LG HB965TZ and HB45E: Christmas Blu-ray home cinema with LG

Az LG We won’t be able to say too much about the HB45E’s menu system, as it’s virtually the same as the one presented on the HB965TZ, and many more LG products use it.

There is a menu bar in the ice cubes, which is somewhat animated, so it is also friendlier for plasmas. It is possible to play and display movies, music and pictures in the same way, and of course the Home Link and NetCast menu items are not missing either. With the former, we can stream over the network, and with the latter, we can access online content, i.e. Youtube, Picasa, and AccuWheater. The input menu item is not poor this time either, in addition to HDMI we can find almost everything in it: FM Radio, iPod on, AUX, portable, optical in 1, optical in 2. The settings window also returns as a friend if you have a problem with the English language, let's quickly visit the LANG option in it, where we can already switch to Hungarian.

You may want to take a few minutes to adjust the DISPLAY and SOUND settings, leaving the aspect ratio 16: 9 original, the resolution set to Auto or 1080p, the 1080p display to 24 Hz, and the HDMI color setting to RGB. Since we only have two speakers and a subwoofer, adjusting the speaker positions isn’t as important as it is with the 5.1 system, but for the sake of accuracy, it doesn’t hurt to shoot, anyway, just a few clicks. Since we’ve already demonstrated all the networking and networking capabilities of the HB965TZ, we’ve focused on only one thing with the HB45E, its main task, which is bluray playback.

The drive sniffs the disc nicely, easily, this time again as Terminator Salvation. After that, the unit initializes the disc, and a few seconds later the movie starts. In terms of picture quality and playback capability, we got the same sense as the HB965TZ, but we were more interested in how surround sound is realized with LG's rotatable speakers. There was absolutely no problem with the volume, the two - relatively small standing speakers - could mobilize enough energy, and the subwoofer would be plenty enough, maybe even smaller, enough for the set.

Well, let's see how this surround sound developed? Judging this is subjective beyond certain limits, but some things can still be said objectively. Of course, no one should expect the same sound effects as a 5.1 system, a 2.1 set will never be able to solve this. Since there is no sound source behind us, it is not very interesting to expect sounds from there, but something is really perceptible from the direction of the TV. 

The HB45E offers clearly more sound than a traditional 2.1 system, although the sounds come from the front, not just from two fixed points, but thanks to the rotated speakers, we feel like they are coming from multiple directions. It’s definitely more pleasant and exciting than two plain front speakers, but it’s not a huge miracle to expect. For anyone who doesn’t want to use rear speakers but wants more than an average 2.1, you might want to think about it.

There is nothing left but the summary and prices, we continue on the next page!