LG 47LW6500 - A Next Generation 3D Experience

3D televisions have become the norm these days; with most manufacturers launching them - LG being one of them with their new range of LED LCD televisions. The LG 47LW6500 may not be your regular, run-of-the-mill LED television as it sports not only 3D capabilities, but also 3D without flicker, 2D to 3D conversion and smart TV functionality. It does not end here. Bundled along with this 3D television are four 3D glasses, as well as a magic motion remote control. LG markets this model as the next generation 3D TV. Let us read on to find out to see if it lives up to its tag.

Video quality is crisp and clear

Design and Build Quality
To say that the LG 47LW6500 is designed well is an understatement. The design of this LED TV looks clean and classy. There is a thin bezel along the sides of the television which is finished in glossy black and the edges of the bezel are finished with clear plastic. Emphasizing the word clean; there are no physical buttons present on this 3D TV with all of the functions enabled by touching the panel. This adds to the stylish looks of this TV.

This is a really slim television with the maximum width being just 29.9mm. The width of this LED TV definitely adds to its style factor. LG uses Edge-LED backlighting, hence making this television quite slim. The screen of this television has a contrast ratio of 9,000,000:1 and an HD video resolution of 1080p. With CINEMA 3D features in this television we could view 3D videos from various angles without any strain. 

All connectors of this television are at the back and though being at the back, LG still manages to retain its slim design. They did this by positioning the four HDMI ports and two USB ports facing sideways. The other ports at the rear of this TV include headphone out, digital audio out, RGB in, antenna in, AV in, PC audio input and RS-232C

The stand of the LG 47LW6500 is also finished in glossy black and though it too looks very stylish; it tends to wobble a bit but still enables the television to remain steady. The stand has a horizontal swivel but the rotation isn’t that much. I am not a big fan of the stand even though it looks as classy as the television.

The remote control of the LG 47LW6500 is made up of plastic and is black in colour. The rubber buttons are mostly grey but have a few other colours for designated functions like powering on / off, premium function, home and the energy saving feature. The build quality of the remote control and the buttons feel solid and sturdy.

The Magic Motion Remote Control works like a magic wand

We also received a Magic Motion Remote Control along with this TV. This remote is unique by itself and has a unique design as well with it being cylindrical in shape and flat at the top and bottom. Unlike the remote control that came along with the TV this has very few buttons and we found ourselves using this quite frequently.

Bundled up with the television are four 3D glasses. Unlike other 3D glasses these are not huge and do not look tacky. They're easy on the eyes and even after using them for a considerable amount of time the eyes didn't feel tired or strained.

The overall design and build quality of the LG 47LW6500 is really good. However on the model we received we did notice some backlighting issues on the bottom left corner of the screen. This could be made out especially if a dark scene was being played. Besides the slight backlighting problem and the stand this is a very good looking television.

Features
The looks of the LG 47LW6500 are designed well, but having a high end 3D LED TV, we would want it to be loaded with features. CINEMA 3D is LG’s way of bringing a 3D cinema experience to your home.

2D to 3D conversion is another interesting feature of the LG 47LW6500. The process is simple and regular 2D content can be converted easily to 3D images by merely pressing a dedicated button on the remote control. All 2D content that we tried could be converted to rich 3D and the experience was good. This helps in saving some money instead of purchasing expensive 3D DVDs or Blu-rays. PS3 games also can be viewed in 3D while enabling this feature.

The TV being a Smart TV has a Home Dashboard that allows you to easily navigate through various entertainment options. With the ability to download apps, stream videos over different sites and use the television as a monitor this is one feature that cannot be overlooked. The Home Dashboard has social networking websites integrated with preloaded widgets such as Facebook and Twitter. In the premium section of the Home Dashboard various apps like NDTV, YouTube a web browser and many others are present. By using LG apps we can view preloaded games such as Shoot the Arrow amongst others. All these features can be accessed using an Internet connection. Having an active and easy interface such as this, the use of the Home Dashboard becomes a walk in the park.

