LG LG30 Series

In researching this line of TVs they seem pretty damn sweet, at least from a features perspective. As an entry level offering they offer a lot of the same features as higher end sets like the 1080p/60Hz support over component. There doesn't seem to be any reviews out yet, so the actual picture quality is still unknown. However, if it's good picture quality, these TVs are definitely ones to look out for. Kudos to LG.

Except for the naming convention of their 2008 lines. I mean LG LGXX that's just ridiculous. A little originality here people.

Calibration setting I use thanks to MoonRabbit79 from the AVS forums

link to page
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1018400&page=3

MoonRabbit's post:
After 2 weeks of testing, I've finally come up with some pretty amazing results using my i1 Display LT colorimeter probe and HCFR software (and it was a lot of fun and very insightful).

First, I must turn your attention to the fact that the optimal settings I've found are relative to my TV unit (there is some degree of variation form unit to unit) which is connected to a PS3 (v.2.53) with an HDMI cable (certified v.1.3b). These settings also work great with my cablebox (Scientific Atlanta Explorer HD4250), even though I could not test them with the box (no test patterns HD channels). Also, the accuracy of my results depends on the i1 Display LT probe's accuracy (chromacity +/- 0.004 - luminance +/- 0.3 %).

37LG30 Technical review

In short, I can say that the entry level 37LG30 LCD TV is a great TV that can be tweaked to your heart's content to match the HD or SD standards (BT.709 or BT.601), thanks to its extensive expert picture settings . After the calibration, the TV has a decent black level (0.035 ftl), excellent shadow details, an exceptional grayscale and very accurate colors. And by the way, the grayscale adjustment doesn't give the picture a yellowish cast...

Here are the results for a very dimly lit room (see the excel file attached for more details and for normally lit room):

COLOR STANDARD: HD (BT.709) and SD (BT.601)
TIME OF THE DAY: Night (dimly lit room)
CONTEXT: Movies (YCbCr input) and Games (RGB input)
COLORIMETER: X-Rite Eye-One (i1) Display LT
CALIBRATION SOFTWARE: HCFR v.2.0.1
HDMI CABLE: Ultralink CS1 series 3m certified HDMI certified v.1.3b

PS3 settings (Firmware v.2.53)

Display settings
HDMI output: 480p/720p
RGB Full Range (HDMI)(1): ON
YCbCr Super-White (HDMI)(2): ON

Video settings
Cinema conversion: Automatic
DVD upscaler: Normal (720p)
BD/DVD Video Output Format (HDMI): YCbCr
BD 1080p/24Hz Output (HDMI): ON

Game setting
PS1/PS2 upscaler: Normal
Smoothing: ON (adjust to taste)


37LG30 settings

Picture menu
Aspect ratio: Just Scan
Backlight(3): 17

Contrast: 100
Brightness: 37
Color: 50
Tint: G4
Sharpness (determined "by eye" with DVE HD basics)(4): 29

Expert 1 control menu
Fresh contrast(5): OFF
Noise reduction: OFF (unless really noisy picture)
Gamma: MEDIUM
Black level(6): HIGH
Real Cinema: OFF (unless 480i/1080i cinema input)
Color Standard: HD (grayed out/automatic switch to SD when SD input)

White Balance: Warm
Method: 10 point IRE(7)

IRE R / G / B

100 0 / 0 / 0

90 -16 / 0 / -15
80 -13 / 0 / -16
70 -13 / 0 / -16
60 -8 / 0/ -16
50 0 / 0 / -16
40 -8 / 0 / -6
30 -8 / 0 / -6
20 -9 / 0 / 5
10 4 / 0 / -17

Color management system
Red color: -1
Red tint: 4
Green color: 0
Green tint: 0
Blue color: -4
Blue tint: -10
Yellow color: -1
Yellow tint: 1
Cyan color: -2
Cyan tint: 3
Magenta color: -2
Magenta tint: -3

Notes
1. The TV rear HDMI inputs (v.1.3) accept 0-15 and 236-255 RGB values output in RGB by the PS3 (tested). However, note that when playing a video file (not DVDs or Blu-rays: they are ouput in YCbCr, not like the XMB which is output in RGB) with the setting set to ON, the PS3 has the habit of remapping (overlay) YCbCr 16-235 (original video file encoding) to RGB 0-255 (RSX encoding) instead of just output RGB 16-235 (http://www.edepot.com/playstation3.html#PS3_Video), which can make the picture look darker. This problem does not happen with games or XMB.

2. The TV rear HDMI inputs (v.1.3) accept blacker than black (BTB: 0-15) and whiter than white (WTW: 236-255) values output in YCbCr by the PS3 (tested).

3. The backlight can be safely set between 10 and 35 to fit room lightning without affecting picture quality. 17 will give 20 ftl and 23 will give 25 ftl. Recommanded values for direct view displays is 30-40 ftl, but for me, even 30 ftl is way too bright. 29 will give 30 ftl.

4. Edge enhancement appears at 30 until 40. After 40, heavy ringing appears.

5. You should not set this option to ON/LOW/HIGH as it will wrongfully compress the greyscale and crush colors. For example, a 30 IRE window would become a 20 IRE window and a 80 IRE window would become a 90 IRE window.

6. This is the HDMI black level. To support BTB and WTW with YCbCr input and 0-255 with RGB input, this option must be set to HIGH.

7. Only red and blue have been adjusted because green is typically the reference level and should be left alone as adjusting the green RGB IRE control (and balancing the red and blue levels to match) has the same effect as simply adjusting the overall contrast.

The probe and the software analysis is attached :

RGB levels: dotted line = default standard picture setting / plain line = calibrated settings, target is 100 % (Red, Green and Blue should all be at 100 % / purple line is the error: below 3 it is imperceptible).

Luminance RGB levels: dotted line = default standard picture setting / plain line = calibrated settings, target is the white line and average is the cyan line (Red, Green and Blue should all be against the white line).


Gamma RGB levels: dotted line = default standard picture setting / plain line = calibrated settings, target is 2.22 (Red, Green and Blue should all be at 2.22). Target is the white line and average is the cyan line (Red, Green and Blue should all be against the white line).


Color temperature: dotted line = default standard picture setting / plain line = calibrated settings, target is 6500 Kelvin and average is the cyan line.


Color points accuracy: x = default standard picture setting / plain dot = calibrated settings / tiles are the target. The grey triangle is thte default standard picture setting color space, the white triangle is the calibrated settings color space and the black triangle is the color space target.