hayder1983 I mean, if I do not switch the lights on. Once it gets too dark I switch the lights on, and close the curtain, so the darkness does not distract me.
Recommendations for new monitor
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hayder1983 The C1 is an OLED. It's not to do with VA because my current primary is switched to the Acer VA with the Samsung 2494HM to the right, which is the direction that if I look it is less straining, which would be a combination of more distance and seeing more of the room in that direction. It does make me think it could be as simple as viewing angle, as my other screens usually make up less than 40 degrees but my primary monitor makes up about 40 and it could just be my eyes don't like it or something.
Not sure. Perhaps the light is less 'in your eye' because of the viewing angle.
TrantaLocked There are many Acer KG241 you mean Acer KG241 YAbmiix ?
Maybe I'll try this monitor, also the Samsung one.
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sss21344 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6DFG1FQ/
Basically it seemed like I get the least amount of eye strain out of the few VAs I tried with this one but what I'm discovering is that I still get eye strain with any monitor eventually, at least in the primary in front of me position. That didn't really used to be a thing before this year so I assume my eyes are less resilient now.
I did solve the burning sensation from my 360Hz panels that I think was either the LED temperature or the horizontal polarization, but now I am discovering another type of eye strain that seems to only really happen at my desk with computer monitors, but not with my TV, laptop or phone.
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I may be figuring out what it actually is. There are two factors: my eye prescription and the amount of contrast directly around the outline of the display, and it's easy to be fooled that a small room light is enough. I can explain.
The first issue is I definitely notice more eye strain if I use my long range glasses vs short range. But strangely, no glasses is still better than my long range glasses, which makes it clear that OVER-CORRECTION IS WORSE FOR STRAIN THAN NO CORRECTION.
The second issue is lighting immediately around the display. With my laptop, the light from the screen reflects off the keyboard (and remember when I said my new laptop monitor is easier on the eyes? well it's probably because my new laptop is SILVER (brighter) and my last laptop was RED (darker), it increases outline brightness!). My TV is so large it produces enough light to thoroughly light everything around it. But my monitor is both free-floating, small, and not flush to the curtains, meaning it can't really produce enough light to light the surrounding outline.
I was actually going back and forth pointing my phone light at the point below my monitor. The eye strain lessens soon after I point the light so the area underneath the monitor is lit.
Now what's interesting is that area isn't really super dark when I have one of my smaller lamps on, but it's still too dark anyway. The only way to really get it "bright" is with the room light on, which is way too bright. So the only reasonable way to fix this is to buy a standalone light that goes behind the monitor or on the desk under the monitor. I would want something that can light the area all around the monitor like what I see with my TV.
I DO NOT think overall lighting in the room matters that much. It is moreso the sharp contrast from the outline of the monitor to the surrounding. You only need like 1-2 feet of the area around the monitor to be lit somewhat to create more of an equalization.
One of the problems for the monitor in relation to like a phone used in darkness, is that even though both are being in used in darkness, the monitor will be far worse if there's no edge lighting since it tends to fill more of your FOV. The only way to really change monitor FOV at least in my case is to get a deeper desk which after searching online, is prohibitively expensive if i want to be picky with dimensions. Nothing really cuts it.
So what I'm going to do is find the best way to get good lighting all around the monitor. Probably a light that goes behind and maybe one below so the bottom bezel is also lit somewhat. I have some paper taped to the bottom bezel while I look for lights. These are what I'm going to test first: 1, 2, 3. There are some other cool RGB lights that are just too expensive. I will also get a new pair of glasses even better for the exact distance I use my desktop monitor at.
And that's pretty much it. I believe when it comes to preventing my eye muscle strain, it is a combination of not overcorrecting with my prescription and making sure the area immediately around the monitor bezel is well lit. As I explained, these areas are better lit for both my TV and laptop in pure darkness due to the reasons I explained above. The desktop monitor is the worst case; large FOV, lamps have trouble lighting the surrounding area. PWM is also an issue but not all PWM is created equal, as I have no issue with the PWM frequency of my laptop panel. I have also tried to disable GPU enforced dithering with the program Calibration Tools but I have yet to confirm if this makes a difference.
When it comes to the burning sensation from my 360Hz monitors, again I still think it's either the blue LED temperature or the polarization, which for those panels was horizontal. I have a post in this thread with my polarization findings for all types of displays I've tested TrantaLocked . MOST monitors seem to have vertical polarization, with some rare exceptions having horizontal or diagonal polarization.
It is still weird because I never experienced issues with surrounding contrast causing eye strain. I don't know why it's suddenly an issue.
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TrantaLocked Today is the first day i had no nausea at all, was able to work for 8 hours and i think i would be able to sit here another 2 hours. Still using the Syncmaster. Still using eye drops 4 times a day, no cortison. After taking the cortison nothing felt different, but the seven days i got out a lot. At least one hour of walking(just normal walking) and up to 4 hours a day. Even in my homeoffice i go for a walk now every day, so i can actually move a bit. This doesnt sound like much, but it actually helps my eyes. My eye pain is nearly gone. I hope this will not change, i will keep using the syncmaster and walking for 1+ hours a day.
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Ok, this is weird. Using the follwing combinations results in:
Home PC + Syncmaster + HDMI + no driver = no nausea
work laptop + internal screen = no nausea
worklaptop+ Syncmaster + HDMI + no driver = nausea!!!
Seems like my nausea is somehow also related to driver issues?!