Connectors positioned to ensure that the 3D TV remains slim

These may be the main features, but it is not limited to just these with the LG Cinema 3D TV coming with 3D glasses and a Magic Motion remote control. The 3D glasses are comfortable to use and prolonged usage does not result in any strain on the eyes. Unlike most 3D glasses being bundled with 3D TVs, these are light in weight and do not require charging. The Magic Motion remote control is an innovative technology by LG where one can use the remote control like a cursor on the screen to select items.

There is also a feature called Smart Share where one can connect their cameras, tablets, mobile phones and PCs to the TV without the use of wires.

The overall interface of the LG 47LW6500 is pretty simple and yet has everything a Smart TV should have. Throwing in the Cinema 3D and 2D to 3D conversion capabilities, along with an impressive amount of content in the Home Dashboard this TV has features enough to actually be the next generation 3D TV.

Performance The features and design of the LG 47LW6500 get thumbs up from us. But looks and features don’t make much of a difference if the performance of a TV isn’t as great. We tested the TV by using a HD DTH service, Smart TV over an Ethernet connection, video playback over a portable hard drive and a Blu-ray movie playback using a PlayStation 3. 4 side facing HDMI ports The video quality of the HD content was really good. The unique 2D to 3D conversion rendered really well, while with a fair amount of depth seen. The content of the television could be seen really well even at an angle of 45 degree without any issues. With CINEMA 3D users do not experience the flicker that is seen on some active 3D TVs. Besides this, the feature also enables users to view 3D content in any position they desire without actually looking for an angle that may not strain their eyes or experience an image blackout. The video playback of our test Blu-ray disk was also impressive. Like we do on other TVs, we turned off the image enhancement features to see what the TV was capable of. Across all HD clips, we still found the image quality to be very good. We enjoyed viewing movies using the 2D to 3D conversion feature on LG 47LW6500. The added depth does making viewing a little more enjoyable than watching the movie without it. There was no image noise or delay in playback whatsoever even when the settings were tweaked. We tried playing back movies from a portable hard drive and it was able to play all the formats fine. We had some issues where the subtitles were out of sync with the video.  Being a Smart TV, we tested the Home Dashboard and were able to view a load of content seamlessly over the Internet. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are available in the Dashboard. However one must register their Facebook account at LG to access this service on the TV. Twitter can be logged in directly without the need to have an additional account. Local content is also available on this Smart TV with apps such as NDTV, Zapak.com, Hungama and many more.  We tried out most of the widgets that came along with this TV and all of them worked fine with no delay noticed. Remote control seems a bit cheap but colourful We did notice some backlighting issues where on the lower left hand corner a white colour bleeding was seen on an otherwise black image. This disappointed us a bit to see something like this on a TV that has performed really well overall. We tested the LW6500 without any lights in the room with a pitch black screen and noticed that there was a somewhat grey tinge to it. However, in a brightly lit room the screen appeared black. When one goes into the settings of the TV we find a picture setting option such as TruMotion. We found that with TruMotion, the video flow became a lot smoother. TruMotion may be not a very new feature, but it can be a useful feature in getting the maximum out of this CINEMA 3D TV.  The magic motion remote control that we received is a nice concept which enables one to surf through the interface of the TV by just the flick of a hand. This is an interesting feature but we did find a slight flaw with it; being that there was a lag noticed while moving the onscreen cursor around. Overall the CINEMA 3D TV put in some really good performances especially where the 2D to 3D conversion was concerned. 2D to 3D conversion works like a charm Verdict LG’s new CINEMA 3D TV is a move in the right direction. It improves upon the most common complaints that most people have with regards toviewing 3D movies in a theater or on a TV at home. The light-weight glasses and the reduced flicker allows users to view movies for a longer periods of time without any noticeable eye fatigue. Priced at Rs. 1,39,990 (MRP),  it's highly recommend for those users who do not face any price constraints, as such. For that price, you get a 47-inch TV, with 2D to 3D media conversion, which is great since 3D content isn’t very freely and easily available even today. There’s also HD video playback of pretty much any format possible thanks to the built-in video player. In addition to this, you also get smart TV functionality that you can use to view a lot of content from the web along with being able to browse the net like you would on a mobile phone. For most users with a smaller budget and for those thinking about venturing into the 3D realm, we would suggest waiting a couple of months till prices drop and 3D media availability improves.