Question OLED TV as a monitor?

[MtSeldon]

I was looking for a new monitor.
Dell 32" IPS 4k monitor was my first choice but then LG C2 42" OLED TV was mentioned.

Price seems ok for a 42" OLED but there are other technical issues. Burn-in is the first issue of course. While I'm going to use it for some gaming and movie watching, a considerable amount of time it will be used in Word, Excel, VS Code.
Another problem is the RGB placement. Subpixels have the RGBW orientation. Some reviewers say text rendering is a bit of a problem, but I don't know how big the problem is or does it get better with some tweaking in Windows Settings.

Another alternative is on the way. But there is no info about the subpixel orientation.
Philips 42M2N8900 from the Evnia 8000 series is unveiled with a 42" 4K OLED display and a 138Hz refresh rate (displayspecifications.com)

So, any advice or experience about these?

 

[Leeea]

additional thoughts:

uniform brightness? - not to relevant

however, once in a while it does just change the brightness all on its own, and that is not great

reflective finish? - matte would have been better. My RGB keyboard reflects in the screen. I could just turn the RGB backlight keys off, but I like backlit keys.

 

[igor_kavinski]

however, once in a while it does just change the brightness all on its own, and that is not great

Maybe dynamic brightness option is ON in the settings? Try using the Standard non-HDR profile.

 

[Leeea]

Maybe dynamic brightness option is ON in the settings? Try using the Standard non-HDR profile.

As far as I can tell I have all the automatic brightness and ai brightness options off.

I am kind of stuck using the game-optimized profile. This is for enabling freesync + fast pixel transition times.

I just setup displayCal + Spider5 color meter to calibrate this display. Out of the box it is not even close. The blue is just pumped up way to high.

As far as out of the box color calibration, this is one of the worst I have encountered.

The tool has settings to compensate for oled and the brightness changes.

My initial color adjustments were (game optimized profile, oled brightness 60, picture->advanced->color->white balance):
red: +29
green: +4
blue: -38

edit:
apparently for best calibration out of the box, picture mode icf-night is supposed to be selected.

however, apparently for best pixel response times, picture mode game-optimized is recommended.

my calibration tests are being done on game-optimized, which might account for why my results are not even close to calibrated out of the box.

edit:
once the above mentioned white balance correction was applied using the TVs built in tools, the color accuracy was excellent. DisplayCal spent 3 hours of automated testing and came up with only exceedingly small adjustments.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I am kind of stuck using the game-optimized profile. This is for enabling freesync + fast pixel transition times.

It's easy to switch profiles using the remote. Use Standard for desktop and apps and switch to HDR Game mode when playing games (if on Windows 11, you can use AutoHDR to display DX11 games with HDR).

 

[MtSeldon]

Now I checked the Rtings burn in experiment . it seems it takes 9000 hours to cause a burn in.

Still a bit problem, if you are using it 7-8 hours a day, it will last like 3 years .

Thank you for the responders , its good to learn from the users that text rendering is non-issue.

 

[Leeea]

It's easy to switch profiles using the remote. Use Standard for desktop and apps and switch to HDR Game mode when playing games (if on Windows 11, you can use AutoHDR to display DX11 games with HDR).

Yes, but not planning to switch profiles.

The remote for the LG causes the Visio TV on the wall in the same room to do random things. Going to try and avoid touching the remote as much as possible.

However, once I did the above mentioned white balance correction on the TV itself, it had exceptional color accuarcy on the Game Optimized input. I think LG intentionally futzed it to make it look different for gaming.

I am on Windows 10, rather then windows 11. Windows 11 drops support for SMB 1.0, which I need for talking to certain very old VMs.

 

[Leeea]

Now I checked the Rtings burn in experiment . it seems it takes 9000 hours to cause a burn in.

Still a bit problem, if you are using it 7-8 hours a day, it will last like 3 years .

Thank you for the responders , its good to learn from the users that text rendering is non-issue.

I did not see that! -> could you link it please?


my anti-burn in plan is:
60% oled brightness*
screen move***: on
adjust logo brightness: high
dark mode for windows, "Dark Reader" for firefox, chrome, etc
turning it off once in a while to let it run its self heal
not hiding taskbar ever


Will let you know if it burns during my lifetime, but I suspect it will not.


