Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After reading all the five star reviews of this set, it seems about half of them are dubious. This TV gets on average one to two new reviews a day, unless there is a negative one. After posting this review last night, 8 new reviews quickly followed with 6 of those also being dubious. It seems like a pattern where numerous five star reviews are quickly posted with similar abbreviated comments after a negative one is submitted. It seems that reviews are being monitored for negative input and questionable five star reviews are posted in quick response to keep the overall rating high. Still, there were enough valid positive reviews to believe this is a good set - just take the high number of five star reviews with a grain of salt. When I saw this TV on sale for $598 I decided to take a chance. Unfortunately, there were three issues: There are light shadows in the four corners when light backgrounds are displayed. Minor shadowing in this price range is not uncommon and I don't expect perfection at this price. I just don't want it to be distracting. However, there was noticeable banding on the left and right side of the screen. This is due to poor quality control in the backlight and gives the effect of two shadow bars running from top to bottom about two inches inside the panel. In white backgrounds I could even see banding running across the top and bottom, in effect creating a rectangular shadow inside the panel. The banding is not noticeable with darker backgrounds or when the screen display is still. However, it is very noticeable when the image moves quickly to the left or right on light backgrounds such as grass fields at sporting events. It gives the impression the bands are moving along with the camera as it pans across the field. Minor banding is also not uncommon in this price range, but this was too distracting to ignore and the main reason I returned the TV. I had this same issue with a LG set I returned a couple of years ago. Last is the stand. Rather than a centered stand in the middle of the TV with a large base, LG for some reason decided that having two cheap and flimsy legs on the outer edges of the panel would be a good idea. They can't cost more than ten cents to manufacture so it was obviously a cost cutter. To compound matters, the feet are almost 47 inches apart on a 55 inch model so unless you plan to use a wall mount, you will need a base at least 50 inches or wider to set this on and it still seems wobbly. To compound matters further, the ports on the back of the set are pretty much right in the middle where most wall mounts connect so don't assume any wall mount will let you make all the connections you need. I don't understand why any manufacturer would limit user options like the design of this set does. It seems like HDTV purchases are a panel lottery as many manufacturers use multiple suppliers in different countries. So I'm not saying this is a bad TV overall as many people are obviously very satisfied. It's more likely I just got a bad panel. It's too bad because the picture on this set is very good. When I returned the TV I was offered the option of the LG55LN5400 in exchange (this is the 2013 model of the LB5900). Since this was convenient and pretty much the same TV, I decided to give LG one more try. To this point I have had no panel issues with shadows or banding. The picture quality is the same as the LB5900, it comes with a conventional center based stand, and the ports on the back are positioned to one side so almost any wall mount will work. So far so good. UPDATE: Unfortunately the LG55LN5400 also began to have problems and was ultimately returned. The two biggest issues were motion blur and inconsistent color settings. If you don't watch sports the motion blur may not be an issue but it was distracting for any sporting event when the camera had to follow fast action. And though I could adjust the settings to get a sometimes incredible image for a certain program, those settings did not seem to carry over to other channels and/or programs which would often force me to have to re-adjust the picture settings when I would change channels. I have tried three different LG TV's over the last three years and ended up returning all of them. The first set in 2012 had the same motion blur and setting issues as the newer 2013 model. So I'm done with LG as they really need to improve their quality control. The LG TV's are priced below their competitors but you get what you pay for. In regards to all the dubious reviews for this TV: a few months ago I was looking at the LG 55LB5900 on Amazon and there were approximately 75-80 reviews. I checked back the next day and the reviews had increased to over 230. In one day. The same thing happened on the same day with the LG 55LN5400. It jumped from something like 45 reviews to approximately 235 overnight. And the new reviews had posting over several months rather than the date they were posted on Amazon. I have no idea how this gets past Amazon but it seems obvious LG has something to do with it and that makes me even less likely to consider their products in the future.