Help LG OLED picture issue

[Apathy]

Just purchased an LG OLED but watching bbc and itv HD always looks like everything is put thru a filter making it look like Grand Theft Auto or one of those filter you put on photos to make it look like a painting. I thought I’d be able to see every single hair and pore and crevice

Surely this ain't right; has anyone else had this problem? I just wanna troubleshoot every possible thing before I take it back

 

[skyscraper101]

It may be something in the picture settings. The first thing I always do with any new TV is turn off the 'motion smoothing' setting which makes everything look like it's shot on video (aka the soap opera effect).

How are you watching BBC and ITV? Another thing I've discovered is watching anything in UHD via the iplayer or whatever creates this instant darkening effect that I can't do anything to change. Sport is the worst here. Especially when UHD is the only HD option. It turns the bright green of a football pitch and all the other bright colours of sport into this dull filtered look akin to watching the TV through sunglasses.

 

[pesh]

Yeah, could well be a motion smoothing feature making everything look artificially smooth...
if its lack of definition you referring to, the HD channels on Freeview are massively compressed and can frequently look like absolute shite, especially when upscaled to 4K on a big screen.
I'd have a look for some 4K content on Iplayer or Netflix and see how that looks... or a bluray, or torrents...

 

[pesh]

Another thing I've discovered is watching anything in UHD via the iplayer or whatever creates this instant darkening effect that I can't do anything to change. Sport is the worst here. Especially when UHD is the only HD option. It turns the bright green of a football pitch and all the other bright colours of sport into this dull filtered look akin to watching the TV through sunglasses.

That sounds like an HDR conflict of some kind.

 

[skyscraper101]

That sounds like an HDR conflict of some kind.

I've experienced it on more than one TV. It seems to be specific to iPlayer tbh as I've never had anything like this from Netflix, Amazon etc

 

[skyscraper101]

Yeah, could well be a motion smoothing feature making everything look artificially smooth...
if its lack of definition you referring to, the HD channels on Freeview are massively compressed and can frequently look like absolute shite, especially when upscaled to 4K on a big screen.
I'd have a look for some 4K content on Iplayer or Netflix and see how that looks... or a bluray, or torrents...

I've noticed this more recently too. HD looking far from 'HD' on Freeview, compared to other sources.

 

[Chz]

First step is to set motion smoothing to "Cinematic". You don't want to turn it off on an OLED like you do on an LCD screen. OLED pixels have a near instantaneous response rate and 24FPS content (which is all film and a lot of telly these days) will look very stuttery without a little bit of smoothing on. Some are able to turn it off completely, but it drives me bonkers. It sounds like you've defaulted to something quite aggressive and yeah it looks wrong.

There is a setting where very dark scenes get made darker. It's impossible to turn off completely, but there is a way to get into the service menu and turn it to be much less aggressive. You can buy a service remote for a tenner off Amazon, or there's a page you can go to via the internal web browser to enable it. Do those two things and it gets a lot better. You will still sometimes run into really dark scenes that then get darker. But it tends to be brief.

HD looking far from 'HD' on Freeview, compared to other sources.

Freeview HD, even the big BBC channels, can be pretty woeful at times. Better than a DVD, but far below what you'd get from a blu-ray or a 4k stream.

 

[pesh]

I've experienced it on more than one TV. It seems to be specific to iPlayer tbh as I've never had anything like this from Netflix, Amazon etc

I've never had it happen with Iplayer, but i have seen it when checking 4K content (absurdly fast flashing rave visuals) via a laptop. check them on a budget 4K screen, all is good, check them on a high end screen with lots of black level compensation stuff going on and it can't keep up.
I'd still double check there isn't some HDR feature in iplayer fucking things up.

 

[pesh]

First step is to set motion smoothing to "Cinematic". You don't want to turn it off on an OLED like you do on an LCD screen. OLED pixels have a near instantaneous response rate and 24FPS content (which is all film and a lot of telly these days) will look very stuttery without a little bit of smoothing on. Some are able to turn it off completely, but it drives me bonkers. It sounds like you've defaulted to something quite aggressive and yeah it looks wrong.

totally this... its a fine line, some smoothing is needed or it looks shit, too much and it looks shit.

 

[Apathy]

Thank you so much for the responses. I’m at work currently but I’ll trying some of suggestions tonight when I get home.
I took this screen shot with my phone if the politics show to give you an idea of how it looks. See how it just looks like I’ve put some oil painting type filter effect over it lol

 

[skyscraper101]

Definitely looks like some weird preset feature you need to tinker about with.

 

[pesh]

good grief
yeah, i'd check all the picture settings, maybe try a factory reset?

 

[Crispy]

Thank you so much for the responses. I’m at work currently but I’ll trying some of suggestions tonight when I get home.
I took this screen shot with my phone if the politics show to give you an idea of how it looks. See how it just looks like I’ve put some oil painting type filter effect over it lol

That's bananas. What's the actual source of the image? Broadcast TV? iPlayer app?

If you're watching broadcast TV, it's actually still in standard definition apart from the HD channels which are

BBC one HD
BBC two HD
BBC three/CBBC HD
BBC four/CBeebies HD
ITV1 HD
Channel 4 HD
S4C HD
Channel 5 HD

So if you're watching any other broadcast channel the resolution of your TV screen will be about 4x the resoultion of the image. The smearing you see will be the TV's image processing trying to fill in the "missing" data. The HD channels will look better, but no better than a regular HD TV.

To see super-sharp UHD images you need a 4K source. That means UHD bluray, Sky or Cable or streaming apps (some of which lock 4k content behind a pricier subscription).

 

[spitfire]

Thank you so much for the responses. I’m at work currently but I’ll trying some of suggestions tonight when I get home.
I took this screen shot with my phone if the politics show to give you an idea of how it looks. See how it just looks like I’ve put some oil painting type filter effect over it lol

I know this is a technical term but that looks "fucked" to me.

I've pushed the limits of domestic and professional 4k displays and have never managed to get them looking like that.

Give LG a call, don't waste your time with the seller. Then when they have confirmed it is fucked go back to the seller and ask for a new one.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I know this is a technical term but that looks "fucked" to me.

 

[Apathy]

Hi all thanks again for your replies really appreciate it
So I’ve gone thru the various settings, cinema mode etc tried the full reset but nothing seems to sort this
Quite a few variables but I’ve tried watching same thing from the antenna source and also viewed live thru iplayer and I’ve also got a dodgy firestick that i can watch live Tv in uhd and all have the same problem, and that is in both SD and HD. What i would say is that in the live studio setting they will go to another camera for a different angle and there would be an improvement
Very weird, think I’m just gonna take it back, it’s from the Curry’s clearance store which sells mainly returned products so i think that says it all lol

 

[Sasaferrato]

I've noticed this more recently too. HD looking far from 'HD' on Freeview, compared to other sources.

We have Freesat, which is fine.

 

[skyscraper101]

We have Freesat, which is fine.

Yeah I can believe that. Satellite bandwidth can be a lot better than freeview.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Yeah I can believe that. Satellite bandwidth can be a lot better than freeview.

We run three TVs from the same dish (A recording box in the living room (two feeds), and two TVs upstairs, it would have been awkward with Freeview.