote. It's this lack of consistency that makes it a head scrambler the first time you use it, although after living with it for a while, its logic does become clearer.
Like the other models in the range, this one comes with a Wii-style, motion controller as well as the standard remote control. If you've never used a motion remote before, it'll feel strange at first. When you pick it up, a cursor appears on screen, which you move around by waving the motion remote in the air.
You select icons and other menu options just by hovering over them with the cursor before clicking on the central button to select them, just as you would if you were using a mouse. It works quite well and is especially useful for entering text because you can just point and click at letters on the virtual keyboard, rather than having to endlessly click around to get at the letters you want, like you would using the normal zapper.
This TV's EPG is bright and cheerily presented, with a large font used for channel and programme names. It has a clean, horizontal layout for showing upcoming programmes and is speedy to jump between pages of listings. It does suffer from the same problem as the EPG on higher-end LG sets though -- when you call it up you lose all video and audio from the programme you're watching. It doesn't overlay on top of the video feed or have a video thumbnail window. Other models from Sony and Samsung have this so it's disappointing that LG hasn't followed their lead.
Digital media and Internet features
This set is packed to the gills with smart TV features. It supports digital media payback, USB recording and a whole host of apps.
Thankfully, LG no longer forces you to use the buggy Plex software on your PC if you want to stream your own videos to the TV. The set can still act as a Plex client if you use the MediaLink app, but it also supports standard DLNA servers, so you can use it with a NAS drive to stream video files to it even when your PC is turned off.
For videos, HD MKV files are supported along with the DivX and Xvid formats. It will play JPEG pictures as well as MP3 and WMA music tracks. Naturally, all of these formats can be played locally from USB memory keys or hard drives plugged into one of three USB ports.
The TV can record programmes from its Freeview HD tuner to USB drives, but as it only has a single tuner, it doesn't support more advanced features such as recording one show while watching another.
Of most interest is this TV's line-up of apps. Sensibly, LG has split these across two menus. The Premium Apps menu includes the most popular services such as BBC iPlayer, Lovefilm, Acetrax, Twitter and Facebook, while the LG SmartWorld apps store is where you'll find simple games and apps for information and news services.
On the whole, it's one of the better smart apps platforms out there at the moment. Unfortunately, Netflix is missing from the line-up at present, although LG says it should be added in the future. If you're a Netflix fan I'd advise checking it's been added before you buy.
Design and connections
Like the other sets in LG's new line-up of TVs, the 55LM760T is a stunner. The most impressive thing about the design is just how small the bezel around the screen is. When the TV is off it looks completely bezel-free with only a thin aluminium band running around the outer edge of the display. Switch it on though, and you'll see that there's a very narrow gap of around 1cm between the edge of the actual screen and the aluminium trim.
It's hugely impressive and it makes the TV look much more contemporary than many of its competitors. The angular stand is gorgeous too, although it's a little disappointing that it's made from chrome-covered plastic rather than actual metal.
Despite the slim 33mm chassis, the TV boasts an abundance of ports. There are four HDMI sockets down the left, along with three USB ports. The rear panel, meanwhile, houses the RF input for the Freeview HD tuner, optical digital audio output, Ethernet jack and mini jack inputs for Scart and component connectors. LG has built Wi-Fi into the set, so you don't have to use an Ethernet cable to get the smart TV features up and running.
Audio quality
LG has paid a lot closer attention to the audio on this year's models than it did with its previous TV ranges. Like the 42LM670T, at the bottom is an area that extends out towards the rear to provide more space for the speakers. This pays dividends because the sound quality is rather good by LED TV standards. It's not quite as bassy as the subwoofer-packing 47LM960V, but the speakers still have plenty of poke and deliver crisp and well-rounded audio.
2D picture quality
LG has improved the picture presets on its TVs of late, but they're still not as good as they could be. A little tweaking in the picture menu really does help to draw out this model's strengths and LG gives you lots of control over the images.
Pictures are very bright and dynamic so it has no problem working in rooms that get a lot of direct sunlight. Colours are warm and lush, especially when you're using the cinema mode preset after you've done some tweaking. The panel's high brightness levels also give colours a lot of extra punch. As the panel has very wide viewing angles, colours don't shift and contrast doesn't wash out to the same degree as on Sony's 55HX853, for example.
Motion is pretty well handled. With motion processing switched off, it suffers from just as much motion blur as other mid and high-end LED sets. Included is LG's Motion Clarity Index 800Hz processing, which is achieved using a mixture of a 200Hz panel and a 400Hz scanning backlight. With this enabled, motion resolution is quite good, although you have to select the correct mode for any given signal. If you overdo the processing for movies, for example, you'll end up with a very flat, video-type look.
Upscaling standard-definition pictures to a 55-inch screen without making them look soft or noisy is always a challenge, but it's one that the 55LM760T rises to admirably. It even makes the more heavily compressed channels on Freeview look quite watchable, which is an accomplishment in itself.
This model uses edge LED backlighting with dimming to try to improve black levels. In a bright room, black levels look good and contrast performance is strong. However, in the evening in a dimly lit room, the set's weaknesses come to the fore. Blacks aren't quite as deep as I would like, but the biggest problem is backlight uniformity.
Admittedly, this can vary from one panel to another, but on my model there was quite noticeable backlight pooling at all four corners of the display, and this remained even when local dimming was enabled and I had turned the backlight down. Also, as I've seen on some of the other 2012 LG models I've looked at recently, the set isn't fantastic at teasing out finer detail in very dark scenes.
3D picture quality
LG's passive 3D technology has been gaining a lot of converts recently. Looking at the 3D performance of this model, it's easy to see why. It comes with seven pairs of 3D glasses as well as two pairs of dual-play gaming specs that can be used for full-screen, two-player gaming. The glasses are very light and comfortable to wear. As there's no flicker, they don't fatigue your eyes in the way that some active goggles do.
This model's high brightness also means that pictures retain their punch when you're watching in 3D and colours still look very vivid. The ever-so-slight dimming effect of the glasses also helps to mask the set's black level weaknesses.
Images have very believable depth to them -- something that's further enhanced by the lack of image ghosting. On the down side, 3D pictures aren't quite as sharp as on the best active 3D screens. If you sit close to the screen, you can see some line structure and jagged edges on curves and diagonal lines. Overall though, this models 3D performance is impressive.
Conclusion
LG's 55LM760T has a stunning design, a great line-up of smart apps and impressive passive 3D performance. Even its sound quality is a cut above the norm. But black levels could be better and the review model suffered from backlight pooling in all four corners of the screen, which was distracting during darker scenes in movies while watching in a dimly lit room.