The ultimate executive desktop would not be complete without a snazzy widescreen LCD display—and the bigger the better. While many widescreen PC monitors do a fine job with spreadsheets and e-mail, they often fall short when it comes to video performance. Poor-quality video cards, monitors set for maximum brightness instead of maximum picture quality, and unpredictable DVD playback software often conspire to spoil DVD and HDTV pictures.

LG’s Information Technology (IT) products division solves this conundrum handily with its new line of widescreen LCD displays designed for both computer use and home entertainment systems. Our 32-inch review sample, while being the smallest of the new models (37-inch and 42-inch models are also available), might just be the best choice as an all-in-one desktop monitor for the executive suite.

Although the L3200TF hails from LG’s Information Technology (i.e., computer products) division, it carries a full suite of home-theater-friendly features, including an RS-232 connection for external control through a touchscreen. (Click image to enlarge)

A true HDTV-compatible display, the panel’s 1366-by-768-pixel resolution is typical of the breed, exceeding by a slight amount the 1280-by-720 resolution of progressive-scan HDTV. It can also handle PC screen resolutions all the way up to WXGA (also 1366 by 768). The maximum refresh rate of this monitor—the number of images it can show per second—is 75 hertz, putting it above many consumer models that often can provide refresh rates of only 60 hertz at that display resolution.

After I set my PC’s video card to output WXGA, which is the PC world’s equivalent of widescreen HDTV, the L3200TF puts up a bright and crisp desktop that provides substantially more useable workspace than my regular monitor, allowing me to see many more spreadsheet columns across the screen. The brightness and color are consistent from edge to edge and corner to corner, no doubt helped in part by the use of 20 individual fluorescent backlighting tubes to even out the light distribution.After testing the PC video quality, I connect the L3200TF to my A/V system’s progressive-scan DVD player. However, I set the player to output interlaced video in order to test the TV’s deinterlacing and upscaling functions. Here again the panel does a fine job—I notice a minimal amount of jagged edges on curved and angled objects in the picture, and see no moiré (artificial striped patterns) on test patterns and DVD scenes designed to reveal such flaws. Most notably, the detection of film-based (24 frames per second) material, and the conversion of this material to the 30 frames per second used for video, is quick to engage, indicating careful video engineering behind the panel’s elegant screen.

The L3200TF offers three different dual picture modes: picture-in-picture (PIP), picture-outside-picture (POP), and picture-beside-picture (PBP). I find the picture-in-picture useful only for overlaying video images on my PC desktop, and only when I use the largest of the three available window sizes. (Overlaying the PC desktop on a video image does not provide an image large enough for me to do any work.) The POP function works similarly, shrinking the main display to three-quarters of the original size and placing a small, second screen beside it, with empty black squares above and below.

LG wisely placed a rocker control (above) in the center of the L3200TF’s remote. Your thumb falls comfortably onto this control, which selects the channel, adjusts the volume, and navigates the TV’s on-screen menus. (Click image to enlarge)

The PBP function works best, but with a caveat—both images are squeezed, with more vertical picture space than horizontal for each image. By fiddling with my PC’s display settings, I am able to use the PBP function to watch video (squeezed, but usable) on one side of the screen and do word processing and e-mail on the other.

Other nice touches abound, including separate picture control settings for each input, as well as the ability to mix digital video (via DVI) from a PC and analog video with the PIP/POP/PBP modes. The DVI input is equipped with HDCP copy protection decryption, making it compatible with HDTV set-top boxes and other sources such as DVD players that upscale images from DVD to HDTV resolution. A TV tuner is built in, but it only receives standard-definition analog channels. For HDTV viewing, an outboard tuner or an HDTV PC tuner card will be needed.Of course, prior to critical evaluation, we check the monitor’s color accuracy, and here the L3200TF does not disappoint. We found that the grayscale color temperature remained fairly consistent from the dark grays up to the brightest white, with most measurement points very close to the ideal 6,500-degree-Kelvin color temperature. And it achieves this performance at the factory calibration settings; most LCD displays present blue-tinted grays and whites at the factory settings.

DVD movies look fine and HDTV even better, with good color quality and a crisp, vivid picture. The set handles dark grays (but not deep blacks) better than I expect. Detachable side-mounted speakers are provided, but as is nearly always the case, their audio performance is at best mediocre; you will be happier if you add a good external audio system.

LG has come up with an excellent dual-use PC/TV LCD monitor, one that will please both the computer expert and the home theater enthusiast. Executives, e-mail your company’s IT guy right now and get one of these on your desk!

DESCRIPTION
32-inch diagonal LCD flat-panel PC/HDTV display with swivel tabletop stand. Wall mount optional

DISPLAY CAPABILITIES
Native 16:9 widescreen panel displays 16:9 and 4:3 images; accepts 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and computer video up to WXGA resolution

RESOLUTION
1366 x 768 pixels

CONNECTIONS
Video: multiformat component video input (480i/480p/720p/1080i), 480i component video input, DB-15 PC input, S-video input, composite video input, RF input for TV tuner, DVI-D digital video input with HDCP, composite video output
Audio: stereo audio input via 3.5mm jack (for PC), RCA-type stereo audio input via RCA jacks
Control: 3.5 mm infrared input jack, RS-232 serial port for touchscreen control

DIMENSIONS
21.3 x 31.6 x 7.1 inches (hwd)

PRICE/CONTACT
PRICE: $3,499
CONTACT: 201.816.2000, lge.com