Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
LG Ultrafine 6K announced
- Thread starter eksu
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Colour/contrast is off with the default LG UltraFine profile, and I don't even know what that profile is. In dark scenes of Netflix, things are too dark, both in HDR mode and SDR.
I'll calibrate it when I have some time this week.
Both applications can use my SpyderX colorimeter, but it seems neither the LG Calibration Studio nor the Datacolor SpyderX Pro software can calibrate HDR in a way that plays nice with mainstream users like me. (I am not a multimedia creative professional.) Either that or else I just don't know how to do it properly, or both.
For LG Calibration Studio, it was happy to try to calibrate when the monitor was in HDR mode, but it just doesn't look right. I didn't try calibrating again in SDR mode. This took a little over 15 minutes BTW.
For the Datacolor software when I tried to calibrate with the monitor in HDR mode, it said the brightness did not match, and post calibration, everything was still off. The good news is the calibration time is less.
So, I just put the monitor into SDR mode and calibrated in SDR instead, and now everything looks fine. Colour, contrast, and gamma seem appropriate for web content and streaming video content. Calibrated for wide colour, 120 nits, 6500K, gamma 2.2.
So, bottomline, this monitor doesn't look right on a Mac out of the box, but will look good for SDR once calibrated. For HDR I cannot comment.
Last edited:
I imagine the Spyder X has special utilities that'll make the color adjustments for you. Is that a correct assumption?
How hard is it to calibrate an external screen by using a MBP screen for reference without a calibration tool? If I were to use my MBP as my reference and I wanted to just get close enough on my external, is that doable with a bit of effort?
And do they lose calibration over time so you have to calibrate again?
Amazon Canada now has it in stock, but I would recommend buying from LG because they still have that $50 coupon and $300 pre-paid credit card offer until tomorrow.
The few times I've tried calibrating a monitor manually by eye or using another Mac as a reference, it has failed miserably. Too many variables, and usually the available adjustments aren't enough anyway. For my Huawei, the colours were just off out of the box. So that was when I bought a new colorimeter.
I saw some colourist say we should calibrate our monitors once a month. Datacolor's software defaults to a reminder every 6 months. However, I let that Huawei go for a year and it wasn't too far off. However, my needs are relatively simple as I just want web content, video streaming, and my Photos library to look half decent.
Sleep seems to work fine. The Mac mini / Huawei MateView sleep bug that was introduced with Tahoe doesn't seem to affect the LG 6K. The Huawei is USB-C, whereas the LG is Thunderbolt.
Tahoe 26.0.1
Yes, the software is automated. Set the parameters and let the software do all the measurements and calculations, and at the end it creates a LUT that includes all the appropriate calibration adjustments for your parameters. You may have to fiddle with the brightness settings, etc. but it holds your hand through the process.
The few times I've tried calibrating a monitor manually by eye or using another Mac as a reference, it has failed miserably. Too many variables, and usually the available adjustments aren't enough anyway. For my Huawei, the colours were just off out of the box. So that was when I bought a new colorimeter.
I saw some colourist say we should calibrate our monitors once a month. Datacolor's software defaults to a reminder every 6 months. However, I let that Huawei go for a year and it wasn't too far off. However, my needs are relatively simple as I just want web content, video streaming, and my Photos library to look half decent.
M4 non-Pro. I believe those with the M4 Pro may get more resolutions options above 3072x1728. eg. I don't get the 3360x1890 option some get.
Looking at a black background in the dark, the corners appear mildly brighter than the centre, but it's not really the same as the uneven and unpleasant and patchy backlight bleed you see on other monitors. I'd say it's pretty good overall.
Also, I took some uber-macro shots for your viewing enjoyment.
3072x1728 SDR - Black text
Above pic zoomed in:
6144x3456 SDR - Chroma test
Above pic zoomed in:
Also, I took some uber-macro shots for your viewing enjoyment.
3072x1728 SDR - Black text
Above pic zoomed in:
6144x3456 SDR - Chroma test
Above pic zoomed in:
Last edited:
BTW, I found this page useful as a quick gauge.
I had set the software for calibration with the lights dimmed. In these conditions, everything on the LG 6K looks fine after calibration.* However, if I turn on all the lights, it becomes harder to distinguish 95% and 100% black on that linked page, not surprisingly.
*It looks pleasing, but there might be a slight warmth to the calibration. What I did with the last monitor was to calibrate three times in a matter of days. The three calibrations were very close to each other, but not 100% identical, which shows there is a limitation in the colorimeter hardware, monitor, software, or a combination of the three. I just chose what I felt to be the best of the three.