LG 47-inch LW6500 Cinema 3D TV - Passive Aggressive

Cinema 3D Hits Home

Introduced in April, LG's passive Cinema 3D series brings new alternatives to the 3D genre with supposedly flicker-free images and reduced crosstalk. Unlike its rivals, the LW6500 is paired with polarizing glasses as opposed to active-shutter lenses from Samsung and Sony. Essentially, LG's Film Patterned Retarder (FPR) tech works by projecting left and right eye images via a circular polarizer film. At the viewer's end, each lens is designed to block the other eye's image. For instance, the left sees only the left image, and same goes for the right. This process takes place simultaneously, and a 3D image is formed when the brain combines both pictures. For more info, we've also previously talked about this technique's associated advantages/disadvantages. Now that you've got an inkling on how the LW6500 works, let's check out the TV unit itself with a 47-inch model that we called in for review.

Design

LG's flagship LW6500 exhibit hallmarks of a modern LED-based set, such as a glossy black frame and slim 30mm depth. There are, however, a few characteristics which gives this television a unique character. For example, we spotted a swiveling metallic spine instead of the traditional black stem. LG's unique mixture also includes a glowing "cube-like" power indicator seated next to a row of touch-controls. Lastly, top that up with purplish accents lined around the TV's frame. While the LW6500 may offer glassy looks, the transparent material found on the bezel and stand is made of plastic, not glass. And despite its 21kg weight factor, the LW6500 can be a little wobbly when mounted. 

The analog jacks (two composite and component) are situated on the rear panel, but note that breakout cables are required for the downwards-facing analog ports. Digital options, such as the four HDMI and two USB slots, are arranged by the side.

LG's current promo includes four AG-F110 3D glasses, although the standard package only comes with two. The bundled remote stick offers a nice grip on the whole, thanks to a slim profile and a groove found on the underside. The wand also carries a dedicated 3D button, plus a Home button which calls up the Smart TV's Home Dashboard interface.     

Features

We won't delve too much into LG's Smart TV features since we've reviewed the LV3730 equipped with similar Smart TV traits. As it stands, LG has yet to secure any video-on-demand (VOD) tie-ups with local content providers. Samsung takes the lead for now given their recent alliance with Singtel to develop the Singtel Video Store. However, LG's Smart TV platform shouldn't be scoffed at. Notably, it still proffers a generous mix of multimedia apps, a web browser, DLNA and Digital Media Render (DMR) benefits. The LW6500 is also equipped with a DVR feature which you can use to record digital TV channels, like the local HD5 for instance, on a USB drive. As an additional note, Adobe Flash 10 support (on the browser) and LG Apps Store will only be made available in future firmware updates. Here is a brief summary of its presets and features before we move on to its calibration and visual tests. 

Calibration - Spyder3TV Report

To maintain a standard, we calibrated the LG 47LW6500 with Datacolor's Spyder3TV Home Theater Color Calibration kit prior to our visual tests. This is to ensure we assess the HDTV based on optimal display settings, and not on visual estimation alone. Using the TV's Standard preset, we've also disabled all the necessary boosters such as color and dynamic lighting enhancement features.

Optimized settings were measured as:- Brightness at 51, Contrast at 98, Color at 53 and Tint at G3. Since our Spyder kit does not allow us to calibrate the TV's backlights, we've set the set's backlights to 50, or its neutral value. Black and white luminance yielded 0.322 cd/m2 and 184.391 cd/m2 respectively. Final calibrated values were very close to its LV3730 sibling. The LW6500, however, exhibited higher contrast differences compared to the LV3730. Overall, while these figures seem better than their more budget oriented model, it's not in the same ballpark as some of the more accomplished models like the Sony BRAVIA NX810 or the Panasonic VIERA E30S series. Let's move on to real world testing to see if these results match expectations or better them.

DisplayMate Tests

DisplayMate is an application which generates a sequence of test patterns to determine the capabilities of imaging devices, like color and gray-scale accuracies for example. For our tests, we've hooked up the LG LW6500 to our display test-bed PC using an HDMI connection. To be fair across the board, we have also disabled all visual enhancements on the TV in order to reduce the variables involved. Here are some findings based on the relevant and critical test patterns:-

Screen Uniformity

The LW6500 suffers from similar issues as the LV3730, namely with excessive backlight bleeds and inconsistent lighting. Blooming tendencies were apparent on darker shades compared to brighter colors. On the dark red test pattern, for example, dark spots were evident in the upper and lower areas of the panel.   

