LG 42PG6000 Picture Quality

High Definition (Blu-Ray)

Armed with near-D65 greyscale and spot-on primary colours after calibration, the LG 42PG6000 accurately depicted the sumptuous colours found extensively in Beatles extravaganza Across The Universe on Blu-ray, ranging from the eye-popping candy hues of the psychedelic sequence as Eddie Izzard belted out "Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite", to the vibrant reds of the bleeding strawberries pinned onto a canvas to the tune of "Strawberry Fields Forever".

Skin tones and green foliage (e.g. when the young hippies laid in the grass gazing up at the sky) looked convincingly realistic on the LG 42PG6000 plasma HDTV. Saturation was adequate, but we couldn't help but feel that colours would look that bit richer had we been able to align the colour decoders, or improve the black level.

The black-level performance of the LG 42PG6000 plasma television was perfectly acceptable considering its inexpensive price, but if you've been spoilt by the inky blacks dished out by the Pioneer Kuros, the 2008 Panasonic plasmas or even the latest Sony W4000 LCD series, dark scenes in the movie – such as the one where Jojo performed "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" in a club with only a distant light source illuminating his face – might leave you wanting more.

Shadow detail appeared a touch compressed on our LG 42PG6000 review unit as well, perhaps as a result of truncated dynamic range due to inability to pass blacker-than-black (BTB) data.

The LG 42PG6000 plasma TV does accept 1080p/24 video signal, but internally processes them to 60Hz (screen refresh rate) so telecine judder would be present. To be fair this was quite subtle at most times... some of the more obvious instances in Across The Universe were when the camera panned vertically down the buildings at the start of Chapter 12 and 14.

SD (Freeview Digital Television) 

The LG 42PG6000 plasma put on a strong showing here, comfortably outshining the Panasonic PX80 for Freeview digital TV broadcast, thanks to its above average scaling and very good deinterlacing for both video and film-based (with [Film Mode] engaged) material. Add near-D65 greyscale and accurate colours to the mix, and it's no wonder that we were suitably impressed when watching Seabiscuit on BBC One.

While standard-definition video processing was up for the task, PWM noise and mild posterisation (especially on poor source) prevented us from sitting closer to the screen. With [Aspect Ratio] set to either "Original" or "4:3", a pair of grey side masks will flank 4:3 programmes to fill up the screen and minimise the risk of permanent screenburn.

HD Gaming (Sony PS3 Console)

For console gaming, "Game" [Picture Mode] will provide the quickest gaming response on the LG 42PG6000 plasma television: we measured input lag to be on par with a Samsung F96 if [Picture Mode] was set to "Game"; but 30ms slower otherwise. Just remember to tone [Sharpness] down from the default value of 60 in "Game" [Picture Mode] to prevent excessive edge enhancement from paradoxically obscuring in-game fine detail.

The LG 42PG6000 is capable of producing bright and vibrant images for a visually involving gaming experience, but because of its proneness to image retention, we advise taking the appropriate precautions which are outlined in our plasma screenburn prevention article. As almost always, you should set [RGB Full Range (HDMI)] on the PS3 to "Limited" to avoid clipping in-game shadow detail on the 42PG6000.