It’s no secret that our “Idiot Boxes” are getting smarter by the day. And the world is quickly moving on from the days of flat panels, LCD’s to the huge and swanky LED TV’s which are getting bigger and better by the day. More interestingly, 3D TV’s have started to enter our homes and after the insignificant impact it had in 2011, 2012 promises to be a lot different as market leaders LG and Samsung gear up to the challenge of making the 3D TV’s even more better and affordable.
We take a look at the massively beautiful beast, i.e. a 55 inch LM 8600 Cinema 3D Smart TV by LG to find out if the Cinema 3D TV really has the potential to bring the 3D cinema experience in the comfort of your homes.
In the box:
- 55 inch LED 3D TV
- TV Stand + lock plate
- Magic Motion Remote + Conventional Remote
- 2 pairs (4) of polarized 3D glasses
Setup:
Setting up the 3D TV stand is not a single person’s job and would require two people for the task and though the LED is incredibly slim it is still heavy. You just have to screw the lock plate to the TV first and then the ‘lock plate’ to the ‘base stand’. The set up took us about 10 minutes.
Talking of setting up the 55” LM8600 for viewing, there are a series of startup settings which can be easily configured and if you want you can skip them for later as well. Setting up the TV with the wireless network is a breeze.
Design & Build:
The LM8600 has a fabulously beautiful design with a minimalistic bezel which helps enhance the viewing experience of the LED TV. Importantly the 55 inch LM8600 is good enough to be a substitute for the theatre experience for most average families. Unfortunately the TV could be only tilted sideways but not up and down. On the back, the LM8600 has 4 HDMI and 3 USB ports. Even the control buttons are located at the back. It’s great to have a non distracting view of only the screen with no bezel or buttons on the front.
Performance:
Talking about the 2D experience on the LM8600, we loved the picture quality with crisp clarity, deep blacks and superb contrast with great color renditions. The TruMotion 240Hz feature on the LM8600 helps eliminate and motion artifacts or blurring that might happen in a fast moving or action scene.
Though, at the same time we must warn you against watching the TV in bright lighting conditions, the matte finished screen tends to reflect light producing glares. And hence you are advised to use curtains during day time and dim lights in the night to have the best experience of watching the LM8600.
Watching movies on the huge 55inch screen of the LM8600 is nothing short of mesmerizing and gives you that theater feel.
Cinema 3D
Coming to the Cinema 3D experience on the LM8600, it is Passive 3D technology created by stereoscopic images. And hence you would require only polarized 3D glasses which unlike the active shutter 3D glasses do not harm your eyes and at the same time are much cheaper and easy on the pockets as well.
The polarized 3D glasses provided are extremely light and easy on the eye. We were able to comfortably use them for a full 3 hours movie without any fatigue to the eyes or on the bridge of the nose.
We loved the experience of watching 3D movies like Tron Legacy and Avatar. The videos had good depth and the crisp picture quality was enhanced by the seamless edges of the LM8600. Though, the viewing angles are good, center seating will still give you the best 3D experience.
For best results you are advised to view IMAX titles on the LG LM8600.
2D to 3D conversion
At the same time I must admit that I was baffled by the lack of 3D content available for viewing on 3D television. This is where the 2D to 3D conversion feature on the LM8600 comes as a great blessing. Now it’s difficult to convert a 2D movie into a 3D one with amazing outward projections. Though, I must add that the conversion software on the LM8600 is one of the best I have seen so far. Coupled with a plethora of 3D settings like ‘depth control’ and ‘viewpoint control’ helps you enhance the experience. You are suggested to use videos of a minimum 720p and above for conversion for optimum results.
We loved the depth perceptions the LM8600 could create for converted videos as well. BTW, the software works vice versa as well and thus helps convert 3D to 2D.
Sound
We liked the sound quality of the 20W speakers on the LG LM8600; they are sufficiently loud and at the same time very clear and crisp. The ‘Clear Voice II’ feature helps improve the voice audibility in the movies and ‘3D Sound Zooming’ does what the name suggests thus improving the overall audio experience.
Although, they do lack a bit when it comes to bass. There is an option to connect external speakers for the enthusiastic audiophiles and you might want to take a look at LG’s 3D surround sound speakers as well.
Magic Motion Remote
The Magic Remote has a minimalistic and compact design, which has a pointer like functionality combined with mouse like features to make it much more effective than the conventional remote control. It has very few buttons on it which include the likes of ‘Home, ‘Apps’ and 3D activation button along with the scroll wheel in the centre which we found to be comfortable to use.
Though, an average layman might require some getting used to the Magic remote. Also typing with either the Magic or the conventional remote still remains a pain. And yes, I was left searching for the input option on the Magic Remote. The battery compartment cover can break off easily and we had to be very careful while changing batteries in it.
At the end of the day though, the Magic Remote is effective in what it is aimed at, i.e. making controls a lot easier and quick as compared to the conventional one.
Smart TV
Smart TV is LG’s online solution for content and apps on their Smart Cinema 3D TV series. It boasts of a full-fledged browser which we loved using. Besides there are apps like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc. which are usable though there is nothing outstanding about them. Disappointingly, LG’s 3D world doesn’t have much to offer in terms of 3D content as well.
Although we liked playing around with the Smart TV option, it is something you would not use regularly unless there is some good content available out there, which is currently only in its nascent stage.
Dual Play
This is another innovative and useful feature for gamers. LG provides glasses in two different pairs of white and orange, so the both the gamers have to wear different color glasses to be able to view their own player on the television instead of having the same on one side of the split screen. Thus the feature allows both the gamers to view their players only on the whole screen.
Verdict
Pros
- Uber cool design with non-existent frame or bezel
- Non-existent motion blur
- Great 3D depth perceptions
- Smart TV featuring browser and apps
- Good 2D to 3D conversion
Cons
- Lack of 3D Content
- Experience gets limited in broad daylight
- Magic Remote takes some getting used to
- TV does not tilt upward and downwards
At Rs. 2,65,000 the LG LM8600 is definitely not for the masses but the premium segment. We would have liked it to be a little below the 2 lac mark. We should definitely see the price dropping as adoption increases.
It has a great passive 3D experience, though currently there is not much of 3D content available, which is sort of made up for with a more than decent 2D to 3D conversion feature.
At the same time, it has other important features like Smart TV with a plethora of apps and content which would only develop over time and Dual Play.
Add to it a cool designed huge 55 inch LED display along with good sound quality and you definitely have a complete set of features you’d come to expect from a Smart TV, albeit for gesture controls which the LG Cinema 3D Smart TV’s lack at the moment.
The LG LM8600 truly brings home the theater like 3D viewing experience which is the best across all manufacturers at present and you should get one of these if the viewing experience is your priority.
