u/NeedleworkerOld5509

I recently bought the TCL C7L (Asian version of the QM7L) after spending almost all of my savings. After weeks of testing, comparing and tweaking every picture setting, I think I've finally identified what the real issue is.

My TV is currently running:

Firmware: V8-0012T01-LF1V626.003089 (Android 14)

Initially I thought the panel itself had poor color reproduction, but after extensive testing I no longer believe that's the case.

My testing

I compared the TV side by side with:

OnePlus 12 (Flagship AMOLED)

Samsung Galaxy A35 AMOLED

Lenovo P11 Pro Gen 2 OLED

SDR and HDR versions of the exact same scenes

HDR YouTube

HDR movies

PS5 HDR

What I found

HDR is excellent.Skin tones look natural.Reds stay controlled even at very high saturation.Auto and Native Color Space look almost identical.HDR looks vibrant without red contamination.

SDR is completely different.

Native Color Space gives beautiful deep reds but red starts bleeding into skin tones, oranges and many other colors as saturation increases.

Auto Color Space reduces the red push but also reduces overall color richness.

Dynamic Color shifts the image towards blue instead of properly fixing skin tones.

Yellow also doesn't look quite right.

This makes HDR and SDR feel like two completely different TVs.

Everything I tried

I have literally spent days trying everything:

Every picture preset

Every color temperature

2-point white balance

Contrast adjustments

Saturation from 40-100

Gamma

Dynamic Color On/Off

Dynamic Contrast

Local Contrast

Micro Contrast

Brightness settings

Native vs Auto Color Space

Nothing truly fixes SDR. Every solution creates another compromise.

Why I think this is software

The biggest reason is simple:

If the hardware was bad, HDR should also have the same problems.

Instead HDR looks fantastic.

That makes me believe this is an SDR color processing / firmware issue, not a panel limitation.

Interesting history

I also found something interesting.

About a year ago Stop the FOMO made a video discussing very similar SDR color accuracy and red push issues on the QM7K. TCL even contacted him regarding those issues, and later firmware updates improved picture quality on that model.

I've also watched C7K vs C7L comparisons where the C7K's skin tones appear much more accurate while the C7L still shows the red push.

My request

Can other C7L/QM7L owners please test this?

Compare the exact same scene in SDR and HDR.

Do you also notice:

Better skin tones in HDR?

Much less red contamination?

Auto and Native Color Space looking almost identical in HDR?

SDR showing more red push?

I really hope TCL sees this because I genuinely believe this TV has excellent hardware. It just needs better SDR color processing through a firmware update.

If you've found a proper solution or have calibration settings that actually solve this without introducing other compromises, I'd really appreciate your help.

I still like this TV, especially its HDR, brightness, local dimming and black levels. That's exactly why I'm disappointed—the hardware is capable of much better SDR performance than the current firmware delivers.

Hello

I own a TCL C7L (Pakistan version) and overall I am very impressed with the TV's brightness, contrast, black levels, and Mini LED performance. However, I have several concerns regarding the color processing and picture tuning that I hope can be addressed through a future firmware update.

My observations are:

- Skin tones often appear too red or overly warm compared to other premium TVs.

- When the Color (Saturation) setting is increased beyond approximately 50, many colors begin shifting toward red instead of simply becoming more saturated. This causes noticeable color crosstalk, where different colors lose their natural hue.

- The Auto Color Space mode improves accuracy but also noticeably reduces color saturation. Reds can even appear more orange than expected, making the overall image less vibrant.

- I would like to achieve colors similar to well-calibrated Sony or Samsung TVs, where colors are both vibrant and accurate, without unwanted hue shifts.

- I also noticed that some picture adjustment options available on the C7K are missing on the C7L, despite the models appearing to share similar hardware. If possible, please consider adding more advanced picture controls through future firmware updates.

I believe the hardware is very capable, and my concern is mainly with the current software color processing and factory picture tuning. If possible, please forward this feedback to your software and picture quality engineering team for evaluation.

If this behavior is already known or improvements are planned in future firmware updates, I would greatly appreciate any information.

Thank you