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

    I thought if we disable dithering, when we took a photo of the screen using a cell phone, it would look like this:

    HTC One M9+ screen

    The photo above (CNN website) is from my current cell phone (HTC One M9+ Supreme Camera Edition), which shows nice and clean image, no shimmering and no checked pattern.

    Both photos, the desktop with dithering menu and the CNN website were taken using the same cell phone (my old HTC One Max).

    So shouldn't disabling dithering would eliminate the shimmering / checked pattern on the screen? I thought that is one of our prime suspect for the cause of eye strain?

    • JTL replied to this.

      AMD64 doesn't mean you need an AMD processor. It just means the generic x64 command set.

      3 months later

      Hi guys, just wanted to report back in and let people know that the combination of Dell XPS 9550 and Ditherig.exe is still working for me. I rarely get migraines any more and I feel much happier in general without having permanent headaches and nausea. If you're sensitive to temporal dithering then this is a real solution which has worked for me for 8 months now, tried and tested. Good luck everyone!

        si_edgey Good to hear. Dell XPS is a great laptop.

        Over time I still find the CPU in my Macbook adequate, but it's missing things such as Thunderbolt 3 and uses a proprietary SSD connector, which means I can't upgrade the storage beyond 512GB. Not to mention the GPU is a joke.

        Alas I am doing extremely well with recent medical treatment. Will write about that soon.

        • Gurm replied to this.
            22 days later

            What operating system are you running with this setup? Windows 7 has only very limited support on this machine. I am going to be installing Windows 10 2015 LTSB so that it doesn't get "anniversary update". What are you running? Also, my 9550 is nowhere near as good on my eyes as my boss's. Same screen, in theory, although I need to verify that using the panel query tool.

            JTL Actually I recently set up a 2012-vintage Core i7 Macbook Pro. It's MUCH better on my eyes than any recent Macbook. But, like you - the CPU is better than nothing, but pretty lame compared for 5th or 6th gen i7's. And the GPU is an Intel 4000. Bleh.

            • JTL replied to this.
                a month later

                Hey guys, little update for you. Things were going swimmingly with the XPS 15 9550 and so I thought that I'd upgrade to the most powerful machine I could get to last the longest amount of time before I need to upgrade again. Mistake. I sold my 9550 and bought the 9560 - had it for less than a week now and my searing migraines, eye strain and headaches are back with a vengeance.

                I'm working on trying to find a solution - so far I'm not convinced it's the Intel drivers that are causing the problem here, I think the dithering may in fact be coming from the GTX 1050 (old laptop was GTX 960) and I feel that when I disable the 1050 in Device Manager the laptop becomes more usable. Only time will tell with this however as once my headaches and migraines have been triggered it takes a while for my head to go back to normal sadly.

                I should really have just stuck with the 9550 but it was too tempting to upgrade to the latest and greatest to get the longest possible life out of a working machine. Couple of questions:

                • have we ever actually discovered how to disable temporal dithering for Nvidia cards in Windows? I know it's disabled by default on most but I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be enabled on the 10xx series.

                • can anyone else verify this same situation has happened to them? I know everyone has slightly different issues but mine is very much a sensitivity to temporal dithering (and a little just to bright light itself).

                Any help or thoughts would be great, can't believe I'm back to square one again!

                Thanks,

                Simon

                • JTL replied to this.

                  si_edgey have we ever actually discovered how to disable temporal dithering for Nvidia cards in Windows? I know it's disabled by default on most but I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be enabled on the 10xx series.

                  No, we don't know how.

                  si_edgey can anyone else verify this same situation has happened to them? I know everyone has slightly different issues but mine is very much a sensitivity to temporal dithering (and a little just to bright light itself).

                  Some people on Linux have disabled dithering as nVidia makes it an option on Linux.

                  I wish you sold it after verifiying the new machine worked for you. That's what I would have done.

                      Haha not the most helpful comment but point taken, if I had the £1500 spare I would have bought without selling the other one. I had tried a friends 9560 for a while and it didn't seem to bother me, but admittedly it was very casual use for an afternoon so not a thorough test. I can still return this laptop for a refund and re-purchase a 9550 so not all is lost.

                      I'm definitely finding that disabling the GTX 1050 makes the laptop feel like my 9550 so I'm thinking that's the culprit in my case. If only there was a way to a) test for dithering algorithms in use and b) disable them in the registry for the GFX card itself.

                      • JTL replied to this.

                        MagnuM CCFL is just the backlight, but maybe things are different since they are older monitors.

                          MagnuM I have a CCFL monitor in the studio and at home which i can use for many hours at a time with my PCs, but plug a MacBook in and I get exactly the same symptoms developing as if I was using the laptop screen, due to ththe dithering also being applied to the output of the Mac.

                              si_edgey Isnt it possible to get in touch with someone from Nvidia, show them a link to this forum and ask them to simply allow for dithering to be disabled so we can test it? I mean seriously this is obviously a big problem for a LOT of people, I dont understand how noone from these companies is at least trying to help a bit.

                                  martin I'm on the case with this man - got a support ticket going and trying to get escalated to a programmer for some help. I've also posted on the Nvidia deeveloper forum but with no responses yet. I'll make sure to post if anything useful comes up!

                                      dev