Yes/No Tool for PWM and Dithering

moonpie

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Dizzy

moonpie Can you explain how on the desktop?

moonpie

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Dizzy

moonpie Thank you

jordan

You're best off getting a opple light master iv which will show what frequency/waveform for the display your testing. It makes it easy to check for PWM. Does not matter if its a laptop, desktop or a phone. Dithering is harder to check for. I know some people have done gradient tests which if you see banding then usually less likely its dithering. The only true method is getting a cheap microscope which many seem to use the carson microflip x250 one on amazon. Using that with a 240fps slo mo camera which can be found on certain phones. There is no simple yes no tester for dithering sadly.

Dizzy

jordan Thank you

moonpie

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jordan

moonpie Nah I've seen them read 20kHz even. I forgot what they max out at. Someone also posted a modified version of the opple app which is a lot faster too.

moonpie

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jordan

moonpie https://www.reddit.com/r/PWM_Sensitive/s/1LFh9JIiLL

It's just good for quick portable tests. You can easily tell if one is dc or not. IDC using a modified version of the app personally. It's posted here if anyone is curious.

https://www.reddit.com/r/flashlight/comments/1bt9it5/i_modified_opple_light_master_apps_for_android_apk/

I think the other alternatives are better but not portable. Be careful with the lupin because I bought one and the reading was so off. I mailed it to my friend and he tested his against mine and it was definitely off. I wonder how many other ones are too 🤔

moonpie

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jordan

moonpie I do not unfortunately. I know alot of people use it in the flashlight subreddits but some also say the light master 3 is more accurate 🤔

I know M silicon MacBooks dither bad so any discomfort would definitely be from that

moonpie

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jordan

moonpie it's still usable on laptops below that. Especially OLED ones. I mean I don't know how accurate it is fully but it's good enough to get an idea. Several people use it. Obviously there are better options but that's the best option for the money in terms of portable meters. If you want portable you can spend a lot more and get a uprtek mk350n premium but I think it caps at 50kHz. The uprtek mk550T is designed for measuring screens and I think it may be capable of higher frequencies.

macsforme

I would personally not trust the Opple LightMaster frequency reading unless you can physically see it on the graph to verify it. I recall seeing some things that made me question it (possibly, wildly inconsistent readings in the upper ranges). I understand that the graph purports to reach 10KHz, but I question whether the device can detect such high frequencies with accuracy.

moonpie

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jordan

moonpie yeah those others are great just not portable. I guess with the uprtek you get other testing stuff such as measuring SVM, color spectrum, and whatever else they are capable of but yeah way pricey

moonpie

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jordan

moonpie your right that is very tiny. I don't think anyone believes the safe / not safe output on the opple as it'll show a device not safe when it is if it's dc like dimming/OLED for example. I just use it to get an idea for devices under 10kHz, mostly seeing waveform. Do those mini oscilloscopes have any noise that effects the measurement? They're cheap that's why I ask.

Other stuff as in different types of light measurements. I didn't say other things that cause eye strain. Speaking of that I would say color spectrum is definitely one other issue to some. We know certain phosphors on led backlit panels cause eye strain to some people which is easily detectable with a spectrometer. I know it affects me because the orange backlight on the daylight tablet caused me issues and it uses a specific phosphor (I forgot the name)

moonpie

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jordan

moonpie OLEDs can be safe for some people while lcds are not so I wouldn't cut oleds for good. We all have similar symptoms but different triggers. Also I know some people who are PWM sensitive who can tolerate it as long as its using a sine wave form.

The opple would give you a yes or no to if its using pwm as it would be obvious. the safe yes/no is what is not always accurate. Ive used my opple to test many laptops that were under 10kHz or dc dimmed so its silly to say not to use it for laptops. It is still usable for most.

The phosphors are a big problem for eye strain to some people its not only pwm/dithering. I believe you can tell based off a spectrometer test