Hello all, Found this forum while trying to research what I have been experiencing, hoping to find some solutions. I will also be scheduling optometry appointment soon, and plan to bring this up during an unrelated neurology appointment as well. Backstory: Never experienced this issue with any other TV's or computer monitors. Phone is an iPhone 16 Pro Max, never had any issues with phones or iPads. Jumping ahead a bit, I have also gone to several stores to "stare" at their display TV's (including the same model mentioned below) and I do not experience this issue while looking at the store models). Recently replaced our bedroom TV (TCL 43S405) with a 48" LG C4 OLED. Was very impressed with the picture quality and everything was great with this new TV (still do not experience the issue on this TV) Loved the OLED, so I decided perhaps it was time to also upgrade our living room tv as I had been wanting a bigger size. (old TV is a 55" Hisense H9G paired with a FireStick 4k Max). For the record, I had never experienced any eye/headache issues with the H9G, no matter what content was being viewed. Viewing distance is around 11ft, and in a fairly well lit living room. Got a new 65" LG G4 OLED TV and Apple TV 4K Box, and set it up. The first day, was able to watch for about 20 minutes before I started getting pain behind my eyes and a headache at the lower front part of my head. Kept trying to get acclimated to the tv for the next couple of weeks, including changing all sort of settings on the TV (brightness, contrast, motion, etc) and the Apple TV (Range, Frame Matching, Output) and nothing would resolve the issue. Got to the point where even when looking at it for just a minute or two would cause the issue, and even when looking at the TV when off, would get a slightly odd feeling in my head (sounds crazy I know). Finally decided to return the TV thinking it was somehow related to the OLED, and set the old TV back up with the Apple TV Box. However, since I had planned on getting rid of the old TV, I had done a factory reset on it. Now, even on the old TV, I am experiencing the same issue. Watching live tv on the Directv Streaming app seems to be ok-ish, however when using Plex to watch movies or any other apps (Netflix, etc), I experience the eye strain and headaches. This was not a problem prior to the new tv, or to the factory reset. Thinking it was perhaps related to how the Apple TV is outputting/processing content, I switched back to the FireStick, and the problem persists. At this point I am at a loss as to what else to try, as I was not expecting to start having the same problem when I hooked the old TV back up as I had been using it just fine for the last 3 years. None of the settings I change seems to make a difference, and I just want to be able to go back to watching TV/Movies with the family again. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Eye strain/headaches with new TV, now problem exists on old TV as well.

jagsfan

Hello all,

Found this forum while trying to research what I have been experiencing, hoping to find some solutions. I will also be scheduling optometry appointment soon, and plan to bring this up during an unrelated neurology appointment as well.

Backstory:

Never experienced this issue with any other TV's or computer monitors. Phone is an iPhone 16 Pro Max, never had any issues with phones or iPads. Jumping ahead a bit, I have also gone to several stores to "stare" at their display TV's (including the same model mentioned below) and I do not experience this issue while looking at the store models).
Recently replaced our bedroom TV (TCL 43S405) with a 48" LG C4 OLED. Was very impressed with the picture quality and everything was great with this new TV (still do not experience the issue on this TV)
Loved the OLED, so I decided perhaps it was time to also upgrade our living room tv as I had been wanting a bigger size. (old TV is a 55" Hisense H9G paired with a FireStick 4k Max). For the record, I had never experienced any eye/headache issues with the H9G, no matter what content was being viewed. Viewing distance is around 11ft, and in a fairly well lit living room.
Got a new 65" LG G4 OLED TV and Apple TV 4K Box, and set it up. The first day, was able to watch for about 20 minutes before I started getting pain behind my eyes and a headache at the lower front part of my head.
Kept trying to get acclimated to the tv for the next couple of weeks, including changing all sort of settings on the TV (brightness, contrast, motion, etc) and the Apple TV (Range, Frame Matching, Output) and nothing would resolve the issue. Got to the point where even when looking at it for just a minute or two would cause the issue, and even when looking at the TV when off, would get a slightly odd feeling in my head (sounds crazy I know).
Finally decided to return the TV thinking it was somehow related to the OLED, and set the old TV back up with the Apple TV Box. However, since I had planned on getting rid of the old TV, I had done a factory reset on it.
Now, even on the old TV, I am experiencing the same issue. Watching live tv on the Directv Streaming app seems to be ok-ish, however when using Plex to watch movies or any other apps (Netflix, etc), I experience the eye strain and headaches. This was not a problem prior to the new tv, or to the factory reset.
Thinking it was perhaps related to how the Apple TV is outputting/processing content, I switched back to the FireStick, and the problem persists.

