LG 50PK350 50inch Full HD 1080p 600 Hz Plasma Television with Freeview Digital Tuner

There is a contrast ratio of 3 million : 1.  We have spoken before in other video clips about the contrast ratio.  It is one of the most important factors to look for on a TV.  It determines how good the black level is.  The inkier that black level, then the better colour resolution you have, the better depth of field, and the more detail you achieve in darker scenes.  If you are looking at a very dark movie, you will actually see more in those darker areas as well.  The higher the contrast ratio, as a good guide, the better the colour, the better the depth of field you are going to get in the picture.

It is also 600Hz scanning.  How, if you take a standard TV scanning at 50Hz, which means it is fifty pictures per second making up your image, this particular set is 600Hz scanning.  So it is going to cope with extreme fast movement, whether it is in sport or movies, extremely well.  So you are going to get no delay or drag in the image.

It is a beautiful design.  When you look at this TV, you first of all have got an extremely slim frame around the TV - only 3cm wide is the frame at the side of this set.  As well as it being a very small frame around the TV, you have also got touch-panel controls just underneath the TV here.  So at the bottom of the TV here we have got a touch panel for all your manual controls on the TV set itself.  We have got Standby, Input mode, to take you through the different inputs on the back of the TV, which we will discuss in just a moment, Menu, Volume Up and Down, Channel Change Up and Down.  And you just touch the panel.  You can hear the volume rising there.  We will just take that back down again.  So, just touch-panel control on the front of the TV.

So, a quick recap there.  On the TV then we are looking at a set which is full HD, so 1080p resolution, 3 million : 1 contrast, 600Hz scanning.  They have got digital Freeview built into them as well, so with the digital switchover in the UK it is fully ready for the digital switchover. 

The power consumption of this TV as well - you are only looking at 187 watts; and for a 50 inch screen that is extremely low.  So, 187 watts’ power consumption.

We have looked at the set in a little bit of detail there.  As I said, very slim frame, touch-panel control on the front of the TV.  We will discuss in a moment all the menus that you can get into the TV with the remote control itself - but first of all we will have a look at the sockets on the rear of the TV.

So on the rear of the TV, you have two scart sockets.  You have also got one HDMI.  Next to that you have got the PC in, the VGA socket just here so you can connect your PC or laptop through that socket.  You have also got an Optical Out, so if you want to take the sound out of this TV through an external amplifier you can do it digitally through the Optical Out socket on here.

You have also got Component, which is the red/green/blue - a lot of DVDs use that particular socket, as well as some games consoles.  The sockets underneath are for the audio feed for Component because the red/green/blue do the video side, and then you have got audio input just there.  The socket here is actually an audio input for the VGA socket.  And then we have got the aerial socket here - so it has got the digital tuner aerial socket on here as well.

Now, you have only got one HDMI on the back of the TV.  You have got another HDMI socket just on the side here as well as a USB input.  So with a USB on the side of the TV, if you have got any photographs stored on a memory stick, any video images, you can feed that into the side of the TV and have your photographs on the set.  And you have also got Composite In which is the yellow, red and white socket on the side here, for things like Wii games consoles.

Now, you have only got two HDMIs on this particular TV.  For most circumstances that will suffice because if you go for, say, Sky HD, you will need a socket for that, and then you will need an HD socket for either a Blu-ray DVD, or if you go for a games console like a PS3, that can act as your Blu-ray DVD as well as being obviously your games console.  So in standard conditions, two HDMIs should be fine.

Okay, so let’s quickly run through some of the menus on this TV.  The remote control you get with the LG, the Menu button is just here.  You press the Menu button and the menu is then displayed onscreen.  A very good and extensive menu with the LG.  If we go to Picture Setup, on the remote you have got Up, Down Right and Left on here.  If we just click over to the right, highlight Picture, click OK in the centre of the remote control.  We are now into all the adjustments for the different picture settings.

Now, you have got Picture mode at the moment is on Standard.  But you have got various different preset options in the actual menu on the LG.  We can jog down through those different options, and as we go through those you can probably see the colour, contrast, and brightness changing in the background on the TV.

If we go down into the Expert settings, this particular model has an ISF calibration facility.  If we access that facility on here, if we go through the menus; you have got the usual adjustments for picture, for Contrast, Brightness - but then you have got Horizontal sharpness, Vertical sharpness, Usual colour, Tint Controls.  And then you get into the Expert Controls.  And then you have got a whole raft of different options that you can access.  You have got Dynamic Contrast, Noise Reduction modes, Colour Standards.  If we go down further on that, where you have your standard contrast adjustments for the picture, you have now got adjustments for the Red Contrast, Green, Blue Contrast.  And then you have got Red Brightness adjustments, and all the other adjustments on the screen for Red Colour, Red Tint, Green Colour.  There are a lot of tweaks you can make to this picture.  You can really set it up to the nth degree, to exactly the way you want the picture to look.

So a lot of adjustments that you can make to the actual screen - far more than you will get on many other TVs.

Yet again, if we just go up through the menus here, as I said we are in the Expert mode there where you can really sort of tweak around with the image.  But as I said, if you don’t want to get into that, you have got a lot of preset modes in here that you can just select, which you consider to be the best picture for yourself and how you want the TV to be set up.

So as well as the picture adjustments, you have also got a very good sound system on this set.  If we go into the Audio Menu, you have got a Clear Voice facility.  If we just turn the volume up just for the moment, and go into the Clear Voice setting, you can then switch the Clear Voice on.  Now I don’t know whether you will be able to hear this or not, but if you alter the Clear Voice setting on here, hopefully you can hear those vocals become more clear.  It is very useful if you are watching a movie where there is a lot of background noise and you can’t really hear the vocals very well; you can bring up the Clear Voice on the TV - and that is not just turning up the volume, it is actually turning up the clarity.  It is the clarity of the voice that you can pick up on.

Also in that menu, if we go back into the Audio menu, as well as the Clear Voice facility on there, yet again you have got different preset modes for Gaming, Sport, Cinema - depending on what you are watching.  You can also go into that and alter the base and treble to however you want it.

The sound system on this TV is really excellent.  I mean, the output for the sound is 10 watts per channel, which you might think is not great - but it is the clarity of the sound that you achieve through this TV.  It is absolutely superb.  So, excellent picture, great sound quality.  Fantastic menu system for setting up the picture on there as well. 

Please give me a call if you would like more details on this - my name is Chris - on 01204 861 861.  You can always get hold of me at the shop at Bolton.  We also have a store in Leeds - so please call our Leeds store as well and we can give you some more information on this set. 

There are a lot more video clips on our website, so please go through to our website which is www.soundandvision.co.uk.  If you are watching this on some video link somewhere, there may be a link at the side of the screen which you can click which will also take you through to our website.  As I said, there are a lot more video clips on there on other models as well. 

Thank you.