LG LH3000 (47LH3000) review: LG LH3000 (47LH3000)

While many TV makers have been hit hard by the recession, LG hasn't fared too badly. Sales figures prove that these penny-pinching times chime well with LG's simple but effective strategy of selling well-featured, decent-performing TVs for less money than its rivals. The £750, 47-inch, 1080p 47LH3000 LCD TV is very much a product of this policy.

7.5

LG LH3000 (47LH3000)

The Good

Huge but attractive; great value for money; picture quality is far better than you'd expect, given the price.

The Bad

Black levels aren't the deepest we've seen; standard-definition pictures are sometimes slightly noisy.

The Bottom Line

While LG is doing good work with its mid-range and top-end TVs, we really didn't expect much from the almost entry-level 47LH3000. But it confounded our expectations at nearly every turn, stubbornly refusing to be humbled by any of our tests. It should prove a significant temptation for anyone on a tight budget who thought they'd only be able to afford a decent 37-inch set

Huge but attractive
It really is quite extraordinary how much telly the 47LH3000 provides for the money. The 47-inch screen is massive, but the bezel around it is surprisingly chunky too, especially along the bottom edge, which extends three or four inches below the screen.

People don't necessarily want a big old bezel wrapped around a screen as large as the 47LH3000's. But, in our opinion, the 47LH3000 carries its bulk off, thanks to its extremely glossy finish, subtly curved edges, and the way the bottom border forms a gentle arc, exaggerated by a cute, metallic silver trim. Even arch-rival Samsung would struggle to deliver so much in-your-face glamour for the same money.

The 47LH3000's connections aren't as limited as you might expect, given how far down in LG's current TV hierarchy it sits. The inclusion of three HDMI ports, a PC port and a component video input should satisfy most of the people likely to be interested in this TV.

The only minor disappointment is that the USB port tucked on the TV's rear is for service use only, and won't play digital photos, audio files or the DivX hi-def files supported by some sets higher up LG's range. 

Abundant features
A number of unexpectedly promising discoveries await on the 47LH3000's spec sheet. It enjoys a 1080p resolution, for starters, as well as a more than respectable claimed contrast ratio of 50,000:1, and video-processing support from both LG's Twin XD Engine and the 24p Real Cinema mode for enhanced Blu-ray playback.

Pleasingly, the 47LH3000 also retains the same excellent, graphics-heavy on-screen menu system used by the brand's flagship TVs. This system is exceptionally legible, and so well organised that even your gran could find her way around it.

LG's wish to take the brainache out of using its TV even extends to the provision of a built-in Picture Wizard tool. It uses a series of built-in video test signals to help you optimise the picture's appearance.

If you'd rather figure everything out for yourself, an impressive array of fine-tuning tools is provided, including various levels of adjustment for the set's dynamic-contrast, dynamic-colour, noise-reduction, gamma, black-level and edge-enhancement circuits. In fact, the 47LH3000's picture set-up is so flexible that you can have the TV professionally calibrated by an expert from the Imaging Science Foundation if you so desire. But this TV doesn't actually need any professional help to turn out some unexpectedly good images.

Striking pictures
We were immediately struck by how exceptionally bright and vivid the 47LH3000's pictures look. This is a common strength of LG TVs, but to see it retained on such a relatively low-price model is very satisfying.

A more unexpected picture strength is the sharpness with which the screen reproduces HD material. Miniscule HD delights, like pore details, individual hairs, the weave of clothing, and celluloid grain, are all exuberantly portrayed, but without over-egging edges or causing too much dot crawl -- that is, as long as you never leave the edge-enhancement tool set higher than its 'low' level.

More good news concerns the TV's motion-handling capability. Less expensive LCD TVs tend to suffer from resolution loss and even overt smearing when showing motion. While it's not perfect, the 47LH3000's motion clarity is really quite striking for a large TV with no 100Hz processing.

The 47LH3000's black levels are far from the horror show we might have expected given the price, allowing the set to reproduce dark scenes with plenty of dynamism. The 47LH3000 even outperforms expectations concerning its sound quality, as its sheer enormity appears to help it produce more potent and clear audio from LG's 'Invisible Speaker' system than we've heard from smaller Invisible Speaker models.

There's really nothing overtly bad about the 47LH3000's pictures. The worst we can say is that it's only decent in a few areas where more expensive TVs might be excellent. For instance, while black levels are good for the money, there's more grey and blue clouding over dark scenes than you'd expect to see from more premium sets. Also, while motion clarity is good, there are still occasionally signs of judder that more sophisticated sets might dispose of. Finally, while standard-definition pictures look bright and natural, there are TVs around that do a better job of suppressing source noise.

Conclusion
There are undoubtedly TVs out there that are able to do some or many things slightly better than the LG 47LH3000. But most people who buy this set are likely to come away from their first viewing session with a smug grin on their faces, knowing they've snagged themselves a bargain.

Edited by Charles Kloet