LG 42-inch LV3730 LCD TV - Smart Agent

You Can Do Magic!

Last year, LG supplanted their cushy Scarlet suite with the INFINIA series, one which boasts of a polished BORDERLESS dress sense and premium looks. Sadly, it has lived out its temporal lifespan, for the INFINIA franchise has been discontinued according to the Korean conglomerate. Instead, LG has chosen to adopt the 'Smart TV' moniker for their latest fleet of HDTVs, and hopefully, hint at something more than just an Internet-ready display loaded with apps. , one of the more affordable series such as the LV3730 did pique our interest with its promise of Full-HD capabilities plus local and foreign content. In addition it also carries LG's toughened IPS panel, illuminated by edge-mounted LEDs. However, pseudo local dimming benefits do not apply on this series. We brought in a 42-inch model (a popular size) to assess if the newcomer lives up to our expectations.

As with LG's new armada of Smart TVs, such as the LV3730 in question, consumers here can now get their hands on the optional Magic Motion Remote. For the record, an earlier iteration was actually available in Korea since last year. With the new Magic stick, you don't have to rely on finicky D-pads found on standard remotes to control the onscreen cursor. Simply point-and-click at the TV to manipulate the onscreen icons akin to how you might use a Nintendo Wii-mote stick. That said, how will LG's hardware and software elements stack up collectively? Is this edge-lit LED TV and all its Smart features really worth its salt? While we have yet to touch on LG's latest Cinema 3D sets, let's find out if this affordable 2D Smart TV is good enough to knock out the raging LED-backlit TV competition.

Design

After assembling the display unit, we realized how much the LV3730 resembles LG's previous LD5300 series. Similar to the LD5300, the LV3730 also sports a glossy black bezel and a matte screen surface. Judging from its front panel design, you might even mistake the LV3730 for a CCFL model if not for its skinny 30mm girth notable on its sides. Instead of a red strip lined below the bezel, such as the one found on the LD5300, you'll find a neat blue strip in its place which we reckon to be LG's Patterned Crystal Bottom Deco. Like most LG HDTV offerings, this particular model swivels as well. And though we aren't enthusiastic about touch-sensitive controls on tellies, this is what the LV3730 has to offer on the lower edge of its frame in place of hardware buttons.

Moving past its general design, we check out the connectivity options. It's business as usual on the analog front, comprising of two composite ports and a single component input. At the digital end, there are three HDMI slots in total, with HDMI ARC (Audio Return Channel) implemented on the HDMI1 connector for upstream audio feeds to the receiver. Best of all, the USB port is compatible with both Flash drives and mechanical hard disks. 

Of course, the real star of the show has to be LG's stylish Magic Motion wand which you can opt to accompany the standard remote. To get the Magic wand to work, however, you'll need the RF-based Magic Motion Dongle which requires use of the TV's solitary USB slot. In other words, tough luck if you'd like to access your external USB drives concurrently. If only it was integrated within the cabinet of the TV, this issue could have been neatly avoided. We also noticed LG has removed the Menu button typically found on its standard remote. To access the TV's advanced settings, you'll have to use the "soft" Setup button found on the Smart TV's Home page.

Features

Observably, changes have been made to the remote and TV's user interface to accommodate the Smart TV aspect. The current Menu button won't lead you to the TV's configuration menu . Rather, you'll land on the "Home Dashboard", which also acts as a holding area for the LV3730's Smart TV features. On the left is a mini screen showing the active channel or input, followed by Premium and Smart Share "cards" by its side. Fundamentally, useful applications such as Facebook, Twitter, CNBC News and Google Maps can be found on the Premium card. Video streaming, on the other hand, is limited to sites such as Viewster, YouTube and MLB TV. According to LG, additional apps can be downloaded from LG Apps store, but note that local access will only be available later this year, possibly in Q3. Here's another strange instruction found on the user manual. To register as a "paid member", you'll have to log in from your computer, and not via the TV. Anyway, if surfing the big bad web is your thing, you might want to know the LV3730's web browser managed to tackle most sites we've tried, although we did experience intermittent loading errors with Flash-based content. 

