You Asked: TV calibrations, off-angle viewing — and burn-in

On today’s episode of You Asked: lots of questions about calibration. And lots of questions about the off-angle performance of the LG C4 and the Bravia 9 so we’ll get into that. Plus, what is the opposite of burn-in? And should you be worried about it?

The LG C4 and off-angle viewing

Butinsho writes: I’ve seen other reviews mentioning about a green tint that’s visible when viewed at an angle. Have you noticed this? And Iamcosmicdude wrote: What about the off-angle green tint?

Before I answer, a clarification for anyone watching that may not understand: When we talk about off-angle performance, we’re talking about how the picture quality shifts when you are viewing a TV from the side. Think of a three-person couch in front of a TV. All three sets of eyeballs are going to be in an on-angle position. But if you have a sectional couch, any of the seats at the far end of the section would be in an off-angle viewing position, to varying degrees. Also relatable might be if you’re viewing a TV from an adjacent room, like I sometimes do here from my kitchen.

The picture of almost any TV is going to have some degradation when viewed from steep angles off to the side. OLED TVs historically have very little degradation to the picture quality, while LCD-based TVs have widely varying degrees of degradation. Sometimes it’s really bad, sometimes it’s surprisingly good. Generally only the most expensive LCD TVs have really amazing off-angle performance that can come anywhere close to an OLED TV.

With an OLED TV like the LG C4, I understand the presumption is that the off-angle performance would be stellar, as it is on most OLED TVs. So if a reviewer says the off-angle performance of the C4 exhibits something like a green tint, that would be considered noteworthy because it goes against the expectation.

In the case of the C4, Rtings claimed there was a “noticeable green tint when viewed from an angle;” also noteworthy is that Rtings put that as the only detractor in the pros and cons section. In fact, the green tint issue is mentioned eight times in the written review.

Some thought it odd I didn’t mention it in our review and asked that I comment on it.

But we captured a good amount of off-angle B-roll when we shot the video review footage. Keep in mind that we color grade our videos because of the recording process, but we keep the color grading consistent and do our best to accurately represent what the TV looks like in real life. (What you’re watching on notwithstanding.)

I watched that TV from the kitchen more times than I can count. And I never once thought to myself “dang, that’s some green tint right there!” I’m not saying it was non-existent. I’m just saying that it wasn’t a big deal to me. Did skin tones take a hit in some content? I suppose so, but what I experienced was not nearly as significant as I think Rtings makes it sound in its review.

But here’s the thing: not all OLED panels are the same. It’s entirely possible that what Rtings got and what I got are very different in performance. I’m not calling into question the legitimacy of their evaluation — those folks know what they’re doing.

I’m just not sure if it was so significant that they were like “yikes — this is not a great viewing experience.” Or if the tenor of their commentary comes more from the fact that they weren’t expecting any off-angle anomaly at all, so its presence was a surprise and that’s why commentary around it was so prevalent in their video.

Sony Bravia 9 viewing angle

Scottweaverphotovideo wrote: I might have missed it, but what about the Bravia 9 viewing angle itself?

I gotta admit, not commenting on the viewing angle in the video about a TV that tries so hard to compete with OLED in so many ways was a really unfortunate miss. I leave stuff on the cutting room floor all the time, usually because I get super-focused on the most standout stuff on a TV. And sometimes my review is just getting too long, and I can’t cram everything in there. But this? This was a miss, and I’m really sorry. Y’all know I try to do right by you guys every time, but I’m human, I screw up, and this is one of those times. So, how about that Bravia 9 viewing angle?

I didn’t really notice it. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t look. If viewing angle is bad, I’m gonna notice it.

The viewing angle on the Bravia 9 is not poor. Is it as good as Samsung or Sony’s absolute best off-angle TVs? No. There have been times when I was shocked at how good the off-angle performance was. Whether it’s Samsung Ultra Viewing Angle or Sony’s X-Wide angle, the real-world off-angle performance of a TV with that tech can vary. For instance, slap wide-angle viewing help on an ADS Pro panel which already has better viewing angles by its nature, and it’s going to be even better than the same tech built onto a VA-style LCD panel.

So, the Bravia 9 does not have OLED-level off-angle viewing prowess. But it is far better than most of the LCD TVs I test in here. I mean, no shade intended toward Hisense and TCL or even Samsung’s mid-tier TVs. But if it is a problem, I will mention it in the review.

So — again — Bravia 9 viewing angles. Not the best I’ve seen, but way, way, way better than most LCD TVs.

More on calibration

Next, let’s talk about TV calibration and then we’ll get to the whole opposite of burn-in thing, which I think is super interesting, so stick around to the end for that one.

