LG Infinia 55LE8500 – Most accurate colors ever seen

Thumbs Up:

Sleek and stylish panel design; energy efficient; various interactive and streaming features; controls local dimming; better off-angle view; most accurate color; great shadow details; the deepest black level as compared to other TVs.

Thumbs Down:

Expansive price tag; stray illumination problem; difficult to discern 240Hz refresh rate; customizable dejudder settings are not so useful.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The LG Infinia 55LE8500 is 1080p LCD TV based on LED Backlighting technology. It has 1920×1080 pixels resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, and 16:9 image aspect ratio. The horizontal and vertical viewing angle is 178°. The 55LE8500 features XD Engine, Sleep timer, V-Chip control, closed caption capability, parental channel lock, and line doubling progressive scanning.

Four wide-screen modes are: Conventional 4:3, Cinema, Zoom, and 16:9. The picture adjustment modes include Game, Sports, and Cinema. The LG Infinia 55LE8500 has three video interfaces: Composite, Component, and HDMI. The input video formats are 1080p, 1080i, and 720p. There are two right/left 10watt stereo speaker inbuilt speakers. The 55LE8500 TV features invisible speaker system and inbuilt Dolby Digital decoder.

The LG 55LE8500 supports MP3 audio format, JPG picture format and DivX/DivX HD video format. The connectivity options are USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet. The connector set includes 1×Composite video/audio input (RCA phono×3), 1×HDMI (19pin HDMI Type A), 1×Hi-Speed USB (4 pin USB Type A), 1×VGA input (15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15)), 1×Serial , 3×HDMI (19 pin HDMI Type A) , 1×Component video input (RCA phono×3), 1×Audio line-in (Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm) , 1×Digital audio output (optical) (TOSLINK) , and 1×Headphones (Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm).

The LG Infinia 55LE8500 is EPA ENERGY STAR qualified and compatible to HDCP. Its Greenpeace policy rating is 5.1.

Razzle Dazzle:

The LG Infinia 55LE8500 is 31.6 inches tall, 50.8 inches wide, and 1.4 inches deep and weighs 78.9 lbs. With stand, it is 34.4 inches tall, 50.8 inches wide, and 12.3 inches thick and weighs 96.6 lbs. The 55LE8500 TV looks sleeker and has an appealing artistic aesthetic.

Inside Dope:

If you talk about televisions, every one will be attracted towards the LED backlights and 3D in this year. The LG Infinia 55LE8500 TV costs $3149.99 and features full-array backlighting with local dimming. It means the screen has hundreds of hidden cells that dim or brighten independently to improve the output picture quality. The 55LE8500 TV has ability to adjust the dimming of a complete array by dividing into zones. You will not find this ability in the most of LED backlit televisions available in the market. If you can afford an extensive price tag for an excellent performing LCD TV and do not mind lack of 3D capability, then the Infinia 55LE8500 TV will be the best choice. Noteworthy that features, performance and specification of 47-inch LG Infinia 47LE8500 are quite similar to that of the 55LE8500.

The remote control is 9.2 inches tall and 1.8 inches wide. Four-directional toggle with middle Enter button is surrounded by Menu, Netcast and Q.Menu buttons on its top, and Back, Widgets, and Exit buttons on the bottom. We like the well positioned buttons on the remote.

The LG Infinia 55LE8500 has glossy screen and 240Hz refresh rate. Its main selling point is the full-array LED backlighting with local dimming like the Samsung 8500 and the LG LH90. According to LG, the LE8500 series TVs has 216 dimmable independent zones while the Infinia 55LE8500 has 240.

The company also ships LG Wireless Media Box that enables to connect HDMI, Wi-Fi connection and other gears. The available streaming media services are Netflix, Vudu, and YouTube. We will prefer to access BlockBuster, CinemaNow, Pandora, and Rhapsody. The LG Infinia 55LE850 is DLNA compliant that means it can stream the photos/video/music tracks on DLNA compatible networked computers. You can connect the external drive on USB ports and playback the stored photo/music/video files.