At this point I am at a loss as to what else to try, as I was not expecting to start having the same problem when I hooked the old TV back up as I had been using it just fine for the last 3 years. None of the settings I change seems to make a difference, and I just want to be able to go back to watching TV/Movies with the family again.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated!

simplex

jagsfan I started getting pain behind my eyes and a headache at the lower front part of my head

nervious problem ( its not eye-presssure), trigeminal nerve . I am also sensitive for high-freq flickering (PWM, dithering, pixel-inversion etc) after I tested new laptop, majority part of old hardware (grapfic cards, screens in monitors, motherboards) become "bad".

If you once triggered it, you cant "revert back changes". Try to relax 1-2 weeks without any screens, give your nerves calm. Then try to use old device. Dont give a hope for "bad" device, you can increase nerve sensitivity only

simplex

jagsfan Got to the point where even when looking at it for just a minute or two would cause the issue

welcome to high sensitivity club 🙂 I also can feel it with new devices, if it contain "bad" equipment

moonpie

jagsfan iPhone 16 Pro Max ...48" LG C4 OLED...TCL 43S405 ... Hisense H9G

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/tcl/s-series-s405-4k-2018
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/hisense/h9g

Can take up to 3 days for your eyes to reset; however, based on your past and current devices I have doubts you are susceptible to any kind of flickering at all. That TCL has high amplitude 120hz square waves with terrible response times causing a strobe motion effect across all brightness.

My guess is probably just something to do with the Apple TV 4K Box.

Donux

simplex Stop being content consumer, start becoming content producer. Stop reading news, start writing news. Stop gaming, start writing games for others. Its an unequal playing field, everyone wants to control your mind. In old days it was difficult to do it remotely.

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

For me the only streaming device that doesn't mess up my TV is PS5. (with HDR off)

Apple TV 4K is unusable for me, even with the same RGB mode, color range, streaming app / TV show etc. Xfinity X1 cable box also causes some issues, not as bad as Apple TV though. But PS5 "just works" for me.

On Apple TV it feels like everything is a blur of colors and I can't tell what's going on in the show, and my eyes have intentionally refocus every time there is a jump cut to a new scene, and whenever an actor is really close up to the camera they become even blurrier and it hurts my eyes

On PS5, with the same show and TV, I can follow all of the action, don't feel like I have to refocus anymore, and the picture appears "flatter" for me, and close-up scenes no longer feel weird

Even a modern LG OLED can actually become surprisingly decent for me with PS5, as long as all of the processing options in the TV's settings are turned off

AgentX20

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs I couldn't use the Apple TV 4K model, however the previous model (4th gen) is still working well for me, including running the latest TVOS. (I purposely bought another spare one, just in case).

Lauda89

It's a common thing, not being able to use old devices anymore after you've been sick with a new one. Usually the problem is resolved a 1 or 2 weeks.

But this year it happened to me that a couple of devices that I had been using for many years started giving me problems for no reason. Ipad Air 2 with IOS 13 and an old plasma TV with an old fire tv stick. No software updates.

So I tried to play a game of warcraft 3 on a very old PC that I used for lan parties 15 years ago. We are talking about a PC with windows XP and I still got a migraine. So something has changed in my physique and it is not true that old devices don't give me problems. This made me realize to think less about PWM, dithering, etc. but look for a medical solution. 10mg of Fluxarten works well but I don't like the side effects.

jagsfan

Thank you all for the comments. I guess one of the bigger questions I have is why this doesn’t seem to happen on the demo units in stores when I stare at those for 5-10 minutes, but happens almost immediately (within 1-2 minutes) at home. It also only seems to be TV’s, as I work from home on 2 monitors every day and those do not bother me at all.

I will try some of the advice, see if I can avoid TV’s for a few weeks and see if it resolves the issue, just tough during football season! I also tried to get an eye appointment but the provider says insurance won’t cover it since I already had my annual exam earlier this year, so I may be waiting for January on that one.

moonpie

jagsfan

Replicate a retail store at home: turn your lights up way higher, turn on "demo/retail" mode on your TV, and stand way further back.

Are you sure the smaller OLED caused no affects?

simplex

Donux

Agreed, the nature create human not for screen consuming

jagsfan

moonpie Thanks, will give that a try.

And surprisingly no, I am still able to watch that one just fine, using an Apple TV 4K, and it is also what I use for my Xbox Series X. I will say, when playing the series X, after an hour or so I will notice it a little bit, which was not the case when I would game on the TCL prior to the OLED.