Digital Trends

LG RU-52SZ61D

September 9th, 2004 | by Dennis Barker

LG, who is one of the leading Korean CE manufacturers these days, has transformed itself from a commodity producer of inexpensive electronics products (Goldstar) into a high-tech innovator through its acquisition of Zenith Electronics.  Originally, LG stood for Lucky Goldstar.  Today, however, it has morphed into its “Life's Good” moniker.  And, it certainly is for this forward-thinking CE company of the 21^st century.  The days of cheap boomboxes and clock radios are gone in favor of cutting-edge cellular phones and high definition television products.  Utilizing Zenith's entire R&D prowess in the development in Digital Television and HDTV, LG now offers a complete line of television display and set-top box HD models — one of which is their new RU-52SZ61D.

Introduction

The LG RU-52SZ61D is a 52-in widescreen HDTV monitor (sans HD tuner which is offered separately) featuring DLP technology, which is an acronym for Digital Light Processing.  Basically, DLP is a special type of display device that has been developed by Texas Instruments (TI), and acts as a new type of optical display engine placed onto a semiconductor chip and is used in both front and rear projection television sets instead of traditional CRTs (cathode ray tubes) with a high-density light source (light bulb). 

The LG RU-52SZ610D includes twin NTSC television tuners (for regular TV broadcasts).  To receive high definition TV, simply add one of LG's several HD receivers: LST-4200A (ATSC over-the-air HD + QAM Cable HD Tuners), LSS-3200A (ATSC & DirecTV HD satellite tuners), LST-3410A (ATSC tuner w/120GB hard-drive PVR), and LST-3510A (ATSC tuner + DVD Player).  For this evaluation, the RU-52SZ61D was tethered via DVI to its LSS-3200A STB (set-top box).

Consumer DLP presently uses a single-chip design, which means no convergence problems (like CRT Television) or phosphor burn in problems (like plasma displays).  DLP projectors have the capability of displaying images up to HD quality of 1,280 x 720 pixels for true 720p (p = progressive) native HD resolution or simply 1080i.  LG's model RU-52SZ61D uses TI's HD2+ chip that offers an HD resolution of 1280x720 or 720p.  TI's HD-2+ optical semiconductor 16:9 chips use in excess of 1,300,000 digital microscopic mirrors (DMDs) that build a digital image by switching on/off more than 50,000 times a second via a digitally controlled light beam source. 

LG's RU-52SZ61D television looks more expensive than it really is