Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Computers & Peripherals => Topic started by: Hans Kruse on January 13, 2017, 11:43:40 am

Title: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Hans Kruse on January 13, 2017, 11:43:40 am
Today I received the LG 5K monitor co-developped by Apple and LG. Apple have stopped producing and selling monitors. This means the only 5K option from is the iMac 5K. So when the long overdue ending of the Thunderbolt display was decided by Apple they decided to work with LG and over a special monitor to work with the new MacBook Pro 2016. This monitor only has tb3/usb.c ports and it can charge the MBP 2016 15" with the supplied TB3 cable. The monitor is 27" and the DPI is 218 where the MBP 15" is 220 DPI. The colour space is P3 like the MBP 2016. The maximum brightness is the same on both screens. I calibrated the LG screen the same way as the MBP screen with my Spyder 4 unit and for the same brightness. The result is that they look very closely the same. It's not that different from my Dell 32" 4K screen after calibration, but the resolution difference is quite big. The DPI is 218 on the 5K screen and on the Dell it is 138. So a huge difference and it shows. After having the 32" I find that 27" is a more ideal size for me. I find the higher resolution pleasant to look at. Photos look really great on this display.

Set the monitor scaling in the monitor preferences to 2560x1440 and images will be displayed pixel perfect at 5K resolution zoomed into 100% or 1:1 for checking sharpness. 4K screens need full HD scaling to be pixel perfect at 100% or 1:1. This means large fonts on a 27" or larger screen, so in my opinion this is not ideal. 5K fits perfectly.

Design is not at all like the iMac 5K or the old Thunderbolt display. But the screen itself looks gorgeous. It has built-in speakers which are not that great, but usable for speech, but not really for music.

The price is discounted until March 31st at $974.

So if you are looking for a single machine solution and a MacBook Pro for photography then the 15" MacBook 2016 and the LG 5K screen is a very good solution.

The LG 5K is officially only supported with the MacBook Pro 2016 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207448. I did connect the monitor to my previous MBP mid 2015 and it did run 5K from what I saw using a TB3 to TB2 adapter. But there maybe other compatibility issues, so the safe bet appears to be to use a MBP 2016.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Kevin Raber on January 13, 2017, 12:39:17 pm
Just received mine the other day and I concur with Hans.  Very happy with the set-up.  I ordered two of these to do a dual screen set up.  The other monitor will be here on Monday.  I have noticed a slow down of devices attached to the USB ports on the monitor.  So for external drives, I will use the ports coming off the MacBook Pro.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: sbay on January 13, 2017, 02:03:36 pm
Thanks for your helpful user report. I'm still debating with myself if I want to go mbp+LG 5k or iMac or ???.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Hans Kruse on January 15, 2017, 08:15:15 am
Thanks for your helpful user report. I'm still debating with myself if I want to go mbp+LG 5k or iMac or ???.

Here is a comparison http://www.imore.com/imac-vs-macbook-pro-lg-ultrafine-5k-display-which-should-you-get

For me the choice is simple. I travel a lot for my business running workshops and research trips. On these trips a need to bring all my email, documents needed for my business so I can handle the business while I'm not my trips as I do not have admin people hired to run this for me. I also need a powerful laptop for photo editing in Lightroom on my trips. Back in my office I need a desktop setup with a keyboard, monitor and mouse. So I have an external monitor, keyboard and with the LG screen there is just one cable to plug into the MBP and it is a desktop machine. The MBP is powerful enough for that. I would not like to need to synchronize documents, mails and photos between two environments. So that's the simple reason for my setup. It is also more economical given that I need a powerful laptop anyway.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: davidgp on January 30, 2017, 01:46:41 pm
Hi,

I remembered that you Hans bought one this monitors and Kevin was interested into buying one... looks like it is better to have your wireless router far from the monitor: http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/1/30/14439850/lg-ultrafine-5k-monitor-router-issues-apple  . just in case you are noticing some flickering from time to time.

Best regards,

David
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: sc_john on January 30, 2017, 03:32:40 pm
Reviews at Apple on-line store:
 LG 5k reviews (http://www.apple.com/shop/reviews/HKN62LL/A/lg-ultrafine-5k-display)
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Hans Kruse on January 31, 2017, 04:01:32 am
Reviews at Apple on-line store:
 LG 5k reviews (http://www.apple.com/shop/reviews/HKN62LL/A/lg-ultrafine-5k-display)

As so many times before when I looked at reviews on the store I was wondering who were writing these as they almost never matched mine. I have had the LG 5K monitor now for about 2 weeks and I have not had ANY issues at all. I definitely recommend this monitor with the MacBook 2016 15".
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Morris Taub on January 31, 2017, 09:30:59 am
Would this monitor be a better solution than say the nec 27 inch? I ask because I'm using a summer 2015 macbook pro, tb2, and a nec 2690wuxi from 2009. It is still going strong, but I wonder what to do when it finally needs to be updated.

I've been very happy with this nec monitor, so I consider staying with nec.

m

Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: davidgp on January 31, 2017, 09:35:01 am
I will say they are completely different beast, the NEC and the LG one.

LG will have the advantage of the resolution, the NEC will have better uniformity and will cover Adobe RGB 100% that maybe is interested for you to print


http://dgpfotografia.com
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Morris Taub on January 31, 2017, 09:49:15 am
I will say they are completely different beast, the NEC and the LG one.

LG will have the advantage of the resolution, the NEC will have better uniformity and will cover Adobe RGB 100% that maybe is interested for you to print


http://dgpfotografia.com

I think you are right. I'll have to research a bit. And I just saw, on the french Apple site someone saying that you could use that tb2 to tb3 connection but it makes resolution less than 4k. There would be no point if this is true.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: davidgp on January 31, 2017, 09:56:30 am
I think you are right. I'll have to research a bit. And I just saw, on the french Apple site someone saying that you could use that tb2 to tb3 connection but it makes resolution less than 4k. There would be no point if this is true.

Yes, I see it... no, without being able to drive it at full resolution will not make sense... everything will look soft


http://dgpfotografia.com
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: kers on January 31, 2017, 11:34:19 am
As so many times before when I looked at reviews on the store I was wondering who were writing these as they almost never matched mine. I have had the LG 5K monitor now for about 2 weeks and I have not had ANY issues at all. I definitely recommend this monitor with the MacBook 2016 15".

The crashes seems related to being in the neighborhood of a router- apparently the frequencies of the router makes the combination unstable.
https://9to5mac.com/2017/01/30/lg-ultrafine-5k-display-router-disconnecting/

Maybe Apple should make their own displays after all - Or at least test the only one you can connect to get 5K.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: EricWHiss on February 05, 2017, 05:53:03 pm
Ive got one for a 2nd display for my iMac 27in retina. The screens themselves are exactly the same size which is nice.
The LG display will showed some odd wave patterns in the solid blocks of color put up by the i1 display calibration software but I don't see those in the images.  For a second I thought I was seeing the interference from the Wifi base station which is about 6 feet away but I don't know.   Overall I'm quite pleased with the display.

Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Rajan Parrikar on February 10, 2017, 11:26:43 am
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/09/apple-delays-lg-ultrafine-5k-display-shipping/
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Hans Kruse on February 23, 2017, 05:31:16 am
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/09/apple-delays-lg-ultrafine-5k-display-shipping/

The monitor is still on the Apple website for sale. I have not experienced the issue since I don't have a router next to my screen, but I will consider getting mine repaired for this issue. I have experienced that if the cable is taken out of the MBP when the lid is closed that the MBP will crash. So therefore I will always open the lid before disconnecting. When I reacted to all the bad reports on this monitor, this was basically because I see so many reports that are either fake or grossly incorrect. This does not, of course, mean that all user reviews are wrong.

So what do I think about the monitor now after about 3 weeks of use? The screen in gorgeous and matches the MBP display very well. It is really nice to photos in 15MP resolution on a big monitor. Not seeing pixels is great and the over magnification of images as on low DPI monitors is gone. I really like that there is only one cable to connect to the MBP that includes everything including charging. The MBP 2016 works well with this display and the speed using Canon 5DSR files is adequate although there are times when I'm waiting for the final rendering to take place in the develop module after bringing up a new picture. This has not changed since I changed from the previous 4K monitor to this monitor. Basically the workshop that Lightroom has to do is exactly the same in the two cases. Since I used a display scaling resolution of 2560x1440 on the 4K display Lightroom would render exactly 5K in both cases. On the 4K display the 5K was then mapped onto the 4K physical display.

What is there to like less? The overall black plastic is ok, but not gorgeous at all. The elegant all alu design og the MBP really asks for a better styled companion, but at the moment there isn't one. The built-in speakers are not good and would have liked better. The volume control needs updating in OSX as the volume is too loud and only dragging the volume slider will do. The extra ports on the back do not support a tb3 to tb2 dongle, but they do support the usb-c to USB-A dongle so that I can use external HD's. For spinning HD's the speed is ok, but not for e.g. a SSD external USB drive. All in all I really like the display and the rest I can live with.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Rajan Parrikar on February 28, 2017, 11:34:42 am
The new BenQ SW320 looks very compelling for performance to price ratio. That has to put pricing pressure on Eizo & NEC.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Hans Kruse on February 28, 2017, 12:30:16 pm
The new BenQ SW320 looks very compelling for performance to price ratio. That has to put pricing pressure on Eizo & NEC.