Dark Gray Scale

Grey tones were unevenly rendered due to the inconsistent LED backlighting. Black boxes at the upper corners also appeared dark grey rather than solid black. You can mitigate this issue by lowering the backlight value, for instance, though this may lead to a massive trade-off with picture detailing.  

Color Scales

All ten principal colors were accurately depicted. No indication of color tracking errors except for minor "clumping" issues towards the darker regions. Viewing angle on the horizontal plane was healthy for about 70 degrees thereabouts. The panel was less adept on the vertical axis, however.  

256-Intensity Level Color Ramp

White levels could be better. On the bright side,  the TV did not exhibit any major compression artifacts, except towards the darker regions.

IDT HQV Tests

IDT's HQV Tests are designed to assess image quality of digital displays through a variety of video signal processing tasks which includes decoding, de-interlacing, motion correction, noise reduction and film cadence detection. We've programmed the Blu-ray player to playback in 1080i in order to stress the TV's video processor. This compels the TV's processor to convert interlaced signals into progressive to accommodate the HDTV's panel. Here are the results we noted on a few of the more crucial tests:-

Digital Noise Filtering

Noise filters on the LW6500 are visibly more efficient than the LV3730. Judging from HQV's simulated video, more than fifty percent of noise grains were effectively removed without compromising on picture quality. Four selectable levels are available - Off, Low, Medium and High.

Diagonal Filter Test

As perceived on the test's rotating bar, the LW6500 demonstrated excellent diagonal interpolation techniques with little combing artifacts. Translated to real world scenarios, "moving" content on interlaced sources should yield lesser feathering artifacts, such as terrestrial feeds for example. 

Film Resolution Loss Test

The LW6500 was a natural in delivering content at 24 frames per second. However, you'll need to enable the set's Real Cinema mode since the LW6500 does not offer any default cadence detection on its own.

High Defintion Tests

The LW6500 makes use of LG's TruMotion technology which combines frame interpolation and insertion of backlight scans to achieve its 200Hz frame rate. For the record, TruMotion 200Hz applies to both 2D and 3D modes, not just the latter. Before we hop onto the 3D bandwagon, however, we show you how the TV performed with High-Definition sources. As usual, Corpse Bride and Vantage Point will act as our Blu-ray test discs of choice.

Corpse Bride Blu-ray Movie

The LW6500 isn't shy in flashing its vivid colors and crisp definitions despite its backlight blooming issues. Comparatively, this Full-HD model also offers more visual oomph than its LV3730 sibling. However, the patchy backlighting becomes apparent in dimmer viewing environments. And especially so in instances where bright subjects are superimposed on a dark background. After some tests, we realized this bugbear can be alleviated by activating Dynamic Contrast and LED Local Dimming. In both cases, the Medium option worked best on Corpse Bride. On the contrary, a maximum value for both features may lead to a loss of texture and shadow details respectively. The Clear White feature appears to discolor white levels instead of improving them.

Vantage Point Blu-ray Movie

Picture quality on Vantage Point fared better with Dynamic Contrast disabled. Strangely enough, selecting Low or High resulted in a dramatic change of color (see pic below). This is an odd occurrence since the Medium setting did not present this problem. As for other picture configurations, a Skin Tone setting of "-1" is recommended for a more realistic and accurate flesh tone. For motion reproduction, LG's Trumotion 200Hz (when set to High) feature has the potential to recreate smooth and judder-free transitions throughout the movie. This was tried and tested. However, smearing artifacts is one inevitable trade-off with this feature. To add, the overly fluid gestures and camera pans appeared unnatural too. Try the Cinema preset without TruMotion for a softer and more natural offering.

Standard Definition Test

We almost forgot it was a DVD footage of "X-Men: The Last Stand" we were watching, given the rich details the LW6500 was able to produce. This LCD display has the potential to recreate realistic and vivid 480p visuals on its 1080p estate. On the other hand, the panel wasn't without its share of caveats. Motion rendering could be better since we did spot the occasional blips and bumps. Enabling TruMotion helps. But as noted with previous HD tests, intermittent motion tearing was noticeable from time to time with TruMotion enabled. We also fiddled with LG's Super Resolution feature, which brought only marginal improvements to the picture quality, such as highlighting the finer details. All in all, we would categorize the LW6500 as a class above the average in its SD finesse. Of course, with an ample volume output and enhanced vocal range, thanks to LG's Clear Voice II, audio delivery on its dual 10W speakers didn't disappoint as well.

