LG 47LM6700 Review

47" Cinema 3D 1080p LED HDTV

by Robert Wiley, Senior Editor

Picture Gallery

Picture Quality: 9/10

The LED edge lit 47LM6700 impressed us with both its color and black level performance. Colors were bold but still realistic even on the standard setting prior to professional calibration- albeit with a blue push. The picture handled warm interior and exterior scenes and dark scenes showed impressive contrast and detail. It did not have the oversaturated, other-wordly look of some LED televisions and we found just about everything we saw on it to be enjoyable to look at.

TruMotion 120Hz

The LM6700 uses LG's 120Hz TruMotion. In 2012 LG changed the available settings for this feature and it is not something you can turn on or off now. However, the good news is that we did not find a reason to. The feature did not remove background blur in a way that negatively affected the picture quality. In fact, it is a much improved feature and welcome addition now. There was still some judder with slow camera side to side panning, but fast motion sports action was handled easily with the TruMotion 120Hz feature.

This shot from the Blu-Ray of Wyatt Erp shows excellent light flow through and color rendition on the LM6700.

Side Angle Viewing

Side angle viewing quality is an impressive area of performance for the LG 47LM6700. It is much better than most of it's LED backlit and LCD competition even though there is still no comparison to plasma TVs in this area. Contrast remains solid up until about 35 degrees off center – which is a good result and degrades very little after that.

3D Performance

3D performance is solid with the 6 pairs of included passive 3D glasses. It's not the best we have seen but is very good. The 2D to 3D conversion feature has come a long way, though it is still not something I would typically want to utilize.

Features: 9.2/10

Appearance

The LG 47LM6700 also has the modernistic avante-garde design that leaves nothing but the picture image in front of you. LG terms the look its Cinema Screen for 2012. That's due to the .2" (5mm) frame width (except for the bottom) and less than 1” depth around on the sides (2” at bottom) You will not have to worry about reflection from the TV bezel – something that has annoyed us especially from black gloss bezels of the past. We hate to mention another manufacturer, but it's similar though less deep to the D8000 series LED Televisions by Samsung last year.

Another shot from the Blu-Ray of Wyatt Erp shows fine contrast and detailed, crisp image edges on the 55LM6700.

Internet Applications and Connectivity

LG's Smart TV suite is also available on the 47LM6700 and includes the more than 1000 Apps the company now has along with the typical premium content channels some paid and some unpaid like Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, MLB.tv, Facebook and Twitter. It's overall a very complete solution. We enjoyed testing many of the premium Apps such as You Tube and Pandora and NBA Game Time. Many of the proprietary Apps are not worth your time or effort – especially the free ones.

LG's Smart TV Apps as well as 3D World included with the LM6700 series.

Web Browser and Wifi

In relation to the above comments relating to Smart TV options, the Wifi is easy to set up even though this will likely be your first duty with the Magic Remote – which requires a little getting used to. However, once you get the hang of it the Magic Remote will allow fast search of the Internet through the built in Web Browser which we found very easy to use with its point and click operation when typing on the Web Browser keyboard.

Magic Remote for 2012

Included with the 47LM6700 is LG's innovative Magic Remote, also called the Magic Wand Remote. This secondary remotes operates using motion control. To interact with your TV you point the remote at the screen and move a crosshair with you wrist to select items on the menus or in the Smart TV suite. We think it's a fantastic little gadget and are glad to see it being included in more of LG's series in 2012. Some complain about the remote, but after using it for a while we did not have a problem with it. As well, you can use the 5-way controller for most commands if you get tired of the point-and-click operation. One negative aspect is that there are no keys for Input selection or Apect Ratio control on the remote interface thus causing more clicks than are usually necessary for these functions.

LG's Magic Remote for 2012 is an enigma, but fun (included with the LM6700).

Gaming

When 2 people play a game in the same room on the same TV they are oftne forced to use split screen, the TV screen is split in half horizontally or vertically and each player not only gets a smaller view of the game, sometimes important screen area is cut off. The 47LM6700's Dual Play technology utilizes the Cinema 3D to display both screens at the same time on the whole screen. Each player wears a different set of polarized glasses and only sees their game on the full screen. This is a huge upgrade from only looking at part of the screen.

Value Rating: 8/10

At around $1299 the 47LM6700 offers a pretty good value. It seems pricey for a 47” TV but you get all the features you could really need in a TV of this size (3D, Internet, Magic Remote, Great picture, Cool frameless appearance). Full array local dimming is just not necessary at the 47” size level. This TV should compete well in this size range.

Overall Rating: 8.9/10

Having reviewed and written about Television Technology for over 10 years, Wiley never tires of researching the newest qualitative trends related to the technology. Most people do not get excited about possibilities behind the latest video engine...Wiley does. Read more about Robert