Black: 0.023
White: 40.33
Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio: 1,754:1

Except as noted, all of the measurements here were taken with the LG in Expert1 mode, with the Energy Saving off.

The full-on/full-off contrast ratio here is respectable but not exceptional for a modern flat-panel display. Apart from price, the latest LCD displays with local dimming are nipping at the heels of all plasmas (apart from the now discontinued Pioneer KUROs). One positive note here, for some viewers, is that the LG’s usable brightness is relatively high for a plasma, particularly one of this size.

If you switch on the Energy Saving feature, the peak white level drops, but the black level remains the same, which decreases the contrast ratio.

At the Minimum Energy Saving setting (the least aggressive), the peak white level drops to 32 foot-lamberts, and the full-on/full-off contrast ratio decreases to 1,392:1. When I compared the LG with the Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-141FD, I had to use this Minimum Energy Saving setting to match the two sets’ brightness; the Pioneer’s peak white level hovers around 30 ft-L.

The Before Calibration chart shows the color tracking in the THX mode. The After Calibration chart shows the best result obtained on the second day of the calibration process, after I redid the 20-step calibration from the first day to bring it back into line. As you can see, it is exceptional, with a Delta E below 2.0 everywhere except at 50 IRE, where it was 2.2. (Delta E is a measurement of how close a display is to the D6500 standard—a value below 3 or 4 is generally considered ideal.) But if you choose to have the set professionally calibrated, we recommend that you put a minimum of 300 hours of normal use on the set to ensure reasonably stable results.

The white triangle on the CIE chart above shows the LG’s color gamut in the Standard setting; the black triangle is the HD color gamut standard. As noted in the review, the color management system could not correct for the LG’s excessive color saturation, particularly in green. It also had problems with consistency at different signal levels. I left the color management off in my viewing (all controls at zero).—TJN