LG 42PJ350 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV

LG 42PJ350 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV

Customer Reviews

Great TV for the Money, February 3, 2011
By Michael Ryan (Lakewood, Colorado United States)
When searching for a 42" TV, I of course also looked at the Samsung 450 and Panasonic C2 equivalents. With Samsung, I got worried about about the "buzzing" problem that's been widely reported but felt they had the nicest picture, which was my most important criteria. But not at the risk of having to exchange the set or deal with an annoying noise. I can say that I listened to this TV in the store and definitely COULD hear a noise, whereas with other models I heard nothing. So that ruled out Samsung in a hurry. And with Panasonic...well, let's just say I used to love this company but now I try to avoid them. Out of a projector and 2 other TVs I currently own, all either had a problem or some type of issue, and I also have a sense that their picture is the worst. Anyway, that led to the LG. The set seems very well constructed and of good quality. It's also relatively thin and not too heavy, if that matters. The picture is great for a $500 TV, and since the Cable Company is only sending a 720 signal, it's all I need and the picture truly does move smoothly. I looked at more expensive 1080p sets, even the 120hz models, and saw a noticeable choppy picture movement. I have no problems or complaints thus far. In the end, I probably spent way too much time in making my decision for this purchase.

Great Picture, Great Value, Audio Issues with HDMI Cable, January 24, 2011
By MadCarpenter (Oregon, USA)
Recently purchased this LG 42PJ350 42" 720p Plasma TV online for under $[...] delivered.

We use it in our small (12' x 12') living room to mostly watch High Definition cable TV broadcasts, DVR recordings, and an occasional DVD movie. We watch a considerable amount of sports, and are not Blu-Ray collectors nor video gamers. Plasma technology seems to be becoming less popular with many consumers compared to LCD/LED, due in part to potential video burn-in, screen reflectivity, and higher energy consumption issues. We're mostly concerned with motion blur, good viewing at an angle, and excellent HD rendition of cable TV signals. Plasma's strong points are lack of motion blur, higher contrast, and deeper black levels. And unlike LCD, the picture looks great from anywhere in the room; not just directly in front of the screen. Since nearly all HDTV is still broadcast at 720p, the 720 vs 1080 debate was a non issue for us, as the difference in picture quality is nearly indiscernible at typical viewing distances, and didn't warrant the extra $200 for a similar 1080p unit. (We are watching this set from approximately eight feet away.)

We were initially interested in Samsung and Panasonic plasma units, but after reading of the dreaded Samsung 'Plasma Buzzing Noise' and the Panasonic faulty power supply's 'Seven Blinking Lights of Death' on several reviewer blogs, we focused instead on LG. We've not encountered either of these problems with our new LG, nor have we read many similar complaints about their plasma TV's. This TV meets our needs, and its price was best in class.

The LG 42PJ350's 720p Plasma HD picture is framed by a beautifully sleek, thin bezel, and is amazingly sharp and lifelike. Viewing Standard Def broadcasts on this TV is somewhat less amazing, but still a dramatic improvement over our previous 32" Toshiba CRT dinosaur. I strongly recommend using an HDMI cable if you are going to connect to a satellite/cable converter box. The upgrade in video quality over coaxial cable is remarkable. You'll be missing the absolute best picture this TV can show you without HDMI.

We did encounter one drawback to using an HDMI cable between this set and a cable box; the HDMI cable also carries digital audio, and alters the TV's and converter box's usual audio functions. This LG TV's closed caption function is then disabled, as well as the Motorola Comcast digital converter box's volume control (Comcast box's 'mute' still works, however.). This means you'll have to use the Comcast remote to change channels, and the LG remote for volume adjustment. Installing the old coax cable instead from the TV to the converter box allowed the volume/closed caption to function normally, but then the picture quality suffered. Why buy a High Def TV to view a subpar picture? Oh well, bye bye closed captioning. Perhaps a universal remote would make this situation more tolerable? I'd appreciate helpful comments from others who have encountered this problem, as the LG website offers nothing in the way of assistance. An online instant chat with one of their techs yielded an odd, somewhat defensive, less than helpful comment of "That's the way LG TV's are made." (Maybe I was really chatting with "Ask Jeeves", in his new gig ?)

