Banding issues on my LG CX OLED

Aranath · Dec 13, 2020

I bought myself a 55" LG CX last weekend from Curry's in the UK and have been testing it during the week.

So far it's been working beautifully but I noticed on Thursday night, after popping RDR2 into my PS4, that it appears to have quite noticeable banding issues. While I was riding around during the day, it looked fine and I actually felt relieved because my last TV had banding and Dirty Screen Effect and it looked terrible playing RDR2. Carried on like normal until the sun went down in-game and then suddenly, boom, big thick black-ish lines going from top to bottom of the screen.

Tested it out again yesterday, waited until night-time in-game and sure enough, same thing. Since I noticed it the first time, I have noticed it's slightly viewable depending on the shades of colour and brightness level on the screen in shows and other games too. Playing The Last of Us II for example, you can see it on the occasional grey-ish wall when panning the camera, but it's not super noticeable and off-putting. But in RDR2, it's just solid on the screen at night, whether I move the camera or not. I play lots of open world games so having this kind of an annoyance any time it's night-time in-game in the games I play is rather annoying.

I've been doing some reading and this is apparently a known issue with OLEDs (?). Some people were saying on Reddit and what not in threads I found that giving the TV some time and allowing it to do some compensation cycles might help settle it. Is that actually true? I did a pixel refresh and that didn't help at all and then discovered afterwards that that's not a good thing to do and can lower the brightness of the TV, so I won't be using that again any time soon.

I took some photos with my phone. They're not great, but you can see what I mean. One of them is a banding test video of YouTube, which shows you basically where all the banding is. And then you can see a picture of the sky from RDR2 with the banding. The camera doesn't do a great job of showing just how obvious it is in-person. The worst line is right next to the character just off-centre on the screen, so it's hard not to see it the whole time you're playing.

The shop have told me to take it back and they can refund me or replace it. I don't want my money back as I really do want one of these TVs and they haven't got stock right now to replace it, so that's a bummer. And then I'm scared I play the panel lottery and end up with one that's even worse. I don't know how willing Curry's is to do multiple replacements until I get a panel without so much banding. And then I don't know what my chances are of getting a panel with less banding anyway. I just feel a bit disappointed after spending so much money on this TV.

Banding test shot - https://abload.de/img/img-6407v9kp0.jpg
RDR2 sky - https://abload.de/img/img-6405bqjfc.jpg

Keikaku · Dec 13, 2020

Welcome to OLED. Every OLED has it and it won't go away. Compensation cycles might change it slightly but it'll still be there.

Irikan · Dec 13, 2020

Oh yikes, is it one of those things where it's a lot more visible in photos than in person?

simonski · Dec 13, 2020

It is present on all OLEDs to a certain degree, but that looks pretty bad. I know my CX has it, but it's very rarely noticeable. If the pixel refresh hasn't sorted it (which apparently it does sometimes), I'd send it back I'm afraid.

Aranath · Dec 13, 2020

Irikan said:
Oh yikes, is it one of those things where it's a lot more visible in photos than in person?

Unfortunately, it's the other way. Obviously the banding test image is like worst-case scenario, but the RDR photo actually looks better than how it is in-person.

simonski said:
It is present on all OLEDs to a certain degree, but that looks pretty bad. I know my CX has it, but it's very rarely noticeable. If the pixel refresh hasn't sorted it (which apparently it does sometimes), I'd send it back I'm afraid.

Yeah, I do genuinely hope I can get a better panel if I replace it, but I'm just so worried I end up with one that's worse.

Deleted member 923 · Dec 13, 2020

Do LG replace panels that have noticeable banding? I'm still within warranty and I have the issue as well.

Truth be told I can live with it, but obviously I'd rather it not to be there to the next extent that it is.

Aranath · Dec 13, 2020

T-Rex. said:
Do LG replace panels that have noticeable banding? I'm still within warranty and I have the issue as well.

Truth be told I can live with it, but obviously I'd rather it not to be there to the next extent that it is.

