SETUP
LX6500 Series sets lack the THX-approved picture preset found on LG's more expensive LX9500 Series TVs. What they do offer is an ISF Expert mode with enough advanced adjustments to dial in a picture that even THX would approve of. The good news here is that there are two separate Expert mode memories, so you can set one for day and the other for night viewing. The not-so-good news is that you'll need to hire an actual ISF calibrator to get the LG to deliver pictures that adhere to ISF (and, for that matter, THX) standards.

I started out my evaluation of the 47LX6500 with its Cinema picture preset selected. A Picture Wizard feature helps you make custom picture adjustments, although using a setup Blu-ray like Spears &' Munsil High-Definition Benchmark or Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics will deliver more accurate results. The color temperature menu in the TV's ISF Expert mode provides a 10-point adjustment option that allows for more precise grayscale calibration than you get with most other TVs, and there are also extensive Color Management System adjustments to tweak primary and secondary colors. Using these controls, I was able to get the LG's color looking near perfect.

Any adjustments that you make in either the 47LX6500's picture presets or its two Expert modes can be stored separately for each input. Advanced picture options also include Gamma (High, Medium, and Low), Black Level (High and Low), and Color Gamut settings (Standard and Wide, EBU, SMPTE, and BT.709). You can also switch LED local dimming on or off, though I'd recommend leaving it on since picture contrast is seriously diminished with that feature turned off.

The LG's options for dealing with 3D are limited. You can't access any picture adjustments when the set is in 3D display mode, although you can switch between the TV's Cinema, Standard, and Game presets. Video from the Bluray 3D discs that I watched was automatically displayed in the correct "frame sequential" mode. (LG's CD-only manual also details options to manually select top-and-bottom, side-byside, and checkerboard 3D formats, although I didn't check these out.) A Left/Right setting is also accessible via a remote control button that, according to the manual, can be used to show "3D video with better visibility."