Question ISF Calibration - LG 55E6 - is it worth it?

The Hack

Established Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2007
Messages
571
Reaction score
69
Points
129
Apologies if this has been covered in the depths of another thread but it would take days going through everything. I've recently bought a 55E6 and after using the settings from an AV forums video (by Steve Withers) for the 65E6 the picture looks pretty good to me, although not mind-blowing.

Would an ISF calibration be of benefit in terms of significantly improved picture quality and 'pop'? I am planning to watch a lot of 4k content but also 3D blue-ray, as well as normal Sky HD.

Thanks in advance for all advice! :)
 
Apologies if this has been covered in the depths of another thread but it would take days going through everything. I've recently bought a 55E6 and after using the settings from an AV forums video (by Steve Withers) for the 65E6 the picture looks pretty good to me, although not mind-blowing.

Would an ISF calibration be of benefit in terms of significantly improved picture quality and 'pop'? I am planning to watch a lot of 4k content but also 3D blue-ray, as well as normal Sky HD.

Thanks in advance for all advice! :)
Never an easy question to answer.

First off, we don't know how much difference there is between your E6 and the one that the AVForums reviewer was working with. There may be quite a bit: I've been through several LG OLED TVs in rapid succession (because four in a row turned out to be faulty!); based on that sample, I'd say the overall picture performance and colour balance is fairly similar from one screen to another, but there was certainly some variation, both in terms of white-balance, and colour saturation; it's also worth mentioning that the AVForums suggested settings for a 65" G6 are significantly different from what they suggest for an E6, and that may well be a matter of variation between panels rather than something that applies to all TVs of each model.

In my own experience, there was a marked difference between older and newer panels (I don't mean in terms of how much use they'd had, I mean a difference in the way they performed two weeks after being taken out of the box for the first time, which depended on when the date of manufacture was - newer panels were brighter, older ones had more saturated colours). We also don't know how much difference there is between a "typical" 55" E6 and the 65" version; and we don't know whether yours is typical, or if the AVForums review sample was typical. Without that information it's hard to say how much difference calibration would make.

The other important question is: do you actually want an accurately calibrated picture? Calibration will make what you see on the screen correspond more closely with what the person who mixed the disk intended for you to see; but it's quite possible that this will have *less* of what you call "pop" than your current picture does, and it won't necessarily be subjectively more pleasing to look at. Many people prefer extra contrast, brighter colours, whites that tend more towards blue... that's why TVs on the shop floor are always set up that way, and showing test videos with extremely saturated colours: that's what catches people's eye and makes them want to buy it.

Personally, I like a calibrated picture. It can take a while to get used to, if you're more familiar with one that's "off" - I remember when I first had my old plasma calibrated, it took a good couple of months before I got used to the new look, and initially that was very distracting; but eventually my brain adjusted, and I began to appreciate things like how natural skin tones looked.

Finally, just by way of muddying the waters even more, there actually isn't universal agreement as to how calibration should be done. For example, if you get a dozen different calibrators in a room, they probably won't all agree about what the gamma value should be for low-light viewing - some will say 2.2, others 2.4, some may even suggest different gamma values at different IRE levels. And even if they're all targeting the same calibrated performance, no TV picture is ever objectively perfect, and there may be different views on which combination of settings gives the best compromise. (And I have a sneaking suspicion no one is entirely certain how to calibrate for HDR10 yet, anyway). So, how subjectively pleasing the end result is to you may even vary a bit depending on who does the job.

If you ask me if *I* would consider calibration to be a good move, I'd say that, for me, it's essential; but whether your experience would be the same, I honestly don't know.
 
Many thanks for such a comprehensive and helpful response. I like the 'cinematic' rather than shop floor look so will probably get a calibration done once I've had the TV for a few weeks.

Wasted on my wife though who likes more pop and garishness. :( For her, the out of the box - 'Eco' picture setting seems to be ideal).
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom