"can't stand looking at OLED display (any)"

K-Moss

"Greetings to all awesome analog-loving people on this sub! New here.

Recently I was thinking about and issue that bothers me for quite a long time. I am among those who can't stand looking at OLED display (any) for more than 15 minutes. Either way my eyes start to feel real pain, become rainy and I may even get a heavy headache.

Now finally have none of OLED displays in my home. But I was thinking: if the real issue with OLED is it's flicker, why then I was OK with using CRT displays for my whole childhood and am still ok with watching old Panasonic Vierra TV? I can literally watch it for hours with no discomfort whatsoever. Yet it flickers too.

Does that have something to do with the flicker frequency? Or maybe the watching distance (yet I also used old 800x600 CRT PC monitors back in the days and had no issues as well). Do you also have similar issues with OLEDs but none with CRT?"

https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/comments/zlqb56/oled_vs_crt_both_flicker_only_one_gives_pain/

Sunspark

CRTs had phosphor decay meaning the light didn't stop immediately. Same thing with incandescent lightbulbs.. they "flicker" at 60 Hz, but we don't notice it because the hot wire is still radiating heat/light by the time the next pulse arrives.

With modern displays like OLED, they turn off instantly until the next defined refresh interval.

Rowe

I had issues with LCD and CRT too. I think out of the three, CRT monitors were the worst for me. I remember feeling very relieved when I didn't have to use a CRT anymore for work.

The only screen tech that's usually been very comfortable for me is e-ink. The only exception being the lighting on some Boox and Dasung devices but there's plenty of alternatives.

Sunspark

I had CRTs for years. I was definitely a user of 85 Hz and 100 Hz refresh rates on them.

60 Hz on PC monitors was no good because they had a fast phosphor. It was different on TVs because they had a slower phosphor and were interlaced to boot.

K-Moss

Sunspark Since OLED smartphones have a refresh dip, shouldn't one want to use a higher refresh rate since every time the screen refreshes there is a dip in the brightness? We want that to happen at 120 Hz, not 60 Hz, right?

Sunspark

The dip doesn't go to 0. It is still illuminating.

The shape of the waveform and how deep it goes makes a difference.

K-Moss

Sunspark Even still, dipping 20% every 60 Hz refresh seems much worse than dipping 20% at 120 Hz, no?