LG 48CX

[Porter_]

I’m going to sound like a bit of a homer here:
- raised black levels improved
- HDR Game mode luminance reduced by ~100 nits, but is probably imperceptible in practice to most people
- LG acknowledged the luminance issue and is working on a fix, while maintaining the improvements of the latest firmware

That’s a win in my book. I haven’t really been this ‘involved’ with a screen in all my years of gaming (i.e keeping up with news and getting excited for firmware updates, etc.) but I can’t think of a more responsive screen manufacturer than LG has been with the CX.

 

[equinox654]

I’m going to sound like a bit of a homer here:
- raised black levels improved
- HDR Game mode luminance reduced by ~100 nits, but is probably imperceptible in practice to most people
- LG acknowledged the luminance issue and is working on a fix, while maintaining the improvements of the latest firmware

That’s a win in my book. I haven’t really been this ‘involved’ with a screen in all my years of gaming (i.e keeping up with news and getting excited for firmware updates, etc.) but I can’t think of a more responsive screen manufacturer than LG has been with the CX.

I hear you. It's turning me into a display snob though. I turn my nose up to all the peasants with lcds now and never miss an opportunity to tell people how beautiful the latest game I've viewed on it is.

 

[elvn]

Dolby Vision
------------------------
.... That's good news since DV is the only dynamic tone mapping built into HDR mastered video that works on the CX I think, since HDR10+ 's mastered dynamic tone mapping is not supported by LG as it's a competitor. So up until now we could get HDR10 (non plus) and let it be static tone mapped in relation to the display (which still looks great) - but no extra english ("spin") on a per scene basis using dolby vision content without raising the blacks until now. Raised blacks throughout mostly negated the whole idea of having mastered per scene tone mapping tweaked in the first place imo.

That does work, but does lessen the impact (and point) of HDR.

There's also the other Windows related HDR nonsense, specifically that even with HDR *always* enabled anything that brings up the Windows OSD causes either my display (currently a B6, since I'm *still* waiting on GPU) or Windows to drop out of HDR. From my experience, HDR support on Windows is a train wreck.

I've been keeping HDR mode on and using the windows HDR color setting's brightness slider to drop it down a lot to match the SDR levels of my side monitors when HDR metadata isn't being fed to the display. That part works great.

However....
HDR metadata kicking in to "active HDR" with the HDR overlay popping up is kind of like having a game run fullscreen (not windowed+full). Dropping in and out of it is pretty clunky like alt-tabbing a full screen game can be - especially with multiple monitors in an array. It's blinky at times on videos, popping in and out off full HDR range when you mouse over and make each screen active, pop up the time slider/scrubber on a vid which happens automatically on mousing over it by default, or pop up the volume overlay when changing or muting the master volume... but it's especially bad on HDR games running full screen while using multiple monitors as desktop real-estate running apps.

The SDR brightness slider only impacts SDR content. HDR is unaffected. In fact, you can have an HDR youtube video running in a section of your screen while viewing an SDR one at the same time and the HDR video will have full brightness while the SDR one will be 120 nits.

That is how it should be but unlike the youtube HDR scenario, unfortunately games like Jedi Fallen Order have to be full screen to enable HDR so I can't use windowed+full mode or windowed mode if I want to use HDR. That makes paging off of the game or alt-tabbing a total mess of long blank screen pauses, blinking screens, and buggy-ness. HDR movie playback (mpc-hc in my case) also flips the HDR logo/active-ness on and off on when mousing to different displays when they become the active display, or when mousing back over to the video screen causing the time slider to pop up. Using volume knobs or keys to change or mute the master windows volume makes a win10 volume overlay pop up doing the same clunky back and forth transitioning too. I've mapped my video player's volume control and jedi fallen order's volume control to their own dedicated midi knobs now (on a relatively cheap usb midi board) so at least I don't have to worry about the master volume overlay so much anymore. I could also try dedicating some streamdeck keys to controlling the video time slider's hotkeys for jump fwd/back and pause/play without having the time scrubber overlay popping up I guess but the visual feedback of the slider position is nice to have.

