Movie performance was excellent. We tried a number of sources, including DVD and HD DVD, which we sent to the LG via an optical digital cable. Everything sounded great on the basic settings.
When playing from a disc or receiving audio from an external source, the player had no trouble detecting if it was Dolby Digital or DTS. Be warned, though: when using the built-in player, the DTS soundtrack is rarely the default, so you'll need to press the audio button to select it.
We were amazed at the deep bass the HT0902TB was able to produce. Impressively, everything seemed well balanced, and although the bass was strong, it never overwhelmed the rest of the speakers.
You can set the speakers up from within a menu system on the LG. This process doesn't take very long and is useful for reducing the levels of certain speakers, if, say, you sit closer to the rears than you do to the stereo front and centre speakers.
The HT902TB offers DVD upscaling and progressive-scan playback via HDMI, which is good if you're intending to hook this machine up to an HD Ready TV. Our tests indicated that it wasn't the best upscaling DVD player we've ever seen, but you don't have to make use of the upscaling, as all HD televisions are capable of managing this for themselves. If you have a high-end screen, you're probably better setting the player to 576p mode, and letting the TV resize the image.
The LG also provides a USB socket at the front for playing content from a memory stick. Our tests of this didn't yield particularly good results, possibly because the LG has problems reading data from the card quickly enough. At any rate, if you're buying this unit for its USB functionality, you're likely to be disappointed.
Music quality was decent. We tested the system with a Sony NW-HD5 and a video iPod, and were very happy with how it performed with a wide variety of music. There are preset modes designed for listening to music, including some that will direct your music in a pseudo-surround fashion to all the speakers -- most systems will only send stereo music to the front left and right, which is a pain if you want good bass.
Conclusion
If you've got a small living room or only a casual interest in surround sound and home cinema, this package is great. It offers everything you need in one
low-cost system. It's a true 5.1 system, relying on six speakers
instead of virtual surround sound.
For the same price there are proper AV receivers available, but these won't usually come with any speakers or speaker stands -- it's easy to forget speakers often need to be placed on stands and that this adds extra cost. The main rival to this LG package is probably all-in-one systems from companies like JVC and Samsung, who sell a range of surround sound systems in similar packages. Some, such as the Samsung HT-TXQ120R, are much more expensive for little real added benefit.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday
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