Hi guys,

Sorry about the delay in responding - as mentioned above this forum does not by default send notifications when a response is sent to your thread - perhaps this could be updated easily?

With regards to Ditherig, I had no problems installing it once extracted. When I tried to run it from the zip file it doesn't work but once you extract the file it installs straight away and when run it sits in the task bar, automatically disabling all dithering for the Intel graphics chip. I've had no problems with this laptop so far - several weeks in now! I've sat and worked on it for hours on end without issue, and I've tried all different brightnesses with no problems so far.

I'm not completely convinced yet (seems to good to be true) so let's see how the next few weeks pan out - these things seem to be accumulative. But so far, I'm migraine & headache free, feeling back to my normal self finally after years of struggling with this.

Remember to right click the icon in the tray and to register the program to run at startup and you're good to go. Gurm - are you on the 1080p matt screen rather than the 4K glossy screen? I have thought for years since the early Apple forum days that we have largely the same condition so fingers crossed this all works for you too. :]

    ps in my tests in the store the 4K glossy screen hurt my eyes quickly - it's very hard to tell in those circumstances what the long term effect will be but I tested them as extensively as I could.

    Also worth mentioning - there are reviews all over the internet from users of the 9550 who adopted early when there were SIGNIFICANT driver issues. I've been using the laptop for over a month now and it's rock solid, all driver issues have been fixed so don't let that put you off.

    Very happy here!

    I have the matte screen, I also felt that the 4k glossy would be headache-inducing.

    I haven't used it much due to it not being great to look at, but I'll try ditherig tonight and let you know ASAP.

    I also have an XPS 13 which is my main daily driver, and I have to keep the drivers downgraded because newer ones are instantly uncomfortable, I'll try ditherig on that as well.

    Honestly, I've avoided lots of machines for some time now due to the Intel drivers being terrible, if this really works it will be a lifesaver!

    • G

      si_edgey Sorry about the delay in responding - as mentioned above this forum does not by default send notifications when a response is sent to your thread - perhaps this could be updated easily?

      You can view your settings page at https://ledstrain.org/settings

      Right now, activating "Automatically follow discussions that I reply to" email for "Someone posts in a discussion I'm following" should simulate this behavior

          Slacor

          Slacor Right now, activating "Automatically follow discussions that I reply to" email for "Someone posts in a discussion I'm following" should simulate this behavior

          Thanks man, all sorted now!

          Gurm Honestly, I've avoided lots of machines for some time now due to the Intel drivers being terrible, if this really works it will be a lifesaver!

          Good luck man, fingers crossed it works for you as well. I will update later with which drivers I am using but it will be the most up to date ones for the Intel gfx. Just a wee extra bit of information - I have also noticed that I am considerably less tolerant of any type of LED screen in the evenings these days. I have explored various options as to why this would be - using a screen when I'm even slightly tired results in (at best) a headache in the morning lasting the whole day or (at worst) a migraine.

          Using some sleep cycle apps on my phone while sleeping I have definitely correlated late night viewing of LED screens with very disturbed sleep. I have read papers on this which link blue light and disturbed sleep, as most on here will know. I have been experimenting with taking a sleeping tablet when I feel my eyes getting sore in the late evening when watching TV etc, and have found that this significantly reduces my chance of waking up with a headache.

          Obviously, you don't want to take too many sleeping tablets but it's an interesting thing and a very noticeable difference for me. I have experimented with Nytol (one a night variety) and also Diazepam (not recommended due to extreme addictiveness). Just an extra thought to throw in. Good luck folks!

          UPDATE: My Intel HD 530 Drivers are dated 01/07/2016 and driver version 20.19.15.4483

                si_edgey This is a really exciting development. Thanks very much for sharing it. Please forgive my ignorance of matters technical, but if Ditherig disables temporal dithering on Intel's integrated graphics chips, it wouldn't matter if it was used on a windows laptop with a separate graphics card or not, would it? In other words, if I try installing Ditherig on a laptop with Intel integrated graphics and separately on a laptop with integrated Intel graphics and a discrete graphics card, it should in theory work in both cases, shouldn't it? Assuming that the temporal dithering caused by Intel's integrated graphics is what is causing my own eye discomfort/ headaches etc...

                  So it depends on the age of the laptop as well as whether or not (obviously) the Temporal Dithering is causing you problems. New (last 2 years) Intel laptops with discrete graphic coprocessors (usually nVidia) still use the Intel chip for the final phases of rendering. In other words, the framebuffer and output control happen on Intel. (Or, if you are using a VGA port, DAC also happens there). The coprocessor just renders frames and deposits them into the framebuffer. This is actually great technology, but bad news for those of us who can't look at Intel chips.

                  I tried this (ditherig) on my Surface Book, it didn't make much difference but the screen on that is so high-def that honestly I think that is 90% of the problem there (it's a 12" screen running at 4k). I'm going to try on my pair of XPS's and see how that turns out, as well as on my Surface Pro 3. I'll post back.

