LG 42LW5700 Cinema 3D LED TV

The 42LW5700 Cinema 3D LED TV is one of LG’s latest Full HD screens and, like Samsung’s LED Series 7000 Smart TV (also reviewed on ITP.net), the LG is an Internet-enabled TV that can tackle 3D content.

Priced at US $1,335 this 42-inch LCD screen is aggressively priced. When you get everything out of the box, you’re in for a pleasant surprise again because unlike most 3D TVs on sale today (including the Samsung screen), the LG ships with four pairs of 3D glasses. As a result you needn’t have to worry about investing in additional glasses for your immediate family.

The LG’s polarised 3D glasses are much simpler and less bulky than the Samsung’s offerings, as well as every other set of 3D glasses we’ve come across. The best part is because the 3D glasses LG uses are polarised they never gave anyone headaches over our testing period. This is in stark contrast to the active shutter glasses that Samsung supplied with its TV; after a few hours of watching a 3D movie on that TV, we felt the onset of a headache. The reason most people get headaches is because of the flicker that is associated with displaying 3D content but with LG’s 42LW5700, we’re happy to report that we noticed almost no flicker at all.

Comfort aside the Cinema 3D LED TV is a superstar that’s able to create great depth and thoroughly immersive 3D experiences. Watching the 3D-enabled Blu-ray copy of Avatar we were completely blown away by what we were seeing on screen. We noticed incredible depth and when we switched to other movies, we were just as impressed. The LG is also able to maintain 3D visuals even when you aren’t sitting directly in front of it and, it also allows you a good deal of freedom in terms of how far you have to be from the screen to get the 3D effects.

The LG, like Samsung’s TV, is also able to convert 2D content to 3D quite well, so if you already own a number of your favourite movies on DVD or Blu-ray, you won’t have to buy new 3D copies to get a decent experience.

Beyond 3D, the screen is impeccable as far as colour delivery, brightness and contrast are concerned. With the TruMotion engine working its magic, motion content moved so smoothly on-screen that it seemed like something was wrong. This is more so the case if you’re coming off an older LCD screen.

We were slightly disappointed that our screen shipped with a standard remote control rather than the Magic Motion remote, which functions in the same way as Nintendo’s Wii controller – you simply move the controller to move the on-screen cursor. That said we were able to use the LG’s Internet features without too many problems though typing in text is massively annoying, as was the case with Samsung’s Smart TV.