LG has also included some Internet applications including Stocks, Sports, News, Weather, Skype, Picasa, Flickr, Twitter, and Yahoo! Widgets. You have to purchase separate microphone for using Skype. What’s more – you can play the games included on Yahoo! Widgets like “Whack a Mole” and “Sudoku”.

We appreciate the LG to improve the picture controls and to include the option for adjusting dejudder processing like Samsung. LG has included Blurr and Judder labeled sliders. The LG Infinia 55LE8500 allows customization of antiblur effect, dejudder and smoothness using its TruMotion processing.  This de-judder system resembles that of Samsung, but the 55LE8500 does not allow full motion resolution.

The included picture settings are Color Management System, 10-point fine color temperature controls, three color temperature presets, five standard-def aspect ratio modes, three high-def aspect ratio modes, fine dejudder control, two-dejudder presets, independent memories per unit, three gamma presets, and six adjustable picture modes. The other settings are 2THX modes, 10-point and 2-point IRE systems, and guided “Picture Wizard” setup. The picture mode options are Expert 2, Expert 1, Game, Sport, THX Bright Room, THX Cinema, Standard, Vivid, and Intelligent Sensor.

More to like – 1) On-screen user manual to provide details of all settings, 2) Ambient light sensor that can be engaged by selecting Intelligent Sensor picture mode, and 3) Power-saver mode – “screen-off” adjustment that turns off picture to get only sound. This mode reduces the total power consumption to 36 watts.

The back panel has three HDMI inputs, a composite video input, one VGA-style PC input, two component video inputs, one optical digital output, one RS-232 port, one RF input, a wireless control port to connect Media box, and an Ethernet adapter. The side panel has one HDMI input, a composite video input, two USB ports, one component-video input, and headphone jack.

While testing, THX Cinema provided the best and most accurate picture settings that produced excellent accuracy, gamma linearity, and grayscale. The Expert Mode also delivered very fin results by improving the gamma from 2.28 to 2.21, revamping the shadow details with large numbers of the deepest black levels and evening out the grayscale, especially for dark areas.

We tested the LG Infinia 55LE8500 with (1) plasma Pioneer PRO-111FD TV, (2) local dimming LED TVs – the LG 47LH90, the Samsung UN55B8500, and (3) edge-lit LED TVs including the Sony KDL-52NX800, the Samsung UN46B7000, the LG 47LE5500.

The LG Infinia 55LE8500 produced the deepest black level which we had seen on any TV. It surpassed the Samsung UN55B8500 and other sets including the Pioneer plasma model. The black levels remains the deepest even in low-light scenes, but the difference is visible in low and bright areas. The 55LE8500 preserved the excellent shadow details and provided the realistic displays than others. However, the Samsung UN55B8500 handled dimming a bit better than the LG 55LE8500. In contract, there were no fluctuations of backlight on the LG model.

After some calibration, the LG Infinia 55LE8500 produced the most accurate color accuracy and grayscale as compared to others. The color was consistent in both light and dark areas. The Samsung UN55B8500 provided the better de-judder control and motion resolution than the LG 55LE8500.

We received the excellent uniformity on the LG Infinia 55LE8500 around the complete screen as compared to other local dimming LED TVs. Moreover, it provided the better off-angle view than the Samsung UN55B500.

The 55LE8500 performed well for stand-definition sources and delivered each line of DVD with sharp details and less jaggies. Its noise reduction performance was also good and it switched into 2:3 pulldown accurately and quickly.

However, the LG model reflected the bright objects in the room due to its glossy screen. On the contrary, the 55LE8500 performed fine in PC connectivity with both VGA and HDMI connection.

Nitty Gritty:

If you can afford extensive price tag and need the deepest black level and most accurate colors, but do not mind limited dejudder processing and lack of 3D at such a high cost, then go for – LG Infinia 55LE8500 TV.

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