Typical price: £1,150
What is it: HD-friendly 50-inch plasma TV
What we think: Stupendously cheap, but there's a price to pay in performance terms
LG 50PB65 Review
Reviewed on: 18 October 2007
Weaknesses
Tragically, the picture strengths outlined above are seriously undermined by a collection of imaging problems.
Not least among these is a tendency for dark scenes to be flattened and impeded by their appearance behind a sort of grey wash. Associated with contrast issues, this grey wash is certainly not what we'd expect to see on a TV claiming a contrast ratio of 15,000:1.
Its contrast problems are probably also to blame for some dodgy colour tones that creep in during dark scenes, especially where skin is being shown.
More trouble for the 50PB65 comes with its standard definition digital tuner performance, as its aggressive approach causes it to exaggerate the sort of blocking and dot-crawl noise so commonly found in digital broadcasts.
One final issue finds really bright parts of the image leaving ghostly traces of themselves behind when they should have disappeared. It's possible this issue will reduce over time, but probably not for 50-100 hours at least.
Conclusion
If there was ever a TV we really wanted to love, it was this one -- not least because we wanted to go and buy one for ourselves, as it looks such great value on paper, at under £1,200. But the sad truth is that while it talks one heck of a talk, the 50PB65's walk's got somewhat of limp to say the least.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Jon Squire
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