I'm not sure. I've read varying accounts. Some people have said they've replaced theirs for banding and others have said LG told them it's normal with OLEDs and refused to do anything. Their support line is closed today, being Sunday and all, so I was going to try give them a ring tomorrow to see what they'd recommend. I assume they'll just tell me to take it back to the shop, but we'll see.

pure · Dec 13, 2020

For me they they went away after some time. At least I don't notice any banding.

Irikan · Dec 13, 2020

Aranath said:
Unfortunately, it's the other way. Obviously the banding test image is like worst-case scenario, but the RDR photo actually looks better than how it is in-person.

Oh man, I don't think I'd be able to live with it, it seems already pretty noticeable in the picture imo, and it's a pretty pricy TV.. I have a friend who has one and I didn't notice it, so maybe some are less worse than others, or that it can get reduced with time

Deleted member 923 · Dec 13, 2020

Aranath said:
I'm not sure. I've read varying accounts. Some people have said they've replaced theirs for banding and others have said LG told them it's normal with OLEDs and refused to do anything. Their support line is closed today, being Sunday and all, so I was going to try give them a ring tomorrow to see what they'd recommend. I assume they'll just tell me to take it back to the shop, but we'll see.

Let me know how you get on please.

EvilBoris · Dec 13, 2020

This stuff is normal and part of the manufacturing process, it does vary panel to panel.
You could take it back and ask for a replacement - perhaps they one will be better , but there will be a degree of this when you get to these dark grey backgrounds. It's probably one of the reasons the sets crush near black out of the box, to try and make it less obvious

Pargon · Dec 13, 2020

OLED has banding near black.
LCD has 'dirty screen effect' on bright areas of the screen, and vignetting.

Unfortunately this is something that's unlikely to be fixed for either display at consumer pricing - though severity can vary from panel-to-panel.
This is another thing that Plasmas and CRTs were much better at than modern displays.

Aranath · Dec 13, 2020

pure said:
For me they they went away after some time. At least I don't notice any banding.

I have thought of giving it more time, because everything else about the panel is fine. No discolouration, no dark blobs. I just have this 30 day return window, though, with the store, so I'm worried I try give it 100-200 hours and it doesn't go away but I miss the returns window.

Irikan said:
Oh man, I don't think I'd be able to live with it, it seems already pretty noticeable in the picture imo, and it's a pretty pricy TV.. I have a friend who has one and I didn't notice it, so maybe some are less worse than others, or that it can get reduced with time

Some people seem to have perfect panels and got perfect ones after replacement, but it seems like most have it to varying degrees. I guess I got a bit unlucky.

T-Rex. said:
Let me know how you get on please.

Will do.

EvilBoris said:
This stuff is normal and part of the manufacturing process, it does vary panel to panel.
You could take it back and ask for a replacement - perhaps they one will be better , but there will be a degree of this when you get to these dark grey backgrounds. It's probably one of the reasons the sets crush near black out of the box, to try and make it less obvious

Yeah, I figure I'll deal with it with any replacements no matter what. The worst banding on mine is right at the centre of the screen, so it's just so obvious. If it was more to the side, I'd just accept it.

Pargon said:
OLED has banding near black.

LCD has 'dirty screen effect' on bright areas of the screen, and vignetting.

Unfortunately this is something that's unlikely to be fixed for either display at consumer pricing - though severity can vary from panel-to-panel.
This is another thing that Plasmas and CRTs were much better at than modern displays.

Yeah, it's rather frustrating after dealing with my last LCD's panel issues. I legit had no idea OLED had banding issues until this appeared and I did some googling. My fault for not researching panel quality, I guess. The rest of the image quality is just so good, though, hence why I don't want my money back. HDR and the perfect blacks just look insane.

Alek · Dec 13, 2020

I'd probably just take the refund/replacement and see if you had better luck with another panel.

laxu · Dec 13, 2020

That seems like it is actually defective, banding should not be that well defined. I haven't seen anything like that on my CX 48" or my C9 65".

