Many thanks for the extensive report. Glad to hear that it's working out for you.
This is my settings notes
(Translated from norwegian w/google)
LG TV model:
LG OLED 55B9PLA
55 inches
Mac System settings, color profile:
"LG TV", automatically installed on first run on the mac
Mode:
Expert (dark room)
AI image Off
OLED lamp 57
Contrast 32
Brightness 62
Sharpness 0
Color 50
Hue 0
Expert settings:
Dynamic Contrast: Off
Super Resolution: Off
Color scale: Extended
Gamma: BT.1886
White balance:
Color temperature: Warm2
Red 0
Green 0
Blue 0
Color processing system
Default
Maximum brightness Off
Image Options:
Noise Reduction Off
MPEG Noise Reduction Auto
Smooth gamma value Off
Black level Low
Real cinema: Off
Motion Eye Care: Off
TruMotion: Off
I guess these options will look different from model to model, but the most important ones should be easy to spot.
With a year of experimenting, I've found that there's more than one way to reach almost the same result. Like, at one point I was at almost 100 OLED light, and contrast down in the teens, and it wasn't bad.
As you can see, nothing seems very exceptional here, but I can assure you that these settings makes for a very different image than the default. The most important ones, for me, are:
(Remember that my main goal is natural colors, neutral tone curves to let me trust that what I see when I adjust images will translate well to other displays, my Epson printer etc.)
Color scale: Extended
It took me months of fine adjustments to saturation etc., but when I turned it from Standard to Extended, I knew this was crucial. Even if the immediate impression is a less color saturated, more dull image, when you get the brightness, contrast right, you know you're on the right way. And settings suddenly felt more correct at less extreme values, like around 50. I guess this setting also has less clipping.
Also, I found that with Extended color space, it let me go warmer on the color temperature. I had been more on cold and blue. Skin tones suddenly clicked into place. No more fighting with people looking sun tanned, magenta, yellow and so on.
Brightness, contrast, oled lamp does the rest. I try to find the exact point where blacks just touching the point where they go to dark grey, the contrast low enough that when I switch to a fairly bright full screen web site, it's not uncomfortable.
I use a simple photo test image with b/w and color scales, along with simply using basic news broadcasts, which are usually well balanced, professionally lighted and produced. Also, some old youtube videos that really challenges the black level, to check that I have black detail.
I'm happy now. I can use these settings whether the room is quite illuminated from my large windows, I can even have some direct sunlight, or in the middle of the night with dimmed lighting.
Also, there is the automatic dimming that I mentioned before. I found lots of people struggling to turn it off, and I found that it's not available in the normal settings, you have to access the "service menu" or whatever they call it, by pressing some key combination on the remote or something - I can't remember. You get stern warnings about potentially damaging things, and it's a very subtle thing - you might not even notice it. Your model might not even have it.
Lots to say about this, but that's it for now.