Apart from LG's recent Smart TV implementations, little has changed in terms of their picture configuration. We found a collection of familiar picture presets, such as Intelligent Sensor, Vivid, Standard, Cinema, Game, and two Expert presets as endorsed by the Imaging Science Foundation. For those who lack proper calibration tools, there's also the handy Picture Wizard to get your display up to speed. Sound wise, we're glad LG has retained its vocal boosting Clear Voice II enhancement. More on this attribute when we check out our own test media. And given that the LV3730 has so-called Smart capabilities, it is appreciable LG's software updates can be enabled or disabled under the TV's Support tab. As for USB playback, we weren't surprised CODECs such as DivX and Xvid did not faze the TV as well. Video formats we've tried include 720p MKV and MPEG-4 files.

Calibration - Spyder3TV Report

To maintain a standard across our review units, we calibrated the LG LV3730 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.

After calibration, optimized values were as recorded as:- Brightness at 53, Contrast at 98, Color at 51 and Tint at 0. Since our Spyder kit does not allow us to calibrate the TV's backlights, we've set the LV3730's backlight to 50, or its neutral value. Black and white luminance yielded 0.520 and 143.003 cd/m2 respectively. In contrast to other edge-lit models, the LV3730's luminance range was distinctly smaller compared to rival displays, such as (black: 0.382 cd/m2, white: 302.876 cd/m2). Comparatively, LG has a calibrated contrast ratio of 275:1, versus Panasonic's 790:1.

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 LV3730 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

Localized blotching was evident along the edges and corners of the IPS panel. They were most apparent with darker shades, such as deeper red and blue test backgrounds. Light bleeding is not uncommon with edge-mounted LEDs, but these characteristics were a little too obvious on the LV3730, and they might depreciate picture quality with video images of a similar backdrop. Dark themed movies like horror and science fiction could be most vulnerable.

Dark Gray Scale

Gray tones were generally even, except for a minority of blocks bearing an inaccurate tinge. Black levels, on the other hand, were rather diluted with average shadow detailing (contrasts between black and deeper grays). With these findings, it might be harder to pick out darker details on the LV3730, and especially so in brighter ambient environments. More on this in the movie playback section on the following page.

Color Scales

Average color gradations. Typical of panels with edge-mounted LED backlights, areas closer to the darker extremes are still susceptible to minor banding. A sign the TV might have trouble reproducing colors with deeper shades. And despite its IPS claim, the panel was still prone to contrast and color shifts when viewed at 50 degrees or more from the center axis. 

256-Intensity Level Color Ramp

Further tweaks to the TV's color management system settings may be required given its slightly murky whites - based on the Medium color temperature preset. Apart from that, there are no major compression issues on the 4-color ramp, save for a minor banding result towards the darker spectrum as perceived on the Color Scales test. 

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

The LV3730's noise reduction filter offers four selectable values - Off, Low, Medium or High. Unfortunately, even the highest setting wasn't completely effective in removing spurious noise. This impairment may be more apparent with noisier SD broadcast sources.  

Diagonal Filter Test

Despite its shoddy noise filters, LG's display exhibited laudable de-interlacing and reconstruction techniques. Apart from a minor shimmer on the edges, the rotating bar was mostly free of "jaggies" or feathering artifacts. 

Film Resolution Loss Test

Despite its native 50Hz refresh rate, the LV3730 delivered an excellent work rate in its reverse cadence efforts when decoding a 1080i60 clip originally recorded at 1080p24. The LV3730's only flaw is its lack of cadence detection. That's to say its "Real Cinema" feature needs to be enabled for proper 24p processing, as confirmed on the SMTPE pattern.

High Definition Tests

A typical high-definition evaluation of ours involves the Corpse Bride and Vantage Point Blu-ray test discs. The former, being an animated sequence, is perfect when attempting to determine the TV's blacks and picture handling. Having spun Corpse Bride for the umpteenth time, it was soon made clear that the LV series is capable of pinprick sharpness and little motion judder on its 1080p screen. Sadly, the good tidings end there. Remember its backlight clouding tendencies around the panel's periphery? Well, this blemish was visible on Corpse Bride, and it has even led to instances of black crushes and muting of shadow details. Contrast levels were also found to be lacking, and the LV3730 clearly lacked the visual punch you'd normally expect from an LED-based display. Hoping to turn things around, we also tried messing around with the LV3730's advanced controls such as its dynamic contrast and gamma levels. Those didn't work either. That said, how will the TV cope with "real life" images then?

LG's inconsistent backlighting was less apparent on the brighter Vantage Point BD title. Still, the TV failed to produce sufficient details on darker areas such as textures present on clothing and buildings. A minor greenish tone was discernible throughout the movie, while switching to the TV's Cinema preset delivered a warmer result. If your eyes are already attuned to reddish and yellowish hues, by all means, go with Cinema mode. All is not lost for LG though, for the LV3730 demonstrated top notch motion handling despite its lack of frame interpolation wizardry. We had lots of issues with this particular scene (23:21) with some HDTVs, where feathering artifacts tend to shimmer around Edgar Ramirez's periphery as he was moving from left to right of the camera frame. This wasn't so with the LV series, and yes, even with Real Cinema enabled.

Standard Definition Tests

As usual, we'll be using the "X-Men: The Last Stand" DVD as our test disc of choice. Besides the quirks mentioned in our Blu-ray tests, noise was another niggling issue with DVD playback. You might notice minor improvements with both noise filters enabled, but trust us, noise grains will persist. If you are able to look past the TV's visual impairments so far, you'll find joy in knowing its video processor was comfortably adept at upconverting standard definition resolution to suit the display's 1080 progressive screen.

Audio wise, LG's Clear Voice II technology still works like a charm when enhancing the vocal range. On top of that, we also detected a Sound Optimizer feature which tunes the audio output to suit either a wall-mount or stand configuration. In a few words, the LV3730 delivered an average visual performance on the whole, disarmed mostly by poor contrast levels and uneven backlighting conditions. However, do not discount its audio quality for it is easily one of the best out there against the likes of Samsung or Sony.

Not Quite The Best of Both Worlds

Frankly, we started out with high hopes for the affordable and yet feature-packed LG LV3730. We were hoping it would fan consumers' lust with its eye-popping visual performance and captivating Smart TV perks. Alas, that wasn't quite the case, since it only met one of the criteria out of two. The 42-inch Full-HD display did offer engaging applications such as a useful pack of apps and a relatively user-friendly web browser. We cannot comment or criticize its application platform too much at this point, since its store (LG Apps) is unavailable to us as yet. Aesthetically, we doubt the LV3730 would stand out at any electronics store given its average dress code. However, we are not implying it's an ugly piece either, since it has a 30mm depth and practical design to shout about. The optional Magic Motion wand may appear like a gimmick to some, but it certainly helps with web navigation and its other Smart TV functions.

At the connectivity end, the LV3730 proffers three HDMI offerings, an optical outlet, as well as an adequate bunch of analog inputs. We reckon there's little to complain about in this aspect for a mainstream LED-backlit TV. Visually, the HDTV is watchable if you do not possess a critical eye for compromised picture details. If you do, remember that this model requires in-depth calibration to obtain an ideal color accuracy. However, there's little we can do to fix its uneven LED illumination and black crush habits. If you are looking for a silver lining, perhaps you can take comfort in its decent motion handling plus ample media and 24p support. It's a pity LV3730's visual quality eventually let itself down in the end, given LG's attractive Smart TV package and laudable audio delivery.

The 42-inch LV3730 that we've reviewed here is priced at $1,499, although there are other sizes available as follows: 32-inch at S$999, 37-inch at S$1,399, 47-inch at S$2,299, and the largest 55-inch model at S$3,999. We have had our say. Now it is up to you to decide if the LV3730 is worthy of your hard earned greens. It's certainly not the easiest of decisions as it's not the most affordable, nor does it perform great, but it has excellent features and is easy to use.

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