LG 20LS7D 20 LCD HDTV TV - New

Comment: This is a fine television and considering the price (I've had this two weeks and Crutchfield dropped the price $50) and size. However there are a couple of quirks I don't like. One is the remote and the start up time when you turn it on. After the picture appears the remote still doesn't function for a few more seconds. The on screen menus look slick but in reality offer very little adjustment. Finally the shiny band at the bottom of the screen houses the speakers and when viewed from an angle is very ripply. Not very attractive if you have a lot of natural light in your room.
One final thing, you will want external speakers, these flat out suck.

Comment: PRO:
* Picture quality from all sources is very good (but see Viewing Angle comment).
* Unique presentation of channels during tuning; I like it.
* Has all 3 tuners.
* Trim looking.

CON:
* Viewing angle is terrible, particularly as little as 10-20 degrees down from straight-on horizontal. If you look up at the screen, as is common in a bedroom setting, the picture deteriorates quickly as the screen gets very "contrasty" and dark. Turns out that many 20" and smaller sets I checked out at stores have the same characteristic; 32" and greater don't seem to have it; 26", some do and some don't. So I did end up keeping it.
* Others have reported excellent over-the-air reception. Mine is lousy, getting no O-T-A channels from an admittedly old analog antenna, but that my 42" Sony LCD projection picks up some 10 local digital channels using! Since I expect to use with cable, not a show-stopper.
* As others have reported, sound is poor.
* No channel labeling.

SUMMARY: Far from a perfect set, but I judged it to be a decent value in a flawed field. I think many 20" sets are computer monitors fitted with tuners. Beware sets that are 1440x900 (16:10) instead of true 1366x768 (16:9).

Comment: This was my second choice for I bought an Insignia 19" with built in DVD player, and returned it within two days. It was sluggish and the displayed numbers were way too small. This tv however is quick and responsive and the display is large enough to read. This also doesn't need a set-on-top box and the picture is far better even for analog channels. The only complaint is the interface and remote. When you auto find channels it separates the different kind of receptions so that when you channel surf you only see what is in that category. But thats no big deal as you just push any number like 2 and you get a list of channels starting with 2-0, 2-1,.... The speakers are also a little weak but what can you expect, i've hooked it up with computer speakers and it sounds fine.

Comment: I purchased to access digital channels from my cable provider without a cable box and it seems that to access the digital channels I need to use the menu to change to the other tuner. This is a bit cumbersome when just trying to channel surf as not all the channels are available o, also the channel numbers are a bit goofy, all of a sudden they are all hyphenated numbers - something unexpected from my cable provider I suppose. The biggest disappointment is the built-in sound. I swapped my standard Sony 20" TV for this one, and boy was I surprised at the quality difference. The built in speakers are very tinny, they sound like those of a $10 battery transistor radio - very little range and almost no bass at all. Bottom line, with a cable box and an amplifier for sound it would be all that I expected. But it looks beautiful :-)

Comment: I bought this for my wife for Christmas (she opened it early.) Set up was straight forward, and we were using it in minutes. The picture is very good. We are using it as a bedroom tv, and the HD tuner pulls in all of the local digital channels (and several not so local). The images are stable and I am very pleased with it. Unlike another reviewer, I would expect when using it on cable or with a satellite dish to need a "box." My $4,000 plasma set in the TV room requires a satellite box. I would fully expect that this would too, to use it on satellite. But for off-the-air digital HD, with the $15 rabbit ears I bought at the same time, it works very well. I recommend the product and am now considering getting a couple more for other bedrooms and my office.