LG 32LB9D 32" HDTV LCD TV

A while back, my mom's TV set konked out after lasting roughly from George Washington's administration through George Bush's term. If there's one thing I can help with, it's buying new electronic gadgets, so I helped her settle on a new LCD TV from LG. When talking about the buying process and what was available with my wife later that day, we realized that if we planned to replace our bedroom TV, that was the time to do it. So off I was to an electronics store for the second time in a day.

It was a tough job, but someone had to do it.

Having already spent a few hours in another branch of the same retailer, I had a pretty good idea of the models to pick from, and knew the brands I trusted from my earlier research into buying a TV for our family room. As it turned out, we ended up with the LG 32LB9d, essentially the same TV my mother had purchased except one screen size up.

Fast forward several months, and I haven't had a single complaint about the TV, and while I haven't yet hooked up an HD cable box to the TV, its picture on standard definition channels is quite fine for bedroom viewing (mostly newscasts and the occasional sitcom or other "brain candy" program when the baby lets us have a moment or two of peace)…but I have watched shows in HD thanks to the TVs QAM tuner (more on that in a bit), and the picture quality in HD is simply stunning. Details are sharp and clear and the color is vivid and lifelike. DVDs (on a standard definition progressive-scan player) looks beautiful as well, to the point that I'm not inclined to invest in an upconverting DVD player for the bedroom. The picture is good enough that I don't need it now.

Watching HD Without an HD Cable Box, And Other Fascinating Tuning Topics
Simple—the LG TVs are among those with QAM tuners, which means when a regular cable line is hooked up to the TV, it can read unscrambled channels of any type sent over your cable system. How it works is extremely complicated and not worth getting in to for the sake of talking about the quality of the TV, but suffice it to say you can usually find many of the channels available as part of your most basic cable package (like your local broadcast channels) AND any HD versions and "sub channels" those stations offer (the sub-channels are often repeats of old news programs, an all-weather station or something similar). Just Google QAM tuners and you'll find more info than you could ever want about the underlying technology.

Knowing the TV had this feature, I used a basic cable splitter (the kind you could get for about $3 at Target) and ran one line to my (standard-definition) cable box and the other directly to the TV's coaxial cable input. That way I can use the TV's remote to switch inputs between my cable box and the cable line depending on what I want to watch.

This is a TV with a full digital over-the-air tuner as well, so you can hook up an external antenna (rabbit ears or a feed from a roof-mounted antenna) to pick up your local TV signals in digital or analog format. Most major TV stations are already broadcasting in digital, so the analog tuner is largely a relic for most people, but it's there if you need it, until the government-ordered shutdown of analog TV happens a year from now. When it comes to digital tuning, all digital TVs have one thing in common—you either get the picture in full strength, or you get nothing (zip, zilch, nada). This is different from what many of us remember using antennas on over-the-air TV in years gone by, when you might get fuzzy pictures from stations further away, or even from local stations if you were in an area with bad reception. As I said, that's not unique to this TV, so if you experience reception problems it may be a function of your location, not the television.

Set-Up…Is It Over That Quickly?
If you had told me 10 years ago there would be a 32 inch TV I could single handedly carry upstairs and set up in minutes, I'd have asked for a hit of whatever you were smoking, but that's how far technology has come.

This TV is wall mountable (brackets are sold separately), but we have a TV stand already, so I simply screwed on the supplied pedestal. Elapsed time: about 30 seconds. It took longer, though not by much, to slide the TV cart away from the wall and hook up the inputs from my DVD player and cable box. Heck, it took longer to struggle to get the old tube TV across the hall and into a spare bedroom, considering how much heavier it is.

Beyond the physical aspects, the actual setting of features on the TV is a snap, with intuitive, well-designed (and graphics-heavy) on-screen menus that you navigate using the large arrow keys on the remote control. Recognizing that not everyone is a TV geek, perhaps you'll want to peruse the instruction manual to understand all of the various things you can customize, like color and sound settings…or you can hire me to set it up for you for the low, low rate of $250 per hour.

One feature I like on the TV is that you can change the name of each of the inputs (see the list of inputs below) so that when you hit the clearly-marked, green input key on the remote, you don't have to remember something like "Component 1"=DVD player; you can change the label for that item to show DVD on your screen.

Another nice touch is the "cable organizer," basically a plastic loop, on the back of the TV. When you start connecting multiple components to a TV, the cables can become an unsightly tangle (yes, I'm very Monkish), and this little touch probably costs about a penny to include but goes a long way towards creating a neat, clean appearance for your TV area.

Inputs and Outputs--It Sounds Dirty But (Usually) Isn't
Inputs on the TV include:

2 component video (the three-cabled red/green/blue cables sometimes packed with standard-def DVD players, at least two of the three I've purchased over the years)

1 front and 1 rear S video

3 rear HDMI (the highest quality input for HD from an HD cable box or HD DVD player)

2 rear and one front composite (the old fashioned red/white/yellow cables; generally providing the lowest quality)

For output to a home theater sound system, there are optical digital and coaxial digital outputs, but being in a closet masquerading as a bedroom, a home theater setup is not something we need. As it is, the sound on the TV is fine for bedroom viewing, and unless you're a geek like me who likes the surround sound aspect of watching a movie, it's likely perfectly fine for use in any room by normal viewers.

Everything Else You Wanted To Know About the TV But Were Afraid To Ask
-The TV's glossy black finish with silver trim is sleek and stylish and should blend in to most settings, but it attracts dust like Tom Brady attracts lingerie models to bear his spawn.

-Although I found in my initial research and testing in stores that LCD TVs seem to lose some of their sharpness when viewed from especially wide angles, I honestly don't feel average users will notice any degradation in picture quality unless you're practically in line with the side of the TV. Because our LG is in a small bedroom, the only angle we watch it from is virtually straight-on, but I did walk around in an arc in the store to see how it looked and it was sharp from almost all angles.

-The reality is that 40-inch TVs are becoming the standard minimum for "main" or "primary" TVs as people buy new sets, so even at an impressive 32 inches, this TV and others in its category are more likely to be used in bedrooms or secondary family rooms as opposed to being the home theater TV. (I would imagine that's different in the case of apartment or condo residents.) For that use, or if your room simply doesn't accommodate a larger set, this LG is an outstanding choice.

-LG may not be as familiar to TV buyers as names like Panasonic and Sony (and I ended up with a Sony for our main TV), but I did extensive research and LG has a solid reputation for quality products. I felt comfortable giving it a recommendation to my mother who shelled out a fair price for her TV, and I felt comfortable spending our own money on an LG. (It helped that I had several excellent mobile phones.)

-Too many electronics manufacturers treat remote controls like afterthoughts, making them so fragile and flimsy that they seem like they'll fall apart if you look at them the wrong way. LG (and Sony in the case of our other TV) to its credit supplies a good, sturdy-feeling remote that has adequately sized buttons, and feels like it could actually be dropped once or twice without shattering. Many people of course end up using some kind of universal remote (either one they buy separately or one that comes with cable equipment), but for those who don't, and for the times I use a different input and need to use the TV remote, I like knowing it's durable.