42" OLED MASTER THREAD

[Gatecrasher3000]

I don't think anyone should consider this a review. Talked about the screen for 30 seconds while screwing around with a KVM switch for a half hour....
And their review of the screen "it's good just buy it"..

 

[undertaker2k8]

I don't think anyone should consider this a review. Talked about the screen for 30 seconds while screwing around with a KVM switch for a half hour....
And their review of the screen "it's good just buy it"..

These tech tubers (aka asses) ought to be banned, they need to go the way of the dodo...95% are absolute clown shows with a bunch of BS just to click bait and generate traffic revenue.

 

[aznpotpie]

Another bug with the PG42UQ is that the uniform brightness setting resets itself after enabling/disabling HDR and also when it wakes from sleep I think. It will still show it as checked but unchecking and checking it gets it working again.

EDIT: On the current V28 firmware this thing is unusable for desktop work due to ABL. I'm talking a 40% size browser window centered on the screen triggering ABL and constantly fluctuating brightness. I'm at 120nits (41 brightness SDR). I can't be the only person to notice this. Its less prevalant with the uniform brightness enabled but I still can't wrap my head around how 4 firmware updates deep the monitor is in this state.

Weird I’m not noticing this, what settings do you have on?

 

[SoCali]

Weird I’m not noticing this, what settings do you have on?

I think I figured it out. Its some bug with the monitor waking from sleep with uniform brightness enabled and it resetting causing it to go into hyper ABL mode. Power cycling makes the ABL no longer occur (scrolling amazon page). I feel like I'm finding a new bug every day.

I'm going to find a way to fit my C2 on my desk to compare side by side. I really like that the Asus is a set and forget monitor and the 138hz is awesome as is the input lag but my vertical bands have barely improved after running lots of full screen content while I'm away and even doing a manual pixel refresh. I don't mind the small bands but there are 2 huge thick bands one on the left and one on the right that are visible in a lot of content.

Day 1:

2 days later + manual pixel refresh:

 

[kasakka]

I don't think anyone should consider this a review. Talked about the screen for 30 seconds while screwing around with a KVM switch for a half hour....
And their review of the screen "it's good just buy it"..

It's not a review. It's a video about dealing with KVM switching and long cabling in a complex setup for running a single computer in multiple locations. Which is interesting in itself even if it's the typical LTT shenanigans for entertainment.

It just happened to have the ASUS PG42UQ in it with a bit of real world usage so I posted it here.

 

[Murzilka]

From what I know, banding does not go away. If it's there, it's there.
One of the biggest advantages of the C2 42 for me that I noticed first place is that it didn't have banding. In games there is zero banding and I know where to look for. Because my previous C55 OLED had plenty of it.

 

[zehoo]

Put an order in for a C2 since it’s on sale in AUS at the moment and I couldn’t be bothered dealing with the pg42uq firmware issues and average hdr support despite the amazing 120hz input latency.

 

[SoCali]

From what I know, banding does not go away. If it's there, it's there.
One of the biggest advantages of the C2 42 for me that I noticed first place is that it didn't have banding. In games there is zero banding and I know where to look for. Because my previous C55 OLED had plenty of it.

Yeah although my screen has cleaned up a bit overall the banding remains and I've also never seen it go away on my prior OLEDs. My C2 is also super clean with whatever vertical banding it does have completely invisible in content.

 

[Enhanced Interrogator]

Day 1:



2 days later + manual pixel refresh:

Where did you get these test patterns?

 

[ssj3rd]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/c...urce=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

 

[SoCali]

Where did you get these test patterns?

AVSForum:

https://mega.nz/#!f4Ig2ASC!iu7UrrzLIK4sqiUoUO8JZ_C13Pz0euJqDY47lz-xYcs

 

[SoCali]

With Win 11 2H22 release the Microsoft HDR Calibration tool has been released.

https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/windows-hdr-calibration/9N7F2SM5D1LR?hl=en-us&gl=us

It overrides EDID to set max luminance like many do with CRU. On my PG42UQ the cross vanishes at around 710nits while on my C2 it goes away around 800nits.

 

[aznpotpie]

Dang it the box outline on the bottom right wasn’t there before

 

[SoCali]

Dang it the box outline on the bottom right wasn’t there before

Lol what is that? Your screen is way cleaner than mine even considering the exposure difference between our pictures.

 

[aznpotpie]

Lol what is that? Your screen is way cleaner than mine even considering the exposure difference between our pictures.

I want to say it’s some kind of burn in/image retention, wasn’t there on day 1. Going have to use a laptop to see lol.