I would try manually running the pixel refresh cycle once and see if that does anything.

Sprat · Dec 13, 2020

That is really bad. Turn on smooth gradation it should mostly solve it (well it does when it's minor). If not I would return that tv and get a different one.

Jonnax · Dec 13, 2020

I've got a CX on order and that makes me nervous.
I've got a Vita and the OLED in that is crap from day one. It's looked horrible on near black screens where it looked like splotches of paint

My Note 9's oled is person though, so that's what I'd expect out of such an expensive TV

How bad does this look on your TV? http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gradient.php

Blackthorn · Dec 13, 2020

With my C9 I have banding that only shows up in very bright scenes, which is weird because it's usually the opposite. When I was troubleshooting I couldn't find anyone with the same issue.

Response from LG was that it was a normal issue in regards to screen uniformity. I find it distracting in skyboxes, but grey banding would probably be more noticeable so I guess I should count my blessings.

Schlomo · Dec 13, 2020

My CX has less banding in dark greys and browns than my old C7, but it has a weird irregular net structure visible in the brightest spots of the picture, like the sun in HDR games, an issue the C7 didn't have at all.

Blackthorn · Dec 13, 2020

Schlomo said:
My CX has less banding in dark greys and browns than my old C7, but it has a weird irregular net structure visible in the brightest spots of the picture, like the sun in HDR games, an issue the C7 didn't have at all.

Hey that sounds like what I have! Good to know I'm not alone lol

tokkun · Dec 13, 2020

I've owned two C9s, and I haven't seen the famous near-black vertical banding at all on either of them in normal use. I don't go looking for it using slides, though. At some point I'll get around to playing INSIDE, which I think is going to be the ultimate torture test for real-world use.

I do see some mild horizontal banding on all-white screens, which is something I don't see people talk about much.

Pargon said:
OLED has banding near black.

LCD has 'dirty screen effect' on bright areas of the screen, and vignetting.

Unfortunately this is something that's unlikely to be fixed for either display at consumer pricing - though severity can vary from panel-to-panel.
This is another thing that Plasmas and CRTs were much better at than modern displays.

The older tech had its own set of issues.

The worst uniformity I have had has been on plasma, due to image retention. That was a lot more distracting than banding / DSE, even if it was temporary.
Some CRTs could be pretty bad with moire as well.

Maybe these issues were lessened if you bought the high-end models like Kuro or Trinitron, but what the average person was buying wasn't that great.

BadWolf · Dec 13, 2020

I was tempted to get an LG due to all the talk about it here but between the burn in and now the banding talk I'm glad that I decided to wait till next year instead of getting one this black Friday, will probably just pass at this rate.

Devil · Dec 13, 2020

Keikaku said:
Welcome to OLED. Every OLED has it and it won't go away. Compensation cycles might change it slightly but it'll still be there.

No. I had banding on my C8, contacted LG about it, they sent a repairman and a week later they brought and installed a new panel. It has hardly any visible banding at all.

I also own a C9 now and it has perfect black and greys with no visible banding.

Schlomo · Dec 13, 2020

Blackthorn said:
Hey that sounds like what I have! Good to know I'm not alone lol

And good to know for me that LG doesn't care, haha. I was thinking about contacting them about it.

EatChildren · Dec 13, 2020

Panel lottery!

Basically unavoidable on OLED, as others have said, and one of those things oft neglected in the discussion of OLED monitors in favour of the usual circle jerk. I love my C8 to bits but I also have banding and it really hit me hard in a movie I was watching, where LG's annoying auto dimming dropped the brightness and the heavily desaturated image with a grey background exposed the banding. Fortunately I never notice mine in standard use. I do, however, have a slight yellow tint at the bottom of the screen that is noticeable on anything white.

There's literally nothing you can do except try to get LG to replace the panels, and even then it's a gamble on whether or not it'll come back better or worse. Some people report banding getting better with time, or with LG's maintenance cycles or whatever it is you can activate. Others say it does jack shit. Who knows.

