May I ask how you find the 8 bit colour in comparison to 10 if you have any experience with it?
Correct me if I am wrong about any of this.
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 31MU97 4k Display
- Thread starter Zorn
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
May I ask how you find the 8 bit colour in comparison to 10 if you have any experience with it?
Correct me if I am wrong about any of this.
I'm not sure I'm addressing your question, but using only HD/UHD "documentary" style video, and with animation, I almost never see, or need, more color depth, so it certainly isn't worth the overhead to me. Last time I researched, the human eye is limited to 10 million colors. We're way past that with 8 bit. I'd rather use excess resources for something like higher frame rates...60 at least, for "reality."
It's my understanding that 10 bit really comes into play with heavy Hollywood style color grading/matching. 999 out of 1000 people will never see it, or need it. As with audio, greater bit depth can help with processing, but the average person may not discern the end result as being different. At 4K rez, a gazillion colors, and so on, all crammed into a smaller screen, or at a great enough distance to give an imperceptible pixel pitch with more colors than one can process, the specs become almost meaningless because we're bumping the limits of the eye/brain. Personally, once I have the tools to do the job, and 4K/UHD SST 60 is plenty good enough for display, I tend to spend my time focused on the CONTENT, not pixel peeping. Lastly, theory aside, I admit that I do see a difference between 8 and 10 bit, but it comes across to me as being ever so slightly more vibrant, and I can likely achieve essentially the same result with any of a half dozen other techniques.
Five to ten years from now, things will get really silly, if they aren't already. We'll be able to do things that make absolutely zero difference to the enduser whatsoever, but that won't stop them from trying to sell it to you.
Last edited:
LG: Quantum(Dot)Tech /+30% Gamut.
Slightly more vibrant? - maybe less than 5-10 years. Quote: "Just offering a 4K TV isn't enough anymore. The new IPS panels, to be offered by LG in 2015, present a 130% color gamut, with the use of quantum dot technology - At a much cheaper price-point than OLED." Prototypes to be showcased @CES-2015(January).
http://www.slashgear.com/lg-to-introduce-tvs-with-quantum-dot-technology-at-ces-2015-16359577/
Slightly more vibrant? - maybe less than 5-10 years. Quote: "Just offering a 4K TV isn't enough anymore. The new IPS panels, to be offered by LG in 2015, present a 130% color gamut, with the use of quantum dot technology - At a much cheaper price-point than OLED." Prototypes to be showcased @CES-2015(January).
http://www.slashgear.com/lg-to-introduce-tvs-with-quantum-dot-technology-at-ces-2015-16359577/
Last edited:
Very insightful thankyou! Another quick question, and I may be completely off here, but does the Dell support both RGB and sRGB? I may be off here, basically I just need to be able to view my work both optimized for print and for digital publication?
Thankyou
Despite the provided factory calibration sheet showing a near perfect monitor, after spending some time last night in a darkened room doing some color testing, there is no way I would use it for professional color grading. The problem is uniformity of whites. It varies across the screen from left to right. I'm not the only person who has noticed this. If you're a pro and publishing to print, you really need to be looking at a higher grade monitor than the P Series Dells, like an NEC or Eizo. The LG may be OK. I don't know since I ultimately didn't go DCI 4K.
Last edited:
CES-2015: Four "New" Monitors from LG?
According to the blog (and unverified press-release outlet) 9to5Mac, the LG-31MU97 is new, with unknown pricing.
http://9to5toys.com/2014/12/31/lg-curved-ultrawide-4k-displays/
Quote (two days ago): "Additionally, we will see a new 4K offering from LG (31MU97) that offers a greater than UHD resolution (4096×2160 vs 3840×2160) and an UltraWide solution (34UC87M) specifically aimed at those in need of more screen real estate such as financial advisors. Pricing on any of the aforementioned displays has yet to be announced."
*
The FreeSync 34UM67 may be fresh (even if TN). But the other three were announced several months ago, and are already widely available - Something the journalist/author could have confirmed in about three minutes.
What we really need to see is a 34" true C4k (4096x2160) curved IPS monitor, with F-Sync & ThunderBolt-2. Now that could be a winner.
According to the blog (and unverified press-release outlet) 9to5Mac, the LG-31MU97 is new, with unknown pricing.
http://9to5toys.com/2014/12/31/lg-curved-ultrawide-4k-displays/
Quote (two days ago): "Additionally, we will see a new 4K offering from LG (31MU97) that offers a greater than UHD resolution (4096×2160 vs 3840×2160) and an UltraWide solution (34UC87M) specifically aimed at those in need of more screen real estate such as financial advisors. Pricing on any of the aforementioned displays has yet to be announced."
*
The FreeSync 34UM67 may be fresh (even if TN). But the other three were announced several months ago, and are already widely available - Something the journalist/author could have confirmed in about three minutes.
What we really need to see is a 34" true C4k (4096x2160) curved IPS monitor, with F-Sync & ThunderBolt-2. Now that could be a winner.
Same here I had a thread about it too. The left side of the display was warm while the right side was cool. Not amount of calibration could fix it because the white point differed from side to side. There was also minimal light bleed in the corners but nothing terrible. Honestly if the color uniformity wasn't an issue I would have kept it.
I've ordered a Samsung U32D970Q to test out and hopefully with it's calibration options it won't have the same issue as the LG. If it does it goes back and I just stick with QHD from NEC.
After reading the review posted today in a link that gave overall OK reviews, but blasted the Uniformity Compensation feature, I decided to try it after seeing the mapped effects it had on their monitor. It might not have done much for their test display, but after tweaking the colors a bit as they suggested and turning Uniformity Comp on, the warm tint on the left all but disappeared. It's a pretty darn good image now, but man, some of their presets are totally out of whack, unless you like blue tints (which the human eye focuses poorly) or some other strange color/contrast settings. UC and a few tweaks went a long way for me.
Also, not to hijack the thread, but has anyone heard how the EIZO EV3237 and BenQ BL3201PT compare to the LG? I am having trouble finding any reviews or insight online, particularly in regards to the EIZO. I know it is more expensive, but it seems to be the perfect designers IPS 4K 60hz monitor? Or am I missing something?
Thanks guys,
Much appreciated
Thanks guys,
Much appreciated
Been keeping an eye out for reviews of the newer 4K IPS panels too. Found this on YouTube the other day about the BenQ although it's only an unboxing and the full review is to follow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIYy3FkwulE
I'm also watching an Acer IPS 4K and a review for that is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9fWtIkQfO4
Hope that helps!
5K anyone?
Further to my last post and sorry that this is off topic (I won't say anymore in this thread on this matter - promise), HP have announced a 27" 5K IPS monitor at CES. Apparently it'll be out in March for $1,300 which for us in the UK *should* be well under £1,000 - certainly on par with the 4K IPS panels on offer at the moment.
Reading a few previews it looks like the monitor will require 2 DisplayPorts to drive it, which is no surprise. I'm wondering if/how the nMP will support it.
This market is going nuts at the moment so unless you have to buy something it may be an idea to sit on your wallet for a few weeks and see what happens. You can't wait forever, of course, but for once it does seem like holding off - just for a short while - might be a good idea to see what else is coming out!
Further to my last post and sorry that this is off topic (I won't say anymore in this thread on this matter - promise), HP have announced a 27" 5K IPS monitor at CES. Apparently it'll be out in March for $1,300 which for us in the UK *should* be well under £1,000 - certainly on par with the 4K IPS panels on offer at the moment.
Reading a few previews it looks like the monitor will require 2 DisplayPorts to drive it, which is no surprise. I'm wondering if/how the nMP will support it.
This market is going nuts at the moment so unless you have to buy something it may be an idea to sit on your wallet for a few weeks and see what happens. You can't wait forever, of course, but for once it does seem like holding off - just for a short while - might be a good idea to see what else is coming out!
Last edited:
Glad it worked! My unit I tried turning it on/off, played with their default and custom settings and nothing made my screen uniform in white balance. Happy to hear someone got it to play nicely though.
I just snagged one of these (31MU97) last night to compare with my (still within return period) Dell UP3214Q and the display itself is gorgeous, but I think it's going back.
There seem to be some weird bugs with the Mac OS X implementation of SST at high resolutions.
If I hot plug the monitor into my machine, I get 4096x2160 @ 50Hz.
If I then reboot, the FileVault unlock screen is retinized full-screen. Unlock that and it boots to the desktop at 3840x2160 @ 30Hz.
Go into system prefs and option click "Scaled" and there's no option for 4096x2160.
Unplug/plug the MDP cable from the Mac and now I'll get 4096x2160 @ 50Hz as an option.
This behavior remains through two cable swaps (three different cables, including the one that came with it).
I also occasionally get "glitches" that range from little flashes of bars of static to a full screen "blink".
I'm pretty sure Apple's SST implementation is to blame here... because it's acting like a software issue.
This is on a 2014 15" rMBP with the discrete graphics chip. Mac OS X 10.10.1. Lid closed.
There seem to be some weird bugs with the Mac OS X implementation of SST at high resolutions.
If I hot plug the monitor into my machine, I get 4096x2160 @ 50Hz.
If I then reboot, the FileVault unlock screen is retinized full-screen. Unlock that and it boots to the desktop at 3840x2160 @ 30Hz.
Go into system prefs and option click "Scaled" and there's no option for 4096x2160.
Unplug/plug the MDP cable from the Mac and now I'll get 4096x2160 @ 50Hz as an option.
This behavior remains through two cable swaps (three different cables, including the one that came with it).
I also occasionally get "glitches" that range from little flashes of bars of static to a full screen "blink".
I'm pretty sure Apple's SST implementation is to blame here... because it's acting like a software issue.
This is on a 2014 15" rMBP with the discrete graphics chip. Mac OS X 10.10.1. Lid closed.
That's really interesting. I wonder if anyone with an SST 60Hz UHD monitor can comment on this, i.e. are you getting the same thing? I'm wondering if it's the "true" 4K that's causing the problems you describe and that the refresh rate of 50Hz isn't helping with other problems that this display has.
On the other hand - you could have a faulty monitor! Is there anyone else with a 31MU97 that is either experiencing the same things as jbregar or isn't having these issues with the screen?
LG 31MU97 4k Display
When it comes to resolution options or glitches... on my UHD Dell displays I have no problems like this. These problems with resolution and refresh rates are almost certainly related to Apples poor support for full 4K Cinema resolutions. The glitches could also be related to the poor driver support or it could be s bad monitor.
When it comes to resolution options or glitches... on my UHD Dell displays I have no problems like this. These problems with resolution and refresh rates are almost certainly related to Apples poor support for full 4K Cinema resolutions. The glitches could also be related to the poor driver support or it could be s bad monitor.
Hmmm... it doesn't feel like a hardware problem to me, but I could be wrong. I'm tempted to take it back to the store and swap it out and see if a different one behaves differently.
It appears some people are using this display with the same machine I am and not having the same problem... so I wonder if it is a hardware problem with the monitor itself.
My Dell UHD monitor works perfectly with my rMBP aside from occasional MST glitches like a black half of the screen or not waking up.
For what its worth since the last cable switch out the glitches have stopped.
I'm tempted to just say screw it and go back to a pair of 2560x1440 monitors.
It appears some people are using this display with the same machine I am and not having the same problem... so I wonder if it is a hardware problem with the monitor itself.
My Dell UHD monitor works perfectly with my rMBP aside from occasional MST glitches like a black half of the screen or not waking up.
For what its worth since the last cable switch out the glitches have stopped.
I'm tempted to just say screw it and go back to a pair of 2560x1440 monitors.
I noticed that when I first got it, definite magenta cast to the lower area of the screen on whites and yellow towards the top, but since calibrating it with the i1 that has completely gone and whites are uniform. No amount of tweaking the settings manually got round the problem so I'd recommend the i1 Display Pro, money well spent. I use mine for report work and am now very happy with it, it's better than the Dell and the new big Eizo isn't available in the UK yet, plus I hate to think what it will cost.
I'm interested in finding this out as well. FWIW, the graphics drivers for the Mac Pro cards were updated in this beta.
I just got an LG 31MU97-B and hooked it up to my Mac Pro late 2013 with D700 GPUs. I'm running the latest 10.10.2 beta (14C99d).
For the most part, it worked out of the box. The display can run at the full panel resolution (4096x2160) at 50Hz, and there are a multitude of scaling options available in System Preferences. I'm not running SwitchResX; all of the scaling options were available using the stock OS.
I'm currently running at a scaled 3200x1687 resolution, and it looks beautiful, especially when editing photos! I spend most of my day staring at pages full of text, and even with the scaling, the text rendering is significantly higher quality than it was with a 27" Thunderbolt Display, though it's not as good as the 13" MacBook Pro Retina. I can see jaggies in glyphs with diagonals, e.g., "w." Still, it's good enough that I don't want to go back to a low-DPI display.
I'm using the supplied mini-DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable, which is about 2m long and quite a bit thicker than any other DisplayPort cable I can find. It's just long enough to reach my Mac Pro, but I wish it were about .5m longer. I did purchase a 3m cable from Amazon that's supposed to be DisplayPort 1.2-capable, though it's noticeably thinner than the cable that LG supplied. I'll try it out after I've used the provided cable for a few days.
There are a few issues, however:
I haven't yet experienced any of the other issues mentioned in this thread with my particular configuration.
Most of the problems I have encountered, with the possible exception of the sporadic mid-screen tearing problem, seem like driver issues, so if Apple can address them, I'll be pretty happy with the display. It's probably the closest the Mac Pro late 2013 will ever get to "Retina," unfortunately, but I think it's probably good enough.
For the most part, it worked out of the box. The display can run at the full panel resolution (4096x2160) at 50Hz, and there are a multitude of scaling options available in System Preferences. I'm not running SwitchResX; all of the scaling options were available using the stock OS.
I'm currently running at a scaled 3200x1687 resolution, and it looks beautiful, especially when editing photos! I spend most of my day staring at pages full of text, and even with the scaling, the text rendering is significantly higher quality than it was with a 27" Thunderbolt Display, though it's not as good as the 13" MacBook Pro Retina. I can see jaggies in glyphs with diagonals, e.g., "w." Still, it's good enough that I don't want to go back to a low-DPI display.
I'm using the supplied mini-DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable, which is about 2m long and quite a bit thicker than any other DisplayPort cable I can find. It's just long enough to reach my Mac Pro, but I wish it were about .5m longer. I did purchase a 3m cable from Amazon that's supposed to be DisplayPort 1.2-capable, though it's noticeably thinner than the cable that LG supplied. I'll try it out after I've used the provided cable for a few days.
There are a few issues, however:
- I don't get a boot screen. The display doesn't complain that there's no video signal as it does when the Mac Pro is turned off, but it's still just a black screen. This is a problem, as I'm running FileVault and I need to provide a password at boot time. I can type the password by muscle memory, and then about 20 seconds later, I get video as the login process completes, but it's clearly not ideal. If I hook up a second display (currently a 27" Thunderbolt display), the boot screen is visible on that display, at least.
- Twice, I've experienced the screen tearing issue that @drecc described here: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/20321897/. The tearing occurs exactly down the vertical middle of the display. When I first encountered this problem, I thought it was probably a show-stopper, as the effect is both noticeable and irritating. However, @drecc's trick of powering the display off and on again has rectified the problem, so I can probably live with it as long as it's a driver issue and something that Apple can fix.
- Between the fractional scaling and the 50Hz refresh rate, scrolling text is a bit jerky. I don't think it's bad enough to return the display, but it's an annoyance. I'm tempted to run the display at 4096x2160 and crank up the content font size in my apps to eliminate the scaling slow-down, but the UI elements are probably just a bit too small for that to be comfortable for long-term use.
- Each time I reboot, OS X appears to forget that I was running the display at 3200x1687, and starts in 4096x2160 mode.
I haven't yet experienced any of the other issues mentioned in this thread with my particular configuration.
Most of the problems I have encountered, with the possible exception of the sporadic mid-screen tearing problem, seem like driver issues, so if Apple can address them, I'll be pretty happy with the display. It's probably the closest the Mac Pro late 2013 will ever get to "Retina," unfortunately, but I think it's probably good enough.
If you want to get closer to Retina you have to stop at 24" 4k (185 ppi) or get the Dell 27" 5k (same ppi as your MBP).
How do you find photo editing? Do all those pixels slow down lightroom?