Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #33271 in Consumer Electronics
- Color: Titan
- Brand: LG
- Model: 42PJ350
- Released on: 2010-03-04
- Dimensions: 24.30" h x
38.90" w x
2.20" l,
44.10 pounds
- Networking: HDMI
- Display size: 42
Features
- 600Hz Sub Field Driving
- High Definition Resolution
- 3M:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio
- TruSlim Frame
- Picture Wizard II
LG 42PJ350 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV
Product Description
Get beautiful HD and the superior plasma contrast you're looking for with the PJ350. If you think plasma means a bulky frame or power inefficiency, take a second look with the PJ350. It has a TruSlim Frame that makes for a sleek design and its Intelligent Sensor technology and Smart Energy Savings makes sure it's using only the energy it needs.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
120 of 120 people found the following review helpful.
By StevenJ
Let me start by saying that I am not a videophile, but when it comes to purchasing a television I can be very picky. I went through the whole LCD vs. Plasma dilemma 3 years ago when I bought my Samsung 5084 (one of the best non-Pioneer plasmas at the time). That said, I was ready to supplement that unit this year with a 'smaller' LCD for the bedroom (didn't want to sweat IR, horizontal line bleed, etc). Needless to say, LCD options in the 'budget' range lack features that alleviate some of their drawbacks, forcing you to suffer through motion blur, clouding, and terrible black levels if you choose a set for ~$800).Enter the 42" plasmas. For the sake of comparison, I decided to investigate the plasma alternative once again. This essentially brought me to the Samsung C450 due to my positive experience with the 5084 and glowing reviews for the C450. Unfortunately, users reported an audible buzzing noise from the Samsung (a noise I know full well from the 5084 and did not want to deal with on a bedroom set).Enter the PJ350. I only became aware of this set after seeing it next to the Samsung at the store. From a design perspective, it tops the Samsung with an ultra thin bezel, very thin chassis, and no 'touch of red'. Furthermore, I heard no buzzing from the LG floor model, while the Samsung sounded like someone was digging honey out of a beehive. Since it is a brand new model I had no reviews to rely on, but I took the plunge.Picture quality from this unit is superb for any sub-$1k TV, much less one at this price point. This 720p set rivals my 1080p plasma in most respects, most notably black levels. I have only had it for a few days now, but setting the TV on 'cinema' mode at 70 contrast and 50 brightness is really impressive (I recommend switching those two numbers for several weeks to break in the unit). If you place your head behind the unit, you can hear the typical plasma 'buzz', but this is completely inaudible at any reasonable viewing distance. While this goes without saying, all the benefits of plasma are apparent with this TV: cinematic quality motion (none of that chincy 120hz movement), 24p bluray playback, consistent backlighting, etc. I have noticed a tiny amount of false contouring, but less than my Samsung - hardly an annoyance. OTA video quality is, of course, superb. The reviewer who stated that colors are not as vivid clearly didn't recognize that picture settings are independently adjustable for each input. This TV does offer a settings wizard to help set the picture based on your unit and environment, but I prefer manual adjustment to suit my personal tastes.If you're worried about not having 1080p, don't be. At this size, you will not detect a difference anywhere outside 4' from the unit. The screen is quite reflective, but if glare is your primary concern then you surely can settle for the inferior picture quality of a cheap LCD. While I have limited experience with my LG, I can honestly say that I am very pleased thus far.
105 of 107 people found the following review helpful.
