Pumping up the brightness to reveal more fine detail, LG's latest G6 series Ultra HD OLED televisions embrace Dolby Vision to set the gold standard for home viewing.
After all the fuss about Ultra HD resolution, the attention has shifted back to contrast and High Dynamic Range (HDR) – the ability to display the finest shades of grey. I'd argue that contrast has a bigger impact on overall picture quality than resolution, and when it comes to contrast OLED has traditionally had the upper hand over all but the very best LCD LEDs such as Sony's top-shelf Bravias.
While LED televisions can struggle to match the perfect deep blacks of OLED, in return OLED's Achilles' Heel has always been brightness. The brightness of LG's OLED screens has been improving year on year, but this year it's taken a major leap with the new G6 series almost doubling the brightness of their predecessors to pump out a respectable 750 nits – brighter than some LEDs.
Sony is obviously a little sensitive about the issue because it won't actually reveal how bright its top-shelf LED televisions are, except to insist that they're "way past 1000 nits". It's also pointed out that this extra brightness helps Bravias display brighter shades of white which are sometimes lost on OLED.
The devil is in the detail
While the war of words between OLED and LED rages on, LG has put OLED's extra brightness to good use by delivering its first OLED which is compatible with the Dolby Vision high-end HDR standard. Early this year LG released Australia's first Dolby Vision compatible television, but it was an edge-lit LED screen which was never going to match the picture of its OLED flagships – you're definitely better off spending a bit extra on OLED.
So what is Dolby Vision? In a nutshell, it improves on the HDR10 standard by allowing for greater contrast and more colours, plus it optimises the HDR settings for every scene in a movie rather than taking HDR10's one-size-fits-all approach. The trade-off is that players and televisions need a Dolby Vision chip, so it can't be added to older gear with a firmware upgrade.
Unfortunately we're still waiting for Dolby Vision-compatible players and discs, which we're likely to see at CES in January, so for now Australia's only source of Dolby Vision content is Netflix Originals such as Marco Polo and Daredevil, along with a handful of demo clips.
Thankfully Netflix's Dolby Vision support is independent of resolution, so if you have a compatible television you'll see the improvement even if you don't have the broadband speeds to do Ultra HD resolution justice.
The line up
Before we get to picture quality it's worth going through a quick rundown of LG's new Ultra HD OLED models. The G6 series is the flagship but there are actually eight new models to choose from. In terms of picture quality the only difference is that the G6 series offers 750 nits brightness, while the others put out 700 nits – a difference which you'd struggle to pick with the naked eye.
The entry level B6 series is available in 55 or 65 inches ($4199/$6799), while the two C6 models are exactly the same but with curved screens and support for passive 3D. It seems curved screens didn't make the good impression that TV makers were hoping for, they only make up three per cent of sales and LG's global head of TV strategy told me last year that the TV maker will be "more focused on flat in the future".
Above these four models is the E6 range (55-inch $5699, 65-inch $8399) which offers the same screen but adds a glass bezel and a built-in 40-watt sound bar. Finally there's the top-of-the-line $9999 65-inch G6 which also features a 60-watt soundbar and built-in subwoofer in the back of the stand, as well as a 77-inch G6 giant which isn't in the shops but is available as a special order.
Considering there's only 50 nits brightness difference between the G6 and the others, I'd say you'd get the best bang for your buck from the entry-level B6 – putting the savings towards a proper surround sound system. You miss out on passive 3D, but that's no great loss.
If you're looking for smart TV features LG's WebOS 3 platform now runs faster, thanks to a processor boost and a shift to 64-bit architecture – helping LG's televisions earn the "Netflix Certified" badge from the streaming giant.
Put to the test
Before you even turn to Dolby Vision content, the difference between this year's LG OLEDs and their predecessors is striking. Normally TV makers display their new flagship alongside a budget model, or a competitor's television which it knows to be inferior, but this time around LG pitted its new OLED against last year's top-shelf OLED – generally considered at the time to offer the best picture money can buy.
The 2015 OLED models restricted you to three Picture models when watching HDR, which is frustrating for those of us who like to tweak the image to taste. There's been a change of heart, with LG reinstating the full range of Picture modes for HDR content on the 2015 model and planning to bring the same change to the 2016 model – which is handy if you have an HDR-compatible game console. The new 2016 model still restricts you to three Picture modes when watching Dolby Vision.
Switching to HDR mode lowers the brightness a notch to allow more headroom for the brightest shades of white. It's difficult to make an exact comparison when the 2015 and 2016 models currently offer different Picture mode options, but I found that Cinema and Expert2 modes on LG's 2015 OLEDs are roughly the equivalent of HDR Standard and HDR Bright on the 2016 models.
Look closer
I started off peering into the shadows but it's actually the highlights where the improvement shines through, because the brighter screen gives the television more overhead to display the very brightest shades, rather than just squishing them all into solid white.
Watching Gravity on Blu-ray the stars look a little brighter against the blackness of space, the world seems slightly more vivid from orbit and you can see a bit more detail in the shadows. The richer shadows are a little more obvious when you switch to HDR10-enabled Ultra HD content like The Martian.
The improvement with this year's OLED is much more striking when you come back down to earth and look up at the bright sky. You can see the difference in the picture below, it's a scene from the Peter Pan prequel Pan on Ultra HD Blu-ray, in HDR10 but not Dolby Vision.
The 2015-model OLED at the top is lacking detail compared to the 2016 model at the bottom. Photo: Adam Turner
Last year's EF950T OLED is at the top and the new G6 OLED is below, and you can see how much detail on the right is lost in the haze on last year's OLED. Each television is receiving exactly the same picture, running through an HDMI splitter, but on last year's television the sky looks very washed out, while on the new television there's a lot more detail and the colours are more vivid.
It's a remarkable improvement considering that the old model was no slouch. Along with the extra brightness, the new OLED benefits from supporting more colours – it can display 99 per cent of the DCI-P3 colour space compared to only 88 per cent on the 2015 models.
To really show off the capabilities of its new televisions, LG also had on hand a few Dolby Vision-enabled clips from Pan. Below you can see the 2015 EF950T (left) and 2016 G6-series (centre) playing Ultra HD HDR10 from disc. On the right is the 2016 B6-series playing an Ultra HD Dolby Vision clip of the same scene from a USB stick.
The setting sun is clearly visible when watching in Dolby Vision on the right, while it's lost in the haze on the other screens. Photo: LG
With Dolby Vision on the right you can actually see the disc of the sun amid the glare, while it's totally lost when watching standard HDR10 on the G6 in the middle and it looks even worse on last year's EF950T OLED on the left. Keep in mind that above you're looking at HDR10 on LG's top shelf model, the G6, while Dolby Vision is playing on the slighlty dimmer entry-level B6 but still much looks better.
So what's the verdict?
If I owned a 2015-model LG Ultra HD OLED I wouldn't dump it on the nature strip, but the improvement with this year's OLEDs is surprisingly striking and it helps close the gap on LED when it comes to brightness.
Even without the benefit of Dolby Vision, you don't need to be a videophile to see the benefit of that extra brightness when watching a movie like Pan. Dolby Vision will take things to the next level but, just like the arrival of HDR10, for now you'll have to be satisfied with a handful of Netflix titles until Dolby Vision players and discs find their way to Australian lounge rooms.
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