Suddenly I have vertical banding on my LG B6 - help!

Unclefishboy73

Established Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2017
Messages
176
Reaction score
34
Points
84
Age
50
Location
England
Hi all

I've had my LG B6 OLED since summer 2017 and love it, or did love it....until about a week ago when I noticed a significant vertical band slap bang down the middle of the screen and stretching 7 inches to the right. Literally a straight line down the centre from top to bottom. It's most noticeable when gaming (especially Sea of Thieves on my Xbox one X). See it in action here:



And see it in even more action here:



There are also other fainter bands but it's the centre to right band that is noticeable across alot of content. I see it most of the time across games and TV whether it's in standard, hi-def, 4k, Dolby vision etc. As mentioned before I only noticed this for the first time around a week ago, 99% certain it wasn't there before - I would have noticed.

I've run the manual compensation cycle and it will have run on it's own multiple times and it's not making any difference. I've seen other YouTube videos where other users have had exactly the same problem and returned their TVs. Here is an identical issue with someone a bit more angry than me :)



Another user stated that switching the TV off at the plug to stop it's auto compensation cycle for a week or two helps to get rid of the bands, though I haven't gone to the effort of trying this yet. The TV is in use alot with the kids etc when I'm out so enforcing that rule will be tricky - but I'll give it a go.

So my questions are these:

1) Any advice for getting rid of the banding or any chance of them just going away? (doubt it)

2) If no to the above - what are the odds of me getting a replacement panel or TV? I bought the TV from an Amazon seller summer 2017 so it's outside of the years warranty. From what I hear LG customer service is medieval level nasty.

Would appreciate any advice whatsoever!

Thanks

Chris
 
I had a similar issue to yours with a vertical line done the center of the screen. Fortunately for me I bought from JL and received money back as it apparently couldn’t be fixed. Not sure if this is the same issue but I’ve start to see a lot of users posting on this forum about similar issues. It’s quite concerning if I’m honest, not sure if it’s the comp cycles causing it after a certain number of hours.

Not sure what your going to be able to do without the extended warranty but maybe the suggestion you’ve seen already might be good place to start. Would be interesting if this is an issue LG are beginning to be made aware of.

Sorry to not be of more help.
 
This is normal (not OK, of course!) behavior for OLED televisions. Some people can have perfect sets for months or years and then develop visible bands. Really unfortunate, especially if you get a nice big one with well defined edges near the center of the display!
 
Thanks both, it’s certainly a bitter pill to swallow seeing as the set is 16 months old. My 8 year old Panasonic plasma still looks perfect and it cost a third of the price!

I’ll try stopping it auto comping and see if that helps. Perhaps I’ll fire an email off to LG as well, not holding out hope though! Criminal really that they can get away with it.
 
I wouldn't of done a manual compensation cycle, never read of people having improvements after doing this, in fact a lot of peoples issues actually crop up after the manual compensation cycle has taken place after 2,000 hours of use. Best bet would be to get as many of the smaller comp cycles after 4 hours imho.
 
I wouldn't of done a manual compensation cycle, never read of people having improvements after doing this, in fact a lot of peoples issues actually crop up after the manual compensation cycle has taken place after 2,000 hours of use. Best bet would be to get as many of the smaller comp cycles after 4 hours imho.

Totally agree.

From my experience of owning an E6 for almost 2 years now is that the 2,000 hr cycle typically makes any banding the set has more visible unfortunately.

Mine has run twice now & on both occasions a faint central band became visible but after a week or so of regular viewing coupled with the automatic cycles the TV runs it eventually faded.

It's annoying & I can understand why many people get alarmed but it's worth letting the TV 'bed in' again after the manual cycle has run as any newly present bands will probably fade.

Running the manual cycle is the worst thing to do as it's likely to make things worse.
 
So after I first noticed the banding I ran the manual cycle, it took an hour. It didnt seem to make any difference either way, not noticeably anyway.

The video I watched on YouTube suggested turning the tv off at the plug to stop it running the regular comp cycles. I'm giving that a go for a week or two, see if that helps.

So just to check, you guys are saying that actually letting the tv auto comp and through regular watching the banding may fade. Is that realistic or am i stuck with the banding dor eternity and damnation?
 
So after I first noticed the banding I ran the manual cycle, it took an hour. It didnt seem to make any difference either way, not noticeably anyway.

