LG 42LH3000 42in LCD TV If you’re looking for a new telly, but are working to a tight budget, you’ve probably noticed that many of LG’s recent sets seem to offer impressive value for money. LG 42LH3000 LCD TV LG's 42LH3000: surprisingly few compromises Take this 42LH3000 as an example. It has a list price of around £550, but you can pick it up …
I own this set, paid £500. I didn't want to pay £1000+ when I know that a few years down the line I will probably be upgrading again. I paid £779 for a 32 inch LCD a few years back and kept that for about 3 years.
The USB port can be enabled in the service menu. It requires downgrading firmware, applying the hack and once enabled you can upgrade again.
Obviously this will invalidate your warranty.
http://lgusb.wikispaces.com/
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I own one of these sets and in many ways it is a fantastic buy - however, it does have serious sync issues when watching HD from a satelite source. I have a Humax Foxsat HDR and there is a problem with lip sync whereby the picture is processed fractionally ahead of the sound. Having reasearched this online it seems many other users have observed this problem which also affects Sky HD boxes used with this TV. The Lip sync control in the Humax is no help as it assumes the sound is processed before the picture and allows for correction for this defect only.
I emailed LG and they acknowledged the issue but offered no help.
In every other respect the set is a great buy but beware if you plan to use it with Satelite HD.
I have the 32" version of this set (32LH3000) and it's a pretty decent performer, except I would argue that channel changing does take too long (you've not only got the 1 second delay after the "last" button of your channel number, but also 1.5 seconds of black after that too!).
Another downer is that although you can set Freeview channels to be "skipped" (only applies to +/- channel changing, you can still type their number in and go directly to them), you *cannot* either remove the channel completely or, even worse, re-order the channels. My previous Sony set could do both and it's very handy to customise your Freeview channels right down to the 8-9 or so that are worth watching and have them assigned to buttons 1-9 in your preferred order too.
The USB hack is well worth it - you basically downgrade the firmware via the USB port, go into the "secret" service menu (which is disabled in later firmware releases to stop the hack!), switch on USB support and then upgrade the firmware back to the latest release. It'll handle MP3s, JPEGs, DivX avi's and H264 mkv's quite impressively via USB and the remote control even has extra labels for play/stop/pause/FF/REW (yes, even for sets that aren't supposed to access the USB like the 3000/4000 series).
One thing missed in the article is that the set actually runs Linux and even has the GPL 2 license printed in the user manual! Also, why this review now? The 42LH3000 has been available since March *2009* on Amazon UK and still has an SD Freeview tuner. Surely any new model of LCD TV set with a built-in tuner should be looking to support HD Freeview...are we going to have to wait until 2011 to see a Reg Hardware review of such a set?
I Own the 42LH5000... needless to say avoid it, go for the 42LH3000, as it's a superior model (yes I know, older model, better than the newer one). Plus Currys have an exclusivity on the 42LH5000 and their returns/repair/"tech guys" service is terrible... (TV has been away for "repair" for 8 days and counting... 3 weeks to go and I claim a new one).
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