-----------------------------------------

I'm probably going to move my other budget amd rig to my gaming pc room and put it on another set of hdmi inputs on my side monitors for while I'm playing games, with a different keyboard on my slide out tray below my main peripherals. I've been using my laptop on the side for the time being, attached to the keyboard and thumb-ball mouse below my main peripherals.

It would be great if the active HDR metadata mode with the HDR logo transition shuffle didn't happen at all and was seamless but that's not the case. It's not the case on the CX itself so I don't think it makes any difference if all three displays have HDR enabled or not. The only way I can think that it wouldn't pop back and forth is if HDR content/metadata was actively running on all three displays all of the time so that it would never downshift and upshift back and forth out of full HDR range.

 

[MistaSparkul]

Yes games unfortunately do not work that way as far as I can tell. Not really an issue for me since I play all my games in exclusive fullscreen and no longer have a secondary display that I want to switch over to often (I ditched my X27 from my setup once I was able to get 120Hz 444 on the CX).

 

[Monstieur]

That is how it should be but unlike the youtube HDR scenario, unfortunately games like Jedi Fallen Order have to be full screen to enable HDR so I can't use windowed+full mode or windowed mode if I want to use HDR. That makes paging off of the game or alt-tabbing a total mess of long blank screen pauses, blinking screens, and buggy-ness. HDR movie playback (mpc-hc in my case) also flips the HDR logo/active-ness on and off on when mousing to different displays when they become the active display, or when mousing back over to the video screen causing the time slider to pop up. Using volume knobs or keys to change or mute the master windows volume makes a win10 volume overlay pop up doing the same clunky back and forth transitioning too. I've mapped my video player's volume control and jedi fallen order's volume control to their own dedicated midi knobs now (on a relatively cheap usb midi board) so at least I don't have to worry about the master volume overlay so much anymore. I could also try dedicating some streamdeck keys to controlling the video time slider's hotkeys for jump fwd/back and pause/play without having the time scrubber overlay popping up I guess but the visual feedback of the slider position is nice to have.

It sounds like you're using fullscreen exclusive mode, or changing refreshing rates between 120 Hz and 119.8 Hz or something. I don't have any display resets with Alt + Tab or overlays in games, or in MPC-BE + madVR, unless I specifically use exclusive mode.

 

[elvn]

All of my monitors are at 60hz since I don't have a 3000 series gpu yet and I'm not using a displayport adapter.

There are a lot of threads about the volume overlay dropping out of hdr active mode as well as the time slider popup doing it when mousing over your video player so I'm not alone in this.

Jedi Fallen order requires fullscreen exclusive mode for HDR to be an option. It will not run HDR in windowed of windowed+full modes, the HDR on/off slider in it's game menus won't even show up with those modes active. That's the only HDR PC game I've tried so far but I could try shadow of war at some point since I still have it installed.

I'll experiment some more. Maybe it's dropping out of HDR mode for some reason in the settings so popping on and off as if the HDR slider isn't on at all. That would help with the video playback but it still won't change the fullscreen exclusive requirement for HDR in some games. Jedi Fallen Order looks great in HDR but as I said it requires fullscreen exclusive so I wouldn't be surprised if some other games did too. I'll have to look into it.

--------------------

edit: I messed around looking at enabling and disabling hdr on my side monitors and seemed to get the "always on" HDR to stick on the CX without mode changing so it seems good now. Thanks. It was annoying before.

As it turns out then, this is probably from HDR mode not being set to on all of the time for these complaints I mentioned.

There are a lot of threads about the volume overlay dropping out of hdr active mode as well as the time slider popup doing it when mousing over your video player so I'm not alone in this.

Which means that is yet another reason for everyone to consider running windows 10 HDR mode on all of the time(editing the brightness slider) in order to avoid that happening... like I had intended all along but I ran into a snag between updates and settings on different displays.