Blackthorn · Dec 13, 2020

Schlomo said:
And good to know for me that LG doesn't care, haha. I was thinking about contacting them about it.

Yup, and the annoying thing with the bright screen uniformity issues is it's even more difficult to show in pictures/videos than dark screen. Makes showing evidence almost impossible.

Aranath · Dec 13, 2020

GungJoe said:
I'd probably just take the refund/replacement and see if you had better luck with another panel.

I'll be going through to the store this afternoon to chat with them about. Hopefully they'll have a positive response.

laxu said:
That seems like it is actually defective, banding should not be that well defined. I haven't seen anything like that on my CX 48" or my C9 65".

I would try manually running the pixel refresh cycle once and see if that does anything.

I ran the pixel refreshers the night I first noticed it and it didn't seem to help much at all.

Sprat said:
That is really bad. Turn on smooth gradation it should mostly solve it (well it does when it's minor). If not I would return that tv and get a different one.

I tried out Smooth Gradation and it didn't make a difference. Still really noticeable.

Jonnax said:
I've got a CX on order and that makes me nervous.
I've got a Vita and the OLED in that is crap from day one. It's looked horrible on near black screens where it looked like splotches of paint

My Note 9's oled is person though, so that's what I'd expect out of such an expensive TV

How bad does this look on your TV? http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gradient.php

Looks like this - https://abload.de/img/img-6412npj40.jpg

Excuse the crappy quality photo.

Blackthorn said:
With my C9 I have banding that only shows up in very bright scenes, which is weird because it's usually the opposite. When I was troubleshooting I couldn't find anyone with the same issue.

Response from LG was that it was a normal issue in regards to screen uniformity. I find it distracting in skyboxes, but grey banding would probably be more noticeable so I guess I should count my blessings.

Wow, that's weird. Mine hasn't been super noticeable outside of the night skies in RDR2 so far, but then there it is ridiculously obvious and distracting. I played Tony Hawk's last night and outside of seeing a tiny bit of it because I now know it's there, it didn't show up at all. Frustrating.

Schlomo said:
My CX has less banding in dark greys and browns than my old C7, but it has a weird irregular net structure visible in the brightest spots of the picture, like the sun in HDR games, an issue the C7 didn't have at all.

Hmm, I haven't noticed anything like that on my one as of yet, fingers crossed.

EatChildren said:
Panel lottery!

Basically unavoidable on OLED, as others have said, and one of those things oft neglected in the discussion of OLED monitors in favour of the usual circle jerk. I love my C8 to bits but I also have banding and it really hit me hard in a movie I was watching, where LG's annoying auto dimming dropped the brightness and the heavily desaturated image with a grey background exposed the banding. Fortunately I never notice mine in standard use. I do, however, have a slight yellow tint at the bottom of the screen that is noticeable on anything white.

There's literally nothing you can do except try to get LG to replace the panels, and even then it's a gamble on whether or not it'll come back better or worse. Some people report banding getting better with time, or with LG's maintenance cycles or whatever it is you can activate. Others say it does jack shit. Who knows.

Yeah, I had awful luck with the panel lottery on my XD80. Sony were just a bunch of bastards about the whole thing and sent me two replacements after I contacted the head of Support for Sony Europe that were way worse with DSE and banding and then just told me to go fuck myself in the end. I'm worried I end up with the same thing here.

Well, I'll go have a chat with the store in a little while and then call LG tomorrow and take it from there.

Thanks so much for all the advice, everyone. Hopefully I get some positive news in a wee bit.

Serein · Dec 13, 2020

They'll all have it to some degree. Mine (B8) eased up quite a bit after about a month of use and I rarely notice it any more. It was never really bad though at first but it was noticeable in dark scenes.

Zor · Dec 13, 2020

Aranath said:
Yeah, I do genuinely hope I can get a better panel if I replace it, but I'm just so worried I end up with one that's worse.

Exactly the position I'm in.

I watched and read a bunch of reviews, none of which mentioned banding.

Bought the tv, a 65 inch version, and within an hour of having it noticed banding.

Came here, posted about it, and most the replies were, "Yeah, welcome to OLED unfortunately".

How the fuck it seems to go so unreported in reviews is mind-blowing to me. But my set has it and I have to just live with it I guess, or risk the panel lottery giving me something worse.

xtib81 · Dec 13, 2020

You'd expect that these tvs would be flawless at that price. I also have banding on my e9, right in the middle of the screen. Thankfully, it's not visible when watching normal content but I Can see it on some loading screens. Last time I'm spending that much on a TV that can potentially have so many issues..

And I wish reviewers and people in general insisted more on that problem. This + stutter in 30fps games is terrible and nobody talks about it

Zor · Dec 13, 2020

Oh and for what it's worth OP, your banding looks almost exactly the same as mine.

I noticed it almost immediately while playing Black Ops Cold War, and then when I watched a few episodes of The Walking Dead back-to-back, which means it shows up in both games and TV/Film for me.

thediamondage · Dec 13, 2020

Here's the banding test video for anyone who wants to try themselves, just open it natively on your TV in the youtube app (or cast it to the TV)

Gray To White, Grey Uniformity, Clouding, Banding, Test - For OLED QLED IPS (4K UHD SDR No Sound)

Full-screen stepped ramp from 0% White to 100% White. Due to video compression and/or YouTube tone-mapping artifacts, you may need to compare this with other...

www.youtube.com

For what its worth my nearly 4 year old (10k hours used) 55" B7 has some vertical banding, its noticable in the grey sections -- a few vertical bands across, one noticable in the middle -- and completely invisible in the white sections of the test patterns. I don't really notice it all in movies or games.

Lego · Dec 13, 2020

I got very lucky with my CX, I think. I did notice a little when playing FIFA; the first few days of owning the TV but it went away and now the picture is pretty much perfect.

laxu · Dec 13, 2020

thediamondage said:
Here's the banding test video for anyone who wants to try themselves, just open it natively on your TV in the youtube app (or cast it to the TV)

Gray To White, Grey Uniformity, Clouding, Banding, Test - For OLED QLED IPS (4K UHD SDR No Sound)

Full-screen stepped ramp from 0% White to 100% White. Due to video compression and/or YouTube tone-mapping artifacts, you may need to compare this with other...

www.youtube.com

For what its worth my nearly 4 year old (10k hours used) 55" B7 has some vertical banding, its noticable in the grey sections -- a few vertical bands across, one noticable in the middle -- and completely invisible in the white sections of the test patterns. I don't really notice it all in movies or games.

I just checked this out on my CX 48" which I have been using for about 6 months as a desktop monitor, 8+ hours a day with ASBL disabled. I use it both for work (I'm a programmer so IDE, terminals, browsers, Teams/Slack etc) and personal use (gaming, music stuff). Can't see any noticeable banding, zero burn-in either. Running at 4K 120 Hz 10-bit.

pure · Dec 13, 2020

thediamondage said:
Here's the banding test video for anyone who wants to try themselves, just open it natively on your TV in the youtube app (or cast it to the TV)

Gray To White, Grey Uniformity, Clouding, Banding, Test - For OLED QLED IPS (4K UHD SDR No Sound)

Full-screen stepped ramp from 0% White to 100% White. Due to video compression and/or YouTube tone-mapping artifacts, you may need to compare this with other...

www.youtube.com

For what its worth my nearly 4 year old (10k hours used) 55" B7 has some vertical banding, its noticable in the grey sections -- a few vertical bands across, one noticable in the middle -- and completely invisible in the white sections of the test patterns. I don't really notice it all in movies or games.

I would advise that people who see no issues with their TV don't go looking for faults with test patterns.

laxu · Dec 13, 2020

pure said:
I would advise that people who see no issues with their TV don't go looking for faults with test patterns.

I definitely agree. I haven't looke at any test photos on my OLEDs before this. Thankfully this time curiosity did not kill the cat this time.

But if unlike OP you can't see anything being clearly off in normal use, don't go hunting for issues. You will just be unhappy with your purchases.

Vinegar Joe · Dec 13, 2020

All OLEDs have banding to some degree. Completely anecdotal, but the banding on my FZ802 (2018) has improved slightly after a couple of major panel maintenance cycles (the ones that take a couple of hours and run every X hundred of hours).

Even at its worst it wasn't really noticeable in normal viewing unless you were really looking for it. If you let it, you can get obsessive about these kind of things which can ruin your experience. As much as you'd want something that costs that much to perfect, the reality is the technology isn't there yet. But you do get one of, if not the, best PQ available in a consumer device. Other TV's may not have banding, but they have equally or maybe worse drawbacks.

Having said that, if you're in the EU and you bought it online you're within your rights to return it if you're not happy. I would say some banding is bad enough to warrant a return. Only you can make that call, without the benefit of a crystal ball sadly.

bytesized · Dec 13, 2020

It really sucks how there's not one perfect TV technology yet. The day one is it will probably cost an arm and a leg, too. That's why I'm sticking to my Samsung nu8000 for a few more years. It is not perfect but I only spent 800 bucks back in the day and it is pretty good for most uses.

Aranath · Dec 19, 2020

So, bit of an update.

I contacted LG and they asked me to send pictures of the banding and a video, so I sent them stuff from the sky in RDR2. A couple of days later they asked for more photos; this time of the entire set itself, turned on, in a bright environment, along with a photo of the serial number and receipt. Sent that all off and haven't heard anything yet. I called them yesterday but they said there weren't updates yet, so still waiting.

I went back to the shop yesterday and they took out a brand new set and let me set up in the middle of the shop. I brought my PS4 with me and they let me connect it all up and I then put a blanket over myself and the set to try get the environment as dark as possible. Thankfully, it was fairly late in the day and I was the only customer in the shop.

Loaded up RDR2 and the banding test video and could notice some very minor banding. Weirdly enough it seemed to be in the exact same position as my current set. Unfortunately, the blanket I took wasn't particularly big, so I couldn't get the environment properly dark, so now I'm paranoid I'm just not seeing it properly. In any case, I didn't take my original set with me, because, frankly, it's a huge pain in the ass to box up and I wasn't doing it unnecessarily. They were cool with that and said I could take the new one if I wanted, but they'd prefer if I brought the old one back first. I said it's totally fine, I'm in no rush. I asked the manager if he'd be happy with me setting up the new set and my old set together, side-by-side to properly compare in the same viewing conditions. He said it was totally fine, but just to come when the store is quiet, so not this weekend. I'll be going back on Monday evening with my old set and PS4 and try compare them both and, fingers crossed, it'll be an improvement.

If what I saw on the new set is actually how I'll see it in my house, I can totally live with it. We'll see. Hopefully I hear from LG before then too, because that whole returns process with them is with the serial number of my original set.

I've been using the set on and off for the week and I never really notice, unless I look for it, in TV shows most of the time. It's just games, where the image is a bit more static, that it jumps out at you more. The guy in the shop with me yesterday even said, now that he could see where it is on the other set, he couldn't help but look at it and it was even bugging him.

Coolsambob · Dec 19, 2020

RDR2 had it for me with the sky but I've not noticed it on anything else.

Though trying to remember if I played RDR2 when I had an OLED or before...

shodgson8 · Dec 19, 2020

Aranath said:
So, bit of an update.

I contacted LG and they asked me to send pictures of the banding and a video, so I sent them stuff from the sky in RDR2. A couple of days later they asked for more photos; this time of the entire set itself, turned on, in a bright environment, along with a photo of the serial number and receipt. Sent that all off and haven't heard anything yet. I called them yesterday but they said there weren't updates yet, so still waiting.