It’s just luck, I had a 3rd one that was exactly like yours and returned it asap

 

[SoCali]

I've decided to keep the C2. The PG42UQ is a better monitor for SDR but the C2 is a better display overall. The C2 is brighter as evident by the Microsoft HDR Calibration tool and my own eyes (the 50% window size brightness disparity is definitely noticeable) and I've noticed there are scenarios where dynamic tone mapping is useful.

Ignoring my PG42UQ's terrible panel, its main issues besides all the firmware bugs is that HDR on the desktop just doesn't look right. Same with some games IMO. On top of this its ABL is super aggressive even in games which makes that 50%+ window brightness difference that much more noticeable. It seems like such a minuscule difference on paper but in person is a different story. For example if I pan the camera in Cyberpunk from the streets to look up toward a building with the sky in the background, the PG42UQ will abruptly dim while the C2 rolls into ABL in a very subtle manner that is almost unnoticeable and also maintains higher brightness.

Basically the C2 looks brighter in actual content regardless of what test slides say. What it boils down to is that its very hard for my eyes to spot the different between 717nits (C2) and 780nits (PG42UQ) when it comes to small highlights (my eyes tell me though that the Asus is not achieving that # at all). Its far easier and noticeable to my eyes spotting the 242nits (C2) and 204nits (PG42UQ) on 50% window sizes like sky boxes in games along with the 100% window difference of 152nits (C2) vs 120nits (PG42UQ).

Another thing that sort of swayed me is that I like my display as close to my desk surface as possible in order to keep my eye line near the top 3/4 of the panel since I use a keyboard tray for ergonomics. The Asus increases this distance between the desk and panel significantly because of the chin. Oh yeah and I also forgot the 8+ second input switch/HDR toggle/resolution change black screen delay, no thanks. C2 is instantaneous.

The final nail in the coffin for me as I mentioned before is just 0 confidence in Asus getting this monitor into a trouble free state anytime soon. The firmware bugs that exist now are such simple issues that for them to go unnoticed is just pure incompetence. This thing will be a solid display 2-3 firmware updates from now.

 

[Happy Hopping]

I can hold off on this purchase, and do some other purchase this Xmas. Is there any roadmap on what brand is coming out of OLED at 40"+ in 2023?

because this whole thing reminds me of that other [H] thread some of us are in, on the Philip LG 4K monitor , and that POS only last me 4 yr., every member in that thread got killed by Philips. And that's because at the time, 4K just come out, and some of us jump the gun for the very first 4K.

So I don't want to jump the gun again. I have high hope on Viewsonic if they are getting their one out in 2023. As their warranty is always 3 yr.

 

[MistaSparkul]

I can hold off on this purchase, and do some other purchase this Xmas. Is there any roadmap on what brand is coming out of OLED at 40"+ in 2023?

because this whole thing reminds me of that other [H] thread some of us are in, on the Philip LG 4K monitor , and that POS only last me 4 yr., every member in that thread got killed by Philips. And that's because at the time, 4K just come out, and some of us jump the gun for the very first 4K.

So I don't want to jump the gun again. I have high hope on Viewsonic if they are getting their one out in 2023. As their warranty is always 3 yr.

Besides LG with their bendable monitor along with next year's C3 lineup, we haven't heard anything else. Those 2 from LG are going to be 120Hz max though and looking at how Lovelace is shaping up so far I have no interest in shelling out for another 120Hz display. The day of 4k at beyond 120fps will soon be upon us and I'm looking for at least 160Hz for my next monitor.

 

[Skyhopper01]

I've decided to keep the C2. The PG42UQ is a better monitor for SDR but the C2 is a better display overall. The C2 is brighter as evident by the Microsoft HDR Calibration tool and my own eyes (the 50% window size brightness disparity is definitely noticeable) and I've noticed there are scenarios where dynamic tone mapping is useful.

Ignoring my PG42UQ's terrible panel, its main issues besides all the firmware bugs is that HDR on the desktop just doesn't look right. Same with some games IMO. On top of this its ABL is super aggressive even in games which makes that 50%+ window brightness difference that much more noticeable. It seems like such a minuscule difference on paper but in person is a different story. For example if I pan the camera in Cyberpunk from the streets to look up toward a building with the sky in the background, the PG42UQ will abruptly dim while the C2 rolls into ABL in a very subtle manner that is almost unnoticeable and also maintains higher brightness.

