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[Woochifer]

Except for maybe certain TV's on a special display they are all generally fed off the same source. I know that LG is consistently under whelming to me. If you like their picture that's fine but I do not. If they're factory settings are set some how worse than other manufacturers set their's, then that's their fault.

Sorry, but that's just wrong. A factory setting is not the same as a calibrated setting. NO manufacturer out there would dare to produce a set that's calibrated to industry reference points out of the box. Why? Because a calibrated set simply will not stand out in a brightly lit retail showroom. EVERY manufacturer purposely sets the default settings with the brightness and sharpness dialed way up, and these default settings are wildly different from brand to brand and model to model. In order to do a proper comparison, you have to adjust the settings to account for that. Are you telling me that you would simply buy a TV, bring it home, and not adjust any of the settings? That's the only way that the factory settings would be any sort of valid comparison.

When I look at TV's in a show room I don't tweak them or ask if they've been calibrated.

If that's the case, then you're not making an informed assessment of a TV set's picture quality, since the factory settings are not an accurate indication of a TV's actual capability. Panasonic makes some of the best reviewed plasma TVs on the market, yet their sets require some of the biggest adjustments in order to get the picture close to reference specs. They are very inaccurate out of the box, but stellar performers after a proper calibration. Look at any professional review -- none of them are conducted only using the factory settings, all of them are calibrated.

When products are built for a company by another who builds for many, they usually have to build to the buyers specs. If LG builds for Apple and 20 other companies it don't mean all those products are identical.

The LCD panels that Apple uses for the iMac and Cinema Displays are OEM panels that are used in different models. There are no custom runs just for Apple. The only custom specs are in how the settings are done, and the other electronics. Regardless, your assertion is that LG is a bottomfeeder brand, yet here's Apple (a presumably premium brand) contracting with LG to supply their LCD panels. This is not the same thing as Apex Digital migrating from one fly-by-night assembly line to another buying millions of low bid units at a time, regardless of quality.

You could be right. I could be about ten years behind, but 10 - 20 years ago there was no LG, at least not in the household. The LG LOGO is less than 10 years old AFAIK, and was preceeded by Goldstar (No disputing that fact right?). I guess your point though is that the Koreans nowadays don't necessarily take a back seat to the other international manufacturers. Correct assumption? I wouldn't know. I'd say my Mitsubishi TV has Japanese and AMERICAN technology in it, my older B&W's are British, and I don't think it's too likely that Yamaha receivers and Panasonic DVD players have chunks of LG in them. My washer and dryer OTOH may be a different story.

Goldstar was their brand name in North America, and they used a different one in Asia. I think LG is their combined name. This is no different than Matsush*ta coming into the American market using the Panasonic brand, while most of their products in Asia are marketed under the National brand.

It is a rebranding, but it's also a reflection of where LG sits in the marketplace. At one point in time, Goldstar and Samsung were both considered bargain basement junk. Samsung moved upmarket without any rebranding, while LG decided to do a rebranding. Today, I doubt that anyone would argue that Samsung has not achieved parity with Japanese companies like Sony, Mitsubishi, JVC, Pioneer, etc.

LG has been a top tier OEM vendor for several years now, and it would not surprise me one bit if they supply the panels for Mitsubishi and Yamaha (both of which market flat screen HDTVs, but lack the capacity to manufacture their own panels).