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LG DI-28z12 28" Widescreen Digital TV

I purchased this LG television during March of 2000. I was in the market for a Wide Screen TV but was going to wait a little while until I had sorted out my listening room to accommodate it.

As luck would have it, I received a flyer from Sky TV promoting a special deal for current subscribers to upgrade to a 28" WideScreen TV with a SKY digital subscription. Naturally, as the TV had previously been retailing for £1099 I jumped at the chance to buy it for £599.

The TV itself comes complete with a high quality TV Cabinet from Alphason Designs. They are commonly known as a manufacturer of Speaker Stands and Hi-Fi Racks.

The dish that is used for SKY Digital is a mini-dish and is a 45cm elliptical dish. The dish is supplied and installed by SKY when you take out a subscription with them.

Review from T3 Magzine

LG Electronics DI-28Z12 TV

Although the Holy Grail of my home entertainment future is one little black box that does everything, chances are that any fully-specced joy system of today will be cluttered by five of the buggers - video recorder, DVD player, next generation game console, digital amp and satellite decoder/receiver. And with only so many SCART sockets to go around, not to mention shelf-space in your DIY TV cabinet, it's unsurprising that they've chosen to combine the separate elements of tomorrow's technology into one space-saving, socket-freeing package.

Enter LG's DI-28Z12, one of the first IDTV's (integrated digital televisions) to combine a widescreen TV with a built-in digital satellite receiver. A joint venture between Korean electronics colossus LG and king of the set-top box Pace, this 28-inch package claims that one box (and consequently one remote control) is better than two.

Bulky and finished in trim, civil servant grey, the LG's hi-tech guts are squeezed into a curvy plastic shell, featuring speakers at the front and the side to take advantage of a built-in pseudo surround mode that can give the sound a meatier NICAM echo. At the back, a sparse array of socketry includes two SCARTs and RF Stereo in and outs, while below it, the rear of the embedded Sky box has an RS-232 interface (for future computer connections) and a phone socket. Around the front, the plastic flap conceals the important Sky mechanics - slots for the Viewing card and Interactive card, EPG-navigation buttons, composite video/audio inputs and an S-Video socket.

If you're a first-time buyer, some burly, helpful engineer will make sure that everything works when he installs your dish. Transferring from a TV with a set-top box to this combo model is as simple as swapping the leads and plugging in the Viewing Card. The satellite automatically downloads the channels and the program listings, setting the EPG up for 16:9 operation without you having to fiddle with any of the controls. And, naturally, with a two-in-one TV, you get a two-in-one remote. The button layout is slightly cluttered, but it handles well, controlling TV operations, teletext and satellite browsing. If anything, it's one less to lose down the back of the sofa.

If I have one gripe, it's with the picture quality. The LG has five picture formats: Automatic, which switches automatically between 4:3 and 16:9 transmissions when it detects them; a 4:3 mode; a 16:9 mode (allowing you to stretch a 4:3 picture to fit the screen); plus two Zoom modes (the first chopping off the top and bottom of the picture to avoid the full-screen stretching of the 16:9 mode, the second performing the same function as Zoom 1 but shunting the picture up for subtitles. You get the picture). Yet in all of them, the quality of the images is slightly grainy on both terrestrial and satellite broadcasts. The fuzz clears up somewhat in 4:3 mode but remains disappointingly hazy in 16:9. DVD playback, however, is much better, with richer colours and greater sharpness. But then, you'd expect it to be.

Admittedly, the LG sounds like the ultimate satellite package - a 16:9 screen with Sky's cutting edge digital sat-box built in. What lets it down is the dinky 28-inch screen and the noticeably speckled picture quality. On the plus side, the screen size trade-off keeps the price down. But I can't help feeling that, if you're serious about your next home cinema system, an extra box and a bigger screen is the better solution. Or at least it is until somebody combines a satellite digibox with a 32 or 36-inch TV.

