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.

      2 months later
      14 days later

      I am having the same LED sensitivity issue. A super old LCD monitor is fine, it appears. Did they even use LEDs back then? (2007 mfr date).

      So I see there isn't really a solution in the modern day if you want to get something current?

        5 days later

        Hi @Puppy Just like you, I have also found comforts in old CCFL monitors.

        I am feeling better with old Dell U2410 CCFL monitor and able to use them long hours.

        However, I have some doubts about aged CCFL bulbs that they might emit UV lights in higher dose.

        Any thoughts on this?

        Is it safe to use CCFL monitor considering they emit little UV radiations compared to latest LED backlights?

          a month later

          karthi3219

          I bought a used Dell P2450h monitor that had been used for 25000 hours. And I can't look at it anymore, as the display looks yellow and makes my eye blurry after a while.

              7 months later

              caoyirui

              hey not all CCFLs are good. I found Dell U2410 was really good. Unfortunately with recent MacOs update, that is also giving me issues. Exploring what to do next.

                  5 days later

                  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.

                    EyeDiscomfortCertificate Note that there are a few LED devices from that time, for example MacBook Pro began using LED backlight in mid-2007. However you're still generally correct that most were CCFL. But it's still good to double-check

                      @DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs Hey update! It was not recent MacOS update that was unexpectedly given me eye strain. It was my new 5G wi-fi router connection. I have moved back to previous 2.4Ghz Wifi connection and all my symtoms disappeared. I am continue to use my existing setup. M1 Macbook + Dell U2410 CCFL monitor + Blue light blocking AMBER glasses.

                      I shared this in a new thread - https://ledstrain.org/d/3146-another-parameter-to-headaches-eye-strain-5g-networks

                      dev