Great Performance from this Idiot Box. Review on LG RT-29FC80VE

Well it was time for me to relocate to Bombay and Thank God my new flat mates decided to buy a television cause there was absolutely no other means of entertainment other than a horrible sounding music system.

I was not involved during the decision making on what brand of Television to buy, what size and by the end of the day I was not very happy to see a LG Flatron RT-29FC80VE 29inch Flat TV with Golden Eye sitting in our living room cause I’m a hard core Philips/Sony fan. Well it looks like there was a lot more to be learnt from certain LG products. I never liked the picture quality of LG televisions cause everything seemed harsh to the eye. The colors were over saturated and the sound was just about okay and I sometimes felt to sue LG cause they over market the Golden Eye feature which according to me makes the picture worse and provides no kind of protection for the eyes.

The LG RT-29FC80VE allows for 200 channels to be stored, there are Picture Presets, Sound Presets and both allow individual USER settings to be stored, a total of 4 video inputs (2 Composite, 1 S Video and 1 Component Video), a Monitor Out and Headphone jack, 5 Favorite Channel Instant Access, Option to name channels using up to 5 characters and access them directly using a LIST option, ON/OFF Timers, Sleep Timer, 5 Band Sound Equalizer, Auto Volume Leveler or AVL, Golden Eye Interactive, Picture Tube Degauss, Turbo Picture/Sound and some other not so important features.

I sometimes wonder why LG talks so much about its Golden Eye Feature. All it does is correct the picture settings according to light conditions in your room and it just makes everything worse. Contrast and Brightness are dropped to levels that you cannot enjoy watching a DVD or regular television broadcasts and it does nothing to protect your eyes. This feature is nothing new to the world of tube tv. Videocon introduced this feature over 10 years ago and if I remember right it worked better. This TV has an interactive Golden Eye mode wherein a change of light conditions in your room is shown on the screen using a small graphical representation. You can switch this off and use Golden Eye without it prompting you each time when it senses a change.

Upon reading the users manual i''ve come to learn this tele uses a Braun Picture Tube which is very good news. Braun is a German Company better known for its expensive and superb kitchen appliances that last you for a life time. The picture quality impressed me a lot for an LG. Colors are natural and the contrast levels can be controlled very well to hold good black levels on your screen. What I did not like was the way in which the software has been designed. You have a scale of 0 to 100 % for each picture setting. Trouble is there is a big difference in the amount of sharpness and color levels with just a 2 % change. My sharpness levels are set to 8% but when I make it 10% its a bit more than what I need. The same goes for the color setting. I''ve set it at 28% and am quite happy but wanted a bit more but if I made it 30% the colors are a bit too much. In any case its easily possible to live with the settings i''ve mentioned and the end results are very good with Golden Eye switched OFF. The Picture Preset Settings are quite well set except for the Dynamic Mode which goes over board with the picture settings. There is a Turbo Picture setting and I really don''t know why this feature needs to exist. It just increases the amount of grain in the picture and the colors just lose control.

The sound is good for this television. I don''t know the watts rating but what I can tell you is that at 100 % volume level its quite loud and does not distort. There is no sign of the cabinet creaking during peak volume levels either. There is a good amount of bass and mids but treble or sharpness is a bit on the lower side and sounds shallow. An equalizer exists but is not very effective in bringing a major change to the sound quality. Sound Preset modes do help but then that pretty much plays with the equalizer settings to bring that change in sound which is not so much. Turbo Sound adds more punch and makes the sound broader and is quite a good feature to activate while watching a noisy movie. The AVL feature works different to other TVs i''ve used. Upon flipping channels the volume levels slowly increases to the right level. I was into the habit of cranking the volume level of the channel I desired to watch while flipping through channels but then after around 10 seconds the AVL slowly brings back the correct level and then it gets too loud. This is a nice feature but I’m not sure if many of us will like it by the way it works. Most other televisions AVL system works like an instant in correcting the broadcast volume level.

All channels can be named used 5 characters and once stored it can be listed like a chart and any channel can be selected directly instead of using the number keypad. This feature is a real blessing with the only trouble being that you have to name each channel yourself which can take a lot of time and also when the cable operator decides to shift position on his tuner during some point in time. If the cable operator troubles you; you can always use the MOVE feature which allows you to move a channel from one position number to another without the need to re tune/re name the channel manually if it goes missing.

Tuning is super fast with LGs Turbo Tuning feature. There is Manual Tune and Fine Tune option as well. 5 individual and most watched channels can be stored on ''''Q.View'''' key on the remote control. Nearly every feature or control present on the Remote can be accessed on the TV so even if the remote suddenly goes missing you can make changes if you want. A set of Composite Video Inputs including S Video and the Headphone Jack are placed just behind the right side TV speaker so you can make quick connects of other Audio/Video equipment such as a DV CAM or a DVD player.

The Remote Control is very easy to use and all controls are placed well and have good feel while using it. What I did not like was the channel number pad thats illustrated using a sticker and not prints on the keys themselves. The sticker has already started to peal off on one corner which is not such a good thing.

I have not been able to check picture and sound quality using a DVD player but I’m sure the results will be fantastic.

Cabinet finish is of the now industry standard steel grey and the overall finish is excellent. No sign of any cheap build quality.

All said and done this is a superb television. It gives you a good balance of picture and sound quality and is worth every penny. I am very impressed with this set from LG.