I went back to the shop yesterday and they took out a brand new set and let me set up in the middle of the shop. I brought my PS4 with me and they let me connect it all up and I then put a blanket over myself and the set to try get the environment as dark as possible. Thankfully, it was fairly late in the day and I was the only customer in the shop.

Loaded up RDR2 and the banding test video and could notice some very minor banding. Weirdly enough it seemed to be in the exact same position as my current set. Unfortunately, the blanket I took wasn't particularly big, so I couldn't get the environment properly dark, so now I'm paranoid I'm just not seeing it properly. In any case, I didn't take my original set with me, because, frankly, it's a huge pain in the ass to box up and I wasn't doing it unnecessarily. They were cool with that and said I could take the new one if I wanted, but they'd prefer if I brought the old one back first. I said it's totally fine, I'm in no rush. I asked the manager if he'd be happy with me setting up the new set and my old set together, side-by-side to properly compare in the same viewing conditions. He said it was totally fine, but just to come when the store is quiet, so not this weekend. I'll be going back on Monday evening with my old set and PS4 and try compare them both and, fingers crossed, it'll be an improvement.

If what I saw on the new set is actually how I'll see it in my house, I can totally live with it. We'll see. Hopefully I hear from LG before then too, because that whole returns process with them is with the serial number of my original set.

I've been using the set on and off for the week and I never really notice, unless I look for it, in TV shows most of the time. It's just games, where the image is a bit more static, that it jumps out at you more. The guy in the shop with me yesterday even said, now that he could see where it is on the other set, he couldn't help but look at it and it was even bugging him.

Sounds like a really great store to let you do all that! Hope you can get it all resolved one way or another.

Webbo · Dec 19, 2020

I've not noticed any banding at all on my 55" CX, My last 2 tv's had banding so I definitely had a good look for it when I first got my CX but I didn't notice any at all, and even now panning across a sky the panel looks clean. Must have gotten lucky with a good panel.

Hopefully you can get a replacement with much less banding, good luck.

Aranath · Dec 19, 2020

shodgson8 said:
Sounds like a really great store to let you do all that! Hope you can get it all resolved one way or another.

I know, right? I fully expected them to tell me to bugger off, especially after I asked them yesterday about setting up the two TVs together, so I'm super chuffed with how they've been. And thank you. :)

Webbo said:
I've not noticed any banding at all on my 55" CX, My last 2 tv's had banding so I definitely had a good luck for it when I first got my CX but I didn't notice any at all, and even now panning across a sky the panel looks clean. Must have gotten lucky with a good panel.

Hopefully you can get a replacement with much less banding, good luck.

Congrats on getting a good panel. There do seem to be some decent ones out there. And thank you!

Coolsambob said:
RDR2 had it for me with the sky but I've not noticed it on anything else.

Though trying to remember if I played RDR2 when I had an OLED or before...

Yeah, the night sky is definitely the worst I've seen it. It's just constant and thick there. Day time is fine, though. In The Last of Us, it was there but it didn't jump out at you constantly, so that wasn't too bad.

Coolsambob · Dec 19, 2020

Aranath said:
I know, right? I fully expected them to tell me to bugger off, especially after I asked them yesterday about setting up the two TVs together, so I'm super chuffed with how they've been. And thank you. :)

Congrats on getting a good panel. There do seem to be some decent ones out there. And thank you!

Yeah, the night sky is definitely the worst I've seen it. It's just constant and thick there. Day time is fine, though. In The Last of Us, it was there but it didn't jump out at you constantly, so that wasn't too bad.

Maybe RDR2 is particularly bad? I definitely have memories of it being distracting. Anyways, glad they're being good with you about it, had some bad experiences with Currys with smaller items so didn't expect that much help with something like a TV!

darkwing · Dec 19, 2020

micro LED save us

LanceX2 · Dec 19, 2020

Aranath said:
I bought myself a 55" LG CX last weekend from Curry's in the UK and have been testing it during the week.

