LG 65C8PUA OLED ULTRA HDTV
THE PICTURE quality improvements in LG’S 2018 OLED Ultra HDTVS aren’t a dramatic upgrade over the company’s already superb 2017 sets, but they are accompanied by a new Alpha 9 processor, an autocalibration option, and a few new and updated features. LG has gathered all of these capabilities under the “LG Thinq AI” rubric. While the AI (Artificial Intelligence) claim may be a bit overstated, that’s where the market is headed and LG is not alone in it. I wonder if adding a blinding blizzard of do-everything geegaws makes the screen interface too complex for the average user who simply wants to turn on his or her TV and watch a movie. But while the OLED65C8PUA certainly delivers most of the things gadgetsavvy viewers want (and a lot that they possibly didn’t know they wanted), my emphasis here is on how the set meets its fundamental task: providing the best image quality possible at an approachable price.
For the newbie who isn’t familiar with OLED technology, an OLED display, unlike an LCD/LED one, is self-illuminating. Each individual pixel is its own light source, and it can go from full brightness to completely turned off as required by the source image. This capability is what gives OLED its notably inky blacks. To even approach OLED’S black level, an LCD display requires LED backlighting with some form of local dimming. And in that case, dimming is limited to a few or, at best, a few hundred zones depending on the LCD set’s design (and cost). There are roughly 8 million pixels in an OLED Ultra HDTV, with each one acting as its own local dimming zone.
FEATURES AND SETUP
The 65C8 is compatible with HDR10 and Dolby Vision, the two most common high dynamic range formats, plus HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma). Technicolor HDR is also onboard, but it’s primarily a
playback Picture Mode (and a promotional feature, since the Technicolor name still commands attention). There’s no such thing as Technicolor HDR at the production end, and no sources are currently mastered in that format.
Because most UHDTVS can’t show the full peak brightness contained in many HDR sources, a technique called tone mapping is used to preserve as much of that high brightness detail as possible by “folding” it into the set’s display capabilities. For Dolby Vision programs, tone mapping is generated scene-by-scene (or even frame-by-frame) during production and is included as dynamic metadata in the source. But with HDR10 ones, the metadata remains static through the entire program.
The 65C8 offers a selectable Dynamic Tone Mapping feature that uses internal processing to analyze content sceneby-scene and convert static metadata to dynamic metadata. This feature was also found in LG’S 2017 sets, but there it was combined with the active settings in the Dynamic Contrast menu selection. For 2018, it gets its own, separate control. Can set-derived dynamic tone mapping— a feature that other set manufacturers also offer— equal Dolby Vision? While I can’t definitively answer that question, I can say that dynamic tone mapping does make a visible difference.
The 65C8’s user calibration controls include White Balance (2-point and 20-point) and a color management system (CMS). Not all of the set’s available picture modes feature these controls, but I used Cinema for HDR viewing and ISF Dark Room for SDR viewing, which do. A separate HDR Effect mode that provides only a Color Temperature slider and no CMS adjustments simulates HDR from SDR sources. While I didn’t hate the result, I didn’t love it either: the simulated HDR images looked harsh, though they did appear more natural if the OLED Light and Contrast controls were turned down from their default 100 settings to 90. Regardless, I didn’t use the mode during any of my SDR viewing for this review.
New for 2018, the autocalibration feature I mentioned earlier is usable for both SDR and all of the set’s supported HDR formats. It permits a far more precise setup than traditional white balance and CMS controls by using a 3D LUT (lookup table), but still requires sophisticated, expensive test tools, making it useful mainly to experienced calibrators. (All of the calibrations performed for this review were done manually.)
The 65C8’s MPEG Noise Reduction control serves two purposes: noise reduction
(duh!) and a reduction of visible banding (posterization). You can’t select one of these without the other. I can recall only rare occurrences of banding artifacts in the many hours I spent viewing, however.
Trumotion, a feature used for motion smoothing, offers the usual soap opera effectinducing settings plus a User option with separate De-judder and De-blur controls. The User mode also includes a Motion
Pro setting that uses black frame insertion to reduce blur. While Motion Pro can be effective, it also serves to dramatically reduce picture brightness.
Image retention isn’t as significant a concern with OLED as it had been with plasma and CRT TVS. (Image retention isn’t a problem at all with LCD models.) It can occur, however, so LG provides several features designed to reduce the risk. The most unique of these is a Logo
LG'S C8 OLED can pass Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks in full surround from its optical digital and HDMI ARC output connections.
Extraction Algorithm (LEA) adjustment designed to slightly tone-down the brightness of stationary objects on otherwise moving images, such as scoreboards during baseball or football games. Its effectiveness appeared to vary with source material, but in my testing the decrease in brightness averaged about 40 percent.
While LG’S spec stating that the set offers Dolby Atmos audio may be more fanciful than audible, the 65C8’s sound was above-average for a flat-panel TV. It can’t play particularly loud—when I tried, the audio was often accompanied by low bass breakup and, sometimes, an annoying buzz coming from the back panel. But I otherwise found the 65C8’s sound acceptable even with movies, though it is no substitute for a separate surround system or a first-rate soundbar.
LG’S wand-like Magic Remote is used to wirelessly control an onscreen cursor. The keys are not backlit, however, which often led me to push the wrong button. There’s also a Google Assistant feature, but it requires registration for the set to respond to any voice commands. Registration further requires that you read pages of legal disclaimers and allow Google to share your data. No thanks. Also annoying: a screen that urges you to register persistently pops up each time
you turn the set on.