The video I watched on YouTube suggested turning the tv off at the plug to stop it running the regular comp cycles. I'm giving that a go for a week or two, see if that helps.

So just to check, you guys are saying that actually letting the tv auto comp and through regular watching the banding may fade. Is that realistic or am i stuck with the banding dor eternity and damnation?

Just running the TV as normal in conjunction with the auto cycles is your best bet imo.

It might take a week / 50 hrs or so to completely clear up though.
 
Just running the TV as normal in conjunction with the auto cycles is your best bet imo.

It might take a week / 50 hrs or so to completely clear up though.
Doesn’t look like you’ve got many other options than to do this.

Will be interesting to know if this does clear it up, I ran mine for another month of normal viewing and there was no change on mine.

Could be a different issue though as mine was just a line down the middle as per the other video posted.

I do hope it clears up for you though, once seen your eyes are always drawn to it.
 
Totally agree.

From my experience of owning an E6 for almost 2 years now is that the 2,000 hr cycle typically makes any banding the set has more visible unfortunately.

Mine has run twice now & on both occasions a faint central band became visible but after a week or so of regular viewing coupled with the automatic cycles the TV runs it eventually faded.

It's annoying & I can understand why many people get alarmed but it's worth letting the TV 'bed in' again after the manual cycle has run as any newly present bands will probably fade.

Running the manual cycle is the worst thing to do as it's likely to make things worse.

Absolutely spot on with that post, my E7 was perfect banding wise then a few months back it did it's first big manual compensation and i had a band on the right hand side become more prominent, couldn't be seen thankfully in normal content...was mostly on the Amazon start up screen, took 2 to 3 months to clear up again.
Do wish people would learn and not recommend others to use this as a fix.
 
To be fair no one on this thread did recommend a manual cycle, I’d just already tried it prior to posting on here, I won’t be doing it again though! I guess the only area of doubt is whether letting it run its regular cycles or not makes a difference either way.

I’m switching it off at the plug for the next couple of weeks. I’ll see then if the bands are any fainter, if not I’ll just go back to normal and let it runs it’s auto cycles, and just hope the bands fade over time.

How do you even know when it’s about to run the 2000 hour one - does it pop up a message, and if so can you even tell it not to?
 
To be fair no one on this thread did recommend a manual cycle, I’d just already tried it prior to posting on here, I won’t be doing it again though! I guess the only area of doubt is whether letting it run its regular cycles or not makes a difference either way.

I’m switching it off at the plug for the next couple of weeks. I’ll see then if the bands are any fainter, if not I’ll just go back to normal and let it runs it’s auto cycles, and just hope the bands fade over time.

How do you even know when it’s about to run the 2000 hour one - does it pop up a message, and if so can you even tell it not to?

Personally I wouldn't recommend your 1st approach of bypassing the auto compensation cycles.

Running the TV as normal & letting the auto comps run solved the issue for me on the 2 occasions I experienced a pronounced band appearing after a 2000 hr comp cycle.

You just need to be a little more patient & let the TV settle down after these forced cycles.

In regards to the 2000 hr cycle, a message pops up on the screen informing you that the TV is going to perform a cleaning / maintenance cycle (can't remember the exact wording of the message) when you put it into standby.

Pretty sure there's no way to stop them I'm afraid.
 
Totally agree.

From my experience of owning an E6 for almost 2 years now is that the 2,000 hr cycle typically makes any banding the set has more visible unfortunately.

Mine has run twice now & on both occasions a faint central band became visible but after a week or so of regular viewing coupled with the automatic cycles the TV runs it eventually faded.

It's annoying & I can understand why many people get alarmed but it's worth letting the TV 'bed in' again after the manual cycle has run as any newly present bands will probably fade.

Running the manual cycle is the worst thing to do as it's likely to make things worse.

just in case i'm missing something, i'm not trying to be snarky - if it's manual, and you know it causes issues, why do it? if the 4-hour ones seem to do the job, why not just leave it at that?
i've had an E6 just over a year, i watch a lot so the thing must be doing 3 cycles a week, on average, the only manual clean i did was on the previous set that had a mark on the screen, i ran it to see if it would sort the issue, and it didn't so i got a replacement set. i hadn't really planned on running manual due to other comments on this site saying that it can do more harm than good.
 
just in case i'm missing something, i'm not trying to be snarky - if it's manual, and you know it causes issues, why do it? if the 4-hour ones seem to do the job, why not just leave it at that?
i've had an E6 just over a year, i watch a lot so the thing must be doing 3 cycles a week, on average, the only manual clean i did was on the previous set that had a mark on the screen, i ran it to see if it would sort the issue, and it didn't so i got a replacement set. i hadn't really planned on running manual due to other comments on this site saying that it can do more harm than good.

