The cinema in your home

LG Cinema 3D Smart TV 55LA7400 is a new 55-inch Full HD Led TV with impressive image quality and fun smart functions as well as a programme recording function.

The Time Machine II allows you to record your favourite TV channels and also boasts a hard drive to store the shows.

You’ll be blown over not just by the crisp and clean images but also the sound quality. The LA7400, which uses a 2.1-speaker system with built-in subwoofer, also features Virtual Surround Plus technology to enhance the viewing experience.

Clear Voice II mode enhances the dialogue when you are watching movies while Smart Sound Mode adjusts the sound equaliser setting to suit the content. Smart Sound Mode also automatically adjusts the Virtual Surround Plus and Clear Voice II.

The LA7400 is also ready to be connected with an LG video camera, which is sold separately. Once the camera is mounted, you can use motion control to control functions of the TV without the remote. You can also use the TV for Skype calls and take your own photos for sharing through the social networks.

The LA7400 has a lot of smart functions, which turn it into a giant computer monitor with a web browser and apps for connecting to Facebook and Twitter as well as the possibility for running many other apps.

Its web browser renders beautiful web pages with sharp text. You can type in a URL manually or visit a web site from the Favourite list. A virtual keyboard appears on the TV screen as you type in an address and you can use the remote as a pointing device to each letter then click on the letters by pressing the middle of the wheel button on the remote. The web browser supports up to Flash 11 but not ActiveX.

I loaded and viewed content of The Nation’s web site with no problem. The text was sharp and clean.

If you want to monitor your Facebook and Twitter accounts’ feeds while watching TV, you can do so using the Social Centre function. This will display the TV programme on most of the screen while showing a panel of feeds from Facebook and Twitter on the right side.

Click on the Facebook or Twitter icon to switch between the two networks. You can also write on your Facebook wall or post Twitter messages right from the TV screen by using the Magic Remote to type the messages or dictate your message for the TV to type by using the voice recognition function.

You activate the voice recognition function by pressing the microphone icon on the remote or clicking on the microphone button on the social network window and start speaking. You will however need to speak slowly and with the “correct” accent for the voice recognition to work properly.

You can also order the voice recognition to perform audio search for apps and contents on the TV. Press the microphone button on the keyboard and the voice search panel will pop up. Just speak the key words into it and a screen will come up with the search results.

The LA7400 also provides you with apps to access online content of several popular channels, such as Bang Chanel, GMM, Channel 3 as well as the YouTube server.

Press the Smart home button on the remote and the TV displays the apps homes screen allowing you to access content or useful utility apps. The apps are grouped into Premium content, Smart World, Game World, 3D World and SmartShare.

To use the Smart functions or apps, you need to register for an LG ID. This can be done on the TV too by using the web browser to activate the ID. Before you can use the Smart function, you must also link the TV to Internet access either by using a LAN cable or connect it wirelessly to your Wi-Fi router.

In the Premium group, you’ll find apps for premium content, including news apps and weather apps. Smart World is similar to the Premium.

In Game World, you can download and install several fun games, among them the popular Skylanders Battlegrounds reviewed on this page last week.

The 3D World lets you watch online 3D video clips and make use of LA7400’s Cinema 3D technology, which is similar to the 3D technology of IMAX Theatre’s screen. The technology allows LG Cinema 3D TV to be watched with passive 3D glasses, which are light and comfortable to wear.

The LA7400 comes with four pairs of passive 3D glasses and the ones I tried fitted comfortable over my spectacles. The glasses will direct different pictures from the TV screen to your right eye and left eye and trick your brain into composing pictures with clear depth dimension. I had no problem with this and I found the 3D pictures clear and with good depth dimension.

With the TV’s SmartShare function, you can watch pictures and video clips as well as play music files stored on your TV, smartphone or tablet. Again you will first need to install the SmartShare application on your desktop computer and set aside folders that the TV can access.

If your smartphone or tablet computer supportsWi-Fi Direct function, Miracast or Intel’s WiDi functions, you can also link them to the LA7400 to play the video clips or display pictures on the TV.

I tested it by linking my Samsung Galaxy S3 to the TV and used Miracast to stream HD video. It was fast and smooth.

Image quality was outstanding for watching movies. This is powered by Triple XD Engine, which comes with resolution up-scaler function for boosting the quality of a low-resolution signal. It achieves the high Motion Clarity Index 800 so the motion pictures are smooth and clear.

You can select several picture modes, including vivid, standard, cinema and game. If you are an expert, you can use two expert modes to fine-tune the TV display using specific images and save the settings.

During the test, I enjoyed using the cinema mode to watch True Visions’ HBO HD, Fox Premium HD and several others on the cable provider’s HD channel menu. The pictures were sharp and clear and gave me the feeling I was watching the movies in a theatre.

I watched CNN HD on the LA7400 using the vivid mode. The picture was bright, clear and incredibly sharp.

I tested the TV by watching Full HD movie from a ViVo HD player and a Blu-ray disc player and was impressed by the image quality and level of black on the screen.

Even when the screen was dark, I could see the details in the pictures. For example, in the scene where the hero goes down to the dark underground base of the machines in “Terminator Salvation”, I could pick out even the finest details.

Of course, such cinematic splendour doesn’t come cheap. LG Thailand says it is now selling the LG Cinema 3D Smart TV 55LA740T, which has the same features as the 55LA7400 for Bt64,990. 

However, the 740T also boasts a DVB-T2 digital TV tuner for receiving signals from new digital TV channels in Thailand. From now until March 31, buy the LG Smart TV at Power Buy, Home Pro or Tesco Lotus and you get two-months free viewing when you subscribe to True Visions, In addition the deposit fee will be reduced by half to Bt1,000 and the installation fee will be waived.

 

 

Key specs

_ Screen Size Class (diagonal): 55 inches (54.6 inches diagonal)

_ Resolution: 1920 x 1080p

_ BLU Type: LED Plus

_ Local Dimming: Yes

_ Refresh Rate TruMotion: 240hz

_ Motion Clarity Index: 800

_ Video Engine: dual-core Triple XD Engine

_ Picture Mode: 7 Modes (Vivid, Standard, Eco, Cinema, Game, ISF Expert 1, ISF Expert 2)

_ AV Mode II: 3 Modes (Cinema, Game, Off)

_ Aspect Ratio: 6 Modes (16:9, Just Scan, Original, 4:3, Cinema Zoom, Zoom)

_ Connectivity: Wi-Fi Built-in, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Intel Wireless Display (WiDi), MHL (Mobile HD Link), Windows 8 Certified, SIMPLINK (HDMI CEC), NFC

_ Smart TV functions: Home Dashboard 3.0, Premium Content, 3D World, App Store, LG Cloud, Full Web Browser, Smart Share Plus, Skype 

_ Inputs/Outputs: RF In (Antenna/Cable) 1 (rear), AV In 1 (rear), Component Video In 

(Y, Pb, Pr + Audio) 1 (rear), HDMI/HDCP In 3 (side), USB 3.0/2.0 In 3 (side), Digital Audio Out (Optical) 1 (rear), LAN 1 (rear)

_ Power Consumption: 53.9W, Standby Mode: 0.3W

_ Dimension: without stand: 1,352 x 794 x 59.9 (mm), with stand: 1,352 x 848 x 316 (mm)

_ Weight: without stand: 24.8 kgs, with stand: 27.6 kgs