How to unlock your LG OLED true potential using the hidden Service Menu [Easy Way]

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FEBRUARY 2024 UPDATE: Unfortunately auto-dimming issues are still present on 2021 Series (e.g. C1/G1) and older, so you still need to follow this guide to access the hidden Service Menu to fix them


AUGUST 2023 UPDATE: LG finally fixed it also for 2022 Series! No more need to access/edit the Service Menu for those TVs as well ;)


MARCH 2023 UPDATE: LG finally fixed this auto-dimming issue entirely via firmware update, starting with 2023 series! So no more need to access the Service Menu and risking your warranty for those models!

Older series are still affected but the new firmware update could be backported to those as well in the future, so stay tuned :)

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As brilliantly demonstrated and explained by recent HDTVTest analysis , all LG OLEDs are affected by a very common issue/limitation which on paper will help avoiding image retention and burn in, but in reality it will severely "auto dim" many movies and games' scenes where the HDR luminance is not reaching its peak for a couple of minutes (e.g. night scenes) making it even more darker and difficult to see. When Peak HDR luminance is "detected" again on a different scene, the brightness will recover and the viewers often can clearly see the panel getting "lit" very quickly almost as it is turning on again.


This (always enabled) feature is called: TPC (Temporal Peak Luminance Control)



Unfortunately, it often happens that getting out of those dark scenes won't "auto lit" the TV again and you get stuck with very dark and with very poor luminance scenes even when they aren't supposed to look that way, and you need to open a TV/Console menu to "shake" that auto-detection and make the TV bright again, which is very annoying.


Another similar (always enabled) feature and issue is represented by: GSR (Global Sticky Reduction)



What happens here is that when the TV will detect an overly static HUD (Heads Up Display) both in games or TV sport streams, the entire luminance will also automatically degrade after a couple of minutes with the aim to also limit image retention and burn in.


Some older LG OLEDs like 2017 series don't have GSR at all and even after 5 years of regular usage with mixed contents, including games with static HUDs, it never showed permanent burn using calibrated settings.


Both TPC and GSR are actually "overly safe" measures implemented by LG to avoid burn in, but in reality if LG OLEDs are calibrated as suggested along with the devices in use (consoles/PC) both can be safely disabled with a consequential big improvement of picture quality in both games and movies.


The only way to disable both TPC and GSR is by accessing the hidden Service Menu of LG OLEDs. In the past to do so you had to buy an universal remote from Amazon but thanks to this Reddit poster there is a free and much more easy way to do it.


PLEASE NOTE: YOU COULD BRICK YOUR TV AND LOSE YOUR WARRANTY IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING IN THE HIDDEN SERVICE MENU SO BE ADVICED AND BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU STILL WANT TO DO IT!


Follow these instructions:

• Access the Service Menu through ColorControl app via PC (Windows)
  

• At the password prompt enter 0413
  

You'll see the hidden Service Menu appear with a list of numbered section to navigate.

Do not go or touch anywhere except to the OLED section.

Once there, click to enter to the list on the right and as you can see in the image above, go and disable both "TPC Enable" and "GSR Enable" options.

Once done press BACK to exit that section and turn off/on again the TV.


And that's it!

You've just fixed the most common issues of your LG OLED and dramatically improved HDR and DV picture quality both for games and movies without an actual risk of burn in.


Enjoy :)

-P