LG 55LM9600

Picture quality is arguably the most important aspect of an HDTV. A set can be well designed, it can have tons of features, it can be easy to use, but if the picture isn't very good, it isn't worth it. The LG 55LM9600 stuffs loads of goodies including passive 3D and built-in Wi-Fi into its attractive metal frame, but a mediocre picture makes this $3,599.99 (list) 55-inch LED-backlit LCD HDTV an overpriced set that skimps where it counts.

Design
The screen itself looks very striking, with a single pane of glass stretching nearly edge to edge, framed by a millimeter-wide silver metallic bezel connected to a metal frame. The stand is also metal, and lets the screen pivot left and right. A row of basic controls including Power, Menu, Input, Channel Up/Down, and Volume Up/Down sit behind the right side of the screen. Four HDMI and three USB ports occupy the left side of the back of the HDTV facing left, and the component, composite, cable, Ethernet, and VGA ports sit facing down.

Like previous LG HDTVs, the 55LM9800 uses LG's motion control remote to manipulate an on-screen cursor like an air mouse.?Waving the remote moves the cursor across the HDTV's Smart Hub and through various menus and services. The curved, wand-shaped remote has only a few buttons for Home, Back, 3D, Menu, Mute, Channel Up/Down, and Volume Up/Down. Everything is centered on the scroll wheel which doubles as a button by clicking it like a mouse, but it's easy to accidentally turn the scroll wheel instead of clicking it, which makes the TV think you're trying to change channels instead of selecting an option in a menu. If you don't want to use the motion controls, the scroll wheel is surrounded by a directional pad. However, if you move the remote around too much, it picks up the motion as a command to move the cursor and overrides the direction pad.

All online features are accessible through the Smart Hub, a main menu for the different streaming media services and apps you can access online either through the 55LM9600's ?built-in Wi-Fi or through an Ethernet connection. The usual services are available, like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, and Pandora, along with social network apps for Facebook and Twitter and various specialized apps available for download.

Performance
We test HDTVs using a Konica-Minolta CS-200 chromameter, DisplayMate image software, and Spectracal CalMAN calibration software. After basic brightness and contrast calibration, the 55LM9600 showed a peak white level of 162.26 cd/m² and a black level of 0.03 cd/m² for a contrast ratio of 5,409:1. This is a modest performance; the screen doesn't get particularly dark, and shows a slightly lower contrast ratio than the LG 55LM6700's?($2,299.99, 4 stars)?8,556:1. Colors were generally accurate, with green and red channels appearing slightly oversaturated. The chart below shows how the HDTV's measurements (the colored dots) compare to the CIE standard levels (the respective squares).

Picture quality is disappointing, especially for a $3,600 HDTV. I watched Piranha on Blu-ray, and the middling contrast ratio resulted in shadow details like seaweed and dark rooms getting swallowed by murk. Jerry O'Connell's character's frenzied face was a suitably bright red thanks to the screen's color performance, but the adjacent piles of cocaine didn't quite "pop" because the screen doesn't get particularly bright. The less expensive 55LM6700??has a much better picture, getting much brighter and showing better shadow detail.

The 55LM9600 uses passive 3D, which means it works with inexpensive 3D glasses with passive lenses. It comes with six pairs of glasses, and you can easily get more pairs from movie theaters or online at as little as a few dollars a pair. Unfortunately, the 3D effect is unimpressive. While slight depth is visible, the 3D picture doesn't quite pop out of the screen, and significant crosstalk appears when viewing the screen from any angle other than straight on. I watched 3D demo videos of the PlayStation 3 games Gran Turismo 5 and Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception and 3D footage from NCAA basketball and the Winter X Games, and none of them showed truly immersive depth. The active 3D Samsung UN46ES8000F ($2,999.99, 3.5 stars) showed better 3D picture quality and comes with four pairs of active 3D glasses.

As far as power consumption, without energy saving settings enabled, the 55LM9600 used 99 watts. With energy saving set to "Low," that number dropped to 89 watts. Setting energy efficiency settings any higher than "Low" resulted in the screen dimming too much to be watchable. In contrast, the lower-end 55LM6700 consumed only 48 watts in our tests without getting too dark.

The LG 55LM9600 is one of the most attractively designed HDTVs we've seen this year, but its high price and middling picture quality make it a much less appealing screen than both similarly priced and much less expensive HDTVs. The Samsung UN46ES8000F ?stuffs more interface gimmicks like voice and gesture control, two more convenient remote controls than the 55LM9600's remote, and better 3D for less than $200 more. Our Editor's Choice budget HDTV, the 55-inch Vizio M3D550KD ($1,999.99, 4 stars), offers a solid picture and the convenience of passive 3D at a fraction of the price of either screen. Unless you want to pay much more money for a pretty frame the 55LM9600 doesn't earn its price tag.

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