So far it's been working beautifully but I noticed on Thursday night, after popping RDR2 into my PS4, that it appears to have quite noticeable banding issues. While I was riding around during the day, it looked fine and I actually felt relieved because my last TV had banding and Dirty Screen Effect and it looked terrible playing RDR2. Carried on like normal until the sun went down in-game and then suddenly, boom, big thick black-ish lines going from top to bottom of the screen.

Tested it out again yesterday, waited until night-time in-game and sure enough, same thing. Since I noticed it the first time, I have noticed it's slightly viewable depending on the shades of colour and brightness level on the screen in shows and other games too. Playing The Last of Us II for example, you can see it on the occasional grey-ish wall when panning the camera, but it's not super noticeable and off-putting. But in RDR2, it's just solid on the screen at night, whether I move the camera or not. I play lots of open world games so having this kind of an annoyance any time it's night-time in-game in the games I play is rather annoying.

I've been doing some reading and this is apparently a known issue with OLEDs (?). Some people were saying on Reddit and what not in threads I found that giving the TV some time and allowing it to do some compensation cycles might help settle it. Is that actually true? I did a pixel refresh and that didn't help at all and then discovered afterwards that that's not a good thing to do and can lower the brightness of the TV, so I won't be using that again any time soon.

I took some photos with my phone. They're not great, but you can see what I mean. One of them is a banding test video of YouTube, which shows you basically where all the banding is. And then you can see a picture of the sky from RDR2 with the banding. The camera doesn't do a great job of showing just how obvious it is in-person. The worst line is right next to the character just off-centre on the screen, so it's hard not to see it the whole time you're playing.

The shop have told me to take it back and they can refund me or replace it. I don't want my money back as I really do want one of these TVs and they haven't got stock right now to replace it, so that's a bummer. And then I'm scared I play the panel lottery and end up with one that's even worse. I don't know how willing Curry's is to do multiple replacements until I get a panel without so much banding. And then I don't know what my chances are of getting a panel with less banding anyway. I just feel a bit disappointed after spending so much money on this TV.

Banding test shot - https://abload.de/img/img-6407v9kp0.jpg
RDR2 sky - https://abload.de/img/img-6405bqjfc.jpg

Banding is what it is BUT it does look like yours is more than normalm

Replace the TV or have them swap the panel out.

LanceX2 · Dec 19, 2020

Webbo said:
I've not noticed any banding at all on my 55" CX, My last 2 tv's had banding so I definitely had a good luck for it when I first got my CX but I didn't notice any at all, and even now panning across a sky the panel looks clean. Must have gotten lucky with a good panel.

Hopefully you can get a replacement with much less banding, good luck.

I have banding but right now the only noticeable one is a very thin line that I can only tell when screen has alot of grey and I pan slowly.

So much better than my ks8000.

I praymy bandind doesnt vet noticeable during gameplay. so far so good but I havent played too many games woth alot of gray or darkness

LanceX2 · Dec 19, 2020

pure said:
I would advise that people who see no issues with their TV don't go looking for faults with test patterns.

I did that already after noticing a very thin line in a gray wall in a game.

It scared me but I dont notice the bands 99% of the time and have tried my best to not look for it again.

my ks8000 had like a foot wide band on the middle that lightened the whole area even in non gray parts. My LG is not remotely that bad so as long as my bands dont worsen Im happy.

Supposedly people say your bands wont worsen wkth time on an OLED like they do on LED so Im happy roght now

Kyle Cross · Dec 19, 2020

Sprat said:
That is really bad. Turn on smooth gradation it should mostly solve it (well it does when it's minor). If not I would return that tv and get a different one.

I've read that Smooth Gradation has no effect in Game mode.

Deleted member 22750 · Dec 19, 2020

Oled banding fucking sucks

as someone else said....don't go looking for faults. If you are happy with what you are seeing don't do exploring for faults. The banding is definitely there.

Banding issues on my LG CX OLED

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Deleted member 22750