Review

LG might not be the first name that comes to mind when selecting an HD TV set – the massive marketing campaigns of Sony, Toshiba and Samsung have seen to that. However, its new 42LF7700 set provides impressive image quality and admirable ease of use at a competitive price. And, to top it all off, LG has even managed to squeeze in a Freesat HD tuner as well.

LG's 42LF7700 HD TV with Freesat tuner

There are several models in the LF7700 range, with prices starting at around £600 for a 32” screen, and going up to £1100 for the 47” model. However, we tested the mid-range 42” version, which has a typical online price of just under £900.

The set’s design is simple enough. We were rather hoping for a 42” version of LG’s flowery Lotus mobile phone, but the company obviously decided that might be a bit distracting and, instead, opted for a plain 2in band of glossy black bevel around the screen. The words ‘Full HD’ are stencilled into the top-right corner, announcing the fact that the screen has full 1080p resolution, but the key feature, of course, is the built-in Freesat HD tuner located on the back panel.

Until recently, Panasonic was the only company allowed to build Freesat tuners into its TVs, so it’s good to see some new competition moving into the market and – hopefully – encouraging wider adoption of Freesat. You’ll need a satellite dish to pick up the Freesat signal, of course, but if you don’t have a satellite installed then the 42LF7700 also has a hybrid TV tuner that will allow you to connect a standard aerial in order to pick up either conventional analogue channels or the Freeview digital service.

Also located on the back panel are two HDMI interfaces, two SCART connectors, component video input and digital audio output. Interestingly, one of the HDMI interfaces is designed to accept an input from a computer with a DVI interface, which meant that we were able to connect the Mac Mini, that we use as a media centre, with no trouble at all. For older computer systems, the 42LF7700 also has a VGA connector, if required.

Analogue and digital terrestrial services are supported, as well as Freesat

Over on the left-hand edge of the screen, there’s another set of connectors including a third HDMI interface, composite video with stereo input, headphone output, a CI slot for pay-TV top-up cards and a USB port that supports playing music or photo slideshows stored on a memory stick.

Unless you’re an aficionado of The Wedding Channel, the real attraction of the built-in Freesat tuner is the ability to receive BBC HD – currently, the main free-to-air HD channel here in the UK – along with the intermittent outbursts of HD programming from ITV HD. The irony, really, is that switching between HD and SD programmes on the 42LF7700 makes the SD stuff look quite poor.

Freesat offers an HD advantage that Freeview has yet to deliver

To be fair, the standard-definition image quality is pretty good, although the image tends to have a rather airbrushed quality that lacks sharpness. However, it’s a shame that the 42LF7700 doesn’t have an upscaling option, as the lack of sharpness in SD programmes is quite noticeable on such a large screen.

The 100Hz refresh does help with sports programming, though. We checked out some tennis and found that the streaky movement of the ball became noticeably more defined, allowing you to clearly follow the trajectory of the ball as it was pounded back and forth across the net.

The moment you switch over to BBC HD, everything seems to snap into focus – colours are bolder and the increased level of detail is immediately obvious. Alex Kingston’s frizzy hairdo in HD really is a sight to behold. The real test was to fire up some high-definition Blu-Ray and HD DVD films. The results here were extremely good – colours were bright and vivid, but not over-saturated, with Spiderman swinging smoothly between buildings.

However, the darker hues of Batman Begins revealed a minor weakness, as solid areas of shadow weren’t quite as crisp and black as they could have been. This wasn’t a critical flaw by any means, but it was unexpected from a TV with a claimed contrast ratio of 80,000:1. So there’s still scope for a little fine-tuning by LG’s engineers.

Main back panel connectivity

Additional interfacing appears on the side

Audio quality was good too. The twin 10W speakers did initially lack bass when playing our iTunes library through the Mac Mini, but a little experimentation with the remote control revealed some useful audio options, including a ‘music’ preset that boosts both bass and higher frequencies.

We were also generally quite impressed by the way that the remote control and on-screen menu options worked. There is, of course, a main set-up menu that allows you to adjust picture, audio and other settings in detail. However, the remote control also has a ‘Quick Menu’ button that activates a smaller on-screen menu shaped like a wheel.

The main menu features a well laid out array of options

Pressing the Left/Right arrow buttons on the remote control quickly cycles this menu through a selection of the most common presets for aspect ratio, picture quality and other settings. You could, for instance, use the Quick Menu to select the aforementioned ‘music’ preset for the speakers, or delve into the main menu where you have much finer control, including the ability to adjust individual frequency bands.

Quick Menu: swift navigation from the remote control

There are some good energy-saving options too. The standard power consumption of the 42LF7700 is quoted as 310W – which seems relatively high to us – and just 0.5W in standby mode. However, the energy-saving mode allows you to step the power-consumption down to 85% of normal, then 75% and down to 50%. Each setting results in a further reduction in brightness, but it’s interesting to see how low you can go before you struggle to see what’s on screen.

Dim view: various levels of energy saving reduce screen brightness

There’s also an ‘intelligent sensor’ tucked away in the lower-right corner of the screen bevel that analyses the light in the room and automatically lowers the brightness and power-consumption to what it considers the optimal settings. We sometimes found those settings a little dark, but you can easily use the Quick Menu to flick through additional presets for films, sport and other types of content.

Verdict

The 42LF7700 isn’t perfect – the lack of upscaling is disappointing, if only because it highlights the great difference in quality between the HD and SD programmes available on Freesat. Nevertheless, this is 42in Full HD television that delivers good image and audio quality, along with a Freesat HD tuner and it can be found for less than £900 – certainly, pretty good value for money. So, if you’re keen to explore Freesat in all its high-definition glory, the LG 42LF7700 is well worth considering. ®

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