Subscores
With its relatively restrained price tag, the LG PA4500 isn't promising the most amazing image quality. In fact, LG seems more keen to promote the integrated multimedia player. This TV therefore makes do with the strict minimum—and sometimes a bit less—with a 1366 x 768 pixel plasma screen, two HDMI ports, two USB ports ... and that's your lot!
There's therefore no sign of 3D, Smart TV services or motion interpolation modes.
We tested the 42" model (42PA4500) but this TV is also available with a 50" screen (50PA4500).
The PA4500 has a sober kind of design with a glossy black plastic casing. All in all, this TV's look isn't light years away from higher-end models, notably thanks to its stand.
Even though this TV isn't exactly function-packed, it does have a built-in media player. Content can be accessed via the TV's two USB ports—one on the right-hand edge, one at the rear.
Needless to say, there aren't many other connections on offer. You'll have to make do with two HDMI ports, a VGA port, a SCART socket, component and composite connections.
The PA4500 has the same internal menu as LG's other TVs—it's simple, practical and responsive.
The remote control is pretty basic. It isn't backlit and uses rubbery rather than hard plastic buttons. There aren't many shortcut keys either. That said, it does the job just fine.
Seeing as the PA4500 is a plasma TV, viewing angles are very wide. In fact, the variation in brightness is no more than 10% when viewing the screen at an angle—that's perfect! Similarly, display quality is very consistent over the whole panel. We measured an average discrepancy in the white level of just 4%.
Plasma technology also makes for good levels of responsiveness. We measured an average ghosting time of 8 ms, which puts this TV up there with the best models we've tested. Plus, the input lag is just 33 ms, which works out as two frames of latency. With results like this, the PA4500 is a great choice for gamers.
Glossy screen
Image quality is good, but could be better. With an average Delta E of 4.7, colour fidelity can be considered pretty much accurate. However, the most demanding users may notice a few slightly inaccurate tones. (Delta E measures colours fidelity, and should really be three or less for truly accurate colours).
The grey scale is a little on the light side—an effect that intensifies the closer you get to white. Standard deviation over the various grey levels is therefore too high, which is why this TV ends up with a gamma score of 3/5 in our test.
Contrast is a bit on the low side at 1720:1. This is caused by a white that isn't particularly bright (90 cd/m²) rather than any problems with the black level, which is a very good 0.07 cd/m². We therefore don't recommend you use the PA4500 in a very sunny room—the onscreen image isn't bright enough and the glossy screen is prone to reflections and glare.
Left: a 1080p image downscaled to 720p on this LG TV.
Right: the same 1080p image on a Full HD TV.
The main problem with this TV is the screen resolution. Instead of using Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels), LG has stuck with a more basic HD resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. Images from Blu-ray discs or Freeview HD are therefore downscaled and some sharpness is lost. You can see this in our 1080p test card shots above.
Note that some people report seeing small flashes of light when viewing plasma screens but this only affects a handful of users. To find out if it bothers you, we'd advise you to try out a plasma TV in a shop or at a friend's house before you buy.
With perfectly consistent displays, plasma TVs aren't affected by clouding (bright blotches leaking through in dark zones onscreen).
It's no surprise to see that the PA4500 speakers are nothing special. They're fine for watching the news, but not much more. Bass is more like a vibration in the TV's chassis than anything else and high frequencies soon saturate. Basically, even an entry-level 2.1 speaker kit will do a much better job.
Although still quite high, power use wasn't as bad as we were expecting in this plasma TV. On standby, our watt-meter measured zero, as is often the case. In use, the 42" PA4500 uses 150 W, which makes 308 W/m²—that's about 50% more than the average power use of a 42" LCD TV.
There's therefore no sign of 3D, Smart TV services or motion interpolation modes.
We tested the 42" model (42PA4500) but this TV is also available with a 50" screen (50PA4500).
Design
The PA4500 has a sober kind of design with a glossy black plastic casing. All in all, this TV's look isn't light years away from higher-end models, notably thanks to its stand.
