Bought a New Lg OLED TV and Got an Unexpected Quasi Gaming Related Surprise

[Plasma Man | 35]

I bought a new LG OLED TV with it's primary use for watching movies/shows without intending to use it much for gaming.  I was setting it up and somewhere it showed supported display modes, one of which was 1080p 50hz.  That seemed unusual but I didn't really give it much thought.  It was not until I fired up my Analogue NT Mini and was scrolling through my games list that I passed the PAL section,  I thought could 50hz be for PAL?  I tried Parasol Stars and for the first time no garbled graphics, no sped up gameplay, and no weird aspect ratio!  It supported PAL!  For the first time I have been able to properly experience all those awesome PAL exclusives.  I don't know how common this is but it seems strange to me that I have never seen a single mention of PAL support on modern TVs.  I just thought I would make this post incase someone else was as clueless as me and needed another reason to replace their TV.

[RH | 5,227]

10 hours ago, Plasma Man said:

I bought a new LG OLED TV with it's primary use for watching movies/shows without intending to use it much for gaming.  I was setting it up and somewhere it showed supported display modes, one of which was 1080p 50hz.  That seemed unusual but I didn't really give it much thought.  It was not until I fired up my Analogue NT Mini and was scrolling through my games list that I passed the PAL section,  I thought could 50hz be for PAL?  I tried Parasol Stars and for the first time no garbled graphics, no sped up gameplay, and no weird aspect ratio!  It supported PAL!  For the first time I have been able to properly experience all those awesome PAL exclusives.  I don't know how common this is but it seems strange to me that I have never seen a single mention of PAL support on modern TVs.  I just thought I would make this post incase someone else was as clueless as me and needed another reason to replace their TV.

I'm sure others are better equipped to answer this, but from watching many MLIG, Digital Foundry, Linus Tech Tips, etc. video, I think this isn't too uncommon.  I think TV standards are now pretty standardized for HD signals and even if it's not, the refresh rates are likely entirely handled within software on some embedded chip.  Since LG, Samsung, Sony, etc. tend to ship across the globe, it's often easier to make one machine and just ship out a different power brick, or only change the power supply within the unit.  So, they just code in for all modern signals, as well as any common legacy signals from the past.

I can't say that definitively, and I'm sure there are plenty of "barebones" units that don't offer much in the way of refresh rates and resolutions, but I don't think your experience if likely uncommon for mid to high-tier TV models.  It's just easier to mass produce 10m units for the entire globe than to tweak/modify those units much for each region.  It's the power of System-on-a-Chips which run just about kind of device today.

[Plasma Man | 35]

1 hour ago, RH said:

I'm sure others are better equipped to answer this, but from watching many MLIG, Digital Foundry, Linus Tech Tips, etc. video, I think this isn't too uncommon.  I think TV standards are now pretty standardized for HD signals and even if it's not, the refresh rates are likely entirely handled within software on some embedded chip.  Since LG, Samsung, Sony, etc. tend to ship across the globe, it's often easier to make one machine and just ship out a different power brick, or only change the power supply within the unit.  So, they just code in for all modern signals, as well as any common legacy signals from the past.

I can't say that definitively, and I'm sure there are plenty of "barebones" units that don't offer much in the way of refresh rates and resolutions, but I don't think your experience if likely uncommon for mid to high-tier TV models.  It's just easier to mass produce 10m units for the entire globe than to tweak/modify those units much for each region.  It's the power of System-on-a-Chips which run just about kind of device today.

I'm guessing you are probably right but it is strange that seemingly no manufacturers advertise PAL support and even highly respected TV review sites like RTINGS make no mention of it in their very through reviews.  Even doing a google search now shows that there is very little confirmation that this is the case.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

4 hours ago, Plasma Man said:

I'm guessing you are probably right but it is strange that seemingly no manufacturers advertise PAL support and even highly respected TV review sites like RTINGS make no mention of it in their very through reviews.  Even doing a google search now shows that there is very little confirmation that this is the case.

My educated guess on that is because all standards tend to have their own weird outliers that are technically considered part of the standard, but are non-standard nonetheless, and if someone advertised a TV with such compatibility, it would be billed generically, opening up the manufacturer to complaints/issues/lawsuits/whatever the first time some quasi-compliant but non-standard device or signal didn't work right on the device.  I believe they're also required by some countries, trade organizations, etc. to submit devices rated for certain standards for testing, which costs money.  However, if they make a "does it all" device and only advertise a region's own standard on the packaging when it's sold there, they save money, and folks in that region get a nice bonus when they discover that their box will do more than advertised.  My old RCA flatscreen was like that--it listed NTSC on the box and manual cover, discussed the specific frequencies that it covered (NTSC exclusive) in all its documentation, but somehow was quite comfortable accepting a 50hz "PAL" digital signal from my AVS when I updated the settings--the screen just blanked for a moment or two then refreshed with the new signal frequency in the corner.

[captmorgandrinker | 1,656]

4 hours ago, Plasma Man said:

I'm guessing you are probably right but it is strange that seemingly no manufacturers advertise PAL support and even highly respected TV review sites like RTINGS make no mention of it in their very through reviews.  Even doing a google search now shows that there is very little confirmation that this is the case.

It might be hit and miss.   If that's the case, then it's just a bonus that it works as they wouldn't want to advertise it and then be on the hook for repairing glitchy PAL stuff.

[FireHazard51 | 2,105]

On 1/25/2022 at 1:35 PM, Plasma Man said:

I'm guessing you are probably right but it is strange that seemingly no manufacturers advertise PAL support and even highly respected TV review sites like RTINGS make no mention of it in their very through reviews.  Even doing a google search now shows that there is very little confirmation that this is the case.

You should totally tell RTINGS about this feature you found.  They'd likely dig into it and see if other TVs support this as well.  If you just got luck with your model I bet they would also ask the manufacture about why they stop supporting it or why they DID support it and then stopped.  This is an awesome find and I'll keep that in mind when I finally do go to purchase an OLED TV.  Been dreaming of that moment since 2009 when I first started tracking that technology.