Sick with new LED backlit PC monitors, but not old- difference in backlighting?

Glad to be here, guys. Sharing your fate, can't use any modern LED displays as they are all equally intolerable and have the same noxious effect on me. I have switched 4 monitors in the past couple of years and it wasn't easy for me. I had to buy and sell them every time, some of you should know how tiresome that can be and I think this is pretty much the end of the line for me. Now I'm targetting a really old monitor, preferably CCFL-backlit one. Of course, I'd rather it was new and boxed and I would probably pay over $200 for one, but if I don't find one like that I will just have to settle for a used and cheaper one. C'est la vie.

The monitors I've tried:

• HP Z23i (IPS, 1080p, 60hz, PWM, 250cd/m2, 2013)
• ViewSonic VG2719 (IPS/ADS, 1080p, 75hz, flicker-free, 300cd/m2 2020)
• Asus MG248QR (TN+Film, 1080p, 144hz, flicker-free, 350cd/m2, 2016)
• NEC E221N (AH-IPS, 1080p, 60hz, flicker-free, 250cd/m2, 2017)

All of these are equally unbearable. I've tried everything, can't even bother writing the full report, because none of it really matters. It's positively something in the backlight or temporal dithering/FRC or whatever. I don't care to find out anymore, because whatever it is we can't fix it anyway. I just want a normal thing for Christ sake.

At first I thought it's an issue specific to IPS technology as a lot of people seem to complain about it, but it's not true. I believe the reason people tend to assume that is because at some point they move from their older TN CCFL- or early type LED-backlit panels to newer ones, which are mostly IPS these days, and naturally conclude it must be it. Wrong, and I have personally confirmed it. You may have noticed a TN monitor on my list. Believe it or not, I got it specifically to get rid of the eye-strain while sacrificing some of the advantages of IPS. Waste of time, folks. It was the same exact thing. Same. Exact. Thing.

The actual symptoms. In about 5-10 minutes I begin to feel some pressure in my eyes, like I can't relax them for a second and little by little my temple-side ocular muscles get strained more and more. Basically, the longer I look at it, the worse it gets. I'm pretty sure at some point my eyes would simply explode if I tried to soldier through it, which I never did, simply because it gets bad enough much sooner. I also get this tinkling sensation in my forehead, yawny and drowsy feeling as well as mild nausea.

The only displays that don't currently bother me is my laptop screen (HP ZBook 15 G2), which is probably one of the worst TN panels with regards to color and viewing angles, and a couple of really ancient CCFL-type 4:3 displays - LG Flatron L1952S and L1753TR. These don't give me any problems whatsoever, which lead me to conclude that I should be specifically looking for something old enough to be sure the problem isn't there. I think anything between 2008 and 2010 should be good. I got my eye on NEC MultiSync EA231WMI, an all-round decent IPS monitor, which did really well back in the day and if I ever get a chance it's going to be my ultimate purchase. I just have a hunch that all my problems will end right there. The only downside to it is that it's a little more power hungry, but I'd much rather it consumed more power than my eyes and sanity.

By the way, I do confirm that most of these displays are warm and kind of toxic to look at, it feels like there's just too much red and green in them, while blue seems to be consumed by reds and greens and appear somewhat indistinct and washed out, BUT… the latest monitor I got (NEC E221N) is different. It's pretty cold by default and has overall decent blues. Colors are not oversaturated, they're just normal. Frankly, it feels more like a level-upped TN-Film panel, than your typical IPS. Sadly, that too doesn't help the strain.

Regarding my vision, it's not perfect anymore, my eyes see differently now, I also have hypermetropia, but it doesn't explain why I don't get issues with this older type of displays, so going "check your eyes" would be definitely irrelevant here.

Hope this is a useful input.

Gemsand but meanwhile this problem is a quest I am committing to solving

Honestly, I think the only solution at this point is to use an older/used monitor. I'm not saying the right one doesn't exist among the modern ones, but it could take forever finding it and personally I wouldn't bother looking for it. I've done my share of buying and selling (losing money too) and want to call it a day now. I'd keep using old stuff until they officially come up with something decent. Meanwhile, I don't think even OLED is a solution, it probably shares the same curse, just that few people can report it as very few own them in the first place due to their still exorbitant pricing. I'm sure it will never enter the mainstream and a newer and cheaper technology will arrive sooner than anyone could finally afford it.

Gemsand I am only pointing this out because this problem is not simply model specific, it seems to have crept its way into all modern panels (installed even in older monitor models).

Yes, they do change little things here and there. My build of E221N is from 2022, and it seems they have fixed a few things in it judging by older user reviews, but may as well have brought the strain in, because the original build is from 2017. Either way, I wouldn't expect anything good even from 2012 to be honest. The oldest monitor on my list is HP Z23i, it's from 2013 (the build was from 2013 too, it said so on the back) and frankly it was the worst. Not sure if PWM is to blame, I reckon the PWM hazard is overestimated and flicker-free feature is nothing but a marketing ruse. Saying this, because I also had an even older TN Samsung something, can't remember the model, but I think it was from 2009. It didn't give me any strain whatsoever, yet it was LED and it also had PWM. No issues. It had the worst image and color reproduction though, had a pinkish tint on whites, so it seems the worse the actual image quality the better for the eyes somehow. My laptop screen is also an utter crap, yet it's not giving me any probs. I've seen reports about early Asus VG248QE build, people complained about PWM and eye-strain, but Asus fixed it a bit later and people no longer complained about it. Not sure if no-PWM is what fixed it though, but whoever complained about VG248QE here may have used an earlier build of it, I dunno.

