LG 47LB5900

Design and FeaturesWith its half-inch, matte gray plastic bezels, the 47LB5900$479.00 at Dell strays from the conventional black or silver color schemes on most modern HDTVs. The bottom bezel is one inch wide, with a slight bump in the center where the LG logo and a downward-facing control stick can be found. Rather than a centered base, the LG 47LB5900 uses individual legs at either end of the screen, so make sure you have a wide enough table to set it up.

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An antenna connector, component and composite ports, one HDMI port, and an optical output face outward on the back of the screen, and the second HDMI port and a USB port face left. The shortage of HDMI ports is a major con for an HDTV without any connected media streaming functionality; if you plan on using your own media streamer, like the Roku Streaming Stick or the Google Nexus Player, you'll be left with just one port for your cable box, game system, or Blu-ray player. Unless, of course, you're willing to get up and physically switch connections or purchase a third-party HDMI switch.
The simple faux-brushed aluminum wand-style remote contains rubber buttons that are unlit, but Volume and Channel controls are distinguishable from the other buttons under your thumb.
Performance
We test HDTVs with a Klein K-10A colorimeter, SpectraCal's CalMAN 5 software, and DisplayMate test patterns. After a basic dark room calibration with the set's backlight set to maximum, we determined that the best settings for the purposes of our testing was Cinema mode, Brightness at 48, Contrast at 100, and Warm 2 Color Temperature. The LG 47LB5900 put out a solid peak brightness of 276.49 cd/m², but its dismal 0.26 cd/m² black level makes for gray-looking blacks and a poor-even-for-a-budget-HDTV 1,063:1 contrast ratio. Reducing the backlight brightness down to 80 had little effect, as black levels only went down to 0.22 cd/m² and decreased peak brightness down to 225.63 cd/m² for a similar contrast ratio of 1,030:1.
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By comparison, the TCL 48FS4610R Roku TV$449.99 at Dell displayed a bright black level of 0.08 cd/m², for more than triple the contrast ratio at 3,270:1. The same price, 48-inch Sharp LC-48LE551U displayed an even lower 0.07 cd/m² black level and a 2,850:1 contrast ratio.

The chart above shows measured color levels as dots and ideal color levels as boxes. The 47LB5900 displayed some of the most accurate colors we've seen for a budget HDTV in our calibrated Cinema mode, which helps redeem it from those poor black levels. Green and blue levels are near perfect, and white skews slightly towards the cool side. Reds were a bit oversaturated, which in combination with the slightly cool whites can cause some barely noticeable imbalance in color reproduction at times.
In testing, The Amazing Spider-Man looked very good, with a sharp, bright picture that offered balanced colors. Flesh tones looked mostly natural, with a hint of green tinting on character faces, and Spider-Man's red and blue costume looked vivid and accurate. Yet, because of the poor black levels, dark scenes appeared gray, and shadows in dark alley scenes tended to get muddy and lose detail.
The Big Lebowski looked similarly bright and balanced. The harsh fluorescent lights of the bowling alley didn't affect the varied skin tones of any of the characters, and the aforementioned slighty green tint wasn't as noticeable.
If you want to use the 47LB5900 for gaming, we measured an input lag of 27.6 milliseconds in both Cinema mode and Game mode; a very good performance for a 47-inch HDTV. Dedicated (and smaller, and more expensive) gaming monitors can cut that number by more than half, but even so, the lag here shouldn't be an issue to most gamers.
Under normal viewing conditions, the 47LB5900 consumes an impressively low 68 watts in our calibrated Cinema mode. To compare, the 48-inch TCL 48FS4610R Roku TV consumed 91 watts. Applying the Energy Saver setting within the Cinema mode to Minimum cut the 47LB5900's consumption down to 50 watts, while still providing an acceptable viewing experience. Changing the picture mode to the Energy Star Certified Power Saver mode provided a surprisingly watchable picture while consuming only 43 watts.
ConclusionThe LG 47LB5900's attractive gray exterior sets it apart, but the screen's excellent color accuracy can't make up for one of the worst contrast ratios we've measured. And the lack of connected features coupled with just two HDMI ports makes the set even less appealing. If you plan on connecting more than two devices to your HDTV, you should check out the TCL 48FS4610R Roku TV, the JVC EM48FTR$496.00 at Amazon, or Vizio's E480i-B2$497.99 at Dell, each of which offers at least three HDMI ports and built-in media streaming features. If you'd rather use your own media streamer, consider the Sharp LC-48LE551U, which offers three HDMI ports, much better black levels, and very good color accuracy.