LG 32DL655H review: input lag, deinterlacing and upscaling using the piLagTesterPRO
Image quality
Good upscaling is critical for retro gaming. Ideally, all pixels should appear equally sharp and bright (no aliasing), and angled lines should appear smooth, with no jagged, irregular steps. Also important is that the display shows most or all of the pixels it is sent. Often, this is not the case, with some number of pixels cropped from the bottom or top edges. Shockingly, these tests are relevant for modern gaming as well, because even at their native resolution many TVs have aliasing and cropping.
resolution | |
| 480p/i | 480i cropped but decent upscaling A-480p cropped with noticeable softness AND ringing, noticeably less good than 480i, but no aliasing. B- |
| 720p | bad aliasing at 720p (supposed native) but no cropping if selecting just scan. Allowing cropping does not improve the aliasing, just changes it. Seems to have an "intelligent" upscaler which converts 1-pxiel wide lines gray blur some of the time but not always. C+ |
| 1080p | Although above the native resolution this actually looks a bit better than 720p. |
The display has 2 HDMI ports. I neglected to check if it has more as it's such a terrible TV. Likewise I'm not bothering to upload a photo of it's upscaling results.
Input Lag
I used a piLagTesterPRO to measure input lag. This device sends a frame of video over HDMI and measures how long it takes to display it. This display does not have a game mode; just a game 'color' preset that does not impact lag at all. I toggled all the display quality settings and did not see a consistent effect on lag, however the tests reported are with every "enhancement" set to off.
Complicating things significantly, this is yet another display that does not actually sync refresh to the input signal - instead it fills its own internal frame buffer from the video input and then draws that with an additional delay that is randomly determined each time you turn on the set or switch inputs, and slowly changes over time. Take one example, input lag for 720p can vary from 28.4ms to 43.0ms. What you get seems to be entirely up to chance. It can't even properly synchronize the display of this buffer with the refresh rate of the input: it drifts out of sync every 10 seconds or so and has to drop or double a frame, no matter what the input refresh rate (60 or 59.94). Who knows what actual refresh rate this junk uses.
I've elected to report the average lag values here, since that seems fairest, but there's no right answer; for more discussion of this issue see the above link. It's worth noting however, that this kind of changing lag is the hardest for your brain/hands to adapt to. I'd much rather have an extra 16ms of fixed lag added to the display than one like this where sometimes the extra lag is 0, and sometimes it's 16ms.
Input Lag Test Results
I report two kinds of values. 1st response measures how long it takes for the TV to start responding (I use a 5% change in display brightness). This overly optimistic value doesn't tell how long it takes to see anything useful, but matches what other reviewers call input lag. full response is a more realistic measure of lag, and requires the display to reach 80% of full brightness. This combines both input lag and response time, and is closer to what you would actually experience in a game.
| top | bottom | ||||
| Resolution | 1st resp. min | 1st resp. (average) | full response | 1st response | full response |
| 480i | 74.8 | 81.8 | 90.8 | 96.8 | 105.8 |
| 480p | 28 | 35.0 | 44.0 | 50.0 | 59.0 |
| 720p | 28 | 35.0 | 44.0 | 50.0 | 59.0 |
| 1080p | 28 | 35.0 | 44.0 | 50.0 | 59.0 |
The 1st response min column shows the lowest lag measured over several minutes, but as discussed above this is far from typical and so instead all the rest of the columns refer to the average lag.
ALSO: That's some really slow deinterlacing. At least the response time is reasonable, at 9ms.
Results compared to other displays
To allow quick comparison between many displays I've summarized the results across all the displays I've personally tested with the piLagTester Pro. Min lag is the time to the first response, measured where the screen starts drawing (typically, the top); real lag is the time to the full response, measured where drawing finishes (usually the screen bottom), i.e. input lag + scan out + response time. Numbers in red denote average values that can vary by up to 8ms between power cycles.
