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LG 42LB1DR LCD TV (42LB1DR)

42" diagonal, 16:9, 1600:1 contrast, $1,999 MSRP Add to Compare List


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LG Electronics 42LB1DR LCD TV
User Rating 

8 User Reviews Rated 4.4
Image Quality 4.8
Features 4.4
Construction 4.5
Ease of Use 4.4
Reliability 4.3
Value for Money 4.3

Specs Reviews Rate It Similar Units Related Info
LG 42LB1DR LCD TV Reviews
8 User Reviews
Jan 23, 2009 Bill
    What I thought was a System Board issue turned out to be a PS issue. If you have...
Dec 20, 2006 Metalav8b
    Great solution to eliminate additional boxes and remotes. Easy for the spouse to...
Dec 15, 2006 Tomlog
    Have had this TV for 1.5 months and have had a problem with the audio only commi...
Nov 26, 2006 Salvia Zone
    I"ve had this unit 3 months and I'm pleased thus far. The HD channels are crisp...
Nov 3, 2006 eemmanuel
    Great tv, Perfect quality great features and easy to setup...
Oct 25, 2006 todd
    I actually really like this tv, except for a few problems I'll address below tha...
Oct 12, 2006 Jerry florida
    This unit replaced an RCA 60" rear projection screen tv. I thought the differenc...
May 16, 2006 blackasp
    I just started to really playing with some of the things it can do and I find so...
Oct 25, 2006 todd 3.5
Image Quality 5.0
Features 2.0
Construction 5.0
Ease of Use 2.0
Reliability 5.0
Value for Money 2.0

My Experience: I actually really like this tv, except for a few problems I'll address below that are making the whole experience annoying. Overall picture is very good to excellent. HD is awesome, XBOX 360 rocks, SDTV is reproduced well except for shows in really low-quality video to begin with. DVD's look really nice. Even the blacks are fairly black with minimal smudging, although I recommend not turning on the black enhancement if you like any detail in the shadows.

I'm blown away by the audio on this thing...it sounds better by itself then my freaking thousands of dollars surround theater setup. Everything except the really strong bass, anyway. Audio gets an 11 out of 10 from me.

It has good connectivity, although a media slot would be nice. Basically, in theory, I love this tv---minus the whole DVR thing. Which brings me to the......

Problems: problems: DVR does not work unless you hook up directly to RF input. I did not see that anywhere on the ads, in talking to sales people, in LG's marketing, no where. It screwed up my whole plan to run the high-def cable into the, hmmm...high-def component inputs. Who would have thought. I had to actually call LG to find this out...I couldn't even find it in the manual (it is there, oh so briefly mentioned). So...basically, you have run cable direct to the tv and/or use a cable card to get the DVR to even turn on. Which brings up issue number two:

The DVR is reliant upon TV Guide (the trademarked one) and there being a trickle signal over your cable line to download the programming data into the DVR so you can actually see what's on the old tube and also set recordings. The problem is, and I know I'm not alone after a quick internet search, is that my beautiful new tv is apparently not getting the info from TV Guide because it's still blank. Which means the only way to record anything is manually, which means you have to know when things are on, which you can't find out because there is no tv guide...see the problem?

So, as it stands now, I have a cable box and a cable card, simply because my box has a built in DVR and guide that actually work. Another call to LG met with no success in resolving anything. They told me to leave it off for 12 hours as the original loading of the TV guide info takes time and the tv needs to be off, but that didn't help either.

Basically, I would recommend getting an LG LCD that is identical to this one minus the DVR. Don't waste your money until you know that the TV Guide service is even functional in your area and with your cable company. Unfortunately, the only way to find that out for sure is to try it.
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