LG HU70LA CINEBEAM THINQ 4K PROJECTOR REVIEW- PICTURE QUALITY

LG HU70LA Projector – Picture Quality: Out-of-the-box Picture Quality, Skin Tones, Black Level and Shadow Detail.

I would rate the LG HU70LA picture quality out of the box as very good. No major issues with color accuracy leaped out at me. LG HU70LA has a total eight preset picture modes. The Cinema as well as the two Expert (Bright/Dark) modes were the most accurate.

The color balance of the Expert modes is identical with the only notable difference being their default Gamma settings. The Expert Bright Mode targets a Gamma of 2.2 which is preferred for viewing in a room with higher ambient light while the Expert Dark Mode targets BT.1886 to optimize dark room viewing.

In addition, LG also includes a Vivid and a Standard mode. The Dynamic mode and Sports modes are the brightest and are designed to fight through bright light but they add a greenish hue to the image. The Standard mode picture was warmer with slightly boosted contrast.

There is also an HDR Effect mode which both result in an overly saturated picture.

To achieve the best out-of-the-box SDR picture I suggest choosing one of the Expert modes, depending on the amount of ambient light. Since my room had some ambient light, I selected the Expert Bright Room mode along with the Normal color temperature and gamma preset of 2.2. The lamp power set to Minimum Energy Savings (full lamp power).

The above screen shots give a rough idea of the color accuracy for each picture mode. However, when viewed in person the skin tone will look better than shown in these photos.

The first are shots of a skin tone test image showing the different preset modes. Also included is a variety of screenshots showing skin tones under different scene lighting.

The Expert (bright/dark) modes produced the most accurate skin tones. Switching to the brighter picture modes like Dynamic Standard or Sports resulted in oversaturation, but in many situations, it might be worth it to cut through a lot of ambient light.

Next are images of a variety of videos and photos in 4K and HD resolution. Like all our photos, they remain unadjusted for color, so they do not look as good as what the projector produced. All the HD and 4K images were taken with the HU70LA set to Expert Bright mode (the best preset mode for non-SDR viewing in a room with ambient light).

The HU70LA’s blacks were closer to dark gray. This was obvious when watching darker scenes at night in my demo room. There are projectors in HU70LA price point that can provide better black level, but they are not nearly as compact or packed with as many Smart features. While we have reviewed several home theater projectors many have much better black levels and higher contrast, but these are only beneficial in a darkened theater or room with lots of light control.