Gemsand The color in the offending unit is also noticeably more vibrant, and it does have some of that "too warm" feeling.

Like I said, they aren't all warm. Asus MG248QR and NEC E221N on my list aren't warm at all, they are coolish. Seriously. Now, HP Z23i and Viewsonic VG2719 are definitely warm and oversaturated. The reds are way too red, greens are too green. Toxic red and acid green, while blue feels weird and not even blue enough, especially on HP Z23i. It's like grey-purplish or something. So the only things that look good on these are pictures of nature, fruit, etc, but when you try watching a movie it looks completely unnatural, reds and greens are way too accentuated and pop where they shouldn't really. I'd say, it's low ̶b̶u̶d̶g̶e̶t̶ quality production for simple minds who think extremely juicy pics of nature and fruit is what makes a good display. Wrong. Either way, I don't think color reproduction or whatever is behind this effect is what accounts for the eye-strain as I have already pointed out two other monitors on my list, which successfully break this theory.

Gemsand If you find something that works for you, please do let us know!

Absolutely. It's definitely going to be NEC EA231WMi, though. Why? Because it's CCFL-backlit, period. I know there is probably some type of a LED display lurking out there, which is probably good for me, but I don't care anymore as I don't want to deal with ANY LEDs. I'm positive CCFL is not going to be a problem, though, plus it really just looks better than LED as it's almost naturally lit. And if I still have a problem, then it's definitely my damaged eyes or brains. I know for a fact that 4:3-type CCFL monitors don't give me any issues like LG Flatron L1x53S/TR or Samsung Syncmaster x43n, or probably NEC EA190M, which I've also been craving. These are all legendary TNs, which never caused any issues to anybody. I have LG 1753TR and LG 1952S, no issues. Positively. Except they aren't good for everything these days anymore, only for movies and older games.

Ok guys, back with good news.

I managed to find a used NEC EA231WMI and bought it. And guess what… problem solved. It met my expectations accurately and all my problems went out the window right there. No more strain. I had to get used to it a little at first though and adjust the brightness, which is now slightly below 50%, but in the end it's an absolute victory. So, those of you who suffer from modern panels, now you know you have at least one decent fallback option in case everything else fails. I absolutely love the monitor, good colors, good viewing angles (in fact, better than with the rest I've had before) good response time, good everything. I don't think I want anything better, because I don't even believe it can get any better at this point.

smilem Sorry to hear that man and also very much surprised. Perhaps early LCDs weren't that great after all or maybe it's just you and your environment, hardware or even OS. You're not a *nix user by any chance are you? Either way, CCFLs have saved people a lot of bs that they had with modern LEDs, which by far are much much more likely to destroy your eyes. Really. I mean, the "pleasant" sensations I've had with all the afore listed models can hardly suggest any positive outcome down the line. So, it's either that or CCFL now. Mine is from 2009-2010 and I like to think it's overall one of the best monitors ever made.

Well led monitors use white leds and blue kind of leds. Then for ccfl there are various coatings. So the really proper way is to measure light spectrum of good bad display. Then measure flicker normally and using microsope at pixel level. Also test dithering same way. With this data one can come to why one monitor is good and another bad.

karthi3219

Connect a Windows PC with Intel graphics to the monitor instead (BTW, best to disable the Intel drivers and use MS Basic Display Adapter if it's still uncomfortable with drivers on. I've actually noticed a difference in how edges of objects look).

Then, use NoMachine or RealVNC Viewer to connect to the Mac, so you can still use Mac apps on this monitor. NoMachine is best for a consistent smooth framerate with essentially no input lag, but has a slight amount of lossy compression (which thankfully doesn't affect strain, at least for me).

This is what I do for a long time now, it lets me "virtually" connect my Mac to monitors that are strainy on Mac but fine on Windows, it also allows me to update my macOS (which is where all my apps are) without worrying.

If using NoMachine, turn off hardware encoding on the Mac server, check all the boxes in the Windows client's "NoMachine menu -> Display -> Change settings -> Modify" menu.

To obtain the most color accurate image quality on NoMachine, set encoding type on the server to MJPEG, max out the Quality on the client settings. Set the Mac color profile to sRGB. If brighter windows look washed out, use BetterDisplay "overlay dimming" or similar app on the Mac server and slowly move the overlay brightness down until the client looks correct (but not too much that white backgrounds begin to dim). I think this is a bug with the NoMachine server on Mac — this is my workaround

Finally, you can use the SharpKeys app on the Windows side to swap the location of Alt/Option and Windows/Command so the keys are in the correct place while using macOS.