Audio from the PJ350's speakers is acceptable for a medium/small room (they're loud enough, but have minimal bass, and seem to be aimed at the BACK of the set?), but I plan to add a soundbar and a small powered subwoofer to complete our inexpensive home theater. And the LG "Infinite Sound" stereo wide feature was also disabled while connected with an HDMI cable.

The included remote control is a bit awkward to use. The 'arrow' function buttons often need to be pressed more than once, due to their concave shape and slippery, hard plastic (not rubbery) feel. The rectangular stand is, like the TV frame, a glossy piano black. It feels sturdy, swivels left/right, and was relatively simple (four included screws) to attach to the TV.

I'd rate this TV higher than 4 stars on the merits of its beautiful picture and excellent value, yet don't feel it deserves 5 stars because of the closed captioning/audio glitch.

really is too good to be true, January 24, 2011
By belinda milford
i looked for weeks for the best deal out there and wow did i do good.... perfect on price, quick delivery, great product .... hope to get enought money together to purchase another before they run out.....

Excellent TV especially for value, January 23, 2011
By Blessen "Blessen" (New York)
Excellent TV for value. I chose this over the LG 42LD450. Everyone the guy said in the first review is spot on.

A simply fantastic TV, January 23, 2011
By NBPC77 (Mason, OH USA)
Admittedly, I like plasmas and won this in a raffle. I have to tell ya...this is a very impressive TV. I watch alot of sports and play XBOX360 and have nothing but good things to say about it. Took little (very little) tweaking to get the picture to where I liked it, but after that, it's been nothing less than stunning. I also have a 58" Panny Plasma in the family room and this holds its own. Looking at the prices and the quality of the pic, I'd pick up this bad boy over the Panny 42" Plasma 720p any day. And don't let the 720p vs 1080p bother you. Unless you're a videophile, it'll be hard to tell the difference at this size and typical sitting distance.

Do not buy, December 30, 2010
By gary
I will never by anything from Adorama Camera or Amazon ever again. There is a clearly written return policy of 14 days with both their name on the Amazon site and both have refused to take this piece of junk back.

I love my LG 42" Plasma, December 28, 2010
By Alex Tan "Alex Tan" (Lafayette, LA USA)
I think most people know that anything below 52", you can't tell the difference between a 720p and a 1080p resolution anyway unless you want to watch your TV with a magnifying glass.
I wanted a 42", and I don't need a 720p, and I wanted to have 2 or more HDMI input(which ruled out the all famous Walmart and Target popular Panasonic 42C) that's got 600Hz refresh rate. This LG has all of that and I got it for less than $500! It's even thinner and more elegant than the Panasonic.
As I set it up, my wife just couldn't believe how awesome it looks. I am not a big fan of glossy finishes around the frame, but since it's so thin, I have no problems with it. All the controls on the lower right of the TV are touch sensitive and they are responsive. I just thought that I'd like to be able to select my input devices with individual buttons on the remote control, but you need to hit 'INPUT' and then select the input device by using the directional pad and hit 'ENTER', which to me is a bit cumbersome.
Other than that, the picture quality is great, sound quality is adequate for such a TV, and the price is simply unbeatable! I could get a Vizio with this price too, but I think LG has a lot more to offer when it comes to quality and looks. Highly recommend it!

