Larger TV-DVD Combos

The best choices for living rooms and family rooms

Among 26-inch TV-DVD player combos, we saw the best reports for the 26-inch Sharp LC-26DV24U. It garners good to great user reviews at Amazon.com. However, while the amount of user feedback is a little lower, buyers at BestBuy.com are less happy. Sound quality and slow channel changing (a common problem with all digital televisions, especially compared with their analog predecessors) are chief complaints. A few BestBuy.com customers also report that their TVs failed after a year or two, although its not clear if those reviewers are commenting about this specific TV as it has not been available that long.

Features-wise, the Sharp LC-26DV24U has a lot in common with its 22-inch sibling, with one notable exception. At 1,366 pixels by 768 pixels, the native resolution is actually lower. That's not an issue for watching HDTV or DVDs at 720p resolution (again, that's fine for screen sizes this small), but those who plan to use this TV-DVD combo as a computer monitor might not be as happy.

Despite their popularity with the public, most TV-DVD player combos get little respect -- and coverage -- from professional reviewers. The exception to that is the 32-inch LG 32LG40 (*Est. $635). This TV-DVD player combo receives fairly positive and lengthy reviews from CNet.com and PC Magazine. Though some shortfalls are found compared to the very best LCD TVs, there are enough positives to earn the set good overall ratings.

CNet.com has the best review and rates the TV a respectable 3.5 out of five stars. Color accuracy and screen uniformity (absence or presence of bright spots or variations in color intensity) are excellent. Black levels, which are important for getting the most cinematic image quality when watching movies, don't stand up well to some of the set's 32-inch competition, but those TVs also lack built-in DVD players. Additionally, CNet.com's Matthew Moskovciak prefers the image quality of the LG 32LG40 overall. PC Magazine reaches similar conclusions, but adds that the light blacks -- and the not-so-hot contrast ratio that results -- mean performance is best in a well-lit room -- such as a typical living room or family room -- rather than a darkened home theater.

While most TV-DVD player combos are Spartan affairs in terms of user controls and features, the LG 32LG40 is relatively rich in options. Connectivity is good, with three HDMI inputs, and those are compatible with 1,080p 24-frame-per-second video that's output by many Blu-ray players. The 24 fps frame rate is the same that's used to record movies and many TV shows shot originally on film, and using it on that type of content improves picture quality and reduces picture flaws. All images are scaled by the TV to its native 1,366-by-768-pixel resolution.

Color accuracy is good right out of the box, and the abundance of picture controls make it possible to fine-tune even further. "Its consistent, accurate color reproduction ranks among the best that I've seen in an LCD," writes PC Magazine's Robert Heron. CNet.com benchmarks the internal DVD with an external player and could find no image quality differences, though the fussiest of videophiles will note some image imperfections regardless of the image source. For the rest of us, CNet.com says that the DVD picture quality is "perfectly fine for casual viewing." User reviews are not extensive, but those at Amazon.com are impressive.

LG also offers this set in a 26-inch version as the LG 26LG40 (*Est. $560). The smaller version of the TV has not been professionally reviewed, and there's not a lot of user feedback, but what we've seen has been surprisingly negative given how well the 32-inch LG 32LG40 has been received.