Seagull

Thanks. No, the monitor is running with the same settings.

Sunspark

The old cable definitely works. It was not replaced because defective or non suitable. A few devices were added to the working station that now holds six monitors and all the cables were replaced with fancier ones not for a specific reason. I will try to do some more tests. I was inquiring because I never expected a difference going swapping HDMI cable. In fact, I already tested a few HDMI cables of the old type and none of them causes eyestrain. Thanks.

        AGI

        I don't understand why that would be the case though. It's carrying a digital signal. All the cables should be completely interchangeable if they display a picture.

        • AGI likes this.
          a month later

          I had the chance to restore the old HDMI cable and use the old setup for four weeks, while no one was around. After some adjustment due to the hostile environment (very bright yellow-blue LED overhead lamps, which could illuminate a football field, in the line-of-sight of the display), I could reach the end of the day with minor discomfort. Definitely, no memory effects once leaving the room.

          Then, things turned to the worst. The upgrade of the working station resumed and was completed, including plugging in the new fancy HDMI cable. I immediately felt my neck and shoulders tensing, and eyestrain developing. I insisted and after 2-3 days I would exit the room devastated at the end of the day, like, I once went to a movie theatre at night and I had to leave. I could not watch the movie. I described my symptoms more in details in the thread dedicated to using the eye patch, since I did try to use the eye patch to alleviate my symptoms. Coupled with little sleep, using the eye patch turned out to be suicidal.

          Back to the display and what I perceive, the problem seems to be that the white background glows inhomogeneously with the new HDMI cable. I am not sure if flickering is the right term, but it is like I can see all the white pixels glowing distinctly, and this affects either my eyes or my brain. I decided to not avoid the problem and to carry through. The situation has not worsened luckily. After a week, the level of discomfort seems to have come slightly down from its peak and have plateaued. However, it is still bad and I am not confident it will ever get to an acceptable level. My daily life is still badly affected. Besides the eye and neck and shoulder pain, I feel really tired and deprived of energy at the end of the day.

          I am not an hardware expert and I trust what you guys wrote regarding HDMI cables. Yet, my symptoms are real. They go away if I put the old HDMI cable back, and they return if I use the new cable. Now, can it simply be a bad cable?

            AGI I am not an hardware expert and I trust what you guys wrote regarding HDMI cables. Yet, my symptoms are real. They go away if I put the old HDMI cable back, and they return if I use the new cable. Now, can it simply be a bad cable?

            Wouldn't be impossible

                AGI Go to one of your coworkers computers, one that doesn't sit next to you and swap the HDMI cables. It's the same cable, nobody will notice it was exchanged. See if the switch helps you. If they don't like it, let them be the one to do the complaining for a change.

                  10 days later

                  JTL

                  This is definitely possible. See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r04DYZ1-BXE

                  I used to have a bad quality HDMI cable that caused the monitor very much flickered (so much that it was clearly visible to every person). Flickering was much smaller during pressing HDMI plug into the monitor. So in this case probably the plug was defective.

                      a year later

                      matix yes, bad HDMI cable might create bit errors, and those can create noise similar to the video you've sent.

                      but i don't see how they can create flicker.

                        dev