Basically the C2 looks brighter in actual content regardless of what test slides say. What it boils down to is that its very hard for my eyes to spot the different between 717nits (C2) and 780nits (PG42UQ) when it comes to small highlights (my eyes tell me though that the Asus is not achieving that # at all). Its far easier and noticeable to my eyes spotting the 242nits (C2) and 204nits (PG42UQ) on 50% window sizes like sky boxes in games along with the 100% window difference of 152nits (C2) vs 120nits (PG42UQ).

Another thing that sort of swayed me is that I like my display as close to my desk surface as possible in order to keep my eye line near the top 3/4 of the panel since I use a keyboard tray for ergonomics. The Asus increases this distance between the desk and panel significantly because of the chin. Oh yeah and I also forgot the 8+ second input switch/HDR toggle/resolution change black screen delay, no thanks. C2 is instantaneous.

The final nail in the coffin for me as I mentioned before is just 0 confidence in Asus getting this monitor into a trouble free state anytime soon. The firmware bugs that exist now are such simple issues that for them to go unnoticed is just pure incompetence. This thing will be a solid display 2-3 firmware updates from now.

I think I am in the same boat when it comes to returning mine as well. I have been using my 42uQ side by side with my PG32UQX and the image quality difference is substantially better on the 32UQX. Not only the image sharpness from the increase in PPI, but my god the color and brightness difference is insane! There might be a better contrast ratio on the 42UQ and some darker scenes do look better, but 95 percent of the time the PG32UQX decimates the PG42UQ and really feels like a true Next Gen experience in comparison. 1200-1600 nits vs 200-700 nits will do that I guess.

 

[MistaSparkul]

I think I am in the same boat when it comes to returning mine as well. I have been using my 42uQ side by side with my PG32UQX and the image quality difference is substantially better on the 32UQX. Not only the image sharpness from the increase in PPI, but my god the color and brightness difference is insane! There might be a better contrast ratio on the 42UQ and some darker scenes do look better, but 95 percent of the time the PG32UQX decimates the PG42UQ and really feels like a true Next Gen experience in comparison. 1200-1600 nits vs 200-700 nits will do that I guess.

FALD LCD's like the PG32UQX and PQ27QU definitely win over OLED when it comes to very bright and colorful HDR scenes, my X27 just has a vibrance and pop in certain scenes that my CX just cannot match and looks almost SDR like by comparison. But then in darker scenes I just end up with a bloom fest so that's the drawback. Sometimes OLED wins, sometimes FALD LCD wins. I could never choose one or the other decisively which is why I have both.

 

[SoCali]

I think I am in the same boat when it comes to returning mine as well. I have been using my 42uQ side by side with my PG32UQX and the image quality difference is substantially better on the 32UQX. Not only the image sharpness from the increase in PPI, but my god the color and brightness difference is insane! There might be a better contrast ratio on the 42UQ and some darker scenes do look better, but 95 percent of the time the PG32UQX decimates the PG42UQ and really feels like a true Next Gen experience in comparison. 1200-1600 nits vs 200-700 nits will do that I guess.

My only problem with the PG32UQX is that its pixel response is so slow no matter how good the HDR looks its offset by how smeary it is. I use darkmode in basically everything so seeing white text leave a powdery trail when I scroll makes me want to rip my eyes out.

 

[Skyhopper01]

My only problem with the PG32UQX is that its pixel response is so slow no matter how good the HDR looks its offset by how smeary it is. I use darkmode in basically everything so seeing white text leave a powdery trail when I scroll makes me want to rip my eyes out.

Damn, I must have old eyes. I Do see that the PG42UQ is a more clear image in motion. But to me, it makes very little difference.

 

[SoCali]

Damn, I must have old eyes. I Do see that the PG42UQ is a more clear image in motion. But to me, it makes very little difference.

Well once you know what to look for it becomes super apparent. You might just not have noticed yet or it just doesn't have an impact on the content you consume.

PG42UQ 138hz vs C2 120hz vs PG32UQX 144hz

EDIT: From what I remember that panel can only keep up with the refresh rate up to around 90hz. Could be the games you're playing are predominantly under 90FPS.

 

[Skyhopper01]

Well once you know what to look for it becomes super apparent. You might just not have noticed yet or it just doesn't have an impact on the content you consume.

View attachment 512506View attachment 512509View attachment 512510


PG42UQ 138hz vs C2 120hz vs PG32UQX 144hz

EDIT: From what I remember that panel can only keep up with the refresh rate up to around 90hz. Could be the games you're playing are predominantly under 90FPS.

I have had the panel since launch and have played a variety of titles at many different refresh rates. In reality the smearing is not really noticeable to me. Of course having the PG42UQ side by side, its obvious that the 42 is a clearer image in motion compared to the PG32UQX, but the difference is very small.