Ready Your Popcorn And Drinks

In recent news, Samsung, an active-shutter endorser, was unhappy with LG for marketing their Cinema 3D wares as Full-HD 3D sets. They do have a case, however, since each eye only gets a vertical resolution of 540p effectively. Not to be subdued, LG has since obtained certification from the VDE, a German technical association, to certify their Cinema 3D series as Full-HD 3D units. Whatever's been said, let's put the LW6500 through the stereoscopic paces to confirm or deny those assertions.

We've paired the LW6500 with LG's 3D BD660 Blu-ray player for our 3D tests. First, the good news. The glasses themselves are extremely lightweight and comfortable, such that they can be worn for hours with considerably reduced eye strain. Flickering annoyances under artificial room lighting was also nonexistent since the polarized lenses do not shutter on and off. Display wise, we appreciated the bright and lifelike images which also makes it hard to dispute LG's lack of Full-HD 3D resolution. You won't be able to access the picture settings in 3D mode, although the screen's brightness has obviously been bumped up to compensate for the glasses' mildly dimming effect. More importantly, we were impressed by its 3D depth and almost crosstalk-free delivery as the images leapt out from scene to scene. Fundamentally, the LW6500 was more than capable of providing a highly enjoyable 3D experience without the lesser evils of eye fatigue. Please note that two of the following screen shots have been converted to 2D to highlight their actual details. 

For all its benefits, the LW6500 isn't flawless as a 3D display. It is true that the LCD TV has ample horizontal viewing angles. Perspectives may also differ slightly depending on how wide your angle is. However, ghosting effects became apparent the moment we increased the vertical viewing angle. Like a "CRT effect", raster-like scan lines were also evident at a viewing distance of two meters or less. To achieve an optimal 3D viewing experience, we'd recommend keeping your eye-line centered on the panel with a viewing distance of three meters or more.    

The 2D to 3D Metamorphosis

The LW6500's 2D to 3D conversion feature can be activated by selecting the 3D button on the remote. For our tests, we went with Chicken Little on Blu-ray since it is easier to pick out discrepancies with well-defined animated subjects. Like most active-shutter sets, LG's 3D conversion provides a stereoscopic image with very subtle depths as well. In some instances, they appeared more like conventional 2D subjects, though there were also instances where satisfactory 3D images were rendered. We did not detect any judder caused by LG's 2D to 3D algorithms, fortunately. To add, errors in visual perspectives were also non-existent. For example, when the TV attempts to recreate the background elements as the foreground subject. If pitted against its active-shutter rivals, LG's diminished crosstalk delivery might just swing the odds in its favor.

Conclusion

LG's implementation of its film patterned retarder (FPR) technology resulted in a brilliant shakeup of the 3D industry. In fact, one of its adversaries got so riled up over LG's commercials recently that it tried to pull the stops on them. Lawsuits aside, we believe the Koreans' LW6500 is a much stronger 3D contender than last year's INFINIA range. Physically, the TV sports an attractive slim depth, credit to edge-mounted LEDs with "local dimming" perks. The touch-controls also adds to to the set's overall premium feel. We can't test the full extent of its Smart TV capabilities since its Apps Store and web browser patch will only arrive with the next firmware update. As it is, LG's Smart TV platform is already a reckoning force with its generous suite of news, video, music apps and DLNA benefits. However, it would definitely entice consumers more if LG could secure VOD tie-ups with local broadcasters here.   

Visually, the IPS panel is susceptible to clouding issues due to its inconsistent LED back lights. Other than this shortfall, the LW6500 managed to ace most of the tests in HQV and Displaymate. For video playback, its HD and SD performances also fared above average. Our main gripe would be the number manual adjustments required to refine the TV and some of its picture enhancements, like Dynamic Contrast which exhibited odd behavioral traits. On the 3D front, the LW6500 suffers from tight vertical viewing angles, plus a minimum viewing distance before the "scan lines" materialize. To us, however, these are minor grievances compared to a rewarding 3D experience the TV can offer. At S$3499, the 47-inch LW6500 is undeniably expensive. Still, it is worth your greens if a fulfilling 3D TV for the family is what you are after.

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