Vertical and Horizontal polarization as Eye strain trigger

Aquila

Some monitors emit horizontal wave and some emit vertical waves. Hope this kind of makes sense.

Get this...

Using sun polarized sunglasses and putting them in front of the monitors makes the screen black. This is on my old monitors (Asus MX259) with no eye strain.

BUT if I turned the eyeglasses vertically, again the screen went black.

If you have polarized glasses and your monitor is ok with no eye strain... do the test and flip it over... see if you get eye strain or headaches.

My devices are:

Asus MX259 (Black in Horizontal)

Best monitor for my eyes

Asus Zephyrus G15 (Normal in Horizontal) and this laptop is bad for my Eyes

Benq EX2780q (Normal in Horizontal)

and this monitor is bad for my eyes

Let me know your experiences

Thx guys

Donux

Aquila Today I have tested with Samsung 3d glasses and Lenovo x1 yoga gen 3 is totally black with glasses, macbook pro 2015 15 inch (and probably all other models) are transparent with glasses. I guess based on your pictures this lines up well with your perspective too.

Gemsand

So, I ran around with a circular polarizer filter and examined a bunch of screens from both categories (both those that I can use for hours a day without a problem, and those that cause me painful eye strain and other symptoms with minimal use). Unfortunately, I found examples of each in all three categories, so I do NOT think polarization is my issue. Below are some examples. The items I list as "GOOD" below are screens I can use all day without an issue, the items I list as "BAD" cause my terrible eye strain with minimal use:

Horizontal polarization: Dell P2014HT 19.5" monitor (GOOD); Motorola One 5G Ace cell phone (GOOD); Samsung LED backlit TV Model UN55TU8000FXZA (GOOD); Sony X85K 43" TV (BAD)

45° polarization: Asus VS247H-P 24" monitor (GOOD); Asus VG248QG 24" gaming monitor (BAD)

Vertical polarization: 2022 Chromebook (GOOD); MSi Optix G273QPF 2022 27" gaming monitor (BAD); a couple other modern gaming monitors I tested (BAD)

Aquila

Gemsand Great post!!

So when you say vertical polarization, you intend that images filtered by glasses are black in vertical position and normal in horizontal position?

It's correct?

Another trigger in is the panel's manufacturer: au Optronics, Innolux, boe (bad for me),lg (very good)

Gemsand

Aquila

I didn't use sunglasses to test, but rather an actual circular polarizer filter (meant for the front of a professional camera lens) that can be adjusted: I painted lines on the stationary portion of the polarizer and on the rotating element, and then jotted down the results for each screen mentioned. I just started with screens I have access to, and stopped my testing once I saw such mixed results. I suspect most modern monitors- which are basically all BAD for me- would fall into the Vertical category.

Yes, by vertical polarization I believe that would mean standard horizontal polarization sunglasses would be black in the vertical position but normal in horizontal position.

I'm disappointed at the results but still glad to have the data!

For me, panel manufacturer hasn't seemed to matter: all the monitors I can tolerate are 10+ year old Acer, Asus, or Dell monitors, but there are very many of those manufacturer's (newer) panels I cannot tolerate. All the LG panels I've tried so far are bad for me. (I've tested over 30 monitors, most of which I've bought and returned! I remain determined to find just one good one!)

Seagull

I explored this a while back. I found that the presence of polarisation was a factor, but not necessarily the type or angle of the polarisation. I found that by gluing high quality tracing paper to a screen protector, and then attaching it to a screen with polarisation I was able to make it somewhat more tolerable.

mateussilvafigueiredo

Thanks for your great work showing us the polarized glass test. Almost all modern screens are polarized in a vertical manner ir order to be used with polarized glasses. However, TN, VA em mainly IPS moderns screens hurt my eyes as in your case. I solved this issue using Samsung Eco Led technlogy which is polarized-less screens. Finally that red warm backlight W-LED polarized vertically is gone. I suggest you use Super Amoled cellphone screens or Samsung book2 or book3 360 Oled Eco screens. Give it a try.

gregtsakil9

Hello guys I recently came to my mind that i might have dizzyness and general tiredness symptoms from the polarizing angle of my screens I have 4 …2 of them that I can see when wearing polarized glasses seem to be better for me and not cause me any problems and have worked for thousand of hours.

The G3223D and G2724D that I cant see though my polarized glasses might be causing me tiring symptoms like thouse that I have with pwm flikker even though both of them have not that isue ,so im thinking it might be the pollarized ange .

Are there any 165 hz monitors 27 2k or 32 4k or 2k monitors avalable that i can see through my polaraizzed glasses ?should i email lg ,asus,benq if they have models to guide me to buy the right one for me ?

Thank you guys !!

gregtsakil9

gregtsakil9 Update I found that using hdmi 2.0 144hz feels better I dont know what could be the isue I will contact Dell suport tommorow !

hberg539

I just found out that my Dells G2724D and P2720D are blocking horizontally, but my HP laptops i've had access to (Elitebook 840 G5, 845 G10 & G11) all block vertically. My phones (Huawei P30, Samsung S23) don't block in any direction.

Donux

hberg539 Did you find any correlation in terms of which of these devices was better for you and its polarization type ?

hberg539

Donux

I was trying out the Dell P2725QE which was perfect on paper, but I still had issues focusing on the text. My Gigabyte M27UA was perfect for my eyes, but for the Dell it seems I my eyes always needed to re-focus and the text appeared blurry.

All the screens I had that were good for my eyes were vertically, 45° or circular polarized (I could see the screen with polarized sunglasses in normal orientation, and it blocks when rotating 90°) and all the ones that were bad were horizontal polarized. The Dell I tried out was horizontal polarized. I have zero issues with my Samsung S23 which uses OLED and circular polarization. All my laptop screens are vertically polarized, also no issues with them. My old Thinkpad x201 with TN panel was 45° polarized, also no issues.

I then tried out some portable monitors, and they were all fine for my eyes - also all vertically polarized.

Here a table of the monitors/laptop screens I had access to:

Laptops

Lenovo Thinkpad x201: 45°
HP 840 G5: vertical
HP 845 G10: vertical
HP 845 G11: vertical
TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10: vertical

Monitors

Dell G2724D: horizontal
Dell P2720D: horizontal
Dell U2725QE: horizontal
Gigabyte M27UA: vertical
HP Omen 27u: horizontal
Dell P2725QE: horizontal
UPERFECT 17,3 Zoll 4K QLED: vertical
UPERFECT 23,8 Zoll 4K QLED: vertical

Smartphones

Huawei P30: circular (OLED)
Samsung S23: circular (OLED)

So yes, I think polarization is a big factor. I have glasses and I'm short sighted, maybe that influence things. As I have no issues with my OLED screen on my Samsung S23 (which has bad PWM flicker), I might not be sensitive to PWM flicker and OLED could be a good option for a desktop monitor, was the light is circular polarized.

GloiN

I bought a pair of sunglasses and realized they were making my eyes hurt—much like a poor-quality computer monitor does. I started looking into the subject of polarization, and so far, I’ve found that I tolerate horizontal polarization better; however, my experience is limited—I’ve only tested a few devices.

technicalitch

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4528539/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9010255/