LG's second generation CineBeam Projector is a 4K DLP design that features a ultra-short throw lens, allowing it to be placed mere inches from a wall.
Is there still a space for projection in the living room? With today's 4K TVs available at approachable prices and sizes up to 85 inches, the days of setting up a projector on a coffee table to get a big picture up on the wall are of a bygone era. Projection has retreated to dedicated home theater rooms, or more casual gaming applications. But now, thanks to multiple offerings in the UST (ultra short throw) category, projection appears to be making a bid to reenter the living room. For example, the new LG HU85L that will make an appearance at CES 2019 sporting a 2500-lumen laser light source and 4K resolution.
The main selling point of this new model is the UST capability, which allows it to project a 90-inch (diagonal) image while sitting only 2 inches away from the wall. If you give it 7 inches of space, the maximum image size increases to 120 inches.
“The new CineBeam Laser projector marries spectacular 4K viewing experience with the convenience of AI technology,” said Jang Ik-hwan, head of LG’s IT business division. “There is no other product like this on the market, illustrating how LG continues to deliver unique value to consumers.”
Unlike some projectors, this consumer friendly device is loaded with smart features, including voice recognition using LG ThinQ AI. You'll be able to control functions, such as powering the unit down, as well as request content such as videos on YouTube.
I took a good look at this new projector while at CES 2019 and what I saw was encouraging. This is a DLP projector, which means its black levels are not as deep as a dedicated home cinema unit. But, the demo was held in a fairly bright area adjacent to the show floor in LG's booth and the light pollution would render a home theater projector useless. What you get instead is a lot of brightness at 2500 lumens, enough to create a 120" 16:9 image that can overcome typical living room lighting.
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Well, this looks like the closest thing to an owners thread for this model and not much traffic on it.
I ended up buying an LG to answer my own questions and kept it. Samsung went back.
I do not have any chromatic abberation on my LG. One little tip I wanted to share for gaming. Like the LG OLEDs you can put this projector into PC Mode which gives you much better color representation and low input lag in all presets for both HDR and non HDR profile presets. To do this, hold and press the input button on remote. Pulls up input menu. Click on the settings icon on top right. Choose Device Connector. Now choose the PC icon and situate this for your hdmi input for gaming system on the LG. This can be switched back to non PC Mode with all of your previous settings and profiles untouched. I've been using this with my Xbox One X. Standard Color space at 12 bit color depth and I get some impressive results in both Game and Cinema Home profiles. Make sure your go into HDR Calibration on the Xbox settings and setup your global system settings. Blacks levels should be at 0 and both of the light output and luminance settings should be set to just after you lose the last highlight detail. This is at 45 clicks to the right for me on my screen with Tone Mapping enabled.
I do not have any chromatic abberation on my LG. One little tip I wanted to share for gaming. Like the LG OLEDs you can put this projector into PC Mode which gives you much better color representation and low input lag in all presets for both HDR and non HDR profile presets. To do this, hold and press the input button on remote. Pulls up input menu. Click on the settings icon on top right. Choose Device Connector. Now choose the PC icon and situate this for your hdmi input for gaming system on the LG. This can be switched back to non PC Mode with all of your previous settings and profiles untouched. I've been using this with my Xbox One X. Standard Color space at 12 bit color depth and I get some impressive results in both Game and Cinema Home profiles. Make sure your go into HDR Calibration on the Xbox settings and setup your global system settings. Blacks levels should be at 0 and both of the light output and luminance settings should be set to just after you lose the last highlight detail. This is at 45 clicks to the right for me on my screen with Tone Mapping enabled.
THANK YOU for this. I was reading calibration articles that referred to "Expert Dark" modes, etc and I wasn't seeing them - figured a firmware update since release changed options or names.
After following your advice, I see all of the modes. Awesome sauce. And yes, the series X looks great on it.
THANK YOU for this. I was reading calibration articles that referred to "Expert Dark" modes, etc and I wasn't seeing them - figured a firmware update since release changed options or names.
After following your advice, I see all of the modes. Awesome sauce. And yes, the series X looks great on it.
Glad I was of help! One thing to add is that i keep the YCC 422 setting unchecked on my console so this should push 444 color bandwidth to projector when not in HDR. I still only have an Xbox One X. Hope to be able to find a Series X or PS5 soon the LG shines with 4K 60fps games. It can even do 1080p 120Hz. Bummer it doesnt have the new hdmi specs to do 4K 120Hz.
Well, this looks like the closest thing to an owners thread for this model and not much traffic on it.
I ended up buying an LG to answer my own questions and kept it. Samsung went back.
I started an owners thread like 12 months ago, but the LG hasn't seemed like it's as popular as other UST's. I think some were turned off by the price and there are/were some on AVS that more or less have/had an anti-UST agenda.
I do not have any chromatic abberation on my LG. One little tip I wanted to share for gaming. Like the LG OLEDs you can put this projector into PC Mode which gives you much better color representation and low input lag in all presets for both HDR and non HDR profile presets. To do this, hold and press the input button on remote. Pulls up input menu. Click on the settings icon on top right. Choose Device Connector. Now choose the PC icon and situate this for your hdmi input for gaming system on the LG. This can be switched back to non PC Mode with all of your previous settings and profiles untouched. I've been using this with my Xbox One X. Standard Color space at 12 bit color depth and I get some impressive results in both Game and Cinema Home profiles. Make sure your go into HDR Calibration on the Xbox settings and setup your global system settings. Blacks levels should be at 0 and both of the light output and luminance settings should be set to just after you lose the last highlight detail. This is at 45 clicks to the right for me on my screen with Tone Mapping enabled.
I do not have any chromatic abberation on my LG. One little tip I wanted to share for gaming. Like the LG OLEDs you can put this projector into PC Mode which gives you much better color representation and low input lag in all presets for both HDR and non HDR profile presets. To do this, hold and press the input button on remote. Pulls up input menu. Click on the settings icon on top right. Choose Device Connector. Now choose the PC icon and situate this for your hdmi input for gaming system on the LG. This can be switched back to non PC Mode with all of your previous settings and profiles untouched. I've been using this with my Xbox One X. Standard Color space at 12 bit color depth and I get some impressive results in both Game and Cinema Home profiles. Make sure your go into HDR Calibration on the Xbox settings and setup your global system settings. Blacks levels should be at 0 and both of the light output and luminance settings should be set to just after you lose the last highlight detail. This is at 45 clicks to the right for me on my screen with Tone Mapping enabled.
One more question- you talked about switching out of PC mode, I haven’t figured that one out yet with a single HDMI input. Doesn’t seem to be a way to “remove” a device connection. Are you using two HDMI inputs and moving it?
No, I only use PC mode for gaming and will switch back to non PC mode if I stream anything. You can keep it in PC mode however you won’t be able to use real cinema option for 24 FPS movies or any of the expanded picture and motion options.
One more question- you talked about switching out of PC mode, I haven’t figured that one out yet with a single HDMI input. Doesn’t seem to be a way to “remove” a device connection. Are you using two HDMI inputs and moving it?
You can just go back into the device connector menu and change the hdmi input from PC to another icon such as gaming console, other box, etc and it will switch back to your standard viewing profile with all available options and previous settings.
An XBox HDR observation...
Dynamic Tone mapping is essential to have “on” for HDR content, either game or movie.
With movies it looks stunning, when you turn it off, it blows out the white contrast levels.
For games... if you go in and out of dark environments to bright environments ... it struggles to keep up, leaving you with “dusk” or greyish tones while it try’s to decide what the levels should be.
I might just start keeping HDR off for games to maintain consistent levels.
An XBox HDR observation...
Dynamic Tone mapping is essential to have “on” for HDR content, either game or movie.
With movies it looks stunning, when you turn it off, it blows out the white contrast levels.
For games... if you go in and out of dark environments to bright environments ... it struggles to keep up, leaving you with “dusk” or greyish tones while it try’s to decide what the levels should be.
I might just start keeping HDR off for games to maintain consistent levels.
An XBox HDR observation...
Dynamic Tone mapping is essential to have “on” for HDR content, either game or movie.
With movies it looks stunning, when you turn it off, it blows out the white contrast levels.
For games... if you go in and out of dark environments to bright environments ... it struggles to keep up, leaving you with “dusk” or greyish tones while it try’s to decide what the levels should be.
I might just start keeping HDR off for games to maintain consistent levels.
In my case with the LG I keep on HDR for gaming with the Xbox. I turned it off when I had an Optoma P1. The trick is setting your global hdr levels correctly in the settings tab then you should just have some smaller tweaks necessary in each game but this makes it much more consistent. As I mentioned before, using PC mode and usually the cinema home preset gives you best overall HDR performance. Leave auto tone mapping on when doing the global hdr settings. Make sure your black level is all the way down (all the way to left) when doing global HDR calibration so it’s actually black. You can adjust this black level floor up if you need to within an individual game. It looks killer for me on games such as Rocket League, COD, Doom Eternal, Fallen Order, Forza 4 etc...
Has anyone tried pushing Dolby Vision content to this using an HD Fury Vertex (or similar device)?
I have an HD Fury Vertex2 and have pushed DV to it through a Nvidia Shield Pro and Apple 4K. Once you get your settings correct on the vertex it looks great. There is a lot to tweak with so I’m still messing around with it. Let me know if you have any Qs.
Before I build a hush box style cabinet for this thing, could anyone measure to see if this level of noise is normal? I placed the iPhone on the top of the projector. This is the measurement.
Before I build a hush box style cabinet for this thing, could anyone measure to see if this level of noise is normal? I placed the iPhone on the top of the projector. This is the measurement.
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