By John P. Freeman
Well, after suffering long enough with my fiance's 30" Philips tube set, I took the plunge and purchased the 42pj350. Let me preface this entire review by giving a little background here. I have worked for both Ultimate Electronics and American TV for a total of 4 years in the past and spend literally hundreds of hours looking at pictures on TV screens, adjusting them, using AVIA discs, etc... so I have a relatively solid base for judging picture quality here. I've loved Pioneer Elite projection sets and plasmas and sold many projection Mitsubishi sets on the basis of quality of the picture.So...I set the set home and unbox it. Seven screws later, It's on the swiveling stand (yes, swivel stand on a $600 TV) and has taken the place of the bain of my television existence - the 30" tube. The only source I immediately have to try the set on is the composite Dish Network standard def feed, which really bummed me out. But, color me surprised when the channels, for the most part, look quite good from our 9' seating distance. Honestly, the little LG processes standard definition quite ok. After some quick picture adjustments (which I will talk about later), I start to surf around to find stuff to watch. NFL network has a game on - perfect for checking motion processing of a crappy 480i feed. Flawless. It looked damn good. I put the set in cinema zoom 1 (my fiance has had her old set in the same type of stretch/zoom ratio on her other set for years on standard def) and the picture quality is again more than passable for the signal. The deep blacks (compared to LCD sets I have owned) really allow the other colors on screen to pop nicely, even with contrast and color turned down. So far, standard def is a win.Next night, it's time for some blu-ray lovin'. I drag my HTPC out from the bedroom and plug the HDMI in...presto...we've got an actually very readable desktop in front of us. I didn't even set the resolution to the native of the panel, I left it at the native for my 32" LCD in the bedroom and it was amazingly clear. The blu ray du jour of the evening is the biggest movie ever - the recently released Avatar. I get a warning about needing to update my player, which sucks because I don't have a network drop in the living room, but I decide to press on and take a chance. Holy hell..the 3 minutes of the movie that played looked fantastic. Compared to the 32" Olevia we have been watching movies on in the bedroom, this is a different world. Rich colors, sharp detail, noise free playback (no crawling dots like I have experienced on fairly recent Panasonic and Samsung plasmas) that looked amazing at our seating distance. After she is in bed, I break out the Xbox 360. Forza 3, Grid, and Left 4 Dead all look better than they ever have in this house. The kids have a 32" Vizio 1080p set in their room that we normally play on, but again, the deep black of plasma technology just pops the other colors off the screen. I felt like I needed to wipe the red from one of the Ferraris off of the screen because it just looked that wet. So far, so good with hi-def signals.We spent much of Sunday (today) with cheezy sci-fi moves on SyFy network playing. My first foray into daytime viewing. I can't really complain. Yes, it is a giant piece of glass and does reflect things. News flash...tube tvs that we have been watching for 50 years are glass, too. We have a window to the left of the television and it wasn't a distraction at all. On a black screen, yes, you can see reflections. I can't see them as a distraction to most normal viewers. Our viewing is predominately night-time, but I will not limit daytime viewing because of a little reflection between commercials. It certainly is less distraction than the double reflections of my parents' 50" Panasonic with it's supposed AR coating. Reflections on that set turn into prismatic star shapes that apparently reflect off of 2 pieces of glass on the front of the set. After dinner, I drag the antenna out of the bedroom and rig it up for the misses to watch Desperate Housewives. Over the air HD looks stunning. It's truly amazing what 720p looks like on a 720p set. Yes, the native broadcast signal on ABC is 720p and it looks very, very good. I see no reason to spend twice the money at this screen size for 1080p and it's a damn shame that retailers are selling the 'you just HAVE to have 1080p' bill of goods to so many consumers when they would be blown away by the little LG that could. I'm a tough customer and have the box in the other room in case this set was going to perform like a $500 42" tv. It absolutely did not.As far as picture adjustments go, it didn't take long to see what looked good, but I will AVIA this thing this week. I used Cinema as the starting point for out-of-the-box adjustments. Contrast is around 75, Brightness 50, sharpness turned way down at 30. I also set the color temp slightly cool - it looks good there with the Color Gamut set to Wide. Speaking of color..if you set the gamut to wide - turn the color itself down to compensate. I've got the dynamic contrast on low right now and it seems to work well. Normally, I would shut every picture feature off and go from there, but with the black level setting at dark, the