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

The only time I would recommend to run a manual cycle is if you experience a screen abnormality such as a strange shadow or stuck pixel that doesn't clear with the auto 4hr comp cycles.

In regards to this thread, I think the issue is the forced compensation cycle that happens once the TV has reached the 2000 hr mark.

Many owners are experiencing banding after it's run which is unfortunate seeing as it can't be bypassed.
 
Thanks for the advice all. With my TV I don't think it has ever run it's own 2000 hour cycle - or at least not that I'm aware of. I just became aware of the banding and on the same day remembered seeing an option in the settings menu to run a pixel refresh, so I ran it (seems now in advisedly) but it didn't make any difference - potentially it may have even made it worse.

I'm giving the comp cycles a rest now by turning the TV off at the plug for a couple of weeks as per the advice here:



I don't see I have much to lose by trying it. Funnily enough I tried Sea of Thieves last night - this game shows up the banding the most - and it almost looked like the banding has reduced slightly on the left centre edge, but I could see more bands further to the right. Seems to be all over the shop!
 
The big 2000 hour pixel refresher makes banding worse as it recalibrates the OLED pixel voltages to the original factory settings.
As it cleans up stray voltages, the image will appear sharper and more vibrant.
The panel will soon settle down again, with the vertical banding subsiding as the hours add up.
The four hour pixel refresh is more subtle, so banding isn't increased.
There is little point running the big cleaner unless you have a problem.

OLED TVs subjected to direct sunlight can show dark patches as the OLEDs react to new voltage values. This and sustained image retention can call for a manual pixel refresh if the automatic ones don't clear it etc. It will do nothing for screen burn/pixel wear.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, you're absolutely right.

The only time I would recommend to run a manual cycle is if you experience a screen abnormality such as a strange shadow or stuck pixel that doesn't clear with the auto 4hr comp cycles.

In regards to this thread, I think the issue is the forced compensation cycle that happens once the TV has reached the 2000 hr mark.

Many owners are experiencing banding after it's run which is unfortunate seeing as it can't be bypassed.
Thanks for the reply. didn't realise there was a forced run of this, i thought it was all manual. i'm surprised this hasn't been raised/addressed by LG, if it's causing issues. i think on my current watching rate of approx 15hrs a week i'll be a year off a forced run ~ do you get a pop-up saying it's going to happen or does it do it on the quiet like the 4hr ones?
 
Thanks for the reply. didn't realise there was a forced run of this, i thought it was all manual. i'm surprised this hasn't been raised/addressed by LG, if it's causing issues. i think on my current watching rate of approx 15hrs a week i'll be a year off a forced run ~ do you get a pop-up saying it's going to happen or does it do it on the quiet like the 4hr ones?

You get a pop up saying it's going to happen.

From my experience you just need to let the TV settle down for a while (50 - 100 hrs) as any newly more visible bands will eventually fade.

That's been my experience anyway.
 
thanks for the info.
50 ~100 hours is 4 to 10 weeks though, that's a looong time to have picture issues. will not be happy about that at all if it effects me.
 
Had this same issue now for at least twelve weeks. Not getting worse but not fading either. My warranty is long out of date so is worth letting an engineer look at it to see if it's permanant or can be fixed.
 
Totally agree.

From my experience of owning an E6 for almost 2 years now is that the 2,000 hr cycle typically makes any banding the set has more visible unfortunately.

Mine has run twice now & on both occasions a faint central band became visible but after a week or so of regular viewing coupled with the automatic cycles the TV runs it eventually faded.

It's annoying & I can understand why many people get alarmed but it's worth letting the TV 'bed in' again after the manual cycle has run as any newly present bands will probably fade.

Running the manual cycle is the worst thing to do as it's likely to make things worse.

I’ve had this happen to me recently. However it’s been a couple of months now and I can still see the ‘bang on centre’ vertical band that appeared after the 2000hr comp cycle. Any ideas anyone?
 
Just had my panel replaced because of this exact problem.Luckily I took out an extended warranty.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom