LG C9 OLEDs Get Helpful New Gaming Feature - Forbes

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A recent firmware update rolling out to LG’s C9 OLEDs has introduced a new feature designed to improve an issue with their PC and console gaming performance.

Although it’s not mentioned in LG’s release notes for the new firmware (which is numbered 05.25.07 in the US and 05.20.07 in the UK), the new feature is the Fine Tune Dark Area option originally introduced for last year’s C1 series but also rolled out via firmware updates to 2020’s CX series.

The idea behind this feature - which can be found in the C9’s Addition Picture Settings menu, since they don’t get the Game Optimiser menus where it appears on LG’s newer OLEDs - is that it lets you adjust the appearance of dark areas of game graphics without the adjustments impacting brighter areas. The feature was ostensibly developed to enable gamers to modify how easy it is to see hiding enemies and background details in dark areas. It was quickly noted, however, that it could also give owners of LG OLED TVs a tool for at least suppressing a known problem where gaming with variable refresh rates active could cause a pronounced and therefore potentially distracting black level flicker effect during dark scenes that hit particular light level ‘trigger points’.

To be clear, the adjustment doesn’t provide a complete fix for an issue that LG’s engineers continue to work on (and which actually happens, albeit less noticeably, with other TVs too). But with some titles, at least, it can certainly make a difference.

Fine Tune Dark Areas isn’t the only handy new feature introduced by LG’s latest update. Also welcome is a new option - this time mentioned in the firmware’s release notes - that lets you turn off the annoyingly aggressive No Signal message the C9 throws up when it isn’t receiving any video on a selected source.

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As well as the Fine Tune Dark Areas feature being a nice feature in its own right for C9 owners to get, it’s actually also quite nice to see a TV brand still thinking about rolling out features like this to TVs that will soon be three generations old.

If your C9 hasn’t received the update yet, it can be obtained from the local LG website for your territory and installed via USB.

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