I'll try jedi next but the fullscreen alt tabbing will still be sloppy I'm guessing - just not quite AS sloppy now without the HDR mode switching going on. I'm curious to find out if any other PC HDR games require full screen exclusive for HDR mode. If I could run windowed+full I'd be in great shape now I think but not on that game from what I've read.

 

[MistaSparkul]

Just about every PC HDR game that I have played has required Exclusive Fullscreen.

 

[phinix]

OK, my CX48 just arrived

For some reason I cannot find Total on time on it (I'm in UK, so probably European versions don't have it?)

I know we had here a list of settings to switch when you start using this tv - where is it, cannot find it now...
Another question - I had pixel shift on and now when I turned it off whole view is not centred - picture comes out on all edges - how can I re-center it?

 

[Porter_]

OK, my CX48 just arrived

For some reason I cannot find Total on time on it (I'm in UK, so probably European versions don't have it?)

I know we had here a list of settings to switch when you start using this tv - where is it, cannot find it now...
Another question - I had pixel shift on and now when I turned it off whole view is not centred - picture comes out on all edges - how can I re-center it?

Settings > Support > TV Information > Total Power On Time

 

[kasakka]

Settings > Support > TV Information > Total Power On Time

Apparently not available on EU models, that field just doesn't exist in that menu. Service menu lets you set the region of the TV too so I guess this is part of those differences.

 

[phinix]

Yeah, EU dont have it apparently....

How can I get 120hz? I only have 60.
Got RTX3070, proper HDMI 2.1 cable - what was the settings that turns it on?

 

[Porter_]

Yeah, EU dont have it apparently....

How can I get 120hz? I only have 60.
Got RTX3070, proper HDMI 2.1 cable - what was the settings that turns it on?

Did you scroll down the resolution list in Windows and select the 3840x2160 under the “PC” heading?

 

[phinix]

Did you scroll down the resolution list in Windows and select the 3840x2160 under the “PC” heading?

Aaah, yep, just did... Woooooooow......

What are the settings I should set it up for PC monitor?
There was a list somewhere I cannot find it now.

One of the settings - I did power saving off and OLED light to 50 - is it too much for PC use (web browsing) and would speed up burnin?

 

[hhkb]

Aaah, yep, just did... Woooooooow......

What are the settings I should set it up for PC monitor?
There was a list somewhere I cannot find it now.

One of the settings - I did power saving off and OLED light to 50 - is it too much for PC use (web browsing) and would speed up burnin?

https://www.reddit.com/r/OLED_Gaming/comments/ixhy39/lg_cx_gamingpc_monitor_recommended_settings/ is pretty decent as a reference.

OLED light is whatever your preference, however imo 50 is way too bright. 20-40 is good, with ~35 being 120 nits I think which is the standard bright room target. I'm using 28 atm (100 nits), but I sometimes lower it all the way to 20 in the evening. If you set this too high it will cause ABL to trigger more often. It's also more likely to have burn in/image retention with high OLED light.

 

[elvn]

Just about every PC HDR game that I have played has required Exclusive Fullscreen.

Figured that might be pretty standard. Maybe that will change someday. We used to only be able to play with g-sync in full screen exclusive at one point too.

ALT-Tab 'ing out of "Jedi: Fallen Order" is still a mess, with the HDR mode logo overlay popping up and all three screens (gaming OLED + 2 desktop/app screens) blanking out and flashing back on, also missing app windows at first. This transition takes several seconds. I haven't timed it but I'm guessing ~10 seconds.

That means while HDR gaming I won't be able to use my other screens to type in discord or other messaging apps, active forums, look something up on a side web browser (character builds, etc in some games), answer notifications, or even simply doing screenshots or clips of a game or streaming controls outside of anything I can map to hotkeys/streamdeck.

