LG's 31-inch 4K IPS Monitor!

[Hrvoje Simic]

Hrvoje. I was looking at the 65 inch 200hz nano led model last night and noticed the color and that there was not really the died angle glow in blacks unlike the sub $2000 55 inch LG. What sort of color gamut and screen technology are they using in these different panels?

They use different LEDs for purer light source and go with RGBW pixel stripe route on the OLED version. Glow in blacks is a consequence of local dimming backlight LEDs. More expensive models use smaller LED stripes so the glow is reduced. Panasonic has a smart new trick designed to deal with this, implemented in the new AX900.

Gamut is much less of an issue with new screens.
Your eyes adapt and don't care much if it's 97% or 100%.

130% is a figure which works only for marketing purposes and if the screen allows higher gamut and is not calibrated to 100 % of the chosen standard everything colored to the standard will be additionally pumped by the screen and look like a circus. Rec.709 is an exception because it was standardized in the days when flat screen technology was significantly inferior, in order to assure consistency between average viewer's less capable TV sets.

[Wayne Morellini]

Thanks, I've seen that localised dimming flow, but meant general backlight bleed instead which seems strongly affected by panel type.

I like wide color, without looking like a circus. On natural scenes I tend to tune color situation up 10% or so as people like that and it looks good, it is the same for color purity, but on graphic game scenes I want as much as possible for effect. I think color purity can rake additional boost past 10% maybe 20% but it is also on how they profess it (how we setup the napping to the signal). I have a Oled tablet here, and I know about eye adaption, after using it my LCD tablet colors almost look grey ;). But the reality is that on graphics it still looks cool, and makes good initial excitement. Pass the 200% gamut sauce please. ;)

[Lluís Velamazán]

There is the ability to use certain probes directly with the monitor. Spyder 3, Spyder 4, i1Pro, and ColorMunki are the compatible probes.

Thank you very much! Awaiting some tests of profiling to see how good it is!

[Marie Turock]

I have had the monitor for about one day, and it is an excellent performer . . . if . . . one can make peace with the reality that it is limited to QHD on the late 2013 maxed out MacPro. I can't say that I expected it to work flawlessly out of the box, but I did believe that some level of effort would yield a solution to use it at DCI 4K resolution on my system, but no luck yet. Most current reviews online state the very same problem for MacPro users, which is odd, because LG's site specifically mentions full compatibility and actually shows a MacPro running it in a photo, but it really doesn't function as advertised. Many people are rightfully angry, and some of those have returned the monitor already, however I believe that Apple will release an update to Yosemite that will address this issue in the near future. Until then, I am quite pleased with the monitor in its somewhat hobbled state, and will continue to use will pillar bars and an optimistic outlook for the promise of full res soon.

By the way, the monitor does output the full resolution via Windows on the MacPro, so at least we know it isn't a hardware limitation. This information is according to multiple reports that have also been posted online since people have started to purchase the monitor.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Use SwitchResX or modify the necessary kext files manually. You can run the display at native 4096 pixels wide. Everything is super small when you do, though since OSX doesn't include properly sized OS elements to compensate. Same in Windows, running in native resolution works, if you like everything super tiny. :)

This is pretty much the case with every UHD/4K monitor out there right now. And Apple has taken out the ability to run native resolution on certain resolutions for some reason. Many of us have been screaming for them to bring back the ability as not all high res displays are intended for "retina" scaling or use. But they seem to not get it at this time. Anyway, it's not a big deal to work around it manually, just not user friendly or simple for those not familiar with running odd utilities like SwitchResX or fiddling with the under-bits of their OS's config files.

[Marie Turock]

Thanks for the suggestion, Jeff. That is the first thing that I thought of as well, but sadly that approach doesn't work either. Many people have contacted the developer of SwitchResX in order to see if it can be done.

The apparent reason for the display resolving properly in Windows, but not properly in OSX, is that it ships with a Windows .inf file. Since OSX cannot read this file, and since the information about the proper resolution isn't accurately reported in the EDID to OSX, the DCI resolution isn't possible. Sounds like an LG screw-up!

[Alan Gordon]

Marie, SwitchresX works fine with the LG to get native res working. I've got the monitor and works beautifully at whatever res I want to feed it.

[Filip Vandoorne]

if you dont see all resolution is the osx display prefs pane,
click with option key to go from -best for display- to -scaled- to reveal extra or all resolutions available.
dont have this LG to verify, but this works to show the full 5k pixels on the new iMac

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Hey, nifty trick there Filip, I hadn't noticed that before. Just trying it now, it works on my Dell 4K monitors. I don't have the LG to test. But I can drive the Sony 4K projector at 4096x2160 from a Mac just fine. Of course, I only run that at 24Hz via HDMI, but OSX doesn't natively want to allow use of native resolution on it. I had to go add the resolution to the accepted mode lists myself. SwitchResX is kinda overkill unless you need to hunt down special signal timings or if the monitors don't provide resolution and mode info. I know the LG provides mode info as the OS properly sees it for "retina" scaled use. I'm betting this works fine. One can also modify the display kexts by hand to add other display modes as standard -- which is what SwitchResX does for you if you don't feel like digging around.

It's funny how with all the people out there requesting Apple add native resolution support back in to OSX, they don't bother to tell us that the support is still there -- Just hidden and needs an option-click. Lame.

[Marie Turock]

Alan, glad it works for you. Any advice on how to get it there? Nobody else seems to have the answer.

I am on a 12 core late 2013 MacPro with dual FirePro D700s.

Thanks in advance!

Filip, thanks for the suggestion! I will try it the next time I am at my machine.

Jeff, thanks for all of your valuable advice thus far. I agree with you - Apple is being seriously lame by not bothering to let people know about the native res support! Not cool. Too many watches, pads, n' phones!