Great TV for the money, December 27, 2010
By M. J. Kukich
I am not an elctronics junkie, so all I can say is that the picture quality is far above my last purchase.

plasma looks like crap, December 8, 2010
By Monica Iluyomade
There isn't much to say. I assembled the TV, hooked up my PS3 via HDMI, turned it on and am greeted to a blurry picture of my XMB menu. I decide to pop in The Dark Knight Blu and again I am greeted to horrible blurry picture. I decide to try Uncharted 2 and yet again I get a crap picture. I decide to play around with the setting, but to no avail. No matter what I did the TV looked bad. I have a crappy 22 inch samsung LCD which has a brighter, crisper, clearer, all around nicer looking picture. Oh and there's a distinctly audible buzzing noise. I specifically bought this TV because there were problems with the audio buzzing on the Samsung plamas. I will never buy an LG tv again...

I mean, I payed 539 dollars for this TV and it looks like dog ****! Time for a return. Maybe plasmas just suck in general?

So far so good, December 3, 2010
By Fahd Ahmad "skinner456" (St. Louis, MO)
I am not a videophile but I will say that my other TV is a 50" Pioneer Kuro plasma TV purchased right as Pioneer exited the TV business, so I have very high standards when it comes to picture quality.

I purchased this TV sight unseen; I was looking for a low-end plasma to put into a rec area in our basement. For the $500 I paid there is no way to guarantee a good picture quality unless you go plasma. LCD's in this size and price range just can't match up. I saw this deal running on Amazon the week of Black Friday, read overall positive reviews, and took the plunge (after shopping around extensively and reading a great deal about other sets of course).

I will update this review later as I get more time with the set, but here are my initial impressions.

Packing: Easy to take off the wrapping and get out of the box. Not much extraneous packing material. They do not give you a full printed manual, instead packaging a CD with the manual and giving an included manual that covers the basics needed to get things running.

Build: Easy to mount on the stand, swivels without difficulty. It doesn't have brackets to attach it to my entertainment center, something to keep in mind if you have young children around you worry may push/pull on it. The TV itself is very thin and relatively elegant and overall very light; the design doesn't stand out in an of itself, but I don't view that as a negative. With TV on and lights off you don't notice the bezel at all (the inside of the bezel on my Pioneer actually makes a slight reflection because the screen is inset a little bit). It is a fingerprint magnet, something to keep in mind if you are going to use put your hands on it to swivel it often. I will say that having the stand swivel is WONDERFUL. Being able to turn it even just that 20 degrees to easily attach/remove cables, etc makes everything much easier.

Picture: The only HD content I've had a chance to use so far is Fallout 3 on my Xbox 360, but I can say it compared favorably to my Pioneer. My wife saw the picture and thought it was as good as the Pioneer (though she was only looking at the Xbox Dashboard, not the game). I currently only have an SD setup from Dish to run to this TV but the results were surprisingly much better than I expected. I have been spoiled by watching exclusively HD TV broadcasts on my Pioneer for over a year now so I expected that watching SD content on a lower level TV would be painful, but it was adequate; ultimately of course you really want HD for everything or there wasn't much reason to get a nice TV. I have a lot of control over the lighting where this TV is located so I am not as concerned about reflections/glare as others, but I did test it with every light in the room turned on (so fairly bright) and didn't have any issues viewing the picture. If you're going to have a light (or window with light coming through) shining directly on the TV it may be a problem, but otherwise it is fine and w/o much glare.

Audio: Nothing exciting here. The speakers have plenty of volume. Everyone who writes reviews always seems to think everyone should have a fancy stereo system for their HDTV, but that's not always feasible/practical. I don't have a stereo system for either of these TV's and rely on the speakers built in to the TV. The LG speakers are not as good as the huge speaker bar that came with my Pioneer, but at the very least the mid-range sounds are clear and audible, though it doesn't make much in the way of bass. The speaker bar on my Pioneer is nice enough that I don't feel a need for extra speakers, but I do think the LG would benefit from some true stereo speakers from a powered receiver and if I can do so in the future I will.

Remote: It's a bit long to easily do everything one handed but the ergonomics seem otherwise fine.