Review: LG OLED55C6V (C6V series) OLED TV

In this review we look at the LG OLED55C6V, this OLED TV has a curved screen, and of course comes with the 4K Ultra HD resolution, HDR support, passive 3D display and the webOS platform.

LG OLED55C6V – specifications

LG has launched a large number of TVs this year, including various models with an OLED display. We now know what oled has to offer; deeper black levels, high contrast, low energy consumption and colors splashing from the screen. The C6V series is one of the cheaper series and also the only series in which the TVs have a curved screen.

The models in the C6V series include a curved screen that has the 4K Ultra HD resolution and run on the new webOS 3.0 platform. The TVs offer support for HDR (high dynamic range) and can display 3D content through passive 3D technology. Below you will find an overview of the most important features and functions.

Specifications

• Oled panel
• Curved screen
• 4K Ultra HD resolution
• ‘Infinite Contrast’
• HDR (Dolby Vision and HDR10)
• Ultra Luminance
• 99% DCI-P3 color range
• 600 nits brightness
• Passive 3D
• WebOS 3.0
• Magic Remote
• USB recordings
• HEVC and VP9 codecs
• 4.0-channel Harman Kardon speakers (40 Watt)
• Wireless Sound Sync
• WiFi ac and Bluetooth
• Models:
  • 55-inch (OLED55C6V)
  • 65-inch (OLED65C6V)

The 55-inch OLED55C6V has a suggested retail price of 3,999 euros. The 65-inch OLED65C6V costs 5,999 euros.

Review equipment

For this review use the Samsung UBD-K8500 Ultra HD Blu-ray player , the Marantz SR7009 receiver , a PlayStation 3 game console and Bowers & Wilkins CM S2 series speakers. We also used Netflix for testing 4K and HDR material.

LG OLED55C6V – design

Although the C6V oled TV series is the cheapest series, it is not immediately apparent from the design. We still have to deal with a premium TV, equipped with a very slim OLED display and a minimalistic and sleek standard. The OLED55C6V, however, is somewhat less luxurious than the higher E6V and G6V series.

The panel of the C6V is only 5 millimeters thin and almost feels like a sheet of paper. On the underside, however, the screen is thicker to give the electronics a place, plus space for the connections. The panel has a silver frame and an edge of about 1 centimeter around the screen. The stand is equipped with a brushed aluminum finish but the part that connects the TV with the foot is transparent plastic. This gives a kind of floating effect. The build quality is good, despite the use of plastic. The TV has a premium appearance and comes without many bells and whistles.

Connections

Hidden on the back (on the left) we see the connections, which point both to the outside and the bottom. Here we see connections for composite and component back, plus connections for ethernet and optical digital. Also comes the TV with two USB 2.0 ports, a USB 3.0 port, three HDMI 2.0a ports, a CI + module and a headphone output.

Remote control

The LG OLED55C6V comes with the famous Magic Remote from LG, this time in a black finish. The remote has not changed a lot and is still comfortably in hand. In addition, you have all the buttons to quickly navigate through the menus at your disposal. LG also sticks to the ‘pointer’ so you can point to elements on the screen instead of using the arrow keys. In our view, this is a great working system that allows you to scroll through menus more quickly and enter texts. There is also a scrollwheel present so you can scroll faster. If you prefer to use your smartphone, you can get started with the TV Plus remote app for Android and iOS.

LG OLED55C6V – ease of use

If we look purely at the use, not much has changed compared to last year. Yes, LG has provided webOS with an update again but in general we do not see many differences. The menus have got a lick of paint and here and there some options have been moved, but if you are used to the interface of LG you will experience little exciting.

That is all positive because LG scores well in terms of ease of use. The menus are simple and you can quickly browse through them. WebOS is also nice and smooth, a bit smoother than last year, and most of the options in the menus have a short but clear explanation. If we have to express some criticism then it is then that some texts are not completely well translated into Dutch, but oh well. O, and the option to enable Ultra HD via HDMI is in the general settings instead of the picture settings, also separately.

When you start the TV for the first time you walk through the now familiar webOS interface, with the friendly little bird that you want to help with. So you can quickly look up the channels, connect the wireless internet and connect your peripherals. There is also a handy Picture Wizard present to (partially) set the image to your own liking, but that is something that we prefer to do ourselves.

