49'' LG NanoCell 49SM9000PLA... thoughts?

Legend · 2 Sep 2020 at 17:59

Giving consideration to this as I need something bigger than 32", and the 43" high refresh options are all VA and have issues I'd rather not contend with, plus are rather expensive. This LG 49" does tick a lot of boxes, high refresh and HDMI 2.1 is certainly a bonus and not something any monitor currently has, nor is likely to anytime soon, and definitely not at this price point (£700 on a certain rainforest site).

Curious if anyone has gone this route or is also considering it? I'm not clear on the VRR functionality and if this will actually function with the new 30xx GPUs or not, given they do have HDMI 2.1.

https://www.lg.com/uk/tvs/lg-49SM9000PLA

Ian Evey · 2 Sep 2020 at 19:35

Hi pal, all I can say is that my 55” LG nano cell something something 8xxxpla 2018 model I think, is far superior image quality wise and smoothness that I have seen on any display, unless you spend a lot more for top quality monitor.

Mine only does 120hz at 1080p and 60hz at 1440p and 4K with HDMI 1.4 I think but even at 4K 60hz it looks brilliant.

Legend · 2 Sep 2020 at 21:06

Ian Evey said:
Hi pal, all I can say is that my 55” LG nano cell something something 8xxxpla 2018 model I think, is far superior image quality wise and smoothness that I have seen on any display, unless you spend a lot more for top quality monitor.

Mine only does 120hz at 1080p and 60hz at 1440p and 4K with HDMI 1.4 I think but even at 4K 60hz it looks brilliant.

What's the backlight on that one you have? I've seen some people mention blooming as a result of the FALD, but I think that can be turned off. I'm certainly fed up with crappy LCD monitors at exorbitant prices. For what you get for £700 with the LG 49", it doesn't seem a bad deal. I'm not prepared to pay twice the price for an LG OLED as I will be using this for a lot of work tasks and mixed gaming occasionally, so I'd be far more susceptible to burn-in with OLED given my use case. I have a 55" B9 in my bedroom anyway, so I really don't need another in my office. LCD and preferably IPS is best for my needs there.

brendy · 2 Sep 2020 at 21:24

I have one, it may be going back after 8 months as it has a strange susceptibility to blink for a second and lose audio for the same brief moment. When piped through my Onkyo receiver the sound continues but the picture still blips. Oddly it happens when a device in the area is powered on or off. The picture def has the bloom effect when on a dark screen with an area of light. I'll take a pic or two.
The viewing angle is pretty good though and connectivity ticks most boxes, I had some trouble getting ARC to work but decided to use fibre optic instead.

Legend · 2 Sep 2020 at 21:31

brendy said:
I have one, it may be going back after 8 months as it has a strange susceptibility to blink for a second and lose audio for the same brief moment. When piped through my Onkyo receiver the sound continues but the picture still blips. Oddly it happens when a device in the area is powered on or off. The picture def has the bloom effect when on a dark screen with an area of light. I'll take a pic or two.
The viewing angle is pretty good though and connectivity ticks most boxes, I had some trouble getting ARC to work but decided to use fibre optic instead.

Thanks. You can turn the dimming off though can't you? I've realised the model on the rainforest is actually a slightly different one, the 49NANO866NA, which features local dimming not FALD. I've seen reports of the blooming on both though, and it being recommended to turn it off. Also, I notice the 49NANO866NA has the Gen 3 Processor over the Gen 2 in the 49SM9000PLA, but not sure what difference that could make.

brendy · 2 Sep 2020 at 21:35

Legend said:
Thanks. You can turn the dimming off though can't you? I've realised the model on the rainforest is actually a slightly different one, the 49NANO866NA, which features local dimming not FALD. I've seen reports of the blooming on both though, and it being recommended to turn it off. Also, I notice the 49NANO866NA has a the Gen 3 Processor over the Gen 2 in the 49SM9000PLA, but not sure what difference that could make.

I think if I could go again I'd pucker up and find the extra for an oled, certainly our next tv will be one.

Ian Evey · 2 Sep 2020 at 22:01

Legend said:
What's the backlight on that one you have? I've seen some people mention blooming as a result of the FALD, but I think that can be turned off. I'm certainly fed up with crappy LCD monitors at exorbitant prices. For what you get for £700 with the LG 49", it doesn't seem a bad deal. I'm not prepared to pay twice the price for an LG OLED as I will be using this for a lot of work tasks and mixed gaming occasionally, so I'd be far more susceptible to burn-in with OLED given my use case. I have a 55" B9 in my bedroom anyway, so I really don't need another in my office. LCD and preferably IPS is best for my needs there.

Yeah it has local dimming which is annoying so I have had it off since I bought it, It doesn’t suffer with blooming and since I use my work laptop on it for work stuff it handles desktop stuff and work apps really well.

gaming is great on it tbh and if I had the space it would be on my man bedroom wall.

Just checked and it is an 55sk8100pla manufactured 01/2019 ips model and by no means top range but coming from a plasma tv early last year I was very surprised how good it was for the money.