 

[kasakka]

I can hold off on this purchase, and do some other purchase this Xmas. Is there any roadmap on what brand is coming out of OLED at 40"+ in 2023?

The rumors say there should be higher brightness panels, probably pushing the LG OLED TVs to 1000 nits for small window sizes and a slight uplift at larger window sizes. Whether any of that trickles down to these smaller 42 and 48" sizes is yet unknown.

I would not be surprised if next year's range also includes a fixed curve model or two. They seem to be testing the market with the LG Flex and the 45" low res ultrawide.

I'm hoping they would also be able to push these above 120 Hz, at least to 144 Hz but preferably higher.

But otherwise I would not expect anything major.

 

[Zorachus]

 

[JohnnyFlash]

How are we doing for eye strain? Just took my GQ950 back for that reason.

 

[MistaSparkul]

How are we doing for eye strain? Just took my GQ950 back for that reason.

I think we cannot answer this for you because it's going to come down to how your own eyes will behave with this display. There is a brightness dip that's in line with the 120Hz refresh rate, although it's not really a PWM effect I think, but still it's something that bothers a few people. Then you have others like me who have used a CRT until 2012 and can game with 120Hz BFI on for hours without any eye strain.

 

[JohnnyFlash]

I think we cannot answer this for you because it's going to come down to how your own eyes will behave with this display. There is a brightness dip that's in line with the 120Hz refresh rate, although it's not really a PWM effect I think, but still it's something that bothers a few people. Then you have others like me who have used a CRT until 2012 and can game with 120Hz BFI on for hours without any eye strain.

I get that, I guess I'm asking if anyone here has returned for that reason so far and what they were coming from.

 

[undertaker2k8]

Got it yesterday, mounting on desktop stand with 100mm to 300mm VESA adapter was more of a time suck than I thought, never paid attention to the dozens of different Mx screw sizes before. Still not sure if I gonna keep/replace my AW but one benefit is support for all HDR formats especially DV which apparently is the only one Disney+ supports correctly.

 

[SoCali]

My PG42UQ will no longer display an image using DP over 60hz. Setting it to even 100hz results in a gray jumbled screen. Tried different cables and a different PC. HDMI 2.1 still works all the way up to 138hz though.

Pretty strange.

 

[ssj3rd]

My PG42UQ will no longer display an image using DP over 60hz. Setting it to even 100hz results in a gray jumbled screen.

Hmm, sounds like the DP port took an early grave…

 

[Happy Hopping]

My PG42UQ will no longer display an image using DP over 60hz. Setting it to even 100hz results in a gray jumbled screen. Tried different cables and a different PC. HDMI 2.1 still works all the way up to 138hz though.

Pretty strange.

what were you using all these time to connect to your PC? Display port or your HDMI 2.1?

 

[Zorachus]

So I might get the LG C2 42" would be for my PC Gaming rig.

How does it work with it being a Gaming display and also a PC desktop monitor?

Meaning when playing games do I need to manually select Gaming mode via the remote control every time I start a game, and then switch it back to normal mode or something when just surfing the web and stuff? Which sounds annoying.

Or can I just keep the C2 in one more always for both gaming and desktop use?

Also any specific settings to change right away using this display on a PC only?

 

[fbanget]

So I might get the LG C2 42" would be for my PC Gaming rig.

How does it work with it being a Gaming display and also a PC desktop monitor?

Meaning when playing games do I need to manually select Gaming mode via the remote control every time I start a game, and then switch it back to normal mode or something when just surfing the web and stuff? Which sounds annoying.

Or can I just keep the C2 in one more always for both gaming and desktop use?

Also any specific settings to change right away using this display on a PC only?

YOu'll just set the input as "PC" and use the game optimizer mode for both gaming and desktop use.

It should auto detect your input as a PC and will enable it by itself, but know that it happens sometimes (to me at least) that the input reverts to "HDMI" which is more laggy. To set it back you go in the Home Dashboard and click on the three dot in the top right and click "Edit Inputs". (This might have happened because I unplugged it at one point though)

 

[Tol]

((( EDIT: Gone after 3 hours but they do seem to appear available occassionally at 6am Pacific for anyone that's looking. ))) PG42UQ has been in stock on Asus's US page for more than 2 hours now. It was going out of stock after 5-10 minutes last week.

I also saw that the new firmware is on their site as well.

 

[Sobo]

So I might get the LG C2 42" would be for my PC Gaming rig.

How does it work with it being a Gaming display and also a PC desktop monitor?