low setting is in no way heavy handed in crushing shadow detail from what I can see so far. I turned the edge enhancement off, the dynamic color off (stange enough, this feature actually reduced saturation when turned on???) and the gamma is set at medium right now. True, there are much more detailed settings in the ISF modes, but I've got nothing but time to mess with them and the picture so far is quite good. Colors come off as damn accurate and that plasma black sets them off.Inputs on the set are plentiful with no less than 5 HD inputs (3 HDMI, 2 component), an RGB 15 pin PC input, and composite for legacy devices. The set does lack S-video inputs or analog audio output - 2 things that can be forgiven for an entry level set like this one. Plasma buzz? Nope. Just a slight high-pitch noise that is less noticeable than what the CRT it replaced emitted. Image retention? Have not seen this happen yet. My parents also have a 50" Samsung (2008 model) and the IR is just unforgivable. 20 seconds in the DirecTV menu shouldn't leave an image up for 3 minutes after. I have been looking for it and didn't even see any after my unsuspecting fiance paused the DVR for something like 20 minutes before I woke up the other morning. The remote control and menus are both well laid out and intuitive. The remote is light years ahead of what Panasonic is sending out with their televisions. I swear they are off the same assembly line as their tube tv remotes from 10 years ago, which sucked big time, too.Honestly, I'm a critical guy with this kind of stuff and expected much less from this panel. I used to run movie theaters in my younger years and have the consumer electronics background to boot. That is a perfect storm of criticism for almost any television that I watch. For a $540 street product (hell, even Sears is pushing this thing for about that price at brick and mortar) I can wholeheartedly recommend it at this screen size. Black levels are quite good, colors bright and accurate, and no screen door effect to speak of outside of 3 feet.For those seeking a bargain in entry level plasma land - look no further.Update 7/20:After having the set for a couple months now, and upgrading my Dish Network to HD, I have a more in-depth experience with it. I am still very, very impressed. Sure, the black levels may not be Pioneer Kuro dark, but still leagues ahead of a standard LCD panel. Color reproduction is now spot-on after a couple weeks.It's difficult to really convey how much better colors look on this set than the LCDs in the house. The only word that I can summon is 'glow.' The plasma panel's colors glow...they've got some luminance off the surface of the screen, whereas the LCD sets come across as less natural in color fidelity. This can be attributed to the fact that plasma panels produce their pictures using phosphor (like CRT sets did) to produce the light. LCDs use flourescent lighting behind the panel to do the same. The colors jump off the screen. Reds, blues, and greens just glow with realism.This tv has really shaken my belief that 1080p is a must. My 9 foot viewing distance provides an excellent experience. Movies, TV shows, sports...they have all passed with flying colors. I would absolutely purchase this set again.For those who care, LG produces a 'Zenith' branded version of this and the 50" model for Sears. The sets are identical, sans a couple video settings, the usb port, and a less full-featured remote. Generally, they retail for roughly $100 less than their LG counterparts. LG bought the Zenith brand name many years ago and break it out every once in a while to release more basic versions of their sets. I've examined them in a couple Sears stores and the picture performance is just as good as mine, almost 100% identical menus, and even has the swivel base.
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
By Joey in RaChaCha
Strengths: Many different inputs (including VGA), easy-to-use menus, good remote, thin design, very sleek looks.Weaknesses: No native 1080p HD resolution (but it will display 1080p content as either 1080i or 720p), and no S-Video input.Have owned this unit for 3 weeks and I love it!! Granted it is my first flat panel HD-TV, but LG makes good TVs and the price was very affordable. The picture quality is great, and that's what we are all looking for, right? There are plenty of every type of input (except S-Video), and even SD-TV content looks great from any source or input. Sound quality is very acceptable from built-in speakers, although I have a 5.1 surround receiver setup also. I love the fact that the bezel (frame around the screen) is so thin -- makes the TV look like it's just the screen itself. And the unit is so thin front-to-back, it's almost as thin as the new LED TVs! After viewing many TVs in stores and friend's homes, I prefer Plasma over LCD for the contrast, better blacks and shadow detail. Also, even with contrast and brightness set to moderate levels (i.e. 65% -- you shorten the life of any flat-panel display by running it at 100% all the time), the picture is still very crisp, very bright, and the colors and detail just blow me away. I would recommend this TV to anyone!!
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