Terrible contrast on OLED.

TolgaB

Novice Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2021
Messages
45
Reaction score
0
Points
36
Age
24
Location
Potaminis
I’ve pretty much calibrated my OLED perfectly but no matter what i do nearly every piece of content that i watch just looks awful - everything has grey blacks.

Watched Winter Soldier and Falcon on my C9 but decided to watch the second half on my living room TV (Philips OLED) and i was shocked to see how better the contrast on the Philips OLED was - in comparison, my LG C9 looked beyond awful. The only way i can achieve the same looking picture quality is lowering the brightness to 47. But i’m not so sure if this is a good idea. But this isn’t just with Dolby Vision content.

Its the same thing with SDR - i used RTings calibration and currently watching AHS: 1984 which is mostly set in dark areas and I can’t believe how terrible the contrast is... like shockingly bad. Isn’t OLED supposed to have pure contrast and isn’t LG the maker of all OLED panels? So why does a OLED TV that’s a year older than my C9 have better picture quality than my C9.

I know don’t understand the point of owning an OLED - if I can’t fix this issue i’ll just go for an LED.

Pictures provided. Top (LG C9)
 

Attachments

  • E5AB4632-9EE5-4B18-8C15-453885AA5B43.jpeg
    E5AB4632-9EE5-4B18-8C15-453885AA5B43.jpeg
    183.8 KB · Views: 1,178
C9 looks better to me! The blacks are crushed on the other tv, losing all the shadow detail.
 
So you used RTings settings, Why? Is that your set they have, them settings are never in a million years going to be correct on another set, it's not a calibration it's using some settings off a website, reset it and just find a setting you like and adjust till you like it, or get a professional in to do a proper calibration, to be fair you are never going to get it correct using someone elses settings or by eye even.

I had a look at that picture for what it's worth, but on that the bottom one looks better, but it's crushed to hell because of the brightness setting, but to be honest you are never going to tell off a picture on the internet anyway.
 
The bottom one is just crushed blacks with no detail.

You prefer that?!
 
The bottom one is just crushed blacks with no detail.

You prefer that?!
I have no idea if you are referring to me because it doesn't say, but from the very bad picture that has been posted the best one is on the bottom, I mean look at the wall behind the bin, it's more defined you can see better detail in the picture, it's also crushed black to death, the top one is blown out to hell and looks rubbish, as does the bottom one but yes the bottom one is better.

I prefer my Professionally Calibrated TV to be fair and both of them pictures are just complete utter rubbish, and I'll reiterate how can you tell off a bad picture posted on the internet, the op could have made a better attempt at least.
 
Brightness isn't contast it's black level
Contrast is white level.

You want brightness somewhere between the two pictures, top one is too much, bottom may be too dark.

Try around 50-54 on LG oled
 
Brightness isn't contast it's black level
Contrast is white level.

You want brightness somewhere between the two pictures, top one is too much, bottom may be too dark.

Try around 50-54 on LG oled
It's too dark and need's the brightness turning up more, it's crushed, the only reason for having it so dark as far as I am concerned is to hide compression artefacts from a poor stream, but I would rather them show than look that black, you're just burying them.
 
D+ 4K HDR/DV streams at 16-39 Mbps. Typical average is about 17 Mbps which is the same ballpark as Netflix.

Some of these streams have bad compression which shows up its ugly face on big shiny TVs. Some TVs handle poorly compressed materials reasonably well and some TVs simply shows them on your face as is. Also some of these could be in the source itself.

Try playing around with the brightness settings / black levels plus try adjusting your gamma a wee bit.
 
Is OP sure he doesn't have the black level set to high by accident? It should be low.
 
It's too dark and need's the brightness turning up more, it's crushed, the only reason for having it so dark as far as I am concerned is to hide compression artefacts from a poor stream, but I would rather them show than look that black, you're just burying them.

I understand what you're saying I do think my LG x9 has crushed blacks compared to my kuro ,.but try around 50-54.
 
When I got my 950 I thought it had a marvelous pic but I found a site, maybe rtings or here even with settings which I spent an hour or 2 copying, pic was terrible, I reset it all and use the factory ones, it's great again, as above said I don't think you can copy someone else's settings.
 
The bottom one is just crushed blacks with no detail.

You prefer that?!
I’ve already explained this but i’ll explain it once more. It is impossible to take a 100% accurate picture. Top looks more washed out than IRL but it’s still washed out IRL and bottom is to dark in the picture. In real life viewing the bottom one is perfectly fine when it comes to contrast. I can see details well, like the trashcan, his clothes etc.
 
Top one is Dolby Vision content and black level is set to ‘Low’ automatically. I can’t change it.
What Episode and what is the time index?
 
When I got my 950 I thought it had a marvelous pic but I found a site, maybe rtings or here even with settings which I spent an hour or 2 copying, pic was terrible, I reset it all and use the factory ones, it's great again, as above said I don't think you can copy someone else's settings.
It's fine to use guide of what to enable or disable or processing or specific mode, and standard controls can be rough guide to where to start with ie sharpness generally correct or near enough with professional settings but do need to adjust. Also not set in stone I personally don't like oled and contrast set to 100 for Hdr modes it's just too mucg
 
The control for black level (whatever it's called on your TV) should be at its default level. Maybe up one if you have black crush on everything. Very infrequently up two for this reason. Never up 3 or more. If 3+ is needed, something is wrong with either your TV, or your eyes

Never turn black level down from default as it will crush blacks on all of your content.

For various reasons, some content has raised blacks. Sometimes it's a mastering decision, sometimes a bad encode, and sometimes other reasons. This can be fixed by lowering the black level of your TV to where it needs to be for proper looking playback. But you should never put the control there permanently
 
I’ve pretty much calibrated my OLED perfectly but no matter what i do nearly every piece of content that i watch just looks awful - everything has grey blacks.

Watched Winter Soldier and Falcon on my C9 but decided to watch the second half on my living room TV (Philips OLED) and i was shocked to see how better the contrast on the Philips OLED was - in comparison, my LG C9 looked beyond awful. The only way i can achieve the same looking picture quality is lowering the brightness to 47. But i’m not so sure if this is a good idea. But this isn’t just with Dolby Vision content.

Its the same thing with SDR - i used RTings calibration and currently watching AHS: 1984 which is mostly set in dark areas and I can’t believe how terrible the contrast is... like shockingly bad. Isn’t OLED supposed to have pure contrast and isn’t LG the maker of all OLED panels? So why does a OLED TV that’s a year older than my C9 have better picture quality than my C9.

I know don’t understand the point of owning an OLED - if I can’t fix this issue i’ll just go for an LED.

Pictures provided. Top (LG C9)


You most definitely have incorrect settings.

I'd factory reset, make your HDMI black level is correct, go to film maker mode and enjoy.

I would not use settings from online because every TV set is different and LG aren't reknowned for keeping their TV sets that accurate or similar set to set (I remember Panasonic for example was with the 902B).


Also, reset your other TV to stock settings too so its a fair comparison.

You can get an OLED as deep in terms of black as you want.. you just sacrifice shadow detail.

When I had an OLED, for DV and PC gaming I did need to put brightness to 49 or contrast to 99 or 98 to fix raised black bug with gsync. not sure if they fixed it by now.
 

The latest video from AVForums

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