What Hooked Us:
- Great value for money, considering the screen size.
- Natural picture with excellent motion clarity.
- Photo playback via USB.
Why We Grumbled:
- No headphone output.
- High power consumption.
- External light sources brighten the screen significantly.
- Flat-looking picture for bright images (in ski tournaments, for example).
- Gray side bars for 4:3-format pictures cannot be switched to black.
- Factory preset shows a slight green tint (can be rectified manually).
- 24p pictures appear with a slight judder.
The Final Verdict:
If you’re looking for a cheap plasma TV with a respectable, 50-inch picture, you can’t go wrong with the LG 50 PG 7000. Unfortunately, however, the high power consumption bitters the taste of the budget price.
Design
Manufacture:
The solid-looking, semicircular swivel-pedestal is 76 centimeters (30 inches) wide and is perhaps the most obvious feature of the LG’s design.
Classy finish, but also high-maintenance: The LG’s high-gloss frame shows up every fingerprint.
The materials used for the casing and pedestals complement each other well and are both made of black, high-gloss plastic, but the finish picks up fingerprints easily and is sensitive to scratching.
Swivel Pedestal and Speakers:
The pedestal’s vertical section and slender side-panels shimmer with a matte-chrome look. The speakers sit on the underside of the screen, which tapers backward and has a light, silver-bronze color, slightly masking the TV’s stature.
Attractive and well thought-out: The transition between the wide screen bezel (65 millimeters) and the screen itself is seamless, eliminating irritating reflections from the frame. The bezel and the display reflect incident light at significantly lower intensity, but with clear definition.
This is not only attractive; it also gives a more radiant picture impression – the effect is similar to comparing a glossy finish with a matte finish in a photo print. Unlike plasma displays from Pioneer, however, the LG’s front panel is hardly blackened at all, so the screen looks light-gray in daylight.
Connectivity:
Comprehensive and easily accessible: The LG’s connections panel.
The rear of the unit reveals much about the TV’s inner goings-on; generous ventilation holes allow the TV to dispense with excess heat, without the need for fans. The connections are easily accessible thanks to their horizontal arrangement. But, since these are hardly recessed, the TV hangs a little in front of the wall when wall-mounted, which will not be to every potential buyer’s taste.
Remote Control:
Not exactly the best-looking piece of kit: The remote control is functional and easy to hold, but could be a bit more attractive.
There’s little to gripe about with the remote control’s manufacturing, but the lower group of buttons looks as if the developers added it as an afterthought, which doesn’t do the appearance any favors.
Full Specifications
Test Lab Data
- Televisions.com rating – 7.1
Key Factors
- Picture Quality7
- Ease of Use7
- Design7
- Connections7
- Video Processing Performance6
- Color Fidelity6
- PC Monitor Functionality9
- Technology8
- Remote Control7
- Value7
- Recommended fordark Hometheatres
Test Lab Data
- Linearity errors on greyscale0.25 %
- Homogenity of picture85 %
- Contrast – ANSI287:1
- Brightness – average48 cd/m2
- Contrast – maximum1667:1
- Brightness – maximum200 cd/m2
- Black level0.12 cd/m2
- Picturecropping (overscan) using HDMI0 %
Digital TV Tuner
- Digital TV Tuneranalog, DVB-T
Dimensions & Weight Details
- Dimensions & Weight DetailsPanel with stand – 123.69 cm x 7.874 cm x 79.24 cm x 46 kg
Power
- Power Consumption Stand by / Sleep0.9 Watt
- Power Consumption Operational434 Watt
General
- Height79.24 cm
- Depth7.874 cm
- Weight46 kg
- Width123.69 cm
- Product Type50″ PDP (Plasma) TV
- Video InterfaceHDMI, Scart, Component, VGA, S-Video, Composite
Display
- Diagonal Size50″ – widescreen
- Image Aspect Ratio16:9
- Resolution1920×108
Video Features
- Input Video Formats576i/p, 720p, 1080i/p
Connections
- Composite video3
- S-Video1
- VGA1
- YUV1
- HDMI4
Display
- Image Contrast Ratio1667:1
- Brightness200 cd/m2
General
- Digital Television CertificationHDTV