Certian types of monitor cause eye strain?

Soldato
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I'm wondering if certain types/brands of monitors can actually cause eye strain?

When i had my Belinia 22" 60hz screen i didn't have any issues...but when that died i got a LG 23" 120Hz and it makes me tired and have eye strain..even wearing Gunnar Optics doesn't really help out that much.

I had an eye test to make sure i didn't need glasses and they said my eyesight was perfect....so im not sure what's really going on. :confused:

What about IPS monitors?..do they help with eye strain?

Also i read about BenQ (GW2760HS) banishes eye strain by using Direct Current back light system rather than (Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) which is suppose to cause these issues.
 
Associate
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Yeah I am interested to see what advice you get as I think my Dell U2412M monitor causes me eye strain. I have bags under my eyes and cant work out if its to do with staring at the monitor for too long, age or too much coffee :confused:
 
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PWM causes eyestrain due to the flicker. It's at a high enough frequency that you can't see it (unlike CRT), but the damage is still done. Manufacturers have finally recognized this by introducing PWM-free displays (after damaging peoples health for many years).

The U2412m mentioned above is a typical PWM display so flickers at <100% brightness.

The 22" Bilenia is a CCFL display. PWM is less of an issue with this backlight due to persistence. Unfortunately almost all modern displays are LED, where the light is instantly flashed on and off.
 
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PWM causes eyestrain due to the flicker. It's at a high enough frequency that you can't see it (unlike CRT), but the damage is still done. Manufacturers have finally recognized this by introducing PWM-free displays (after damaging peoples health for many years).

The U2412m mentioned above is a typical PWM display so flickers at <100% brightness.

The 22" Bilenia is a CCFL display. PWM is less of an issue with this backlight due to persistence. Unfortunately almost all modern displays are LED, where the light is instantly flashed on and off.

Does anyone have their monitor @100% brightness though? Not being snarky just curious.
 
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Yeah I do,

I use FLUX and even playing late night (I was gaming from 12pm to 6AM) ok maybe a little bit more than late night haha.. flux is brilliant I used to hurt my eyes because of the monitors brightness turning it down would become a real disadvantage in games so I use flux and it's been simply brilliant. It activates and gradually gets yellower as your city gets darker (real life) and it's a small background process so all the better.
 
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it will use PWM i'm sure, but at what frequency i dont know without testing it. You could do the simple camera tests in the article above and find out for us :)
 
Associate
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it will use PWM i'm sure, but at what frequency i dont know without testing it. You could do the simple camera tests in the article above and find out for us :)

Not having much luck.

1. How fast do you move the camera from side to side?

2. At 2ft away the screen is captured with the wall, can I zoom in to remove the wall?
 
Man of Honour
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set the brightness on the screen to 0% as that will be easiest to test....set the image on the screen with the single white vertical line. you will probably have to move the camera quite quickly side to side as you take the photo, but after a few attempts you should see the resulting picture has multiple white lines on it....the faster you move the camera, the further apart those lines will appear and make them easier to count

and yes, you can zoom in on the image, you're just trying to get one which shows multiple lines which you can count :)
 
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Checklist for people with tired eyes:

1) Brightness
Your monitor's brightness might be too high, tone it down a little. Another related solution that could alleviate the situation: change the documents to inverted colors. White text on a dark background is usually easier on the eyes. (Though not sure how common feature that is on the Windows side. On Linux it's quite common.)

2) Font size (/resolution)
Your eyes might be over-worked because you have to focus on a small text. With LCDs it's not recommended to change resolution, as it will make the image blurry. Therefore, it's more recommended to change the default font size (or global DPI), or alternatively use the zoom on webpages and documents. Granted, if the image is too blocky, it might also draw your attention away from working. While that won't be harder on the eyes, it could still slow down the workflow and reduce overall convenience. If buying a new monitor, you should pay attention to a better resolution vs. size combination.

3) Reflections / light-sources
Especially glossy panels can result in reflections, which will make your eyes work harder because they have a harder time focusing. Unfortunately, the #1 is in direct controversy with this, as the reflections will be more noticeable on a dark background. Badly directed lighting usually makes the reflections more noticeable. Try to eliminate lights which are causing the reflections, or get a matte screen. But do note: some people's eyes actually have trouble focusing because of the too aggressive anti-glare matte surface. This was a problem at least two years ago with some Dell monitors, though nowadays they're mostly semi-matte (or light matte, or whatever), which hasn't gotten any bad flack, AFAIK. If possible, you could loan a matte surface monitor from a friend to check if this is indeed a problem for your eyes.

4) PWM
Pulse width modulation will cause tired eyes and head-aches to some people. You can alleviate this by increasing the brightness on your monitor, which makes the duty-cycle of the PWM to increase, thus making it easier on the eyes (/nerve system). Unfortunately, this again makes the #1 more profound, therefore a double-edged solution. Though the inverted colors -solution will still work. PWM-free monitor will naturally be the ultimate choice.

5) 1 minute breaks every 30 minutes
Let your eyes relax by staring at a distance (50-100m) every now and then. Looking out of the window and letting your mind go to a daze will work wonders. Unfortunately again, keeping an open window next to your workstation will often cause the unwanted reflections mentioned in #3.

6) Color temperature
I normally wouldn't recommend this, as it changes the overall color accuracy and thus it's too much of a hassle. But in any case, some people report that "Warm temperature" (which gives a more reddish hue to the image) is more comfortable to the eyes, when compared to "Cold temperature" (which gives a more bluish hue). Though in my opinion, both are usually over-exaggerated in the monitor options, and the best option is somewhere between them. Some monitors even offer a "Normal temperature". Though the earlier mentioned f.lux software apparently takes the hassle out of the equation. It's also apparently a freeware, so no harm in trying.

==========================================

And indeed, the BenQ GW2760HS was for a long time even on my wishlist, because it has made all the right choices: lower resolution (1920x1080), adequate size (27"), non-PWM, light matte screen, and it's even very affordable (£216). Unfortunately, the emphasis is on the part "a long time". The BenQ fumbled too long with the release, so I moved on and already got myself another monitor (HDTV). Also, the 2760HS is a VA panel, so there's a potential concern for the gamma-shift.

But now that I looked more into it, nowadays there seems to be multiple models of the 2760. Initially, the HM didn't offer non-PWM, while the HS did. Now there's a GW2760 (without the HM or HS), which seems to be a cheaper "no-frills" option to the other two, but still offers non-PWM. It's even on OCUK's "this week only" deal for £164.

Well, it seems the HS has these features that the budget-GW2760 doesn't at least advertise:
a) a slimmer bezel
b) Color Shift-free Technology (meant to decrease gamma-shift)
c) HDMI port

Personally, I'd advice to go for the HS model, even though it's slightly more expensive (£216 vs. £164).
 
Associate
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I suffer from PWM eye strain and used to own the Dell 2209wa. It never caused me problems at the initial 12% brightness setting when new (increased as it got older). PWM on the old CCFL displays was less of an issue due to persistence of the light between each flicker. Modern LEDs switch on and off instantly.
 
Soldato
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NOTE: OLD THREAD.

Ended up here because I too have noticed my U2412M is making my eyes very tired. Over the last few weeks I've been reducing the brightness thinking that was the problem, but I'm now wondering maybe that was making it worse by increasing the flicker.

I've now installed Redshift (as this is a linux machine) with brightness set to 0.7 and put the monitor brightness up to 100 to hopefully remove any flicker. Will see how it goes.
 
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