The 50PS7000 also renders HD sources with impressive sharpness. Just make sure you turn off the set's noise-reduction and edge-enhancement circuits when watching HD material, as the former softens the picture up, while the latter can over-sharpen the image to the point where it looks noisy.
Image flaws
When at its best, with bright, colourful HD footage, the 50PS7000 really can look quite spectacular. But one or two notable picture problems prevent it from attaining the sort of consistency seen in truly outstanding TVs.
The most disturbing issue is image retention, whereby bright parts of an image leave behind ghostly shadows that can remain visible over quite a few seconds of subsequent footage. This phenomenon used to be common with plasma screens, but most manufacturers have now more or less eliminated it.
We weren't blown away by the 50PS7000's standard-definition pictures either. They tend to suffer from some slightly unnatural colours and relatively high noise levels. They're certainly always watchable -- it's just that we've seen better elsewhere.
Perhaps the 50PS7000's most unexpected shortcoming is the appearance of low-level greyness in parts of the picture that should look black. Actually, calling this a shortcoming is rather unfair considering that the 50PS7000's black-level response is markedly better than that of most LCD TVs. But, at the same time, Panasonic, Samsung and especially Pioneer plasma screens all deliver profounder black levels than those of the 50PS7000.
Sonically, the 50PS7000's performance is passable but flawed. On the upside, it's capable of decent volume levels, and it's good at bringing out subtle treble details. On the downside, it tends to over-emphasise those treble details, leaving rich audio mixes sounding rather sibilant and bass-light.
Conclusion
If you're looking for a decently priced TV that's going to live predominantly on an HD diet -- a screen for a dedicated movie or gaming room, perhaps -- the LG 50PS7000 is definitely worth considering. But its underwhelming standard-definition performance reduces its potential as a main living-room screen, and its image-retention issue has the potential to aggravate even when you're watching HD.
Edited by Charles Kloet
Android App 
RSS Feeds 
iPhone App 
Newsletters