I must preface my review by saying I didn't buy the LG 450 online, I bought it at a big box store because they had a better price:
I wanted an inexpensive TV for the bedroom and the LG 450 is a good choice, the picture quality is very good for it's price. I didn't need 120Hz so I saved $150 by buying the 60Hz model. All LG TV's have Expert ISF Settings so you can have it professionally calibrated or do it yourself, it even has a built-in blue filter. The ATSC tuner is very powerful because I get all the local stations OTA with an indoor antenna. This model is not internet enabled so you need a set top box to get Netflix, etc. A word of caution though: when I got it home and calibrated the picture it still didn't look great, it takes about 12 hours of viewing for the display to "break-in". After watching the TV for a few days now the picture has improved dramatically. As with all TV's the sound isn't great but it does have bass and treble controls. The USB port supports: JPG, MP3, MPG, WMV, MP4. The manual states other video formats are supported but they wouldn't work on my TV.
Inputs:
HDMI(3)
VGA(1)
USB(1)
Component(2)
Composite(2)
Outputs:
3.5mm headphone
Toslink optical
I and most experts recommend these basic settings(YMMV):
1. Turn off Dynamic Contrast.
2. Turn off Auto Energy Saving.
3. Turn on Cinema Mode, if your Blu-ray player supports 24p then turn that on as well.
4. Select Just Scan.
5. In Sound Modes select Music or Cinema. LG 42LK450 42-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTV
I've been watching HD TV and movies from the LCD monitor on my computer for the last few years because I vowed I would not spend more than $500 for a boob tube, but now I've finally found something that I would be happy with for $499. This LG is a very basic, no-frills TV, but it's all that I need in a TV. The features are very base level and the specs on the contrast may make it seem like it has a phenomenal picture but it's really just average for this price range, which is to say that it's perfectly adequate. It's basically what you would expect from an IPS panel. You can move around the room and the image is perfectly viewable no matter where you sit. The backlight is adequate and turned all the way up is not glaring.
One of the first things you'll notice is that the power "button" is not a button, but a touch-sensitive area that requires no effort to turn on. That's nice because the TV is so light that pressing a conventional button on this TV would probably move it around a tiny bit. The TV takes a few seconds before you see an image but that's quite tolerable. Changing channels is about as fast as other recent TVs but definitely slower than a computer with a USB tuner. That's perfectly fine for me since I don't intend to channel surf with this TV.
It's nice that the unit offers a calibration wizard but I did not like how the recommended contrast setting made darker images lose detail. I ended up turning the contrast almost all the way up. There's really not much to say about the image quality. It's perfectly decent and I didn't find any noticeable flaws. So far I've mostly used it to play Lego Batman and there is no image lag that I've read about in other TVs. One thing I've noticed is that with computer to HDMI connections, the default is overscan mode so you have to adjust your video settings to decrease the image size to fit entirely within the TV screen. Once you do the image looks great. There is also VGA port, but that it does not handle full HD resolution.
There are two menu systems, a quick menu and a more comprehensive menu that gives you all of the controls that you would ever need. That's thoughtful of LG as I've always disliked having to delve deeply into a menu system to do something as simple as deleting an unwanted channel. It still takes a minimum of three presses though. It would be nice if they had provided a button just for that on the remote.
Like many TVs at this price point, it only provides optical audio out which is ironic since most buyers of cheaper TVs don't have stereo systems that have optical in. Fortunately, there is at least a headphone port that can be used to connect to computer speakers or even a stereo receiver. This is important because the performance of the built-in speakers are not proportional to the size of the screen. At 42" this is a decent size for a small home theater yet the speakers cannot provide that experience. That's OK--I didn't expect it to and I've got external speakers to take over.
Although they skimped on the audio out, they covered the video inputs well. There are component as well as composite inputs as well as three HDMI ports. And there is a conventional USB port instead of the more limited memory card reader. I played a couple videos through USB and it handled the job flawlessly. I was very pleased to find that it kept track of where you stopped a video last time you watched it. It's little things like that that make this TV stand out from cheaper ones.
I did a ton of shopping to find something with a good picture that doesn't break the bank. Many new TVs sold now are much more expensive and have a lot of buzzword features which this unit does not have. This unit is basically a brand new TV with last year's features. I'm fine with that as long as I get a bigger screen for the money.
I purchased LG 42LK450 for $525 from Amazon. It is the first HDTV I purchased, but I have spent very much (too much) time in front of HDTVs thanks to family and roommates. I try to research products thoroughly before making a purchase, and after reading reviews everywhere I could find them I decided to purchase this television. For under $600 USDs I did not expect a spectacular TV, I expected a pretty solid picture that would handle my gaming habit and the occasional DVD/Blu-ray.
Assembly of the television was very simple, requiring 8 screws to attach it to the stand. Two of the screws seemed to be the wrong thread and did not tighten as much as they should have, as a result the TV leaned forward slightly (not enough to bother me.)
I'll skip initial impressions and finish up with my overall opinion:
I used the TV for a week predominantly playing XBOX 360 hooked up via HDMI before deciding to return the TV. Despite tweaking all the video settings (and they are fairly extensive) the picture quality was not what I had hoped. Images were washed out, and overall unclear.
I decided to replace it with the LG 42LK520, which has 120Hz, a slightly higher contrast ratio, and TrueMotion support. The LK520 was $610 on Amazon, and was absolutely worth the extra $85.
Even if you are looking for a budget(I assume you are if you are looking at a $600 LCD) SPEND THE LITTLE BIT EXTRA to get the next step up (42LK520, IT IS WORTH IT.'
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