All in all it is all very tight, well-organized and beautiful. WebOS is generally a tightly designed platform, with nice animations, a handy set-up, clear icons and menus, and a nice taskbar with the most important applications and apps.

LG OLED55C6V – features

WebOS

WebOS is LG’s smart TV platform and this platform has been refined in recent years. The most important part is still the fan at the bottom, where you can see applications, inputs, favorite channels, the TV guide, the live TV channels and settings. You can scroll through the bar to open menus or start sources. If you hold down the home button, a fan with the history appears. When you navigate to the left in the fan you reach the most used channels / sources (up to 20). You can also adjust the tiles in the impeller yourself and change the order. All the possibilities that the TV offers are displayed through this task bar so you always have to go where you need to be and no menus need to pop up. The ease of use is therefore paramount.

By the way, if you touch the scrollwheel, you will see some shortcuts that appear in the upper right corner, allowing you to adjust the image mode, change the sound mode or go directly to all settings.

LG has its own App Store where you can find applications that are not yet installed on the TV. At first glance there is sufficient installed and you can also find plenty of nice apps in this app store. For Dutch people it is important to know that the most popular apps are present, including Netflix, NPO, RTL XL, YouTube, Videoland and Pathé Home.

Smart functions

In addition to access to apps, the LG C6V models also have a number of useful functions and features. It is possible from a number of apps on your smartphone videos on TV to display (including Netflix and Youtube), you can stream content from your home network thanks to DLNA and it is possible to connect a smartphone or tablet thanks to Miracast. With Miracast you can mirror the image of your smartphone or tablet on TV, but this must also be supported by the mobile device. It is possible to display two images from different sources side by side.

The most interesting feature is the possibility to connect to a home network with a NAS or computer thanks to DLNA (SmartShare). The TV has its own media player with nice interface so you can browse smoothly through files in your home network. If you prefer to connect a physical USB stick, that is also possible and the TV supports a large number of digital file formats.

LG OLED55C6V – picture quality

In terms of design, software and ease of use, it’s okay, but what about that very important image quality? If we can believe the specifications, then this is good too. The LG OLED55C6V includes an OLED display with 4K Ultra HD resolution, support for HDR (HDR10 and Dolby Vision ), passive 3D display, a 10-bit panel, a larger color range (90 percent of DCI-P3 ) and LG’s Perfect Mastering Engine.

Main settings

Especially with a TV of this caliber you want to find the best settings for the image to enjoy your screen optimally. If you spend so much on a TV, we can only recommend one thing; have your TV professionally calibrated. For a price between 100 and 300 euros you can have this done by a professional and that way you get the most out of your TV. But, if you do not want that, you can use a few small adjustments to get a very good view from your screen. We keep this in our reviews so that everyone can work with the settings for optimum image quality.

As indicated, many of the settings depend on personal preferences and the room in which the TV is located, but if you have a dark room and especially watch TV in the evening, these are the settings that you use to get a lot out of your screen. At a number of institutions, we explain why we have opted for this and what they do. Incidentally, other institutions apply to HDR content, of which more later.

You do not get it directly at the start of the TV, but in the settings menus of the TV you will find LG’s Picture Wizard. This tool offers a number of useful steps to improve the image quality of your TV itself, including contrast, color reproduction and brightness. So you can get started and adjust the image to your liking. But, you can also choose from one of the presets that LG has created. From the box the Expert (dark room) mode offers the best image quality but you can still get started with the settings yourself.

When you choose the Expert (dark room) mode, most image processing techniques, which we normally turn off, are automatically turned off. We always recommend leaving the image alone as much as possible, especially when the input is digital (Blu-ray player or digital TV). The most familiar options we disable are the options for reducing noise and mega noise, the super resolution option and the dynamic contrast option. All these options often introduce more disadvantages than they offer benefits.

The purpose of the TruMotion option is to make smoothly fast moving images and objects. This option indeed allows images to run smoothly, but the disadvantage of this is that images are far from natural and often even have a home video effect. This also introduces artifacts. We therefore advise against using this option, but if you encounter some faltering or less smooth images, then the ‘adjusted’ setting is the best choice. Then play with the blur and judder options (2 or 3) so that images look a bit smoother.