*I had planned for 80%, but that was to bright for my personal preference. Turned it down to 60%. My last monitor was capable of eye searing HDR, and I had it turned all the way down to 30%.

*the deep black makes for what feel is a very nice darkmode experience with grey text** rendered beautifully at a very high contrast. It is dark mode heaven.

**windows cleartype on, 125% text size. It was fine at 100%, but I am old and want things bigger now.

***once in a while you realize the task bar had a few pixels on the bottom shaved off, but not enough to matter or be annoying. It feels like it moves things about +-4 pixels total (which at 4k isn't much ). I never see it move, but pixels at the very bottom on the taskbar will be back after about 2 minutes after noticing them gone.

 

[MtSeldon]

mentioned here.

they have a few tests. They are set the show tv channels . PC usage is quite bit more prone to burn it than this. So 9000hours may not hold true for desktop use.

 

[repoman0]

I noticed that the display is way too blue as well even by eye. Think I’m at “warm 4” until I calibrate it for real.

 

[Leeea]

they have a few tests. They are set the show tv channels . PC usage is quite bit more prone to burn it than this. So 9000hours may not hold true for desktop use.

I feel rting's tests do not apply that much to my usage.

So when the monitor is turned off with the remote, it goes into an oled pixel refresh / oled pixel healing mode.


In the rting test where they just left it on continuously, it was never able to do its housekeeping. This does not reflect how I am going to use the monitor.



I am also running this thing at 60% oled pixel brightness*, which due to the exponential curve of pixel wear vs brightness, should help a lot. Hoping my experience will be more like Wendel's. Also no service remote here.


Going to check out:

GitHub - JPersson77/LGTVCompanion: Power On and Off WebOS LG TVs together with your PC

Power On and Off WebOS LG TVs together with your PC - JPersson77/LGTVCompanion

github.com

 

[Leeea]

So the LGTVCompanion companion (linked above) lets me easily turn the TV off like it was a monitor. Great for preservation reasons.


But, since I am using HyperV with a virtual switch, the WakeOnLan function does not work . It cannot turn the monitor on unless I get rid of the virtual switch. Small annoyance #4.

 

[Leeea]

My small annoyances so far, ordered most annoying first:

LG remote interferes with my Visio TV in same room
Using the remote to turn it on
backlit keyboard reflects in the screen
automatic brightness change

All are rather trivial, and the upside greatly exceeds the down.

 

[repoman0]

automatic brightness change

This is the most annoying to me. Luckily it can be disabled easily with a $7 service remote.

 

[SKORPI0]

This is the most annoying to me. Luckily it can be disabled easily with a $7 service remote.

https://www.amazon.com/MKJ39170828-Control-Replacement-Service-Compatible/dp/B09TG4D2LV. Looks interesting.

 

[Aikouka]

This is the most annoying to me. Luckily it can be disabled easily with a $7 service remote.

I see it a lot on my 65C1 when I'm using my HTPC as the screen will dim while I'm doing something like typing a forum post. Although, I'm not sure if Disney+ is just terrible in regard to brightness or if it's the TV, but I've noticed weird brightness issues with their content. There are times where I'll be watching a show on there, and everything just looks dim. It looks a lot like the automatic brightness reduction just kicked in, but it lasts for what seems like an entire scene, and then finally goes back to normal. Given that I think I've only seen it on Disney+ and how it doesn't seem to change with movement, I'm leaning toward it being a Disney+ problem. (For example, on the forum, if I scroll, it'll jack the brightness back up.)

Although, does it void the warranty if you disable it?

I am kind of stuck using the game-optimized profile. This is for enabling freesync + fast pixel transition times.

I just setup displayCal + Spider5 color meter to calibrate this display. Out of the box it is not even close. The blue is just pumped up way to high.

I kind of cheated with mine and used the Rtings profile. I actually have a Spider colorimeter that I should try out sometime. Is there a good guide for the overall process of doing that, or is it pretty straightforward? I think Rtings has it set to Custom rather than Game, but I haven't really had any issues with latency, or at least any perceivable issues. It'd be interesting to see if you notice a difference outside of Game mode.