------------------------------------

I can live with it for how great HDR looks on some games...
.....but I'm definitely going to have to use my laptop on the side (which I've been doing for now) or connect budget amd rig on my side monitor's other hdmi inputs for while I'm dug into a HDR game. That still won't help with managing anything on the gaming pc itself while in a HDR game but I suppose I could eventually set up the other rig for streaming so that would allow me to take screenshots and clips at least and manage some things from there while being able to do anything else I'd normally do un-tethered on a pc (but without the horsepower of my gaming rig). There would probably still be some issues like mapping sound in/out between a 2nd rig's sound apps e.g. music and team voice apps or a game's built in team voice functionality(on the gaming rig) to my good headphones for example while still getting the game sound. That and the fact that I would be using a 2nd keyboard and thumb ball mouse on the keyboard tray I otherwise never use since I keep all my peripherals on the top desk surface. I'd rather do that than messing with with kvm switching with this setup.

----------------------------------

I found I could remote desktop to 2 out of the three screens potentially, so for the most part I'd just be limiting myself to a smaller non mech keyboard and a thumb-ball mouse while in game but only if this would work to allow me to actively use the content on my gaming rig's side screens without dumping the HDR game to alt-tab in effect or otherwise dropping HDR in a clunky transition on the main rig's primary gaming screen (that I wouldn't be RDP'ing). I don't know if that is possible or not.

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/how-...-rdp-with-just-some-of-your-multiple-monitors

So what I need to find out is: Can I run a HDR game on the gaming rig center screen (LG CX) without the RDP user being active on the side screens making the HDR game dump out of fullscreen exclusive mode.

 

[elvn]

Looks like it might require server edition of windows and even then it could potentially still dump out of fullscreen exclusive mode when 2nd user is active on the side monitors (still don't know about that in regard to exclusive mode).. so I think I'll just use the local desktop of the 2nd machine on my side display's other hdmi input and duplicate my apps+logins, share folders, etc.

I'll have to split audio and utilize aux ins etc. to get all of the mic and headphone/speaker audiio shared between the two machines (to/from my gaming rig's sound peripherals) as I don't have a big analog/digital controller and multi-out mixing panel currently.

 

[SL555]

Hey guys,
i got a 48cx around two weeks ago, which i would like to use as an pc monitor.
But iam not sure how to classify the tint, which definetly exists, and bending of my tv.

What do you think?

Settings:

Contrast 85
Gamma: 2,4
OLED Light 35
ISF-Dark Mode

Last tint picture is with my daily setup -> Game Mode, OLED Light 75, Contrast 100 and Gamma 1886.

Best regards and happy new year.

 

[phinix]

How do you run those tests, like 5% grey etc?

 

[mirkendargen]

Hey guys,
i got a 48cx around two weeks ago, which i would like to use as an pc monitor.
But iam not sure how to classify the tint, which definetly exists, and bending of my tv.

What do you think?

Settings:

Contrast 85
Gamma: 2,4
OLED Light 35
ISF-Dark Mode

Last tint picture is with my daily setup -> Game Mode, OLED Light 75, Contrast 100 and Gamma 1886.

Best regards and happy new year.

OLED light at 75 for daily usage is waaayyyy too bright.

 

[Rainstar]

How do you run those tests, like 5% grey etc?

I just go to a 5% grey youtube video

 

[hhkb]

Hey guys,
i got a 48cx around two weeks ago, which i would like to use as an pc monitor.
But iam not sure how to classify the tint, which definetly exists, and bending of my tv.

What do you think?

Settings:

Contrast 85
Gamma: 2,4
OLED Light 35
ISF-Dark Mode

Last tint picture is with my daily setup -> Game Mode, OLED Light 75, Contrast 100 and Gamma 1886.

Best regards and happy new year.

Looks good... enjoy the sweet screen!

 

[Monstieur]

Hey guys,
i got a 48cx around two weeks ago, which i would like to use as an pc monitor.
But iam not sure how to classify the tint, which definetly exists, and bending of my tv.

What do you think?

Settings:

Contrast 85
Gamma: 2,4
OLED Light 35
ISF-Dark Mode

Last tint picture is with my daily setup -> Game Mode, OLED Light 75, Contrast 100 and Gamma 1886.

