Anyone use bias lighting with their IPS monitor?

[Goose]

I have an AOC IPS display and the glow/bleed (never been sure what the difference is) is pretty bad and has gotten worse in recent weeks. I was wondering if anyone actually uses bias lighting and whether or not it actually helps?

Thanks

 

[wunkley]

I do, a daylight colour temperature LED strip across the back top and sides, plugged into a usb on the back of my monitor.

I actually have this on my gaming screen now though - Rog Swift. Not because it has any bleed but just because of the general benefits (perceived contrast etc), it's better for your eyes, and it looks cool.
If your monitor has bad backlight bleed though, it won't do anything to 'cure' it.

 

[aatu]

Backlight bleed vs. IPS glow:

Backlight bleed is when the backlight itself shines through the panel. Usually on the edges and especially on the corners, when the panel isn't properly aligned or fastened to the chassis. Basically, it's a manufacturing/assembly flaw, and it can happen with all panel types.

IPS glow, on the other hand, is a characteristic of the IPS panel, and confusingly it's also usually visible in corners, because the corners are in the widest angle to the viewer. TN and VA panels have similar characteristics, and IPS glow is usually deemed as the least distracting of the bunch, as the IPS glow is usually only visible on a dark background on a dark room. Whereas TN's color invertion and VA's gamma shift are also visible on light backgrounds on a broad daylight, and at even slighter angles.

You can differentiate the bleed from glow by checking whether the light patch is constant. The backlight bleed will be visible from all angles. But the IPS glow will disapper if you look at it from a straight angle. In other words, start moving your head around the monitor. If the light disappears at some point, then it's IPS glow. Otherwise it's backlight bleed.

Because of the pervasiveness of light, some amount of backlight bleed is pretty much unavoidable. The problem arises when the light is distinguishable even on a day-to-day usage. If you can see the bleed on a solid background of one of the primary colors (RGB), then the manufacturer might consider it as a flaw. But because it's a money they'll lose, they might still try to argue about it. On the other hand, if you give them a grainy camera shot of the panel on a dark room with a dark background, they'll probably have very little sympathy for you. Unfortunately, it's very hard to properly capture the bleed on camera without the dark room.

Ps. If it has indeed "gotten worse", then it's probably backlight bleed. The chassis might have creaked or bent because of the temperature changes, or the glue/adhesive keeping the parts together has dried up.

 

[Goose]

Thanks aatu. I've tried photographing it a bunch of times but i dont have a proper camera, just an iPhone and an HTC One m8 and just cant seem to get a photo with an accurate representation.

 

[jamieboo]

I'm thinking of getting some of these too.
I've finally got a monitor that seems decent, but it's big - 32 inches - and general use, eg web-surfing and stuff just means there's too much glaring white. And that's with brightness turned down to 15! (I think I'm a bit photophobic)
Anyway, I don't want to turn the brightness any lower - that might be better for websites, but it'll make imagery look drab; and I don't want to use Windows high contrast themes.
So maybe some bias lighting could help.
Can anyone recommend some good ones?

 

[Rroff]

Might be due to having the wrong colour walls (slightly off white) and possibly wrong distance but I found bias lights actually worse on the eyes not better though it does increase the perceived contrast a ton.

 

[jamieboo]

Hmm. Well I'm going to look into it further I think.
In the meantime I've installed f.lux - handy little utility that automatically controls brightness/colour-temperature depending on the time of day.