I really want folks to understand what a good calibration will do for you and help folks understand if or when it is worth paying for one. So, here’s two questions around calibration. Specifically, professional calibration.

One comes from Henri who writes: Considering your praise of LG C4, do you think it’s worthwhile to have one calibrated with Calman, or is it so good out of the box that it’s not worth messing with? (I’m mainly interested in getting photos viewed on Apple TV to match what they look like on Apple screens with TrueTone turned on.)

And Craig writes:  I have purchased a Bravia 9 and have questions about what to expect if I have a TV calibrated. Do calibrators do calibration of all TV modes, i.e. movie, sports, cinema, vivid etc. or is calibration only done to the custom mode. What should I expect from a calibration in terms of explanation of options and what I should or should not change as I use the TV?

Here’s the thing about TV calibration: A really good calibrator is going to dial in the TV so it looks its best for just about any scenario you want, whether watching SDR, HDR, or Dolby Vision content. The variables you need to consider are how far off is the TV from what you want with its factory picture modes, and how varied are your viewing scenarios?

Let’s take Henri, for example: If you are going to watch almost exclusively movies and TV shows in a dark room and want the most accurate picture with the least expense, you can set the LG C4 to Filmmaker Mode or Cinema Mode or Dolby Vision Dark mode when watching Dolby Vision content. The performance of that TV is going to be so good I’d say probably you don’t need to hire a calibrator. However, if you watch during the day often where there’s a lot of light coming into the room, or if you want sports to look vivid but not garish and you aren’t sure what kind of motion smoothing you do or don’t want, a calibrator is going to be able to dial in several of those picture modes to work best for you and your viewing situations.

Which kind of starts answering Craig’s questions: A calibrator can adjust the performance of all or just one of those picture mode to give you what you want out of the TV for different viewing situations. Maybe you want a cooler white point for sports, but you want the colors to be as accurate as possible. That’s a complicated dance, and it requires some expertise and the right equipment to get it done well.

The key is to get a consultation with a calibrator and find out what they are capable and willing to do. Talk to them. Find out if they are willing to calibrate SDR, HDR, and Dolby Vision to your liking. Make sure they are going to adjust the white balance, grayscale, and color for all the picture modes and according to your needs. So, for example, they can target D65 white point for movie watching in dim environments, but they can target a slightly cooler color temp for SDR TV watching in the day, and yet another calibration for sports-watching in the day.

I’ll also say that if you buy a TCL or Hisense TV — one that offers great picture quality for the money, but not exactly accurate picture quality? A calibration may be worth it if you have high standards. If you buy a really expensive TV and the reviewer says about it that the out of box movie mode is stellar and that’s all you’re going to use? Then you probably don’t need to pay for a calibration. Hope that all helps.

The opposite of burn-in

Mike writes: I just ordered my new S95D and came across a question which I’d love to have your take on. A ton of movies/shows feature black bars since they aren’t in the same [aspect] ratio as most TVs. Is there any risk of burn-in because of that? Are there any ways of possibly preventing it?

As a reminder: Burn-in on modern TVs — specifically OLED TVs — is a condition in which the organic material in the pixels begins to wear down and doesn’t get as bright as it did when the TV was new. When the OLED pixels wear uniformly, you don’t get a burn-in effect. However, if the TV displays a static element at a high level of brightness for a long time, that static element is going to wear down the pixels faster in that area than the rest of the TV. That’s why it is so common to see channel logos or chyrons — those banners at the bottom of news stations and sports and weather channels — triggering burn-in, where you can see ghosts of those things even when you aren’t watching that channel or playing that game.

With letterbox bars on the top and bottom, or pillar box bars on the sides of the image, you have the opposite conditions to what would trigger burn-in. Those pixels aren’t being used at all. They are in a state of not being worn out. So, burn-in in the black bars area is not possible.

That does not mean, however, that there’s zero chance of that condition having an effect on an OLED TV.

If you were to watch nothing but letterboxed content in one specific aspect ratio with the black bars always there, and they were always the same size — and you watched a lot of that content — theoretically, you could start to notice on non-letterboxed content. That could be black-bar areas on the top and bottom that are uniformly brighter than the center of the TV, simply because those pixels rarely got used, never experienced any degradation, and were naturally brighter than all the pixels that did get used on the TV with regularity.

What would you call the opposite of burn-in. Burn-off? Non-burn? Should we all collectively decide to give it a name? Let me know in the comments.

Of course, that’s just for fun. Because while technically feasible, I have never seen this effect, so I’m not sure we need to give it a name. I’m not saying it has never happened. I’ve just never seen it, and I think we all know there aren’t hoards of folks in forums complaining about it.

So, as long as you vary your content like most folks do, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. But it does raise the question — would a warranty that covers burn-in also cover burn-off — or whatever we’re gonna call it?