LG 42LH55

LG Electronics 42LH55

This 42-inch LG HDTV has solid picture quality, but it’s lean on extra goodies. Considering its $1100 estimated street price (as of 9/25/09), the LG 42LH55 covers the basics well, delivering a good picture and very good sound. It's short on extra features, however, and it doesn't display motion as well as some of the other 240Hz LCD HDTVs we've tested. The 42LH55 earned three and a half stars (out of five) in the PC World Labs' image-quality tests. Judges complained occasionally about the colors and contrast, finding, for instance, a 720p Wheel of Fortune clip a touch too bright or a scene from the Phantom of the Opera DVD somewhat muddy, with indistinct details lost in darkness. More troublesome were the digital artifacts we spotted, which indicate that the 42LH55 struggles with complex patterns--especially those that are moving. In a 720p baseball clip, moving objects exhibited noticeable haloing effects. A brick wall in Chapter 7 of the Mission: Impossible III Blu-ray appeared to vibrate as the camera panned across the scene. The weave of Morgan Freeman's jacket in Chapter 9 of The Dark Knight danced with moiré patterns.