Frankly, after I upgraded, I was just happy to use VRR to cut out tearing in games. I had tried to play Guardians of the Galaxy via my HTPC on my previous Sony x930e, and the tearing was so evident. I'm bad at noticing the difference in things like high refresh rate, but tearing sticks out like a sore thumb to me.

 

[Leeea]

Although, does it void the warranty if you disable it?

According to the youtube personalities it does.

Not sure if I believe Linus and friends.

Is there a good guide for the overall process of doing that, or is it pretty straightforward?

No, in fact, there is no guide at all . I found it confusing for HDR. It is a lot better then it was just a year ago.

Turn windows HDR on first. Use the windows tool to get it as close as you can.

I used:

DisplayCAL—Display Calibration and Characterization powered by ArgyllCMS

Display calibration and profiling with a focus on accuracy and versatility

displaycal.net

which will download and install ArgyllCMS for you.

After that, you need to select the correction for WOLED, white drift compensation ( oleds change brightness ), and black drift compensation ( spyder sensors sit on the screen and change their readings as they warm up ).

Before you start, put a video in the background. This will prevent the screen from dimming out during the process. Pick one that does not have a lot of brightness or darkness changes, but has consistent movement. Your tricking the TV into maintaining a constant brightness. The brightness your most likely to see while gaming or watching media.

Once you start, it gives you an option to adjust settings on the TV first "interactive display adjustment". This is the most important step. Use that to adjust your white balance with your LG remote. Once you get the color bars all nicely lined up, start the automated testing, and it will generate the correction curves.

For me, it took nearly 3 hours of automated sampling to generate those correction curves, and were just nice to haves.

For me 98% of the improvement came from the first manual step, fixing the white balance out of the box. It was quite noticeable and worth doing. After correcting the white balance the TV obtained near perfection in the automated testing.

 

[Leeea]

This is the most annoying to me. Luckily it can be disabled easily with a $7 service remote.

Yea, I re-evaluated, that is much more annoying then I originally realized.

https://www.amazon.com/MKJ39170828-Control-Replacement-Service-Compatible/dp/B09TG4D2LV. Looks interesting.

Will let you know if it works .

 

[SKORPI0]

Yea, I re-evaluated, that is much more annoying then I originally realized.



Will let you know if it works .

I'll probably not be getting it. So far used about 3 hours on this OLED. Will see if I have to do some calibration.

 

[CP5670]

That feature is ASBL, and yes, you can disable it with that service remote.

I believe the 9000 hour burn-in is with a still image on high brightness. Typical usage (with the precautions Aikouka mentioned) will last much longer than that.

 

[Timorous]

Seeing the 55" S95B for £1200 in the UK with a soundbar is so tempting. Just want MS to support the triangle sub pixel layout with cleartype without resorting to 3rd party apps that I can't install on my work laptop.

 

[Leeea]

https://www.amazon.com/MKJ39170828-Control-Replacement-Service-Compatible/dp/B09TG4D2LV. Looks interesting.

This was the correct remote for my TV.

secret code was 0413.

That feature is ASBL, and yes, you can disable it with that service remote.

On my TV it was called "TPC Enable"


--------------------------

So using the remote and setting TPC enable off does not void the warranty apparently.

Pushing the prominent "IN STOP" button the remote while try to find the asbl setting does instantly and without warning void the warranty, forget OLED panel wear information, forget factory picture calibration, etc. You can guess what button I pushed. I went back and left a 1/5 star review for horrifically bad UI design.

I am to old to have patience with things like that any more.

 

[OlyAR15]

A couple of ways to access service menu without the special remote:

https://www.reddit.com/r/OLED_Gaming/comments/sbords

 

[Leeea]

I was able to get LGTV companion to turn my TV on and off like a proper monitor by enabling on the TV:
Always Ready -> Enable
Always Ready -> Checked -> Always Ready without wallpaper
General -> Devices -> Quick Start+ -> On

 

[Leeea]

https://www.reddit.com/r/OLED_Gaming/comments/sbords

Spoiler: hide media link

just a quick note, Anandtech requires user commentary. Suggest you just add one line of text to your post.


Also, super useful links, thanks.

 

[SKORPI0]