Plug and Play Plasma
LG PLASMA TV WITH BUILT-IN DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDER
The 50-inch 50PX4DR plasma TV from
LG is a great example of chocolate col-
liding with peanut butter to make a
most appealing candy combo. This big flat
panel display is not only a sexy-looking wall-
mountable plasma TV (with antenna and cable
HDTV tuners), but it also includes a built-in
160 GB hard drive and an on-screen program
guide which turns the whole thing into a digi-
tal video recorder—it’s essentially like having
a high-definition TiVo without the extra set-
top-box or the extra monthly fee. A few other
interesting perks make it even more mouth-
watering.
Plasma TVs are the lust-for product of the
day, and DVRs are life support for busy TV
watchers. The former allows you to have a
large, high resolution display without taking
up the space of a player piano, while the latter
lets you go about your real life by digitally recording all of your
favorite shows for viewing at a more convenient time. As the owner
of two DVRs, I can attest to the technology’s addictive nature—once
you get used to watching TV on your own schedule, the thought of
going back to the old way sends shivers down your spine.
This particular combo is an industry first for plasma, though the
concept was pioneered several years ago when Panasonic put a
ReplayTV DVR into a 36-inch analog TV. That product was a wonder
at the time, but so were DVRs, and the price was a bit steep for what
people thought a 36-inch TV should cost, DVR or not. At $7,999,
LG’s plasma/DVR is in line
with what one would expect
to pay for a good plasma TV
anyway, so the price isn’t
much of a shocker. This
model, by the way, is one of
a line of plasma/DVR com-
bos from LG. There’s a big-
ger 60-inch version, and
both sizes are available in
the silver finish shown here
or in black.
As a plasma TV, this model
has a good selection of stan-
dard and unique features.
LG says it has addressed
concerns about plasma
panel lifespan and image
burn-in. The company rates
its panel life (the amount of
time before the panel’s
brightness is reduced by
half) at 60,000 hours—about 20 years of normal use. To defend
against burn-in (when static images get permanently stuck in the
panel’s phosphors), LG shifts the image up, down, left and right,
imperceptively, a pixel at a time, so static images are never really sta-
tic and don’t get stuck. The set will also flash a negative image on the
screen to counteract any burn-in that might have occurred.
The 50PX4DR features built-in, non-removable speakers—if you
plan on making this unit the center of a home theater system, you’ll
have to put up with the built-in speakers staring at you anyway. If
you’re looking for a simpler solution, the two 15-watt speakers will
more than satisfy. They won’t provide the surround experience of a
true home theater system, but as TV speakers go, they sound quite
good, and are enhanced by SRS TruSurround XT audio processing.
On the video side, you have the basic controls, plus LG’s Easy Set
option, which offers pre-determined video settings for different view-
ing situations—movie, sports, night time and video game. If you’re
smart, you’ll avoid these and customize video settings yourself using
a set-up DVD like Video Essentials or Avia. Using just the basic con-
trols, I was able to get the TV to a 75K color temperature, which isn’t
perfect, but close enough. A full calibration would require use of the
service menu, which a typical user can’t access.
Instead of Faroudja’s DCDi system for video processing, which LG
has utilized in the past, this model incorporates the company’s own
XD engine to clean up video signals. In watching DVDs and standard
TV signals, XD did a very good job filtering out MPEG artifacts,
reducing video noise and enhancing black-level performance. There
are seven aspect ratio options to control the shape of the picture on
the TV, but the button on the remote to change aspects is hidden in
an awkward place under a flip panel. There are two RF inputs for
antenna and cable plus a slot for a CableCARD, which you can use
instead of a cable set-top-box.
Connection options include composite, S-video and component
▲
BY GRANT CLAUSER
E Gear
Performance Review
LG 50PX4DR Plasma HDTV/DVR
$7,999
1366x768 resolution
5000:1 contrast ratio
1000 cd/m2 brightness
nine-format memory card reader
Digital photo and MP3 playback
ATSC, QAM and NTSC tuners
CableCARD
Picture-in-picture
XD image engine
60,000 hour panel life
Two 15-watt speakers
SRS TruSurround
HDMI
IEEE 1394
Burn-in prevention
www.lgusa.com
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