Except that it is a 4K screen which is something I would not recommend for a Mac.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: davidgp on March 20, 2017, 03:00:00 am
FYI - https://www.macrumors.com/2017/03/15/lg-ultrafine-5k-shielding-fixed/


Enviado desde mi iPad utilizando Tapatalk
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: ppmax2 on March 23, 2017, 10:03:11 pm
Hello Hans--

I got to play with the LG 5K display the other day and am considering a switch from my iMac to an MBP w/ the 5K monitor.

Regarding the MBP, the 15" feels a bit too big for me, so I've been drawn to the 13 inches. Do you have any experience driving that 5K panel with the 13 inch model? I'm concerned the dedicated graphics may not have enough oomph.

Thanks much,
PP
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Hans Kruse on March 28, 2017, 06:21:58 am
Hello Hans--

I got to play with the LG 5K display the other day and am considering a switch from my iMac to an MBP w/ the 5K monitor.

Regarding the MBP, the 15" feels a bit too big for me, so I've been drawn to the 13 inches. Do you have any experience driving that 5K panel with the 13 inch model? I'm concerned the dedicated graphics may not have enough oomph.

Thanks much,
PP

Hello PP,

No, I have not seen the 13" in use with the 5K display. I have seen some say that it is ok in performance. I got my MBP 2016 15" with the highest spec GPU and that was mainly because I use Lightroom for all my photo processing and wanted the best performing GPU since the develop module uses the GPU heavily. It works really well although I would like the performance to be improved. I shoot mostly with the Canon 5DSR so there is a lot of pixels to handle. The 15" is larger but compared to the older 15" it is smaller and lighter. It depends on your needs, of course, but I would recommend to go for the 15" model and especially if this is going to be your only computer.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: budjames on March 28, 2017, 10:08:14 am
I've had mine for about 2 months. I have it installed in my office along with an Apple 27" Thunderbolt display. I use my new i7 MacBook Pro 13" to drive both monitors. I close the laptop after booting so that I can use the two 27" displays side by side. The resolution and clarity of the LG 5k display is noticeably better than the Thunderbolt display. Both displays color calibrate well using a ColorMunki spectrometer.

The only issue that I have had is that when I boot my MBP 13", about 35% of the time only one of the displays power up. This is fixed by rebooting the MBP.

Regards,
Bud James

www.budjames.photography
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: ppmax2 on March 29, 2017, 10:48:54 pm
Hello PP,

No, I have not seen the 13" in use with the 5K display. I have seen some say that it is ok in performance. I got my MBP 2016 15" with the highest spec GPU and that was mainly because I use Lightroom for all my photo processing and wanted the best performing GPU since the develop module uses the GPU heavily. It works really well although I would like the performance to be improved. I shoot mostly with the Canon 5DSR so there is a lot of pixels to handle. The 15" is larger but compared to the older 15" it is smaller and lighter. It depends on your needs, of course, but I would recommend to go for the 15" model and especially if this is going to be your only computer.

Thanks for your comments Hans--much appreciated.

I think I will go with the 15" with the upgraded CPU (2.9Ghz), Radeon 460, and 1TB SSD. I've been snooping the refurbished section on the Apple Store and think I'll take the plunge with the 5K LG.

Out of curiosity, have you run CaptureOne on your rig?
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Hans Kruse on March 30, 2017, 12:19:48 pm
Thanks for your comments Hans--much appreciated.

I think I will go with the 15" with the upgraded CPU (2.9Ghz), Radeon 460, and 1TB SSD. I've been snooping the refurbished section on the Apple Store and think I'll take the plunge with the 5K LG.

Out of curiosity, have you run CaptureOne on your rig?

I went for the 2,7Ghz cpu and the Radeon Pro 460 as I did not think that the difference in CPU speed was worth the price. I also have the 1TB SSD. I have have Capture One 9 and run a few times when I want to check things in C1. I use exclusively Lightroom. So I can't really speak of performance using C1. There are a few things with the LG 5K display that is a bit annoying. The volume is still too loud and you need to use the volume slider to adjust volume. Sometimes when I connect the screen to the MBP when the MBP is running and the lid is open the USB ports where one is connected to my USB keyboard will not connect. Taking the cable in and out of the MBP mostly fixes the problem, but sometimes I need to restart. If you take the cable out when the lid is closed the MBP freezes so I never do that. That's the only issues I have had. They are a bit annoying but I can live with it. I love the combo of the MBP and the 5K display for my use since I travel a lot and only want one computer.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: ppmax2 on March 31, 2017, 10:12:55 pm
I got my display and the 15" MBP. BEAUTIFUL displays! Got a good deal on a refurb rather than a new on. Guess I'll buy AppleCare for it to be safe.

