PERFORMANCE

The LG's accurate color helped make the few sunlit outdoor scenes from The Dark Knight look incredibly realistic when I watched them on Blu-ray. For instance, in a shot where the Joker (Heath Ledger) flees a bank heist in a school bus, I could see subtle differences between the yellow hue of the bus and that of passing taxicabs as they crept along Gotham's streets. And in a later scene where Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) hands Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) a sonar-equipped cellphone outside a Hong Kong office tower, the skin tones of both Wayne and Fox looked natural, and the bold green-and-red sign- age behind them appeared well balanced with the other colors.

As anticipated, the LG 47LG90's local-dimming feature helped deliver satisfying black levels in The Dark Knight's nighttime scenes. Shadow detail was very good. When I scrutinized a shot where Batman prepares to abduct Lau (Chin Han) from his high-rise office at night, I could easily make out details in the Caped Crusader's black suit as he crouched in the darkness. But I also noted an occasional "halo" effect in pictures where a bright white object appeared against a black background, such as movie titles and the Jupiter Mission scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey. This effect stems from the local dimming. With high-contrast shots like those found in 2001, the backlight processing sometimes falls short of crisply resolving stark black/white transitions. (To put things in perspective, I also saw this issue on a Sony XBR8 LCD that I recently tested, though to a lesser degree. And 2001 notwithstanding, I rarely found myself distracted by it.)

While the LG's picture looked fairly crisp on most programs I watched, the edge enhancement issue I noted during setup also resulted in the set lacking that last measure of sharpness I've come to expect from 1080p-rez TVs. And I found that the TruMotion anti-judder processing made the action in film-based programs look unnatural at both its High and Low settings, with the High mode sometimes introducing a slight picture break-up.

One area where the 47LG90 did have a clear advantage over other LED-backlit LCDs I've checked out was its viewing angle. I could slide over to one side of my couch (about 15º from the center axis) and not see an appreciable drop-off in picture contrast with the LG. The set displayed excellent screen uniformity with both test patterns and regular programs. And its noise-reduction processing proved effective in cleaning up noisy analog cable-TV pictures at its high, medium, and low settings. But upconversion of standard-def material was just average, with regular DVDs looking relatively soft.

BOTTOM LINE

With its 47LG90, LG brings a reasonably priced offering to the still dauntingly expensive LED-backlit LCD TV scene. Although I was disappointed by this set's intrusive edge enhancement, which limited its overall picture resolution, its accurate color, wide-ranging picture adjustments, and strong contrast - even at off-center seats - make it a compelling flat-panel TV option for those inclined to choose LCD over plasma.