Best regards and happy new year.

The OLEDs have a magenta tint even on Warm2 (D65), which can be corrected without a meter.

 

[hhkb]

The OLEDs have a magenta tint even on Warm2 (D65), which can be corrected without a meter.

Hold on a sec. He specifically says in that video he has calibrated it to D65 first in the service menu. At D65 it has a magenta tint. Some people do claim this, compared to a plasma at D65. You can basically pick an alternate white point shifted from D65 then to make it look your preferred white. You definitely need a meter though to first calibrate to D65 I think. My panel stock has a green tint so bumping up green blindly first is a bad idea.

 

[hhkb]

I'll also add that d-nice himself says that D65 is good on the 77CX... which is the same panel as the 48CX. The alternate white point is only intended for 55 / 65 CX, I believe. Another reason to be careful copying things. I'll also throw in that a calorimeter like the i1display 2 has larger tolerance than the difference between D65 and the alternate white point - so to even get this reliably, you would need a 2k spectrometer. I guess you can simply try the AWPs and see if it looks better though - it can't hurt.

 

[Monstieur]

Hold on a sec. He specifically says in that video he has calibrated it to D65 first in the service menu. At D65 it has a magenta tint. Some people do claim this, compared to a plasma at D65. You can basically pick an alternate white point shifted from D65 then to make it look your preferred white. You definitely need a meter though to first calibrate to D65 I think. My panel stock has a green tint so bumping up green blindly first is a bad idea.

There's another video where he says is good for Warm2 on most panels out of the box. My 48 CX looks magenta.

 

[phinix]

when you turn the tv on, it goes straight t HDMI1 where my PC is connected, but every time I get that programs menu - is there a way to turn it off?

 

[Porter_]

when you turn the tv on, it goes straight t HDMI1 where my PC is connected, but every time I get that programs menu - is there a way to turn it off?

Settings > All Settings > General > Home Settings > Home Auto Launch

 

[phinix]

Settings > All Settings > General > Home Settings > Home Auto Launch

Perfect, thank you

 

[hhkb]

There's another video where he says is good for Warm2 on most panels out of the box. My 48 CX looks magenta.

Makes sense if you see magenta to try tweaking a bit. I don't think it affects all panels - on mine at Warm2, it has a noticeable green tint in the greyscale, also quite cool in the whites so I needed to bump up red at the high point.

 

[Blackstone]

Guys, for those of you with 3090s, how is it handling this display? Are you satisfied with the performance? I am mulling over picking one up on Saturday (I scored one through Best Buy's site and it is on its way for pickup) for use with this display, but I have not yet moved this display into my game room and am currently using it as a TV.

My concern is that 3090, as fast as it is, is not quite fast enough to really push 4K and the investment is not worth it. Forget the 3080--that card is just not gettable and I like the silencer cooler on the 3090. Is anyone finding 3090 to be just a little lacking or does it meet expectations?

 

[hhkb]

Not a 3090 owner, but I am satisfied w/ 3080 performance at 4k. In well optimized games, like Doom Eternal, it easily maintains 120FPS at all ultra settings. Similar with pretty much every other game I've tried so far. I think the 3090 will do well for 99% of games right now, otherwise you have g-sync. You can check the benchmarks yourself to see. Not gonna do much better until the next generation.

 

[NukeDukem]

Guys, for those of you with 3090s, how is it handling this display? Are you satisfied with the performance? I am mulling over picking one up on Saturday (I scored one through Best Buy's site and it is on its way for pickup) for use with this display, but I have not yet moved this display into my game room and am currently using it as a TV.

My concern is that 3090, as fast as it is, is not quite fast enough to really push 4K and the investment is not worth it. Forget the 3080--that card is just not gettable and I like the silencer cooler on the 3090. Is anyone finding 3090 to be just a little lacking or does it meet expectations?

