LG HU85LA CineBeam ThinQ 4K UHD Projector - Advanced Calibration

Posted on August 12, 2019 by Art Feierman

LG HU85LA CineBeam Projector Review – Advanced Calibration: CMS Calibration, Calibration Charts

CMS SETTINGS FOR BEST MODE 1080P REC.709 CALIBRATION

Expert (Dark Room) Mode Pre-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target REC.709)

Expert (Dark Room) Mode Post-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target REC.709)

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RGBCMY	Saturation	Tint	Luminance
Red	5	3	0
Green	4	-2	0
Blue	5	-2	0
Cyan	0	3	0
Magenta	5	0	0
Yellow	5	2	1

Best Mode 1080p pre-calibration color and CMS performance was just ok but that’s because the white balance was averaging 8500K pushing all the color off their targets. Once the white balance was calibrated all 6 colors improved greatly. There are 2 setting options for color gamut (Auto & Extended). By default, it is set to Auto which with SDR content means REC.709, so Auto is where you should leave it. I only had to make small adjustments (no more than 5 clicks) to all 6 colors to achieve outstanding color performance. I wish other DLP’s measured this good.

CMS Settings for Best Mode 4K/HDR

Cinema (HDR) Mode Pre-Calibration P3 Saturation Sweeps inside BT.2020

Cinema (HDR) Mode Post-Calibration P3 Saturation Sweeps inside BT.2020

❮ ❯

Best Mode 4K/HDR CMS and color pre-calibration did have similar errors to those found with the Best Mode 1080p and improvements were made by calibrating the white balance but that’s where the similarities end.

On LG’s website they do speak about DCI (P3) color gamut but they don’t expressly say if the projector covers 100% of it or what percentage its does cover. They talk about a new 3 channel laser, color wheel-less engine that includes a red laser (in addition to blue). I have no idea, but this may explain why red measures past 120% P3 saturation almost hitting REC2020, wow! Now more is not better, and in this case it’s even worse because some of the other colors like green, cyan and yellow are under saturated measuring around 80% total saturation, only blue and magenta hit 100%.

What we want is for all the colors to be the same. Here they are all over the map. I tried to reign in red but I could only improve the lower levels (20 & 40%) a small amount. Any attempt at aggressive calibration resulted in making the linearity errors even worse. As expected, I could not increase the 100% saturation of green cyan & yellow. I could only make improvements to their hue’s. Overall, I was not very happy with the P3 color performance. Now putting these measurements aside and judging from a more subjective viewpoint, I’ll let Art handle that.

RGBCMY	Saturation	Tint	Luminance
Red	-5	0	0
Green	0	0	0
Blue	4	-3	0
Cyan	0	3	0
Magenta	0	-6	0
Yellow	0	2	0

LG HU85LA CineBeam Projector Review – Advanced Calibration: CMS Calibration, Calibration Charts

CMS SETTINGS FOR BEST MODE 1080P REC.709 CALIBRATION

Expert (Dark Room) Mode Pre-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target REC.709)

Expert (Dark Room) Mode Post-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target REC.709)

❮ ❯

RGBCMY	Saturation	Tint	Luminance
Red	5	3	0
Green	4	-2	0
Blue	5	-2	0
Cyan	0	3	0
Magenta	5	0	0
Yellow	5	2	1

Best Mode 1080p pre-calibration color and CMS performance was just ok but that’s because the white balance was averaging 8500K pushing all the color off their targets. Once the white balance was calibrated all 6 colors improved greatly. There are 2 setting options for color gamut (Auto & Extended). By default, it is set to Auto which with SDR content means REC.709, so Auto is where you should leave it. I only had to make small adjustments (no more than 5 clicks) to all 6 colors to achieve outstanding color performance. I wish other DLP’s measured this good.

CMS Settings for Best Mode 4K/HDR

Cinema (HDR) Mode Pre-Calibration P3 Saturation Sweeps inside BT.2020

Cinema (HDR) Mode Post-Calibration P3 Saturation Sweeps inside BT.2020

❮ ❯

Best Mode 4K/HDR CMS and color pre-calibration did have similar errors to those found with the Best Mode 1080p and improvements were made by calibrating the white balance but that’s where the similarities end.

On LG’s website they do speak about DCI (P3) color gamut but they don’t expressly say if the projector covers 100% of it or what percentage its does cover. They talk about a new 3 channel laser, color wheel-less engine that includes a red laser (in addition to blue). I have no idea, but this may explain why red measures past 120% P3 saturation almost hitting REC2020, wow! Now more is not better, and in this case it’s even worse because some of the other colors like green, cyan and yellow are under saturated measuring around 80% total saturation, only blue and magenta hit 100%.

What we want is for all the colors to be the same. Here they are all over the map. I tried to reign in red but I could only improve the lower levels (20 & 40%) a small amount. Any attempt at aggressive calibration resulted in making the linearity errors even worse. As expected, I could not increase the 100% saturation of green cyan & yellow. I could only make improvements to their hue’s. Overall, I was not very happy with the P3 color performance. Now putting these measurements aside and judging from a more subjective viewpoint, I’ll let Art handle that.