                  • FNP7 replied to this.

                    Gurm Thanks for the reply. Would be very interested to know how you get on with Ditherig on your XPS's. Cheers

                      12 days later

                      Gurm I bought an XPS13 (Intel Core Core i5-7200U, Intel HD Graphics 620) with the matte 1920x1080 screen, and tried to install Ditherig, but without success. I tried version 1.5 (then later 1.4), extracting the files from the downloads folder into the apps folder of the hard drive, and then proceeded to run the ditherig.exe as administrator (the one in the AMD64 folder). The Ditherig icon appears in the bar at the bottom of the screen, so that I can even open it and see all the options, but I can't select any as I get the following error message: 'Dithering Settings for Intel Graphics: Failed to configure the registers.' Am I just doing something stupid, or does this mean that Ditherig isn't compatible with Intel HD Graphics 620? Just to see, I tried to run as administrator the x86 exe from within the Ditherig archive too, and got the error message: Dithering Settings for Intel Graphics: Failed to load a DLL.

                      If anyone is able to help, I'd be really grateful, as I'm just going to return the XPS 13 otherwise. It's nowhere near as painful as other LCDs I've used. But it's definitely not comfortable for me.

                          a month later

                          Did you get this sorted @FNP7 or did you return the machine>? Ditherig didn't have any problems installing on my XPS 15 with Intel Graphics 530.

                          I just wanted to check in now it has been a few monthsand say that this laptop has remained usable for me with Ditherig installed. It's the easiest my eyes have felt with a laptop screen for years! Again, I'm using the Matte 1920x1080 screen, no touch. Intel drivers are version 20.19.15.4483 and Nvidia drivers are version 10.18.13.6881.

                          Really hope this helps someone else! Did you have any joy @Gurm?

                            11 days later

                            si_edgey Sorry for the delay in responding. I couldn't get Ditherig installed on the XPS13, so had to return that machine. I don't understand why I couldn't get it to work - perhaps it's not compatible with Intel HD Graphics 620? Anyway - am very glad that it's still working for you. :-) It'd be interesting to hear if anyone else can get it to work too.

                              Ditherig makes my XPS13 - which was already very nice - a real joy. If only it were more powerful (it's last year's model, so a Core i5). My XPS15 gets BETTER with Ditherig, but not perfect. I am going to play with drivers. It's worth noting that the XPS15 has Anniversary edition of Windows 10 on it, which is worse on my eyes than standard Windows 10 (I've refused to upgrade on my primary machines since I have work to get done!)

                              I am going to try reinstalling the XPS15 with Windows 10 non-anniversary (I assume Windows 7 is not an option) which might make it much friendlier, and then roll back the Intel drivers to last year's drivers (which I use with much success on the XPS13). Adding ditherig on top of this may very well make this the ultimate machine for me... at least until I am forced to go to Anniversary Edition. 🙁

                              9 days later

                              Finally got Ditherig installed on my machine, I used the newest version (1.6). Can folks share the settings they used to achieve the best result? Did you need to reboot to see changes?

                              It should be IMMEDIATELY obvious. It kicks in instantly. If you see it running in the tray area, it's active. Your chip might not be supported, although it ought to be with the latest version.

                              OK, I will continue to use it and see how it feels. The laptop video card is an Intel HD 5500 which is listed as a supported.

                              • Gurm replied to this.

                                ensete It can also be the drivers. Also if you are running Windows 10 anniversary edition (any version higher than 1585) that can be the cause as well. I downgraded all my Windows 10 machines to 1585 and am doing much better as a result.

                                    Gurm I'm not runnig Win 10, and unfortunately since it s a work laptop I cannot easily change the drivers. Ugh

                                      Yeah, so the culprit is likely the latest Intel drivers, which are harsher than the ones from, say, a year ago.

                                        Gurm That's where I am learning. I'm going to try the standard VGA drivers, if that eliminates the issue I will try and get older drivers installed, if none of those work I will just have to live with VGA unless I can find a setup that uses a different video card out of the laptop. Apparently there is a whole little cottage industry of external video card setups for laptops, primarily for gaming performance, bt it could be an option for us

                                          2 months later

                                          Finally I am able to install ditherig on my laptop to test it out. I used the latest v1.7 version, installed the zip file and used the exe under the folder amd64. I tried the exe under x86 folder but it does not work, it gave a missing dll error. For some reason the exe under amd64 works, even though my laptop is not using amd processor or graphics card at all.

                                          Anyway, I right clicked the icon on the system tray, select the "Disable all dithering function". So I will test out for a few days to see if it reduces my eye strain or not.

                                          One thing I noticed that when taking a photo of the screen using my cell phone camera, I can still see the "shimmering" and checked pattern (see photo below). I thought if we disabled dithering, it would eliminate this shimmering effect which we can only see using a cell phone camera?

                                          After running ditherig

                                            dev