General

First of all, we look at the general properties of the OLED panel and of course we had high expectations. After all, Oled is known for the deep black values, the uniform appearance and the high contrast. The LG OLED55C6V did not disappoint. The panel is able to display a white, black and red flat uniform without dark or lighter spots in the image. The display is super tight and neat, with no banding, lines, dead pixels or other problems. In addition, black is really deep black, logical when an OLED panel consists of pixels that can give light themselves. In doing so, we do not see any form of halo effects, something that, for a light haze, can create light objects on a dark background.

As pure film lovers we find the reproduction of really deep black very important and on this point the OLED55C6V scores excellent, even with dynamic light objects in the foreground. In terms of shadow tones and details in dark parts of the screen, some gains can be made here and there. Here details compared to the better LCD LED TVs sometimes look a bit like. However, this is a criticism that we hear more often when talking about oled TVs. The brightness of OLED is much lower than with LCD LED, but in a dark environment you will not notice much of this. Later in the review we will discuss this further.

In the field of color reproduction, we only have positive things to report. The OLED55C6V makes colors splash off the screen, without being saturated or unnatural. The contrast is infinite and together with vivid colors this creates a bit of extra depth and dynamics in the picture. The motion-handling (catching fast movements) can be better. We have experienced some slight judder effects in many types of content, so we still had to use the TruMotion option. However, we use the modified option and play with the judder and blur settings (on 2 or 3). We prefer to stay away from this, but the TruMotion option largely manages to solve the judder problem without introducing too many negative effects (as artefacts).

Incidentally, it is still important to mention that we have not seen any form of ‘image retention’. We have left several static images for a while, but for longer than a second or two the image is not visible. LG has also built in a number of techniques to prevent burn-in, including dimming the screen with the same static image and ‘washing’ the panel in standby mode.

SD and HD content

SD material is actually no longer of this time, certainly not with a premium TV like this. But, if you still watch sd content then it is good to know that the OLED55C6V neatly deals with this. You have to open the TruMotion option a bit further to get a smooth and sharp view, but without a lot of noise or artifacts a good picture is presented. The scaler is doing a great job here and especially with a DVD it is shown that LG has developed very good techniques to make something out of ‘nothing’.

HD material is upgraded to the 4K resolution of the panel using the same techniques and although it is not as sharp and impressive as native 4K material, this is one of the big plus points of the TV. HD content from both digital TV and a Blu-ray disc looks very sleek, with sharp subtle details and vibrant colors. Combine this with intense white and deep black, the uniform screen and impressive viewing angles, and you have a display with lots of dynamics and depth. The Blu-ray from Gravity looks slick, as if it comes from an Ultra HD disc. Subtle details are clearly visible, the picture is very clean and the space is like ‘black space’ should be. As indicated above, only the motion-handling can be a little better.

4K Ultra HD content

The maximum from the resolution of the TV is of course obtained with native 4K Ultra HD content. This is what the OLED55C6V feels most comfortable with and what we are most impressed with. Subtle details, deep black, sharp lines, vibrant colors and a clean and sleek display. Everything is there and there to show an impressive picture. The Martian is the film that we have spent more than two hours and it has to be said; because of the high contrast, the large color range and the high resolution you are immediately drawn into the film.

Streaming via Netflix (Marco Polo) offers a razor-sharp display with subtle details, a sleek reproduction of fast-moving images and an extremely large color range. The deep black values ​​with high contrast provide a lively image, full of dynamism. However, we still prefer an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc, especially because streaming introduces some artefacts and noise and you also benefit from the wider color range of the source and HDR with an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc (later on). Lake).

3D content

It has been a while since we have tested a TV on 3D display but LG still supplies passive 3D glasses and so we could view some material in 3D again. Fortunately that immediately fell into good soil because we can only be very enthusiastic about 3D rendering. The TV shows a crosstalk and flicker-free picture, with sufficient resolution for a sharp display. In addition, the color rendering is tight and lively, the 3D effect is convincing and the brightness is high enough for a comfortable 3D experience. All in all, perhaps the best 3D experience we have had to date.

