Looking to buy a specific 4K TV – can I rely on the supported resolutions?

[richisawesome]

Hi all

I currently have a 55″ LG TV, model 55LB561V, that I use as my main display for my PC, Wii U, Switch and my ten retro consoles hooked up via the OSSC. It’s worked brilliantly up until now, but I’m looking to upgrade to 4k. I’m looking at the LG 55UH661V – reason being the low input lag and the fact that I’ve not heard anything negative so far about LG sets with regards to the OSSC (unlike Samsung and Panasonic).

My current LG works flawlessly with all scaling modes and options on the OSSC. The list of supported resolutions and frequences in the manual are as follows:

It’s pretty extensive – which is probably why it has such good support with the OSSC. I’ve checked up the manual for the 4k set, and the supported resolution list looks like this:

I’ve omitted the 4k resolutions there for obvious reasons. Comparing the two, they look identical up to 1080p, right? There seems to be a little bit less support on 1080p than my old set, but will that be an issue? I have the following hooked up via the OSSC:

– JP Mega Drive 1 (csync)
– JP Saturn (csync)
– JP N64 (composite sync)
– Famicom AV (composite sync)
– Super Famicom Jr (csync)
– PAL PSONE (luma sync)
– PAL Gamecube (composite sync)
– Dreamcast (vga)
– XBOX (component)
– PC Engine (composite sync)

thanks!

[marqs]

Those specs do not include any tolerance values, so unfortunately there’s no guarantee about how the display behaves if fed with slightly different horizontal and/or vertical frequency.

[b0nz0beavis]

Take the Super Fami and OSSC down to the TV shop and test it out? If it works with lx3/4/5 with the SF, the other consoles should be fine, given the SNES is one of the consoles that is known to cause problems as far as display compatibility.

Not an ideal solution, but probably the only way to know for sure, other than finding out detailed info from the TV design/development team…

When I switch to OLED in the next 2-3 years, I’ll be heading down my local TV store with an OSSC and console at hand 🙂

[BuckoA51]

Richer Sounds in the UK are great for this, if you arrange a demo they let you bring in anything you want to test.

[richisawesome]

Heh well my previous TV, 5.1 AV receiver and rear and centre speakers are all from Richer Sounds – so that’s where I was heading anyway! And I actually sent them an email the other day about all of this and their response was that it’d be fine to bring the OSSC and a SNES in to test on the display model!

I also sent the business support helpline of LG an email asking about information on tolerances, supplied information on the OSSC and asked for a non-automated response. I got the following:

I have personally taken a look into this for you Rich, and double checked this with the senior technicians here at LG also. We would see no compatibility issue between the two devices at all, and they should line up with the tolerances of your previous set. However, as we do not manufacture the console ourselves, it may be worth contacting the console manufacturer, to ensure that the two specifications line up, and there will be no issues regarding this. From what we can see, there shouldn’t be.

Which…was not the unhelpful response I expected! Looking more and more like I’ll be getting that LG next month now!

[eric90000]

I’d be very interested to find out what your findings are Rich. I’m in the same boat really, I have an older 47″ LG that works perfectly with every single OSSC mode, but I’ll be looking into a newer 4K TV soon. I bought a Sony 40″ TV a while back and it only supports Lx2 :(.

[richisawesome]

yesssss

Got a deal on it for £550, couldn’t say no. Took a chance on it and….

It’s a bit finicky with 5x scaling on my RGB Famicom, but it’s rock solid on 3x on every console I own with no dropouts. Not tested 1:1 ratio mode yet. And yes, the display labels are now off the TV!

[eric90000]

Oh nice man! Looks great, I’m happy for ya and jealous at the same time lol. You say the RGB Famicom is finicky at 5X….what about the other consoles? Everything else work on 3X/4X/5X?!

I’m in Ireland…seriously contemplating looking into this TV. How does the input lag feel, and are the aspect ratio settings good on the TV?

😀

[richisawesome]

I had a couple of drop outs on x5 SNES – but 3x so far is perfect, and even 1:1 works flawlessly. I’ve played through three levels of Yoshi’s Island in 1:1 8:7 ratio mode without a single issue, and it looks fantastic:

input lag is baaaaaaaaaaaad on the default cinema/live/vivid picture modes, but barely noticeable on GAME mode (obviously). I don’t see any difference to the input lag on my old set, which is a good thing – I’ve blazed through some of SMB3 too and it’s just as responsive as any decent set I’ve used before. I’ve spent most of this night calibrating it and getting the image right – but it’s great now.

So yeah, at least you guys know of at least one 4K set now that works with the ossc!

[BuckoA51]

Awesome! Would you mind if I shared those pictures on social media?

[richisawesome]

Yeah that’s fine. They aren’t great images though.

I’ve been messing around with it more tonight and x4 does indeed work well. x5 is definitely a crapshoot though unfortunately. But even so, all the other modes work fine and look great so it’s not a massive issue for me when it could be the case that none worked at all.

The LG I previously owned however, make no mistake, was significantly better at displaying the image from the OSSC (aside from the fact it’s on its last legs). Its absolutely crystal clear. The 4k set isn’t to the same extent – but it’s not an issue exclusive to the OSSC. 4k content looks absolutely stunning and pin sharp, but upscaled 1080p content is not as crisp which is to be expected. Nier Automata is a good example – crystal clear at 1080p native on my old set, not so on the 4k set, but beautiful on 4k native (my PC is showing its age though)

Anyhow. One other cool feature is that the image scaling mode on the set is really good. It’s great for Super Game Boy games at least!

8:7 mode above, meaning the actual Game Boy window is closer to the aspect it should be.

And with scaling.

[Harrumph]

I have been thinking of getting this type of TV, but I recently found out about LG’s use of RGBW IPS panels (which I believe this one is too), where true 4k resolution is actually not achieved for chroma (only luminance). Apparently this can lead to some problems with moire patterning on solid colours, and vertical hue shifted “stripes” etc (see this thread for example). Is this something you have noticed at all, or is it really a non-issue at normal viewing distance? Would appreciate your input!

[richisawesome]

Well, thats something I noticed…Amongst other things.

It’s back in the box. I’m on hold with Currys now, and will be returning it on Monday. Sadly. Reasons:

– Global auto dimming that cannot be turned off. Ever. As I use my TV as a monitor and display for my gaming PC, this makes it unusable. Got the Firefox start page up or Google? Perfect brightness. Load up Facebook or this forum or anything with a darker theme and the entire image darkens, to a point where it’s constantly fluctuating.

– Colours are impossible to get right. I spent every day messing with it and I couldn’t get the image anywhere near as good as my old set.

– Non uniform scaling from 1080p to 4k on my PC. This is a fault with NVidia as well – no option for integer scaling. Result is a blurry mess.

– Rounded pixels.

– motion blur that seems random

It got to today after getting home from work and struggling to get the image right to enjoy a game and I just realised I would never be happy with it. I’ve put my old set back up and the difference is staggering.

So yeah…meh. The hunt goes on I guess. I’ll just buy a new graphics card instead and downsample.

[Harrumph]

Alright, that was quite a list of problems… Thank’s for letting us know!
I guess I’ll have to put the thought of a new TV on hold a bit longer.

[Harrumph]

Seems there is only one model of the mid-range 4k LG’s that don’t have this type of panel, the UH63 series, comes in 40, 50 & 58″ sizes. These have MVA panels. Reviews seem promising.

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