| Display | Year made (TV?) | Native Res | native min lag | native real lag | 480i real lag | 480p real lag | 720p real lag | 1080p real lag | native response time | native scan out |
| Dell E198FPb | 2008 | 1024p | 2.7 | 20.4 | 39.0 | 35.0 | 5.00 | 12.70 | ||
| Planar PLN2200 | 2021 | 1080p | 2.4 | 22.6 | 24.1 | 23.3 | 22.9 | 22.8 | 5.00 | 15.17 |
| Samsung 2494sw | 2011 | 1080p | 2.8 | 22.7 | 26.5 | 26.5 | 26.5 | 8.00 | 13.30 | |
| Vizio VO370M | 2010 | 1080p | 2.5 | 23.6 | 83.0 | 49.0 | 47.0 | 24.3 | 5.47 | 15.67 |
| Dell S199WFP | 2009 | 900p | 3.6 | 24.2 | 28.5 | 27.8 | 27.3 | 27.1 | 8.00 | 12.60 |
| Dell E228WFP | 2010 | 1050p | 3.0 | 24.2 | 26.5 | 26.7 | 5.00 | 16.90 | ||
| LG W1953T | 2010 | 768p | 2.6 | 25.6 | 28.7 | 28.7 | 10.00 | 13.00 | ||
| Dell U2410 (game) | 2010 | 1080p | 4.0 | 26.2 | 62.2 | 28.3 | 26.5 | 26.5 | 6.00 | 16.20 |
| TCL 40S325 | 2021 | 1080p | 6.5 | 27.3 | 60.6 | 29.0 | 27.9 | 27.7 | 6.00 | 14.83 |
| TCL 49s403 | 2018 | 4k | 6.1 | 30.2 | 76.8 | 30.9 | 30.3 | 30.7 | 8.00 | 16.13 |
| AOC/Envision G19LWK | 2010 | 900p | 3.1 | 31.2 | 39.5 | 38.7 | 38.4 | 37.8 | 15.50 | 12.60 |
| Dell E2211H | 2014 | 1080p | 3.0 | 33.6 | 34.7 | 34.5 | 34.1 | 33.8 | 15.00 | 15.57 |
| Panasonic TH-58PE75U | 2008 | 720p | 28.0 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 6.00 | 0.00 |
| Dell 1907FPc | 2008 | 1024p | 3.0 | 34.0 | 35.9 | 34.8 | 15.00 | 16.00 | ||
| Panasonic TH-42PX75U | 2008 | 720p | 28.0 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 6.00 | 0.00 |
| Panasonic TH-50PZ80U | 2008 | 720p | 28.0 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 6.00 | 0.00 |
| Corprit D157 (hdmi) | 2021 | 1080p | 3.1 | 34.5 | 34.9 | 34.8 | 34.6 | 33.9 | 16.25 | 15.13 |
| Samsung S27C230 | 2014 | 1080p | 2.9 | 36.0 | 36.6 | 36.1 | 36.1 | 18.10 | 14.97 | |
| Vizio E470VL (vga) | 2011 | 1080p | 22.0 | 39.0 | 39.0 | 39.0 | 39.0 | 9.00 | 8.00 | |
| Samsung LN32D403 | 2012 | 720p | 20.9 | 41.2 | 58.9 | 42.4 | 40.7 | 40.7 | 5.50 | 14.83 |
| TCL50s423 | 2021 | 4k | 14.0 | 42.0 | 75.0 | 42.0 | 42.0 | 42.0 | 13.00 | 15.00 |
| Dell U2410 (sRGB) | 2010 | 1080p | 20.5 | 42.8 | 62.4 | 45.0 | 43.1 | 43.1 | 6.13 | 16.13 |
| ACER AT3265 | 2012 | 1080p | 19.5 | 43.8 | 62.7 | 45.3 | 43.8 | 43.8 | 8.00 | 16.27 |
| sony XBR 43X800D | 2017 | 4k | 24.5 | 44.3 | 46.5 | 46.0 | 44.6 | 44.7 | 5.00 | 14.83 |
| Element elst5016s | 2017 | 1080p | 21.4 | 45.1 | 63.5 | 46.4 | 45.1 | 45.3 | 8.00 | 15.73 |
| RCA L40FHD41 | 2010 | 1080p | 20.3 | 46.6 | 65.0 | 48.0 | 47.0 | 46.0 | 9.68 | 16.63 |
| Sony 40VL130 (game) | 2008 | 1080p | 22.8 | 47.3 | 66.3 | 49.0 | 47.3 | 47.3 | 9.08 | 15.43 |
| Polaroid FLM-373B | 2007 | 720p | 28.0 | 49.0 | 82.0 | 49.0 | 49.0 | 49.0 | 7.00 | 14.00 |