HDR

HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a term that we see frequently this year and with which, combined with the higher resolution and the larger color range, we give an extra dimension to a film. Put simply, this means that the TV has a higher contrast with more color gradations, deeper black levels and more intense whites. HDR content is not widely available at the moment but Netflix already offers a number of films and series in HDR and most Ultra HD Blu-ray discs have HDR playback. LG offers support for two HDR standards with the OLED models; HDR10 and Dolby Vision.

As mentioned above, we use a few other image settings for HDR content in order to get the maximum brightness with the maximum dynamic contrast out of the screen. The TV recognizes HDR content and indicates this in a notification at the top of the screen. When you then go to the settings for the image, you immediately see that an HDR mode is set. LG itself gives the optimal settings but you can make some small adjustments.

Make sure that the HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color option for the HDMI input to which the Ultra HD Blu-ray player is connected is activated in the general settings. When displaying HDR10 you get the choice of three modes, of which HDR Standard (user) is the best option with the best color reproduction. Then you see that OLED and the contrast are set to maximum to make optimal use of HDR. Furthermore, we use many of the settings mentioned above, only Color Range is Wide and Gamma is automatically set to 2.2. With Dolby Vision content, ‘Oled light’ is automatically set a little lower, but this has to do with the demands of Dolby and the processing of the HDR data.

First we looked at The Martian in HDR10 and the difference between SDR and HDR on the 55OLEDC6V is not very big. Where we saw a very clear difference with the Samsung KS9500, that difference is much smaller here. And that is actually only positive because even with SDR content, the OLED55C6V is able to generate a dynamic picture, where the average LCD LED TV can not reach. That said, HDR material is still impressive. From deep black to intense white in one image gives extra depth and is therefore an added value for the film experience.

As indicated above, the brightness of the OLED55C6V (and any other OLED TV) is considerably lower than that of the average HDR LCD LED TV, but that is not an immediate problem, especially when you watch a movie in the evening. Bright objects like the sun or a moon against a dark night are shown very tight and intense. The OLED55C6V can, however, in some cases ‘clip’ so that a clear object dominates and the shape falls away. This was only visible when displaying HDR10 material. The Samsung KS9500, which we tested in the same period, was often a bit more convincing in this area, with tighter lines and better definitions.

When we look at Marco Polo with Dolby Vision via Netflix, there is more control over the larger dynamic range. There is no question of clipping and the high contrast is maintained. There are not many other differences; HDR is just as impressive. Shadows and highlights are full of detail and let the foreground clearly come from the background. In addition, the much larger color range is responsible for more color gradations, more shades and therefore more life in objects or people. Add the unique precision of luminous OLED pixels and you have a particularly neat HDR display.

Gaming

LG has developed a special game mode for playing games. This disables a number of processing techniques to adjust the input lag downwards. This input lag is around 37ms, which is a good score for most gamers. This simply means that an action with the controller very quickly results in an action on the screen.

Reflections and viewing angles

One of the many benefits of OLED is the very wide viewing angle. The image can be viewed from virtually all (normal) angles without any noticeable loss of quality. Everyone in the room can enjoy an optimal picture. Colors continue to splash from the screen and the brightness stays on level. However, there are still reflections, partly thanks to (in our view) the curved screen. It remains a mirror through which you can see light in the back of the room or incident light through a window. When you watch TV in the evening, however, you have a lot less problems with this.

LG OLED55C6V – audio quality

LG has been working with Harman Kardon for years and this model is also equipped with Harman Kardon tuned speakers. Although there is not much room for these speakers they sound great. The stereo feeling is present, despite the small screen, and there is sufficient clarity in high tones and sufficient heat in the midtones. It lacks something on layer, but that is no surprise. Even when the volume is turned wide, the TV stands well, without distorting sound. For daily TV viewing, the LG OLED55C6V offers excellent audio performance. But, with a premium TV like this, an external audio system, for example in the form of a soundbar, can not be missed.

LG OLED55C6V – conclusion

All in all, the LG OLED55C6V is one of the better TV’s at the moment. This model knows especially in the field of deep black, intense and natural colors, a high contrast, a sharp display and wide viewing angles to score excellently. There are some small points for improvement, including the motion-handling that can be tighter and here and there lacking subtle details in dark parts of the screen. But, in general, this is a TV that offers great value for money, also in the area of ​​user-friendly software, a sleek design and plenty of useful features and functions. A recommendation so, especially if you want to enjoy the latest techniques and standards.