In addition to Google Assistant, LG’S webos Smart TV suite offers a wide array of other features, all of them detailed in the set’s onscreen or online User Guides. You can use these to fetch videos, photos, and music over your home network or from a USB stick, as well as access popular video streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Video, or Vudu. All of the sources I used for critical evaluation (both HDR and SDR) in this review were Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray discs, however, though the LG did perform notably well with high-quality material streamed via its built-in video apps.
SDR PERFORMANCE
The 65C8 easily passed all of our standard video tests. It also passed both Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks in a full surround format from its optical digital audio output.
I spent several weeks watching the 65C8 using the ISF Dark Room mode’s default settings, modified only by a reduction of the OLED Light control. Color rendition was hard to fault. One of my favorite Blu-rays to check for natural color is Oblivion.
Here, and with other Blu-rays as well, flesh tones looked believable. Other colors, from the desert sand to the vivid greens in Jack’s secret valley,
gave me no cause for complaint. Resolution was also superb, with the set’s Alpha 9 processor clearly doing a great job converting a 1080p source to fit the LG’S 2160p display.
There have been complaints in the past about OLEDS revealing dark vertical streaks when displaying full-field near-black test patterns. These were present (but barely) on the LG E7 I reviewed last year. On the 65C8, I did see a single, nearly invisible streak, but it never appeared on actual program material. Another complaint has been that the deepest blacks on LG’S OLEDS appear subtly crushed. LG has consistently improved on this
with each new generation of sets, and I now consider it to be a non-issue. When it comes to displaying deep blacks and detailed shadows, I’d favor an OLED set like the 65C8 over any other current technology.
Did a full color calibration improve on the 65C8’s already pristine SDR performance? Absent two identical side-byside samples, one calibrated and the other not, any improvement would be hard to spot.
That doesn’t make calibration unnecessary, but recent top sets in my experience provide better out-of-the-box performance than in the past.
The 65C8 can handle motion as well as any competing
flat-panel set I’ve reviewed over the past five years, though it doesn’t do it as well as long-departed plasma or old-timey CRT sets. If motion blur bothers you, particularly on sports or games where fast motion is common and the infamous soap opera effect is irrelevant, LG’S Trumotion feature is there to help. But since I strongly dislike the effect of any motion interpolation on movies (true for any post-plasma set I’ve reviewed) I left Trumotion off.
Do I need to mention off-axis viewing? While LCD sets are only just now starting to improve in this area, OLED offers near-ideal picture uniformity as far off from center-screen as you (or your guests) are likely to sit.
HDR10 PERFORMANCE
Even out of the box, HDR10 programs were a pleasure to watch in either the Cinema HDR or Technicolor HDR Picture Modes. They looked even better post-calibration, though the improvement was easier to spot with some material than others, and was rarely dramatic. I turned on Dynamic Tone Mapping and used the Dynamic Contrast setting that worked best for the specific source and/or viewing condition. In my darkened room, this was either Off or Low.
In my 2017 review of the LG OLED65E7P (available at soundandvision.com) I remarked that the individual hairs on Jack’s stubble and the freckles on Victoria’s face were much easier to see than on the 1080p version when watching Oblivion. The same was true with the 65C8. Highlights and shadow details also stood out. One shot in the film’s opening montage that combines a collapsed structure in deep shadow with a bright sky above it appeared more lifelike in Ultra HD than on regular Blu-ray. Uniformly dark scenes with bright highlights, such as one where Jack investigates an underground library and a later sequence when he’s captured by the “Scavs,” also produced a more dramatic result than the same scenes in SDR.
Oblivion’s color is relatively natural and doesn’t knock you out when viewed in either SDR or HDR. For eye-popping UHD color, you can’t do better than Pixar’s Coco. The enhanced colors provided by the 65C8 were easy to spot in this animated film, but I saw them with live-action discs as well. Rich, saturated reds, in particular, can’t be equaled by HD’S Rec.709 color gamut.
OLED can’t as yet reach the peak luminance offered by the best LCD sets (and may never be able to), but the technology’s unequalled blacks allow the
65C8 to provide exceptional HDR performance. The bright lightning flashes in Oblivion as Jack maneuvers his copter through a violent thunderstorm; the elaborate, richly-staged musical numbers in The Greatest Showman; and just about all of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 didn’t leave me wanting when it came to color, resolution, and high dynamic range impact on LG'S 65C8 OLED.
DOLBY VISION PERFORMANCE
While I didn’t perform a Dolby Vision calibration for this review, that didn’t stop me from sampling several Dolby Vision titles on Ultra HD Blu-ray, including Gladiator, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and Braveheart. Each of those sources looked every bit as good on the LG as the HDR10 programs I watched. As always, the result was dependent on the quality of the original material. I can’t yet say whether or not Dolby Vision offers any distinct advantage over plain-vanilla HDR10 (or even HDR10 on a set like the 65C8 that can convert the static tone mapping of an HDR10 source to dynamic). But of the titles mentioned above, Braveheart made the deepest impression. It looked little short of spectacular on the LG, providing one of the most jaw-dropping viewing experiences I’ve had to date.
CONCLUSION
When I reviewed LG'S OLED65E7P TV this time last year, I wondered if it was the perfect TV. Ultimately, the answer to that question is no, because the company’s new C8 model is even better. The difference isn't dramatic, however— LG’S changes for 2018 are evolutionary, not revolutionary. But if your budget allows it, and you don’t require the higher peak brightness that LCD provides, you’d be a fool not to give LG'S OLED65C8PUA a very serious look.