Review reproduced from T3 Magazine

http://www.t3.co.uk/visual/review.asp?id=45

Review from Home Entertainment Magazine (UK)

LG has a reputation for setting its own agenda. So it's no surprise that while other makers developed TVs with built-in digital terrestrial decoders, LG, with British company Pace, worked on a TV with a built-in receiver for SkyDigital. In many ways it has proved a master-stroke, as LG has avoided the teething problems associated with the launch of digital terrestrial, yet capitalised on the UK's healthy appetite for digital satellite. The number of punters who have signed up to SkyDigital since November is nearly a quarter-of-a-million, and with more and more people converting from analogue satellite, LG has a potential market of millions.

The screen is fairly flat and flanked by two large speakers that are recessed back and angled out. There's an enormous space underneath the screen that features a pull-down flap. Tug it and you'll discover a pair of smart-card slots (one for the Sky viewing card, the other for an 'interactive' card), and the usual sockets and basic controls.

Check out the rear and you'll find a pair of Scarts and stereo phono outputs as well as standard satellite connectors: inputs for a dish, phone and a satellite-out socket that hooks up the decoder to a VCR.

Switch the set on, and if your dish is correctly installed the TV defaults to Sky. Flick the TV/AV button and the set busies itself tuning in all the terrestrial stations for you. The menu system is quite a novelty. It features a hand with a pointy-finger that takes you through the options for picture, sound and features. Picture features all the basics, contrast, brightness etc, while sound has treble and bass adjustments plus an Ultra Bass Booster and a surround option. The bass mode has very little impact on the sound, although the surround is good for widening the soundstage. The features list is brief offering a child lock, a sleep timer and the chance to adjust the picture's tilt. Incidentally there's no picture noise reduction system - so if you are watching dodgy images from a crusty old videotape you're stuck with the picture you see.

If you want to experiment with picture formats there are four options; 4:3, 16:9, Zoom 1 (magnifies the 4:3 image to fill screen, losing the top and bottom of the picture) and Zoom 2 (similar to Zoom 1 although the picture is shifted upwards so you can read subtitles).

In addition to the basic TV controls the set also accesses SkyDigital's impressive programme guide. To enter this involves operating the buttons, which are sited in a crescent above the remote's other main controls. The SkyDigital programme guide is a breeze to use and works brilliantly in making 200 stations seem very accessible. Any lingering reservations we had about the set's picture are blown away when you see the SkyDigital images - they really are quite superb. You can flick through the channels and unless you get right close up to the set you won't notice any pixellation or digital smearing. The only drawback the set has is that there is some slight bleeding between the colours. This isn't limited to digital pictures either as it was repeated on some of the analogue images. On the whole colours are bright and vivid and skin-tones look natural from both analogue and digital transmissions. The only other bugbear is that currently SkyDigital only has a limited amount of widescreen programming, so you have to rely on one of the stretch modes taking a 4:3 image and filling the screen.

The set has a fairly good sound system. There isn't a great deal of bass, even with Ultra Bass activated, but the speakers really fill the room. The surround mode further widens the soundstage. In many ways this is an excellent set, and anyone investing in SkyDigital would do well to investigate it.

Digital and analogue tuners * Nicam Stereo * Various picture format options * Sleep timer * Child lock * Fastext * Pseudo Surround * Ultra Bass * NTSC playback

Rear 2x Scart * Digital and analogue RF * Modem * Dish input * Sky output Front AV input * S-Video * Headphones * Twin-card slots

Review reproduced from

http://www.home-entertainment.co.uk/reviews/79_printrev.html

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Main TV Features

28" Widescreen - No more cropping of picture to fit 4:3 format screens

Super Flat Tube - Less picture reflection and distortiom

MPEG / Nicam - CD Quality Sound

16:9 / 4:3 Switching - Automatic switching according to signal

Fast text - Near instant access to teletext pages

Front S-Video and A/V input sockets - Easier A/V connection to camcorders etc.

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Digital Features

Digital Satellite receiver - Receive free-to-air and non subscription channels, Sky digital and pay-per-view services

Built-in modem - Access to various interactive services
eg. OPEN.... for shopping, banking, e-mails and video games etc.
Electronic Programme Guide - Quick and easy navigation through the digital TV channels.
3 in 1 remote - Convenience of one remote for TV, Sky Digital and an LG VCR

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Other TV Features