Even though this TV isn't exactly function-packed, it does have a built-in media player. Content can be accessed via the TV's two USB ports—one on the right-hand edge, one at the rear.
Needless to say, there aren't many other connections on offer. You'll have to make do with two HDMI ports, a VGA port, a SCART socket, component and composite connections.
The PA4500 has the same internal menu as LG's other TVs—it's simple, practical and responsive.
The remote control is pretty basic. It isn't backlit and uses rubbery rather than hard plastic buttons. There aren't many shortcut keys either. That said, it does the job just fine.
2D Image Quality
Seeing as the PA4500 is a plasma TV, viewing angles are very wide. In fact, the variation in brightness is no more than 10% when viewing the screen at an angle—that's perfect! Similarly, display quality is very consistent over the whole panel. We measured an average discrepancy in the white level of just 4%.| Responsiveness | ||
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Light Background |
Black Background |
Average |
This graph shows the ghosting time, measured in ms, which measures the time it takes this TV takes to entirely remove the previous frame. The shorter the time, the more fluid moving images will appear.
Plasma technology also makes for good levels of responsiveness. We measured an average ghosting time of 8 ms, which puts this TV up there with the best models we've tested. Plus, the input lag is just 33 ms, which works out as two frames of latency. With results like this, the PA4500 is a great choice for gamers.
Colours in Cinema mode: average Delta E = 4.7
Glossy screenImage quality is good, but could be better. With an average Delta E of 4.7, colour fidelity can be considered pretty much accurate. However, the most demanding users may notice a few slightly inaccurate tones. (Delta E measures colours fidelity, and should really be three or less for truly accurate colours).
The grey scale is a little on the light side—an effect that intensifies the closer you get to white. Standard deviation over the various grey levels is therefore too high, which is why this TV ends up with a gamma score of 3/5 in our test.
Contrast measured in Cinema mode: 1720:1
Contrast is a bit on the low side at 1720:1. This is caused by a white that isn't particularly bright (90 cd/m²) rather than any problems with the black level, which is a very good 0.07 cd/m². We therefore don't recommend you use the PA4500 in a very sunny room—the onscreen image isn't bright enough and the glossy screen is prone to reflections and glare.
Left: a 1080p image downscaled to 720p on this LG TV.
Right: the same 1080p image on a Full HD TV.
The main problem with this TV is the screen resolution. Instead of using Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels), LG has stuck with a more basic HD resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. Images from Blu-ray discs or Freeview HD are therefore downscaled and some sharpness is lost. You can see this in our 1080p test card shots above.
Note that some people report seeing small flashes of light when viewing plasma screens but this only affects a handful of users. To find out if it bothers you, we'd advise you to try out a plasma TV in a shop or at a friend's house before you buy.
Clouding
With perfectly consistent displays, plasma TVs aren't affected by clouding (bright blotches leaking through in dark zones onscreen).
Audio
Green zone = good /Orange zone = tolerated / White zone = inaccurate
It's no surprise to see that the PA4500 speakers are nothing special. They're fine for watching the news, but not much more. Bass is more like a vibration in the TV's chassis than anything else and high frequencies soon saturate. Basically, even an entry-level 2.1 speaker kit will do a much better job.
Power Use
Although still quite high, power use wasn't as bad as we were expecting in this plasma TV. On standby, our watt-meter measured zero, as is often the case. In use, the 42" PA4500 uses 150 W, which makes 308 W/m²—that's about 50% more than the average power use of a 42" LCD TV.Pros
- Nice, deep black (0.07 cd/m²)
- Excellent responsiveness (8 ms on average)
- No clouding (light blotches in dark zones)
- Price
Cons
- Image isn't very bright (90 cd/m² on average)
- Some sharpness is lost in Full HD images
- Poor audio quality
- Relatively high power use (150 W)
- Glossy screen prone to reflections and glare
Conclusion
If you're looking for a cheap TV, the LG PA4500 is no five-star show-stopper, but it has plenty of plus points thanks to plasma technology (deep blacks, responsiveness, wide viewing angles, no clouding, perfect display consistency).
OUR SCORE
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