LG 55 B4 vs SHARP JP7765E

The brightness results in HDR materials for LG B4 are very good. It is true that none of them exceed 1000 nits, although the stability of luminance is excellent and looks practically the same in every scenario. The only moment where the tested television performs worse is the last of the scenes, although this should not be surprising. Large frames filled with a lot of white have always been, and probably will continue to be, somewhat of a weakness for OLED televisions. However, the combination of perfect contrast, black levels, and brightness of LG B4 allows for a full experience of the HDR effect. Additionally, the incredibly high coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut deserves recognition, reaching 99%. This makes the colours look incredibly vivid and striking.

So how does the brightness of the Sharp JP7 fare in the most demanding titles? Honestly, at first, we were quite surprised. The television is capable of achieving over 1000 nits of brightness, which is an outstanding and rare result for a device costing just under 2000 PLN (for 55 inches). Watching bright, full-screen scenes, one might feel they are dealing with really good equipment. Unfortunately, though, we have to return to the problem we mentioned earlier regarding local dimming management. When small bright areas appear on a dark background (as in the test scenes from the films Life of Pi or Sicario 2), it is evident how poorly the JP7 handles zones. The television dims them almost to the maximum, crushing the entire HDR effect, which in such moments resembles a flat SDR image (less than 200 nits). This instability means that in demanding, contrast-heavy films, the image on the JP7 unfortunately loses its appeal.

As a consolation, it is worth noting that the panel has the potential for good colour display. It features a PFS (phosphor) filter, which allows for a solid 94% coverage of the DCI-P3 palette. The manufacturer calls its product a “QLED,” even though it is primarily based on the aforementioned PFS filter. Given the recent market battles of manufacturers over what may or may not be called QLED, we leave the question of the correctness of this naming to your assessment. However, it remains a fact that the potential for reproducing saturated colours in this panel is simply good.

The best factory mode prepared by the manufacturer is "Filmmaker," which is exactly what we used throughout the entire testing procedure. We must admit that the unit we received out of the box had quite good colour reproduction. The biggest problem in both SDR and HDR content turned out to be white balance. In the former, a strong red hue was evident, causing the displayed image to have a pronounced yellow tint, particularly noticeable on skin tones and whites. In higher quality materials, this colour was also accentuated, but due to a lack of blue, there were also signs of green visible. Apart from these issues, we also encountered problems with grayscale and the colours themselves.

When it comes to out-of-the-box colours, the Sharp JP7 was tested in Film mode, which traditionally offers the most consistent image compared to the yellowed “Eco” mode or the glaring blue of the “Dynamic” mode. Although this is the best choice among the available settings, the results are still far from ideal. The white balance clearly lacked red and blue components, causing many scenes to take on an unnatural greenish tint. Another issue was the gamma – during full-screen scenes, the television provides excessive brightness, which completely diminishes its cinematic character. All of this resulted in colour reproduction errors, especially in shades of grey, which exceeded a value of Delta E 10. For reference: errors above 2-3 are already visible to the human eye, so we are dealing with a significant distortion of reality here.

In HDR mode, the situation is reversed, but not any better. Here, the blue colour dominates the white balance, which gives the image an unnatural, almost “retail” sharpness, reminiscent of aggressive demonstration modes. Furthermore, measurements of the EOTF curve emphasise the retail character of the image. The graph clearly shows that the television generates an image significantly brighter than the standards predict, resulting in an artificially boosted and unrealistic final effect. The Sharp JP7 is evidently trying to appear stronger than it actually is, but it does so at the cost of fidelity to the content.

LG B4 has been providing very advanced calibration tools in its televisions for years. We can even say that as the only manufacturer on the market, it allows for such deep intervention in image adjustment. It is thanks to these tools that we were able to calibrate the device so well. Evidence of this is the extremely low deltaE errors, which can be said to be at a reference level. Both SDR and HDR materials now look exactly as intended by the film director. It is no coincidence that televisions of this brand are most often used as preview screens for various graphic or post-production studios.

We subjected the JP7 to our standard calibration procedure and really... the television gained a new lease of life thanks to it, particularly with SDR content (YouTube, classic television, series, or older films). As a result of our precise adjustment of the white balance and stabilisation of the gamma, colour errors fell to a value of below 3. This is a level at which the human eye has difficulty detecting distortions. In this scenario, the Sharp JP7 delivers an image with truly excellent colour precision, which is a significant advantage in this price class. However, content with HDR turned out to be much more problematic. Here, despite our efforts and interventions in the settings, the television simply would not cooperate. In the JP7 menu, we don't find any option that would allow for real control over brightness management (EOTF). Although a significant portion of the colour errors was reduced, the image still remained unnaturally oversaturated. It's a bit of a shame, as the potential of the mini-LED backlit panel is great, but the software presents a clear barrier here.

The conclusion is simple: when watching less demanding content (SDR) on the JP7, you can expect an image that is more than satisfactory, but in HDR, you must come to terms with a certain degree of "artificiality" that cannot be circumvented even with professional equipment.

In this paragraph, we will take another look at the function for smoothing tonal transitions, but we will also check how the television handles lower quality material. As we have managed to verify, the setting responsible for smooth gradation works quite efficiently, although it has its weaker moments. Just as the function works correctly in SDR content, it becomes rather useless in HDR content. Even at the lowest of the options, it blurs essential details, which is why we advise against using it.

