Just bought this and must say I'm not impressed with the screen uniformity or blacks. It's got obvious DSE, pretty patchy, and a lot of light bleed all up the right side. I have noticed if I move a foot left or right the oppsotie side of the creen to direction I move, ie, move left, right side of screen gets lighter and blacks become light grey. Is this normal on LCD, coming from plasma, I just don't know.. Thinking of taking it back, but not sure if to sawp it, or go for the 7000 model instead? Or would an IPS panel like the Sony 828 suffer less from the head moving lightening effect? Besides this and the fact SD is barely watchable, I'm pretty happy with it!
As you're coming from a Plasma, I think you need to look a bit more in to the differences between LCD and Plasma.
Light bleed and DSE varies on each set so no two will ever be the same, I went through 3 to find one I was happy with and this one is great, however it still has DSE but not enough to bother me and no one else can see it, it's only on panning shots of the sky or light backgrounds, never evident in films.
Regarding Black levels off angle, I actually find this set very got for a VA panel, the black level is great but at night you really have to turn the backlight down to a. avoid burning your eyes out, b. keep the black levels at a good level... I use eco setting to auto dim with a min of 8 (night) and max of 15 (day). I never notice any black level shift during the day but with the lights off at night, yeah but this is a problem with LCD, just keep the backlight at a realistic level for the environment and you should be impressed! I admit I always keep a dim light on as in complete darkness LCD is never going to win any prizes.
Regarding the viewing angle, an IPS screen would be much better but your black level starts a lot higher so it'll look almost grey from the front which kind of defeats the object... however for colours IPS is much better off angle. Good luck with DSE on an LG LCD though
I think this is a great TV and think it's a good and fair review although maybe disagree with the DSE comments as it is there. I believe its direct competition would be the Sony W829 but with under saturated reds, half resolution 3D and slow boot-up response time it too has its faults.
Just remember this TV is incredibly cheap for everything it does and with the H7000 above it for around £300 - £400 more and 2" less, I didn't expect this TV to be perfect. The VA panel is on of the best out there and its only weakness for me is slight DSE and possible banding... Backlight bleed can be avoided by asking for a replacement, the Sony suffers this as well - I believe the H7000 has perfect backlight uniformity from reviews, but then again, mine is pretty much perfect (3rd set).