For a long time I dismissed temporal dithering or other pixel dithering as my issue. I dismissed it because:

  • The Asus VS247H-P monitor from 2013 that I can use all day without an issue is 6 bit + FRC = uses temporal dithering. It also uses PWM. (I’ve tested and confirmed the PWM but technically haven’t test-confirmed the TD.)

  • I have experienced discomfort with an offending monitor when it is on with black screen/ no signal to monitor, but backlight on.

  • I have experienced the same symptoms from an LED desk lamp!

This led me to believe the LEDs themselves were somehow causing my eye strain.

However, I am now reconsidering temporal dithering or other flicker as being the primary cause due to the following:

  • I tried the BenQ TK700STi DLP projector that uses a lamp (not LED!), and it definitely triggered the symptoms. It uses pixel shifting/ flickering (at 240 Hz) to achieve 4K resolution. Also as a DLP projector, I could also easily see the flashing red/ green/ blue “ghosts” of white objects as I moved my eyes quickly.

  • In offending monitors I’ve always noticed two subjective observations about the color:

    • I’ve noticed that the colors just look “not solid” to me. No matter how I tweak the color settings, I can’t get them to feel “solid.” (Meanwhile my 2013 Asus VS247H-P 6 bit + FRC monitor does NOT feel like this to me; the colors feel solid.)

    • No matter how I tweak the color settings in the offending monitors, the discomfort persists: however, the “quality” of the feeling/ discomfort does change with color settings change. This implies to me that the monitor may be implementing different dithering with the color settings changes.

Has temporal dithering changed over time? Is there some other kind of flicker present in almost all modern monitors and TVs, that is not present in most phones and handheld devices?

Just thinking out loud in case anyone has any input. I very much appreciate all ideas!

It is not only the monitor that causes eye strain, it is the GPU as well. If I hookup my monitor directly on my GPU, I get bloodshot eyes, if I hook it up to the motherboard at the expense of some GPU power loss, I don't get bloodshot eyes. Go figure…

    brjdenis For my experience nausea is not related to GPU but to monitor.

    I had a Win 10 syatem, Ryzen 3600 + 2070s and Benq ex2780q. After 30.minutes in gaming I had Nausea.

    Now i changed monitor, and no more nausea. Windows version and drivers are the same.

    5 days later

    Have you tried setting Dynamic Range to Limited? Nvidia Control Panel>Change Resolution>Use NVIDIA color settings> Output dynamic range > Limited

    (Need to change this setting also on the monitor OSD if it's avaliable so they both match)

    It may sacrifice some color quality but you are also limiting the intensity of brightest & darkest shades.

    "Full Range" greyscale, the darkest color is 0 (0,0,0 R,G,B) and brightest is 255 (255,255,255 R,G,B):

    Limited Range would narrow this to 16 (16,16,16 R.G,B) and 235 (235,235,235 R,G,B) limiting how bright the colors can be displayed through the pixels independently of backlight brightness.

    This improved for me the effect of perceiving the colors in a more solid state rather than feeling like the image is glowing.

      boomhedshot

      I tried this- it didn't help, but thank you so much for the suggestion!

      I tried the HP X27i recommended by Aquila, but unfortunately it did NOT work for me- I could tell within 10 seconds it was causing that burning sensation in my retinas! I did play around with all the settings- it's a great monitor and I could get the color very stable looking. But after playing around for only 10 minutes I was relieved to put it back in the box.

        Gemsand I'm so sorry tò hear this. Did you try another source ex mediaplayer, Fire Stick, box Android?

          Gemsand 45° polarization: Asus VS247H-P 24" monitor (GOOD)

          Did you have any experience on gaming with this monitor? Do you recommend it for gaming without eye strain?

            Aquila The input doesn't make a difference for me, unfortunately!

            Fakir35 In my own case I can use the Asus VS247H-P 24" monitor all day without strain, it is my main monitor that I'm using right now and have been using for the past 10 years. Three points to consider though: (1.) It is 6 bit + FRC (FRC = temporal dithering!- gasp!); (2.) I've tested it myself and it does use Pulse Width Modulation to control brightness (PWM- gasp!); and (3.) It simply doesn't have gaming monitors specs- it's a basic 60 Hz 24"TN panel with no VRR. That being said, it functions just fine, the response time is probably 1-2 ms. Interestingly, the fact that this monitor uses a form of temporal dithering and PWM has always made me discount flicker as being my main issue, however, after having a painful recent experience with a 4k pixel-shifting DLP projector that uses a lamp (no LEDs at all!) but does flicker, I'm wondering if newer LED backlights have some other kind of inherent imperceptible flicker. Also I've experienced an LED desk lamp that caused the same exact symptoms- so I'm wondering if maybe the LEDs themselves now pulse in some way that they didn't use to.

              Gemsand

              Thank you for your replies sir. But problem is monitor model year is too old (2013 i guess) and it's hard to find. Even as second hand products at least in Turkey. Not only for Asus VS247H-P 24 also other monitors that you recommend. In any case if you suggest modern monitor which brand year is newest and its ok for eye health in case of looking long hours, i will consider. However i dont read positive comments about modern eye care monitors. So i am in deepest suspicious about them.

              19 days later

              @Gemsand

              Have you tried also Asus VP228DE? I think it is same series with VS247HP? I intend to order it

                Greetings. I ran into this problem not too long ago and was discouraged.

                New(and many old) monitors,TVs,phones,video cards cause me a lot of pressure and eye strain. Later I bought myself some LED lamps for my desktop and found that they all cause the same symptoms! What the hell is going on

                  Here are monitors that cause absolutely no discomfort -

                  Aoc I2369vm (2013, AH-IPS, 6bit+frc)

                  Aoc 24p2q (2020, IPS, 8bit)

                    Fakir35 I haven't tried the Asus VP228DE- thanks for the suggestion.

                    Luminous Yeah I experience the symptoms with a LED desk lamp as well! Indeed, what the heck is going on. Thank you for the suggestion on the two AOC monitors you can tolerate! If you ever find additional tolerable monitors please post (and I'll do the same).

                    22 days later
                    6 months later

                    Luminous

                    Well, I purchased several monitors and GPUs over the years. With various levels of burning eye and redness issue. I don't think it was a bad copy, because many would than be a bad copy. Anyway, there is no monitor that one can recommend. I purchased monitors based on other people's recommendation, but many were not good, even the old ones, TN, CCFL etc in combination with newer GPUs.

                    Recently my parents bought a new computer and like me now they have blepharitis and red eyes. Which makes me believe it can be genetic. For them I can help with a set up that would make eye strain bearable. I wasn't able to help anyone else. That is all I wanted to say.

                    If you/they have blepharitis, you probably also have or will have dry eyes. Get some lubricating drops especially during the winter and run a humidifier. An ingredient you will find in higher end drops is sodium hyaluronate or hyaluronic acid.

                      I finally found a modern monitor that works for me by looking for ultra low-flicker monitors using a professional photodetector. I tested about 100 monitors and found only three that have virtually no flicker.

                      I bought 11 (one for myself and 10 to resell at cost to see if it works for others). I created an eBay listing if anybody is interested in giving it a shot. I offer 60 day returns, so worst case scenario you have to pay for shipping both ways.

                      https://www.ebay.com/itm/145603787681

                      You can read more about my process here: https://ledstrain.org/d/2598-help-wanted-to-measure-flicker-andor-test-a-flicker-free-monitor

                      • bz12 replied to this.

                        Sunspark

                        Thank you for the advice. I already wrote on this site that this is not dry eye issue on its own. No such drops help, I tried already.

                        dev