LG Gaming monitor " Sharpness "

[SUPRA]

I've got LG monitor with " sharpness " setting. 0 is all blurry and 100 is sharp as knife. I've noticed when its all way up to 100 it's hard to tell colour of thin text. Once i lower it down to 70-80 it's good. What do you keep your sharpness on?

[crunchyfrog]

Generally speaking, it dpeends what I'm playing, and the ACTUAL recommendation is basically to your own preference. It's just a quality of life thing.

For PC games, I use about 90% and the same for PS4 and Xbox One, PS3 et al.

You're right in that most sharpness settings when pushed to the max start to distort things too much to be useful.

I should add that I'm using a Panasonic TV (UK model), and I sit about a shade over 3 feet from the screen (in bed).

For older consoles and indeed some PC games, I sometimes push the sharpness setting down a bit as it can soften the edges a little more making it a little more pleasurable.

On the PS2 though (even though I'm using decent component cables) I whack it down to just over 60% to soften it more as text seems to be unreadable with even a modicum of sharpness. It's a ♥♥♥♥♥ in RPGs.

So yeah, it really does depend on the source and the game in question. So usually 90%, but reduced to just above 60% in certain circumstances.


Lastly, though, do bear in mind that my percentage here is ABSOLUTELY IRRELEVANT to anyone else without the same TV because they are not relatable. 90% on my TV is not the same as 90% on yours and so on. It's like the volume slider - only relative to itself. A good example is my main downstairs TV - a big old Panasonic plasma that still is fabulous. I don't whack the sharpness above about 75% to get the same amount as my other.

[nullable]

The way you seem to be looking at it, sharpness is good, "moar sharpness" and I think your idea of what sharpness is and what it means as a technical term describing monitor/tv settings might be two different things.

Maybe understanding what sharpness is will lead you to make some different choices if you realize a higher sharpness setting might not be better.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/what-sharpness-setting-to-use.2143652/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_masking

People seem to lead toward less is better. In your case turning it all the way up has undesirable effects so you clearly want it less than max... if you think 70-80 looks good I guess that's fine. But I would get a handle on the setting before yous settle on that range of values.

[crunchyfrog]

Very well put, Brockenstein.

I always find it frustrating when tech companies invent settings, specs or just marketing wankery and then don't explain exactly what it's doing. Really annoys me (not for me exactly, but just in an empathy sense).

Sharpness is, at the end of the day, a graphical tweak. it is NOT a "purity of signal" setting that some might think it is.

[nullable]

Well it's not like sharpness is new... and there's only so much information that can be conveyed in a name for the benefit of laymen like ourselves. At some point you're gonna have to look things up, like when you're fiddling with sharpness and trying to decide what the setting "ought to be".

I mean I had to look it up to be able to say anything about it because I couldn't describe what it meant off the top of my head.

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I keep mine on 25.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Brockenstein:

Well it's not like sharpness is new... and there's only so much information that can be conveyed in a name for the benefit of laymen like ourselves. At some point you're gonna have to look things up, like when you're fiddling with sharpness and trying to decide what the setting "ought to be".

I mean I had to look it up to be able to say anything about it because I couldn't describe what it meant off the top of my head.

That's true and perhaps in this example I was being over zealous. Fair point "sharpness" does sum it up.

But there are other marketing terms and things -ESPECIALLY in audio where it bugs me the most - that are either nonsensical or added with little to no description of what it really is.

It was at it's worst in the late 80s and early 90s, mind. I remember Phillips (iirc) had CD players with "1-bit" plastered on them like that actually meant something.