The image scaling on LG B4 is rated rather moderately positively. Although there is no edge doubling, the image itself is naturally "soft." We can change this by adjusting the sharpness slider.

In the case of lower quality materials and how the Sharp JP7 handles them, the situation is ambiguous. Let's start with the upscaling itself – here we have no major objections. The process of scaling the image to a higher resolution is correct; the picture remains readable and sharp, without the overscan effect, meaning no cropped edges. Of course, it is not at the level of top models, and at times one can notice slight jaggedness on the contours, but in this price range, the effect is fully acceptable.

However, the actual digital image processing performs significantly worse, which, apart from the upscaling, effectively does not exist. In the JP7 menu, we will not find any option that would effectively smooth out unwanted tonal transitions or reduce noise in the image. As a result, the signal reaches the panel in a very raw form, which, with heavily compressed materials (e.g. from YouTube), leads to visible posterisation. Either it is a flaw in the software or a very strange design decision, because in earlier Sharp models this function was available and, crucially, worked with noticeable effect. Here, we are left to deal with whatever the source provides us, without any digital support from the image processor.

The maximum refresh rate that we can set on the LG B4 is 120 Hz. This is the absolute minimum for those requiring high image fluidity. The manufacturer has implemented a multi-step motion smoother called "TruMotion". It has been divided into two separate sliders adjusting the sharpness of moving images (De-Blur) and jitter (De-Judder). Both sliders can be set in the range from 0 to 10, with each degree affecting the level of fluidity, so everyone can find their golden mean.

The LG OLED B4 panel features an average response time of 0.1 ms (which directly results from our measurements), allowing for an incredibly clear image, unattainable for LCD televisions, whose response times can be as high as several milliseconds. This is clearly evident in the pictures from the "UFO Test", showing no trail following the object.

The motion fluidity on the Sharp JP7 is quite mediocre, and the reason is simple: the television uses a 60Hz panel. This instantly makes it difficult to recommend for watching sports or serious gaming, where higher refresh rates are already the standard. The only real plus is the presence of a smoothness feature, which we can control in films using a slider called De-judder. Lower settings provide a more raw, "cinematic" (framey) image, while higher settings add artificial smoothness. We suggest setting it somewhere in the middle of the scale, that is in the range of 3-5 – this is the best compromise to avoid the soap opera effect while also eliminating the tiring stuttering of the image. Interestingly, in the menu, we also find a "motion blur removal" slider, which usually indicates the presence of a 120Hz panel. However, with the JP7, it does not enhance the image at all and serves rather as a dummy – it is meant to look good in the settings, but technically it has no right to operate on this panel.

The LG B4 television is equipped with four fully-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports with a full bandwidth of 48Gbps. All features that are identical to this standard were activated without any issues, and throughout the entire testing process, they did not cause any problems. The combination of such extensive functionality and low input lag suggests that the tested television is truly made for gaming. This is not surprising, considering that the manufacturer has always placed great emphasis on this. Therefore, we can enjoy both the properly implemented HGIG mode and gaming in Dolby Vision with low latency. This pairing will certainly attract the attention of all passionate gamers for whom quality is paramount.

An additional standard in televisions from this Korean manufacturer is the implementation of GameBar, allowing for quick adjustment of settings "on the fly," without the need to exit the game. It also enables image adjustments for individuals with visual impairments, which is a very nice touch. Another important piece of information is that when VRR technology is enabled, we will not experience a drop in contrast. This is thanks to the construction of the panel and the lack of conventional backlighting. However, it is normal for shades of grey to flicker slightly; nevertheless, this is a characteristic feature of this function regardless of the manufacturer or television.

In summary: the LG B4, like all of the manufacturer’s OLEDs equipped with 120Hz panels and HDMI 2.1 ports, creates a harmonious whole with the console. In practice, this is a comprehensive television, and if we expect the highest possible efficiency in gaming, B4 will be the ideal choice.

As we mentioned earlier, the 60Hz panel is not a feature that will attract gamers to the Sharp JP7. Perhaps for the casual player, whose console still generates most titles at 60 frames per second, there might be something interesting? When it comes to specific additions, we find here:

• ALLM Mode: Automatically switches the television to low latency game mode (input lag).

• Game Menu: Which is hard to call a full-fledged “Game Bar,” as the functionality here is minimal. Aside from enabling ALLM, there’s only a game-specific motion smoother which we recommend avoiding as it introduces very noticeable artifacts and worsens responsiveness.

• Dolby Vision Gaming: For Microsoft consoles.

Unfortunately, the list of shortcomings is significantly longer and more painful than the positives. The biggest disappointment is the lack of support for 120Hz, even when reducing the resolution to Full HD. The presence of 120Hz would allow for performance modes to be activated in many games on PS5 or Xbox Series X. Another shortcoming is VRR, which means that during frame drops, we are exposed to screen tearing. The lack of proper implementation of the HGiG standard is also very problematic. This results in the fact that during HDR calibration in the console menu, it is very easy to "overshoot" the brightness settings. As a result, instead of clear details in the highlights, we end up with an unnaturally over-bright image with cut-off details. Sharp JP7 is a proposition solely for very casual gamers.