Colors and Ideal Settings

Fine-tuning for the optimal picture, just like they see in the film studio: In this chapter, we'll show you how good the LG 42 LH 7000's colors and presets really are, and how to get the best out of the TV's picture.

Color Fidelity:

The TV's color spectrum tells the expert what type of light source the TV uses. The sharp peak in the green region is typical of LCD TVs whose panels are illuminated by special fluorescent tubes.

This diagram shows how the color temperature varies across grayscales that range from almost black right through to white. The LG's color temperature varies from one brightness level to another and has an average value of just under 7,000 Kelvin, which is a little too high. Ideally, the color temperature would remain a constant 6,500 Kelvin.

A CIE diagram indicates the color gamut of the TV (reproduction of saturated colors), as well as the color coordinates of various light grayscales. The black triangle shows the ideal values; the white triangle is the gamut of the tested TV. In the ideal case, you would see just one spot inside the triangle, and this would lie at the point where the dotted lines meet (the D65 point). The more visible spots, the bigger the color deviation.

The LG's color gamut covers the EBU and HDTV color gamuts exactly (with automatic switching depending on the resolution), so it displays saturated colors with the correct tint and saturation. Inside the triangle, you can see some white spots positioned away from the crosshair.

In the most color-neutral preset, "Movie", the LG's picture exhibits a visible cyan/green tint, which is particularly irritating in black-and-white movies, since it makes these look sterile. But also in colorful scenes, you can see a certain tint to skin colors, making complexions look a little unnatural. Luckily, however, there's a solution: The LG offers picture controls that can balance out the tint. Give it a try - we managed to get significantly better colors this way.

As this test pattern shows, the LG displays saturated colors accurately.

Picture Settings:
The LG engineers paid special attention to the deep-reaching picture-setup options. The TV has two "Expert/isf-ccc" user memory locations, which offer more picture settings than the other presets (Vivid, Movie...).

These user memory locations serve a very specific purpose: High-brow customers can pay a professional service to calibrate the TV, so that the color reproduction is absolutely accurate - the LG provides all the necessary controls, earning the "ccc" suffix ("color correction capable").

Expert Adjustment Options:
The following paragraph is intended for experts that already know video technology well and contains some technical terms. If you'd like to know what one or more of these means, refer to the Televisions.com Glossary.

The video adjustment settings include controls for the following parameters:

Several predefined color temperatures, as well as fine tuning of color temperature using R/G/B settings for two measurement points (RGB-Gain/-Offset).

Selective color-temperature fine tuning using R/G/B settings for ten brightness areas. This option is very rare and allows precise white-balance adjustment, since you can adjust the color temperature separately for ten different grayscale regions.

Three predefined gamma curves (ca. 2.0-2.4).

Switchable color gamut.

A color filter mode, whereby the TV displays only the red, green, or blue component of the picture. You normally only find an option like this in professional monitors. The setting means you don't need to use the separate color filters that accompany some test patterns used for adjusting color saturation or tint/hue.

Color management with twelve parameters: Tint and saturation for each of the colors red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow.

Extended sharpness control for horizontal and vertical image structures.
Integrated test patterns for setting the contrast, brightness, sharpness, color saturation, and tint.

Calibration:

The expert menu contains all the picture settings you need to adjust the TV for optimal color reproduction.

It's worth the effort: After calibration, individual grayscales no longer deviate as strongly, the green tint disappears, the colors look significantly more natural, and the color coordinates remain close to the D65 point (6,500 Kelvin color temperature) throughout.

Color Balance:

The diagram shows the change in color balance across various brightness levels, from dark gray to white. Ideally, all three lines would lie on top of one another and would always follow the ideal line. If, for example, the red line always lies significantly below the ideal, the picture will lack some of its red component. This leads to a cyan-tinted picture impression.

After calibration of the LG, the color temperature and tint remain almost constant across all grayscales. The result: There's no longer an irritating color cast in either color or black-and-white movies.

Gamma Characteristic:

The gamma characteristic shows whether the TV displays brightness gradations accurately: The red curve indicates the ideal values, the blue curve the gamma of the test device.

The LG's gamma curve has the correct form and, with a gamma value of 2.2, suits the rather contrast-weak characteristic of this LCD - that is, it's ideal for use in a room with slight background lighting.

We achieved an optimal Blu-ray HDTV movie picture using the settings listed below. You may need to make slight changes to these settings as a result of manufacturing variations, HDMI-transmission variables, and differences between Blu-ray players.

Ideal Settings

AV Mode: Expert 1

Energy Saving: Off

Aspect Ratio: Just Scan

Backlight: 52 (gives 200 cd/m²)

Contrast: 90

Brightness: 54

H Sharpness: 50

V Sharpness: 50

Color: 50

Tint: 0

Expert Control Submenu:

Dynamic Contrast: Off

Noise Reduction: Off

Gamma: Medium (ca. 2.2)

Black Level: Low

Real Cinema: On

TruMotion 100 Hz: See section on Picture uniformity and digital picture errors

Color Gamut: Standard

Edge Enhancer: High

OPC: On

White Balance:

Method 10 Point IRE

10 IRE R-1/G-2/B-6
20 IRE R4/G0/B-1
30 IRE R9/G0/B-1
40 IRE R7/G0/B-1
50 IRE R13/G0/B-3
60 IRE R11/G0/B-6
70 IRE R14/G-1/B-7
80 IRE R13/G0/B-10
90 IRE R7/G0/B-15
100 IRE R3/G-1/B-12

Color Management System:

Set all controls to 0