| Philips 42PFL3603D/F7 | 2009 | 1080p | 29.0 | 50.0 | 84.0 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 5.00 | 16.00 |
| Sony KDL-40V3000 | 2008 | 1080p | 22.2 | 50.1 | 68.4 | 50.6 | 50.5 | 49.8 | 11.00 | 16.93 |
| LG 42LC2D | 2006 | 720p | 28.3 | 50.6 | 54.6 | 50.8 | 50.4 | 6.30 | 15.95 | |
| GPX TDE3245W | 2016 | 720p | 28.0 | 51.0 | 102.0 | 51.0 | 51.0 | 51.0 | 8.00 | 15.00 |
| Sony KDL-46EX400 | 2010 | 1080p | 28.0 | 52.0 | 87.0 | 52.0 | 52.0 | 52.0 | 8.00 | 16.00 |
| Toshiba 40L2200U | 2014 | 1080p | 30.0 | 56.0 | 74.0 | 56.0 | 56.0 | 56.0 | 10.00 | 16.00 |
| Vizio E261VA | 2012 | 720p | 19.3 | 59.0 | 61.1 | 60.4 | 59.2 | 58.9 | 25.00 | 14.67 |
| LG 32DL655H | 2012 | 720p | 35.0 | 59.0 | 105.8 | 59.0 | 59.0 | 59.0 | 9.00 | 15.00 |
| Emprex HD 3202 | 2007 | 720p | 27.0 | 66.0 | 126.0 | 51.0 | 50.0 | 62.0 | 24.00 | 15.00 |
| Samsung LN32B360 | 2010 | 720p | 37.6 | 60.0 | 62.1 | 61.8 | 60.5 | 60.1 | 8.00 | 14.40 |
| Vizio VO22L FHDTV10A | 2008 | 720p | 28.0 | 61.0 | 94.0 | 61.0 | 61.0 | 61.0 | 18.00 | 15.00 |
| Vizio E261VA | 2007 | 720p | 28.0 | 62.0 | 95.0 | 62.0 | 62.0 | 62.0 | 18.00 | 16.00 |
| Samsung P2570HD | 2010 | 1080p | 37.0 | 62.0 | 62.0 | 62.0 | 62.0 | 62.0 | 10.00 | 15.00 |
| Sharp LC-C3234U | 2009 | 720p | 33.0 | 64.6 | 83.6 | 66.6 | 64.6 | 15.00 | 16.60 | |
| Samsung LN46B610 | 2012 | 1080p | 53.0 | 66.0 | 82.0 | 66.0 | 66.0 | 66.0 | 5.00 | 8.00 |
| LG 42PT350 | 2012 | 1080p | 63.5 | 67.7 | 85.9 | 68.9 | 67.7 | 67.7 | 4.20 | 0.00 |
| Mitsubishi LT-46144 | 2008 | 1080p | 51.0 | 68.0 | 75.0 | 68.0 | 68.0 | 68.0 | 9.00 | 8.00 |
| Toshiba 46L5200U | 2013 | 1080p | 55.0 | 71.0 | 89.0 | 76.0 | 71.0 | 74.0 | 8.00 | 8.00 |
| Sony 40S20L1 | 2007 | 720p | 48.4 | 72.0 | 90.1 | 72.9 | 73.4 | 9.60 | 14.00 | |
| Samsung LN46C630 | 2012 | 1080p | 54.5 | 72.1 | 90.7 | 90.3 | 88.5 | 72.3 | 10.00 | 7.63 |
| SANYO DP50749 | 2010 | 720p | 67.0 | 75.0 | 103.0 | 94.0 | 79.0 | 75.0 | 7.00 | 1.00 |
| Samsung HP-T4254 | 2011 | 1080p | 69.7 | 75.7 | 94.1 | 76.0 | 75.7 | 5.00 | 1.00 | |
| LG 47LW6500-UA | 2012 | 1080p | 66.6 | 80.7 | 149.7 | 149.0 | 81.7 | 80.9 | 2.27 | 11.83 |
| Vizio E470VL (hdmi) | 2011 | 1080p | 69.0 | 86.0 | 128.0 | 95.0 | 95.0 | 86.0 | 9.00 | 8.00 |
| Vizio xvt4735v | 2011 | 1080p | 67.6 | 88.6 | 88.8 | 89.2 | 88.6 | 88.6 | 9.00 | 12.00 |
This list is sorted by real lag for each display's native resolution and max refresh rate (usually 1080p60 but some sets are 720p60, and other monitors support > 60hz). As you can see you have to scroll way down to find TVs as bad as this one and that's not even considering the variable lag issues.
Conclusion
This would be a poor choice for gaming of any type. It's fine as a TV watching TV shows or movies though.