Meaning when playing games do I need to manually select Gaming mode via the remote control every time I start a game, and then switch it back to normal mode or something when just surfing the web and stuff? Which sounds annoying.

Or can I just keep the C2 in one more always for both gaming and desktop use?

Also any specific settings to change right away using this display on a PC only?

I've been using it for 2 months as a PC monitor (my first OLED as well as first TV ever) and overall I am very happy.
I've basically optimized my settings to a point where I only use 2 profiles:

Standard (brightness set to 50, contrast 85, BT1886 gamma, warm 50 color temp etc.) - using this one for desktop which in my case is 80% browser and youtube, but I now also use this for SDR gaming.
Game optimizer HDR (brightness set to 100, contrast 100, warm 50 color temp etc.) - everything HDR whether it is youtube, movies or HDR games. When I wanna play / see something with HDR support, I simply press win+alt+b and the TV instantly switches to HDR mode and applies the game optimizer HDR profile. Than I can launch my game etc.

Occasionally for things like SDR anime I manually switch to filmmaker with 80 brightness as the 50 from the standard profile is a bit low for those bright anime colors. Using the remote it takes me like 5 seconds total, so not a big deal, but I would really like LG to add the possibility to have a shortcut for image profiles. They only allow it for apps which I don't really use.
At the beginning I was using game optimizer for SDR games as well, but that one is a pain in the ass, because it does not activate autimatically like the HDR game optimizer when I switch Windows to HDR via the keyboard shortcut. And when you wanna switch from game optimizer to something else, you cannot do it even remotely as quickly, because instead of the normal simplified menu which allows to quickly toggle image presets, the game optimizer pops that stupid "gamer OSD" or how do you call it and that one does not allow quick profile switch, so I have to go to the full settings instead, which takes even longer - what a hassle. So, I ditched it and run SDR games in my standard profile instead.

As for the rest of the settings go watch something like HDTVTest or TFTCentral on YT - they have good recommendations on how to configure LG OLEDs. But make sure you do that, because out of the box the picture quality could be seriously impacted with factory settings.

But going through all of that is totally worth it. I went from Asus PG279Q (27" 1440p 144Hz G-sync IPS) to the 42" LG C2 and the difference is mind-blowing. Especially the contrast and no IPS glow, wider color gamut, amazing size and great immersion, incredibly crisp and detailed image with HDR being in a completely different league of its own. The Asus has basically the same PPI as the 42C2, so I though overall image sharpness and detail will be roughly the same, but in reality? Nope, the C2 is waaay sharper and more detailed than the PG279Q despite PPI being similar - it's more of a theoretical value in my opinion. The combination of the higher 4K resolution with the 42" size just works fantastically well for me (my eyes are roughly 100cm from the screen, for the Asus it was like 65cm).
Gaming and watching movies on this thing is a transformative experience compared to an older LCD - one of the best upgrades I have ever done. Will buy an RTX 4090 to properly take advantage of it as my current 3080 works okay but more often than not cannot go anywhere near 120 FPS at 4K and 60 FPS is totally unacceptable for me.

EDIT: I don't think game optimizer does anything at all when it comes to latency / responsiveness, at least I cannot tell any difference between it and standard. You get the lower input lag by switching the TV to PC mode, not by using game optimizer imho. VRR also works fine in standard and the boost feature of GO only does something in 60Hz mode which you won't use on PC, so I don't think there's any benefit to switching to game optimizer whatsoever - just use whatever preset you want and configure it to the desired image settings. I use it as my HDR profile, but that's because I can easily toggle between it and standard via Windows shortcut, otherwise I would have used something else.

 

[SoCali]

what were you using all these time to connect to your PC? Display port or your HDMI 2.1?

HDMI 2.1 this entire time but I swapped to DP to see if it made any difference.

PG42UQ has been in stock on Asus's US page for more than 2 hours now. It was going out of stock after 5-10 minutes last week.

I also saw that the new firmware is on their site as well.

Yeah update is on the UK site, not US yet. Supposodly speeds up input switching time as well. Too bad I already packed this thing up before I saw the update was available so I could at least test it to buy a replacement.

 

[aznpotpie]

HDMI 2.1 this entire time but I swapped to DP to see if it made any difference.



Yeah update is on the UK site, not US yet. Supposodly speeds up input switching time as well. Too bad I already packed this thing up before I saw the update was available so I could at least test it to buy a replacement.

Might be a blessing in disguise, one of mine definitely has a dying controller.

 

[SoCali]

Might be a blessing in disguise, one of mine definitely has a dying controller.

What symptoms are you experiencing?