This is the first time that auto-calibration has been done on an underlying hardware level. CalMAN now has direct access to the LUT in LG’s 2018 OLED and LCDs for much faster and more accurate calibration of SDR and HDR.

Hardware auto-calibration
The partnership was announced at CES 2018 and demonstrated during a private session. FlatpanelsHD saw it in action and can confirm that the auto-calibration feature is not only unique but also extremely cool.

Why should you care if you are not a professional calibrator? Because even if you pay someone to come calibrate your TV, this method should significantly improve the result. Spectracal’s CalMAN software now has direct access to the look-up tables inside LG’s 2018 OLED and LCDs, allowing it to calibrate SDR and HDR, including HDR10 , HLG, and Dolby Vision, very quickly and extremely accurately.


- “The LG TVs with CalMAN AutoCal blur the distinction between the professional reference monitor and the consumer television,” said Martin Fishman, Co-CEO of Portrait Displays. “Of significance, you can sit at home and see exactly what the director of the movie was intending.”

LG is excited about the partnership that it calls it the ”first” of its kind. Samsung and Panasonic have also announced auto-calibration systems but these are not hardware-based and therefore not as fast or accurate, LG said.

- “The addition of the world’s leading auto calibration software from Portrait Displays to our 2018 LG OLED and SUPER UHD TV models will greatly streamline the process for professional calibrators and ensure that consumers will be able to enjoy the full potential of their LG OLED or SUPER UHD television,” said Neil Robinson, LG’s Director of Technology Partnerships.


How it works
FlatpanelsHD saw the system in action at CES 2018 and we have more to say on the matter in a later hands-on article with LG’s 2018 OLED TVs. First, here is what SpectraCal had to say.

- “When you need a display to be extremely accurate, the usual solution is to add a 3D LUT box to the video chain,” said Portrait Displays' Technical Liaison Tyler Pruitt. “The 3D LUT box corrects minor nonlinearities that the display’s controls alone won’t correct.”

Image processors with 3D LUTs cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars, and are employed by home theater videophiles as well as studio industry professionals.

- “With the 2018 LG premium televisions, the 3D LUTs are inside the television and available to CalMAN. This eliminates the need for an external LUT box,” Pruitt said.

SpectraCal’s auto-calibration solution for LG’s 2018 OLED and LCDs is scheduled to ship at the same time the 2018 line of LG televisions is released. To get started you need the CalMAN software, a supported pattern generator, and a meter.