UPDATE 04/08: “Boost Mode” Lag tested and demo’d at the bottom of this post.
With LG’s 2024 OLEDs now going on sale to make way for the 2025’s, I wanted to review the C4, from the perspective of a retro-enthusiast. Also, since the C4 & newer LG OLED’s now have the ability to connect Philips Hue lighting without an expensive HDMI box, I wanted to test that too. Check out the video to see how it all went and here’s affiliate links to everything discussed:
LG C4 OLED: https://amzn.to/41OlPso
LG G4 OLED: https://amzn.to/4bUEG8I
RetroTINK 4K’s: https://www.retrorgb.com/retrotink.html
Philips Hue Lighting:
Philips Hue Light Strip for TV: https://amzn.to/3FnFab6
Philips Hue Bridge (required even with app): https://amzn.to/4iykmfn
Philips Hue Bulb: https://amzn.to/3Fl8j73
Bridge + Bulb Kit (might be cheaper): https://amzn.to/4bPNmNL
Hue HDMI Box (You do NOT need this with the C4’s – This is just for reference): https://amzn.to/4iLRaCp
Setup Video: https://youtu.be/k3XFIO8-WIE
Other Links:
24p & RetroTINK 4K: https://youtu.be/Cps00mV9gfQ
1080p5x: https://youtu.be/m5X7_dpdWwM
Vincent’s C4 Quick Start Guide: https://youtu.be/kA3_X1Zl2FI
RTings C4 Calibration: https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/c4-oled/settings
RTings Review: https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/c4-oled
Kuro’s Updated CRT Mask Profiles: https://x.com/kurohouou/status/1901461124735754453
Optoma UHZ35ST Laser Projector: https://amzn.to/41Bi2i3
BenQ TK700STi LCD projector: https://amzn.to/4bkSvgm
BenQ TK710STi Laser Projector: https://amzn.to/3EUhISE
How DLP Projectors Work: https://youtu.be/JhVXH0BYNEM
I used these blu-ray’s for my film grain tests: https://amzn.to/3RoqLy7 / https://amzn.to/4hP3Oir / https://amzn.to/4ixVHbi / https://amzn.to/4ckbgRB / https://amzn.to/4iPA6LJ / https://amzn.to/4jcpyWM
UPDATE 04/08: After the video went public, I had a few people ask me about “Boost Mode”, which I totally forgot to include in the review! To enable it, go to the main Settings, General and Game Optimizer. You have to enable it via the toggle in the upper right, then scroll down to Prevent Input Delay and enable Boost Mode.
Enabling this mode appears to set the TV to a native 60Hz mode! In the video below, I included 960fps footage slowed down to 10%, with the brightness and contrast levels cranked up so you can see the TV refreshing top-to-bottom better. The dark area passes over the 60Hz frame number once with it on, confirming that it’s switching to 60Hz mode. Then in regular mode, you see the screen refresh twice with every frame number, confirming it’s in 120Hz mode (doubling each frame).
I used a MiSTer Laggy to test this in the video below, which adds one millisecond of lag, so the results shown will be 1ms more than the Time Sleuth. Obviously, I DID confirm it all with the Time Sleuth, but I needed to keep this follow-up video short. With Boost Mode off, I got the same exact results as the Time Sleuth (with the extra 1ms), then with it off, I got 2.7ms, which was confirmed as 1.7 with the TS. That’s REALLY good and it also seemed to work the same with both 720p60 and 1440p60. And as a note, I chose the MiSTer for this video, so I could show the C4’s is compatible with MiSTer’s low latency “vsync_adjust=2″ mode.
There’s some limitations though: Adding HDR added a frame of latency, like with my original tests. Enabling VRR brought the lag up to around 9ms, regardless of if HDR is enabled, which is about what it was with Boost Mode off. Also, 480p60 actually had more lag with Boost mode Enabled, regardless of aspect ratio. That was really weird and made me wonder what the TV is doing with 480p sources!
Anyway, after my tests, Boost Mode should only be used with 720p60 or 1080p60Hz sources that aren’t HDR and don’t have VRR enabled. Which is probably an excellent choice for MiSTer or OSSC users! Check out the short video to see it demo’d:
