With irresistibly futuristic, ultra-thin designs, and consistently great picture quality, LG OLED TVs have become the darlings of the premium TV world—and they’re not only among the best OLED TVs, but the best of all kind of.
We’re not just talking about movie fans here, either. Recently, LG OLED TVs have also been hailed as the best gaming TVs, thanks to their ability to deliver all the latest gaming features offered by the Xbox Series X, PS5, and the latest premium PC graphics cards.
However, like all high-end TVs these days, the impressive and wide-ranging features of LG OLED TVs make them quite complex beasts, and it’s hard to get the most out of them. Especially when research shows that the vast majority of TV users barely touch their TV settings after completing the initial setup process.
The problem is that very few TVs are set up to provide the best viewing experience out of the box, so if you don’t choose the right settings, you won’t get the most out of your TV.
So here’s a look at some of the most common setup mistakes LG OLED owners make that can prevent them from getting the viewing experience they deserve.
1. Does not change the picture mode to adapt to different viewing conditions
We’ve never been so good in terms of the range of resources our TVs have access to and the variety of content available in all of them. While this is a great new feature in most respects, it does expose the fact that for all the smarts of the latest video processing systems you get with LG’s latest OLED TVs, optimizing LG OLED’s performance means taking your time Choose the right picture to preset different types of content.
Helpfully, LG tried to help with this by creating different presets with names that reflect both what they’re best suited for and the current TV viewing environment.
For regular daytime TV viewing, as well as sports, the default Standard preset for LG TVs is usually the best choice. However, if you want to watch movies or stream TV shows in high quality, you should definitely make the effort to switch to the most appropriate movie-based preset.
LG offers three options here: Cinema Home, Cinema, and Filmmaker Mode. The first of these is a good choice for watching movies in a fairly bright room, as it’s closer to the movie industry video standard than Standard mode, but bumps up the colors and brightness slightly to counter the ambient light in the room you’re in.
Cinema is a preset built by LG to provide a very accurate image in a dark room, simulating what you would see when viewing the image in a mastering studio. Great for night viewing when you dim the lights and draw the curtains.
Filmmaker Mode looks very similar to the movie, but it was designed by the independent UHD Alliance to recreate the conditions the filmmakers represented by the Alliance used to create their footage. Personally, we prefer LG’s Cinema Home or Cinema modes over Filmmaker Mode, as they take into account the specific features of each LG OLED screen more – the picture is more optimized.
We should add in this section that we recommend against using LG’s Vivid preset for any viewing as it pushes color, contrast and brightness to such extremes that the picture can become distractingly unnatural .
If you want to take advantage of the LG OLED’s extremely low response time, it’s also worth reminding gamers to make sure their TV is switched to its gaming mode while gaming. This should happen automatically, but it’s easy to double-check on newer LG TVs, especially using the Game Optimizer menu.
When using an LG TV to watch sports rather than movies, it’s worth choosing a different setting. (Image credit: TechRadar)
2. Stick to the default exercise settings
The way different TVs handle motion, and the quality of their motion handling, can have a major impact on the viewing experience. However, this is one of the most widely overlooked or misunderstood aspects of TV setups.
Many AV fans (and Hollywood celebrities) believe that all motion processing on an LG TV (or any TV) should be turned off by default. At least when watching 24p movies. Otherwise, the point of contention is that you’ll no longer get the natural 24fps jitter associated with a movie experience, but instead make the movie look like a cheap soap opera.
Personally, though, while motion processing does have a very unpleasant effect on image quality in many ways, we feel that the motion processing options available on LG TVs help rather than hinder image quality.
For example, LG’s TruMotion handles the relatively new Cinematic Motion mode very subtly to smooth out the harshest effects of TV (not movie) judder without over-smoothing the picture or throwing in too many unwanted digital artifacts.
If you find yourself finding jittery dissonance after turning off motion processing, another option worth trying is to select Custom in the TruMotion menu and set the Blur and Jitter Reduction elements to three or four respectively . This usually reduces (not removes) the effects of flutter again, without causing anything to look too artificial.
3. Keep Eco Mode settings
Almost all TVs these days come with what’s called an eco setting. In fact, most TVs come with Eco mode turned on by default. This is often to allow them to comply with strict power consumption rules set by electronics agencies around the world.
Unfortunately, while the cost savings from these modes are actually quite small, they can have a big impact on image quality. Often, they make the picture look much less bright than it would be with Eco mode turned off—even if the TV has a built-in camera, it can modify the picture based on the amount of light in the room.
In fact, if you’re watching a TV with a light sensor in a dark room, the darkness of the picture in Eco mode can be especially damaging to the HDR content you’re supposed to see.
All that said, the first thing AV fans should do when getting an LG TV is to make sure all Eco features are turned off, so you’re the one in control of how the picture looks.
LG’s Game Optimizer screen makes it easy to get the most out of your console or PC. (Image credit: LG)
4. Not optimized game settings
LG TVs are great gaming monitors that can handle just about anything any current gaming rig can throw at them. However, there are some settings that gamers may not realize that this can have a noticeable impact on the gaming experience. Note that we’re assuming here that you’ve made sure your TV is running in Game Mode with Game Source, ideally with Auto Low Latency Mode and Variable Refresh Rate Mode set to “On”.
The first “hidden” gaming trick to be aware of is the RGB mode. Setting your TV to accept RGB via the HDMI input your gaming device is connected to can deliver richer, cleaner colors from your gaming source. This feature can be activated by switching the HDMI connected console or PC to “PC Mode” in the Home Dashboard menu of the LG OLED TV. You will also need to set up your console or PC to output RGB.
Another crucial but often missed game graphics setting is HGiG. Short for HDR Gaming Interest Group, this mode available in LG’s HDR menu option is designed to work with gaming devices such as the Xbox Series X and PS5 that have their own console-level (not just in-game) HDR setting system use. Basically, selecting HGiG mode turns off the TV’s built-in dynamic HDR processing, which are designed to continuously adjust the HDR image to optimize its impact, so the TV basically leaves the task of HDR optimization to the console or PC setup you already have in order to Provides the best HDR output.
5. Dolby Atmos sound mode with built-in speakers
LG OLED TVs have a long and proud tradition of built-in decoding of the awesome Dolby Atmos audio format. Unfortunately, for generations, the LG OLED’s default Dolby Atmos sound mode didn’t actually provide the best audio when using the TV’s built-in speakers.
For some reason (although things have improved with LG’s new 2022 models), the Dolby Atmos mode on LG OLED TVs sounds easily engulfed and lacks impact, even in Dolby Atmos ( Dolby Atmos) big moments culminate in a drop in power rather than continuing to expand the way they should.
A significantly better option, even when playing Dolby Atmos soundtracks, is LG’s AI sound setting. This essentially modifies the sound to take advantage of the known capabilities of each TV’s speaker setup, and often produces a more powerful, dynamic, and punchy sound than the native Dolby Atmos mode can produce.
It should be said that the AI Sound system can sometimes seem too aggressive. However, for the most part, it provides a more well-rounded and satisfying experience.