EDIT: I am not able to install drivers on my worklaptop. Every external screen is always with generic windows driver.
hayder1983 try hdmi->hdmi2vga->vga->syncmaster
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I can use an IPS monitor with an Innolux panel. Specifically the M280DCA-E3B found in the Samsung U28R550 is quite good. It is found in some other 28” 4K 60 Hz IPS monitors. What I would really like to try are Innolux 27” 1440p high refresh rate offerings, including the older K7B and especially the newer and faster K7E which supposedly improves on Innolux hardware-level low blue light tech already present on K7B.
All of these monitors use FRC so this is not a blanket recommendation.
The MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD (AUO panel) gave me immediate and obvious pain.
degen I've heard many different opinions, but overall from what I heard is that AUO are actually easier on eyes. But digging deeper, I've come to conclusion that it is not only the panel itself, but backlight could be the culprit too (hovewer I own a BOE-panel based LG monitor, its backlight better than BENQ's one i also own, but I still cannot use it, for a different reason). Samsung often puts their own backlights into the panels they install in their monitors. OTOH, I've never heard anything bad about Innolux (esp IPS) panels aside from having difficult to remove red tint. The last Samsung VA monitor with AUO panel I've tried was good actually.
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EyeDiscomfortCertificate There seems to be quite a few complaints of eyestrain with the Gigabyte M28U, which uses an Innolux 4K high refresh rate panel, so I steered clear of that one. Samsung makes a version with that panel as well, the Samsung G70A, which I really want to try, but it’s too expensive.
I applied a set of LED strips https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S5ZLP3B that had the remote which is probably not going to be needed after I get the correct white temperature. The LED strips turn on and off with the monitor or computer USB port it's plugged into and remembers the last color. I also installed the light bar https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098SWWGJB that sits at the top of the monitor. It has brightness, temperature and power controls.
With both the strips and light bar installed eye strain is improved. I first tried the strips on their own and they helped somewhat, then adding the light bar helped further. The thing I like about the light bar is it mainly lights the keyboard area so it's sort of like having a desk lamp on but with the space saving benefits.
TrantaLocked Some weird advice - also invest in good speakers and sound card if you like background music while working. Search the ones which do not make you tired; it has little relation to the perceived quality of the sound - I've discovered that the integrated speakers on BENQ monitor, have horrible quality, but do not make me tired compered to seemingly better laptop audio. Good audio would help to abstract away from the eye strain.
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EyeDiscomfortCertificate Sound doesn't really do much but my equipment is high quality and tuned with the EQs I like.
There is one thing I'm still trying to identify as a suspect which is the idea of the eye muscles being used to focusing on certain distances. I've still yet to confirm this but I went to see Avatar 2 last week after not seeing a movie in a long time and my eyes hurt for the first hour and a half, but then the last hour it felt like my eyes had fully adjusted or something and there was no more pain.
So I wonder if part of this new developed strain is more from me putting more usage on my TV as opposed to my monitor, since I just got my LG C1 a few months ago and I want to use it. Maybe my eyes now are more used to longer distance and very short distance (laptop) but not not mid distance?
But today when I was testing lighting it seemed like the adjustments I made really are important. For one, it somehow seemed that turning up the monitor backlight helped, though in tandem with the top bar light and back LED strips also being turned on. I have the top bar light, which I linked earlier, on the warm preset at max brigthness. It does actually seem to help more if it's brighter. And the back LED strips I have set to an orangish color, the one that lights when you press the bottom right color on the remote. And I had been able to go for hours today without developing serious strain. There was SOME strain here and there but not agonizing like it had been previously. But what is also weird is I think turning off all of my other room lights helped. So lighting does seem to be important but the exact configuration is hard to pinpoint.
And again for the eyes getting used to certain distances after being conditioned to others, I'm not sure if this is true or not yet. It's hard to test because for Avatar 2, I had no choice but to sit through the pain until it subsided. If it starts getting painful at my desk I can just go do something else. So perhaps I wasn't letting my eyes adjust to a certain focus amount? I don't know yet. This may take a long time to fully confirm.
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The new setup with bias lighting I described has lasted. I can now go for a long time without very noticeable eye strain. The setup again: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098SWWGJB top bezel mounted bar light set to warm and max brightness, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S5ZLP3B LED strips on back of monitor, set to orange/red button in bottom right at max brightness. The colors don't actually match with the buttons for most of them but there are lots of color options. There is a lamp with a warm 2700K bulb and warm shade a few feet behind me to my left. The Acer Nitro KG241Y Sbiip is 2-3 feet away from my eyes depending on if I'm leaning forward or back. I have tan/off-white curtains. The Samsung 2494HM is mounted to the right of the Acer, both 1080p 24". I have the Acer set to 22 brightness with the Samsung at minimum brightness. The Acer seems no worse between minimum and mid-range brightness. I'm still using my normal close-range glasses.
Just Yesterday i was using some old Eizo ev2456 and had no symptoms at all. Nothing. At the office with office lighting. I think it is the professionell lighting. Perhaps i should buy some professionell lighting for my home.
hayder1983 Are you sensitive to PWM? I just bought the 2494HM and unfortunately even at the highest brightness setting, the one I have still uses a small amount of PWM.
Unless anyone knows any tricks in the settings???
hayder1983 What do you mean with "professional lighting"?
GregAtkinson I am unsure. I think low frequency PWM is ok for me. High frequency PWM not. But as soon as i started using the 2494hm and i use it at brighntess 10/100 my eyes started to normalize. Eyedrops only once per day. No pain, only a bit of a dry eye. I can use my laptop screen too. No nausea.
AGI Trilux lamps from my work. Very high quality but used office lamps. Didnt try it yet.