Out of curiosity do you use the LG display utility?
I bought this combo for the 10-bit color support but I'm seeing banding on the LG from time to time. Have you seen this as well?
What res do you run the LG at?

Thx
PP
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Hans Kruse on April 01, 2017, 06:41:31 am
I got my display and the 15" MBP. BEAUTIFUL displays! Got a good deal on a refurb rather than a new on. Guess I'll buy AppleCare for it to be safe.

Out of curiosity do you use the LG display utility?
I bought this combo for the 10-bit color support but I'm seeing banding on the LG from time to time. Have you seen this as well?
What res do you run the LG at?

Thx
PP

Congratulations. A MBP 2016 15" refurbished already?

I'm not aware of an LG display utility and I did a Google search for it and could not find any. The display runs 10 bit out of the box connected to the MBP as shown in the attached screen shot. I use the "looks like" resolution as standard for a 27" screen of 2560x1440. I do not recommend to choose any other since the scaling of the Mac OS will otherwise not fit the physical resolution of the display. 5K is exactly the double in each dimension of 2560x1440.
I would have thought you bought the display for the resolution :) I see no banding on the screen.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: ppmax2 on April 01, 2017, 03:53:18 pm
Thanks for the reply again--I appreciate the tips.

>>I use the "looks like" resolution as standard for a 27" screen of 2560x1440. I do not recommend to choose any other since the scaling of the Mac OS will otherwise not fit the physical resolution of the display. 5K is exactly the double in each dimension of 2560x1440.

Interesting; I am running the LG at the "More Space" (looks like 1920x1200) option and the MBP at the "More Space" (looks like 3200x1800) option as well. I don't understand your comment about scaling Mac OS not fitting the physical resolution of the display. Can you explain further?

Regarding the LG Utility
I didn't read the manual, but apparently there is a reference to this in it ;) The link is:
http://www.lg.com/us/support-product/lg-27MD5K#

Also, I thought the LG had an ambient light sensor. I noticed from your screenshot that there is no option to automatically adjust brightness; I don't see that option on my display preference either. Shouldn't that be there?

For what it's worth:
When calibrating my iMac screen with DisplayCal, I use a command line utility that I found called "brightness" that lets you enter numerical values rather than using the slider. It's great for making small incremental adjustments so that you can hit a specific measured brightness target during setup. I have yet to try it with the LG...I'm wondering if it's possible to target a specific display with that control...and will report back.

Lastly...that banding I saw must have been during a reinstall of macOS. I don't see any banding now!








Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Hans Kruse on April 01, 2017, 04:52:12 pm
Thanks for the reply again--I appreciate the tips.

>>I use the "looks like" resolution as standard for a 27" screen of 2560x1440. I do not recommend to choose any other since the scaling of the Mac OS will otherwise not fit the physical resolution of the display. 5K is exactly the double in each dimension of 2560x1440.

Interesting; I am running the LG at the "More Space" (looks like 1920x1200) option and the MBP at the "More Space" (looks like 3200x1800) option as well. I don't understand your comment about scaling Mac OS not fitting the physical resolution of the display. Can you explain further?

Regarding the LG Utility
I didn't read the manual, but apparently there is a reference to this in it ;) The link is:
http://www.lg.com/us/support-product/lg-27MD5K#

Also, I thought the LG had an ambient light sensor. I noticed from your screenshot that there is no option to automatically adjust brightness; I don't see that option on my display preference either. Shouldn't that be there?

For what it's worth:
When calibrating my iMac screen with DisplayCal, I use a command line utility that I found called "brightness" that lets you enter numerical values rather than using the slider. It's great for making small incremental adjustments so that you can hit a specific measured brightness target during setup. I have yet to try it with the LG...I'm wondering if it's possible to target a specific display with that control...and will report back.

Lastly...that banding I saw must have been during a reinstall of macOS. I don't see any banding now!

