LG 31MU97 - My First TRUE 4K Monitor
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,947 words · ~9 min read
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for years I did very few monitor videos because I don't really like making
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videos about them unless there's some really compelling new feature or design
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idea that I'm excited about now as you may have noticed over the last year or
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so I've done a lot of monitor videos it's been a heck of a year g-sync free
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sync slim bezels High refresh rate Ultra HD Ultra wide the list goes kind of on
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and on doesn't it well now it's going to go on some more because the LG 31 m97 is
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the first monitor I've ever laid eyes on that features a 17 by9 aspect ratio and
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a true 4K native resolution so what's it
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like then
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e save on select Intel Core i7 processors and 730 series ssds with
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instant rebates during Valentine's week February 14th to 21st 2015 click now to
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learn more let's get this out of the way right now this is not a gaming monitor
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it's not intended to be a gaming Monitor and frankly the gaming experience won't
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light anyone's world on fire I measured total input lag as high as 27
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milliseconds or so so more than a frame and almost no one has a graphics card
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that's capable of driving modern tripa games at its 4096 X 2160 resolution
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anyway that's 8.85 million pixels or 4
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and A4 times as many as 1080p even the
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3840 X 2160 resolution that most consumers refer to as 4K but is
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technically actually UHD is only 8.3
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million pixels so hold on a second then lus what the actual devil is this weird
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resolution for the answer is professional work and when you re-exam
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in the 31 mu 97 in that context the
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$1,400 price point makes a lot more sense let's begin with a physical tour
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though the ID is plain looking and definitely businesslike with a mostly
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gladish not particularly thin front bezel design simple LG branding on the
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front and an unassuming looking plastic covered metal stand but there's some
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good news here the ergonomics and functionality of the aformentioned stand
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are pretty businesslike as well it lacks
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swivel something I kind of wish it had although an LG's defense the same
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functionality can be achieved by simply repositioning the entire base but it
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does have tilt a wide range of height adjust pivot yes for those of you who
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love portrait mode and a Vasa compliant mount on the back that I was able to use
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easily with three of these bad boys on a
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yes so yes 25 million pixels on an OBU
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gaming slw workstation cockpit setup in this video here that was freaking
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awesome I have never seen screen real estate like that before on the bottom of
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the display we find a pretty healthy mix of IO these dual HDMI ports are
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unfortunately not HDMI 2.0 compliant
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which would allow them to operate at 60 HZ at Native resolution but the dual
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DisplayPort 1.2 inputs one of which is full size and one of which is a mini
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kind of makes up for that for me with the included fulls size to mini cable it
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gives users the flexibility to easily connect this monitor to either a desktop
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or a notebook without buying any adapters or new cables out of the box
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finally down here we've got the Uplink for the 3port USB 3.0 Hub that should
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accommodate most of what sits on the desk next to your monitor and the
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control joystick that LG has been including on at least their high-end
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monitors lately and that I personally really really like finally the front
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where we find the satisfyingly large 31in panel which is actually a great
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size for someone coming from an older 30-in professional grade monitor since
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the vertical height is almost identical with the extra inch contributing to a
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slightly wider field of view although I suspect a good number of those folks
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will be upgrading with the misguided notion that they'll be able to utilize
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the 31 muu 97's 35% more vertical
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pixels which likely won't be the case
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now I have pretty good Vision a little shy of 2020 so I do have a prescription
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that sharpens things up a little bit and at a reasonable distance without my
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glasses I can use this display without
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scaling and with my glasses everything is actually reasonably sharp but for
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long periods it wasn't comfortable to use like that under either scenario so I
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think most people would require scaling within their operating system for
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optimal text readability for those that can handle it though it is definitely
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cool to have easily enough horizontal pixels for three to four pieces of
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content but frankly if my goal was pure business and productivity and spreading
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things out I would choose LG's own 3497 or 34 UC 97 over this one since
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they require no scaling and the ultra wide format makes side by side by side a
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total pleasure to use all right then so this monitor is for professionals if not
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necessarily the ones who are focused on spreadsheets well then which ones ah
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video and Imaging Professionals and it's got some pretty neat features to appeal
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to those folks so first up is the 10bit LED backlit matte finish IPS panel
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something that will benefit the folks with appropriate Hardware software and
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more than anything else the need for it so content creators because While most
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LCD computer displays out there are 8 bit or even 6bit with f FRC tricks to
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achieve more than the native number of colors more granularity allows content
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creators to more accurately match a Target color in the original work so
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that regardless of which medium it eventually ends up being displayed on
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web print broadcast Cinema whatever the case may be it will be as close as
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possible to what they were trying to achieve which leads us into what really
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is the killer app of this monitor for me now the number of bits per channel for
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color actually has little to do with the
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total color gamut or range of colors that a monitor can represent it's just
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how many intermediary steps there are within that range and that is where the
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31 m97 really shines compared to a typical consumer monitor or even the
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entrylevel prosumer ones that I've seen in the past it comes pre-calibrated from
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the factory with a handy dandy little report that you get in the box and
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covers one 100% of the srgb color space so this would be suitable for work that
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will be viewed on the web or realistically most General use color
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applications 99.5% of the Adobe RGB color space
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considered suitable for working with higher bit depth images and depending on
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your printer setup sometimes desired for print and then this is where the video
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Geeks Jaws will drop 97% of the dcip P3 Digital Cinema color
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space which I guess makes sense since given it digal Cinema standard
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resolution that will also make users able to preview their Cinema bound work
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at one to1 on this display means this is kind of who they were targeting with
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this now to be clear this is not the best available grading display for DCI
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you can get 100% coverage with a Dolby PRM 4220 a 42in 1080p display that
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features specialized dual modulation dimming technology and costs tens of
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thousands of dollars but at under under 5% of the cost for this Monitor and a
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solid calibration system to keep it running at Peak efficiency for 97% of
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the results it looks pretty darn appealing and there's one more super
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cool feature too being able to preview one color space next to another one
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that's in use on the rest of the monitor is amazing that way if a project is
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going to be utilized in multiple ways you can quickly ensure that you're going
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to get the desired results across different media
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but while PC users with DisplayPort 1.2 outputs can rejoice and basically go
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start buying these puppies up some mac users have been complaining now I've
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been saying for some time that due to its lack of expandability limited RAM
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capacity and a number of other reasons the late 2013 Mac Pro is not a serious
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workstation and now I'm getting some more ammunition for my gun Apple users
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are reporting that single tile 4K that is real 4K not Ultra HD displays like
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the 30 1 m97 are only capable of running
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at 50 HZ on the Mac Pro at their native resolution it appears to be a driver
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issue since there's no problem running at 60 HZ on similar class AMD cards in
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Windows so hopefully this is something that Apple will address because aside
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from still not supporting 10 pit color per Channel like Windows users have been
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enjoying an adobe applications like Photoshop for years Apple users won't be
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able to run at full res and refresh rate on their shiny new toy SL productivity
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tool which would definitely be a fly in
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my glass of milk speaking of flies and
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milk glasses someone should make a website dedicated to like beautifully
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