I think it handles 4k on this display very well. One thing you need to consider is the OLED pixel response. The panel is so fast that it doesn't have to hit 120FPS. Anything above 80 looks smooth as hell, smoother than my 1440p VA at 165. I haven't played Cyberpunk yet, but RDR2 and Horizon Zero Dawn are both silky at 4k without sacrificing much in the settings. For me the 3090 was definitely worth it when pairing with this TV.

 

[Skott]

I'm not sure what to think about that bendable 48" screen. On the one hand its cool and all but on the other hand I'm not sure I want to own the first year model either. I'd need to see proof that its not buggy or not good enough to work as expected. Maybe their second year model? Def needs independent reviews.

 

[b1gLoRD]

Guys, for those of you with 3090s, how is it handling this display? Are you satisfied with the performance? I am mulling over picking one up on Saturday (I scored one through Best Buy's site and it is on its way for pickup) for use with this display, but I have not yet moved this display into my game room and am currently using it as a TV.

My concern is that 3090, as fast as it is, is not quite fast enough to really push 4K and the investment is not worth it. Forget the 3080--that card is just not gettable and I like the silencer cooler on the 3090. Is anyone finding 3090 to be just a little lacking or does it meet expectations?

Many of the 3080 have exactly same cooler as 3090 so it should be even quieter than 3090. But demand on 3080 is so high is its lot easier to get 3090 vs 3080. Performance is good but only issue I can see is that nvidia is going to rls 3080 Ti in 2 months and it should have 20GB vram at msrp about 999$. So after that 3090 will be just quite a waste of money.

 

[b1gLoRD]

Did anyone already tested new driver 461.09 if there is any issue ?

 

[mirkendargen]

Did anyone already tested new driver 461.09 if there is any issue ?

I have them installed. haven't done any in-depth testing but HDR raised blacks remained fixed, and I haven't noticed any problems.

 

[b1gLoRD]

I just watched Samsung's Neo QLED TV full reveal and noticed quite nice gaming feature.
You can switch to 21:9 or even 32:9 and even move image to bottom/middle/top of the screen.
It would be nice if LG can implement something like this.

 

[sharknice]

I'm not sure what to think about that bendable 48" screen. On the one hand its cool and all but on the other hand I'm not sure I want to own the first year model either. I'd need to see proof that its not buggy or not good enough to work as expected. Maybe their second year model? Def needs independent reviews.

I don't think it's really anything that special. LG has done curved OLEDs before and have a rollable OLED. What are you worried will be buggy?

 

[kasakka]

Interesting random find: 2080 Ti USB-C port -> CableMatters USB-C to DP 1.4 "8K" adapter -> Club3D DP 1.4 to HDMI 2.1 adapter works at 4K 120 Hz, same as connecting it directly with Displayport. I am mainly interested in getting 4K 120 Hz on my 2019 16" Macbook Pro and tried this setup on it previously but never got more than 4K 60 Hz. I think I may need to give it another try.

Started looking into this again because CableMatters has released a USB-C to HDMI 2.1 adapter that they claim should allow for 4K 120 Hz on my 2019 16" Macbook Pro. Too bad their adapter does not support VRR either.

 

[MistaSparkul]

Guys, for those of you with 3090s, how is it handling this display? Are you satisfied with the performance? I am mulling over picking one up on Saturday (I scored one through Best Buy's site and it is on its way for pickup) for use with this display, but I have not yet moved this display into my game room and am currently using it as a TV.

My concern is that 3090, as fast as it is, is not quite fast enough to really push 4K and the investment is not worth it. Forget the 3080--that card is just not gettable and I like the silencer cooler on the 3090. Is anyone finding 3090 to be just a little lacking or does it meet expectations?

3090 is totally adequate for 4k gaming unless you are playing horribly optimized Ubisoft titles. Even with a 3090 I cannot maintain above 60fps at all times in AC:V despite using optimized settings from youtuber HardwareUnboxed. For every other game that isn't Ubisoft trash though, a few tweaks and you're looking at 100+ average fps.