I have written a number of threads on the scaling as most people don't seem to be aware of this. For the 5K screen you really should choose 2560x1440 since this will scale the visual elements like menu, text, etc. and the double resolution in each dimension is used for the rendering of the fonts, text, and images and this is the virtual display space which then is mapped to the physical screen. Since 5K is 5120x2880 the virtual space and the physical resolution is the same therefore a perfect match and perfectly clear. This means in Photoshop and Lightroom that a 100% or 1:1 view will match perfect and in the right size. If you choose 3200x1800 in the scaling options the Virtual display space will be 6400x3600 which will be mapped to the physical 5120x2880. This means that there is a small amoun of fuzziness due to this mapping and also 100& and 1:1 views will show a smaller size of than what it should be.

You did get the 2016 MBP with the touchbar?

In my opinion you should not use the automatic brightness adjustment ever. Neither on the external screen (I don't have it now) or on the MBP. Also remember to uncheck the brightness adjustment when using the battery if you adjust your images on the MBP.

When I calibrated I dragged the brightness slider to the position I wanted when running the calibration for a certain brightness measured by the calibration unit. I don't change it and make sure to adjust the light in my office accordingly with blinders in the day time.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: ppmax2 on April 02, 2017, 12:04:45 pm
Thanks for the explanation below regarding resolution and scaling Hans, I get it now.

>>You did get the 2016 MBP with the touchbar?
Yes; so far this is a great little machine. I've been using a desktop since the dawn of time so the laptop experience is a bit new to me and I'll have to rethink working environment a bit: I have been using a Wacom tablet for years and the number of "things" on my desk that I need to plug in or shuffle around has increased a bit due to the portable + extra monitor. Do you use a dual-screen setup as well?

Also, I profiled both screens last night at 120 cd/m and 6500K with an L* tone curve. The screens appear to match well but the "looked better" out of the box probably due to the lowish white level I chose. What settings do you calibrate/profile with?

FWIW I don't enable auto brightness or screen dimming when on battery...I was just commenting that I thought the LG's had a light sensor which they may indeed have but that control doesn't seem to be exposed in the latest release of macOS.

Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: Hans Kruse on April 02, 2017, 04:25:25 pm
Thanks for the explanation below regarding resolution and scaling Hans, I get it now.

>>You did get the 2016 MBP with the touchbar?
Yes; so far this is a great little machine. I've been using a desktop since the dawn of time so the laptop experience is a bit new to me and I'll have to rethink working environment a bit: I have been using a Wacom tablet for years and the number of "things" on my desk that I need to plug in or shuffle around has increased a bit due to the portable + extra monitor. Do you use a dual-screen setup as well?

Also, I profiled both screens last night at 120 cd/m and 6500K with an L* tone curve. The screens appear to match well but the "looked better" out of the box probably due to the lowish white level I chose. What settings do you calibrate/profile with?

FWIW I don't enable auto brightness or screen dimming when on battery...I was just commenting that I thought the LG's had a light sensor which they may indeed have but that control doesn't seem to be exposed in the latest release of macOS.

Without restarting the calibration I think mine was the same using Spyder 4.

My comment on brightness on battery for the MBP display was just a hint. It was not about the LG display where there is no auto dimming. As mentioned if if there were, I would not use it.

Good luck with your new system. 
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: adias on May 17, 2017, 02:05:20 pm
Sierra 10.12.5 did NOT fix the Ethernet (cable unplugged) bug. I wonder if Apple or LG are going to bother to fix this annoying bug.
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: adias on August 05, 2017, 02:27:04 am
LG has issued a software update on 7/13/2017 which seems to fix the peripheral detection bug. It is available via LG's Screen Manager, available on their site.

LG Screen Manager on this page - LINK (http://www.lg.com/us/support-product/lg-27MD5KA-B#manuals).

Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: zobelaudio on August 07, 2017, 05:23:37 am
Guys,
I did just update to 10.12.6 sierra from el capitan, where I have chosen the largest scaled option ( the numerical options are gone) but the line below the monitor suggests 'looks like 2048x1080'.
So resolution looks ok. Can't really compare to El Capitan...
But what bugs me is the window says " using a scaled resolution may affect preformance", which is exactly my impression.
Display of scrolling and moving of the mouse seems to be less fluid.
Does anybody have that too ???
I am on a Macpro with a Eizo CG318
cheers
Stephan
Title: Re: LG 5K and MacBook Pro 2016 15"
Post by: kers on September 16, 2017, 11:08:45 am
Apples system is every year a big surprise- (read  can of worms) ; they are experts in breaking things that have always worked.
You would think after one year of bug repair it would be hassle free, but no they are already thinking ahead again making it compatible with the new APFS filesystem. (and i read it will be the only 'old' system that can read APFS)
I think i will need one old mac that works -professionally and a new one for internet, email etc ;for those things they think @ apple that is all you have to do on a computer.