Sure, but at least low PWM can be easily tested with phone, and there are many reviews by Notebookcheck that cover various panels, so mixing results we can find panels that are 8-bit without FRC and PWM-free. That doesn't guarantee anything, but at least that's less enemies to defeat.
Eyestrain solved after 6 years and multiple panels - LG 32gk850g
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andc For me at least it doesn't matter if they are PWM free and 8-bit. I have seen such panels at shops and they still strained me. The Dell XPS 15 is an example. That's what makes the dithering thing confusing because if that IS a major factor then why would it be happening on a true 8-bit panel? Does that mean dithering isn't a cause of strain? Does that mean it's trying to dither even higher to 10-bit etc?
hpst
As usual, we can only guess, and try to find a needle in a haystack. I've been also thinking about refresh rates, frequencies, etc. For example I have some ear issues where particular frequencies tend to cause me physical pain (probably due to many years with headphones, etc.). There seems to be a relation between eye strain, sinus / jaw issues in some cases, both of them have also effect on ears. The pressure I can feel from staring at some laptops resembles sinus pain. So maybe our eyes are sensitive to specific frequencies, the same as ears, and these frequencies might have changed in recent years - due to dithering, new technology, more powerful gear, etc. Since we have different sight we may be sensitive to different frequencies - that would explain why someone can't use PWM screen with low refresh rate, while it doesn't bother other people. Just a thought, one of options.
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JTL We are on the same page I think...I may have just expressed it wrongly. The laptop panel doesn't have built in dithering instructions or blue light/contrast/brightness whatever etc like a desktop monitor can so I called that a "dumb panel". As I understand it the panel's pixels have to "dither" to get the "super awesome vibrant" colors and thats what I meant by saying the gpu is making the panel dither. I understood the gpu is making it happen.
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JTL Nearly every BIOS screen I have seen is on 100% brightness with no ability to reduce it so I can't stand looking at them just due to that...it's blindingly bright and hurts on anything but a super old dim CCFL. A 2014 Thinkpad I got for testing did surprisingly allow brightness controls to work in the BIOS but an update ruined that.
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What does that mean? Why in the world would a text only, pre OS utility be dithered? Does that mean its just hardwired into the gpu and whenever a computer is on its dithering regardless of what is displayed? I had some hope it was dithering because instructions in the OS/drivers were telling it to which would mean it might be possible to turn off. If its in firmware before the OS and drivers even get loaded how could we even affect it?
11 days later
deepflame Teradici (a company that makes display over Ethernet extenders that use image compression which dithering interferes with) claims that the 10-bit color option on certain AMD graphics cards can disable dithering. So that's another datapoint.
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This could be huge as an easy DIY test to see if dithering is or isn't an obvious problem. Do you have any more info on what gpus? There isn't any detail. I see there are linux instructions there which was a nice surprise as I thought "yeah it probably only works on Windows". If this would work on AMD Ryzen/Vega laptops etc it would be an easy test as there are a couple at Best Buy I could try in store if this Catalyst Center thing is normally installed...but they have locked down internet so no installing new stuff there.
Do you know if you can enable 10-bit monitor support, thus turning dithering off, on a Linux system with an AMD GPU/APU somehow? I could also live boot linux in a shop and try that as well. Worst case I would buy an AMD laptop and just return it if it didn't work...but I guess I need to know what GPUs/APUs this works for first. Does Nvidia have a similar process since there are a lot more Nvidia models out there to test?
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hpst I do plan to test this after I get the same/similar laptop as @deepflame after the capture card. Just a few more things to sort out with my desktop before I order it, nothing to do with you.
I'll write you a summery email tomorrow.
JTL Well if Catalyst isn't used anymore as you said its likely this is old news. I was hoping I could either with a swtich or config file do the 10-bit enabling on a modern system and test it. Excited for nothing I guess since a 2008 year Thinkpad being usable isn't really helpful to me even if it works on that.
JTL I have two of these Lenovo W500 now and one has gone bad. I think the reason was that I installed the Eizo drivers that came with the ColorEdge display I got. Now it even dithers on boot which the other good one does not.
I already tried to remove the battery and to reset the CMOS but I am not sure if it really helped. It may be that the Windows software made it bad again after boot.
Will test this again when time permits. ( I learned the hard way that color calibration has a big impact on dithering. this just shows me that colors and color depth play a big role in this. )
Just to let you know that there may be some things to look out for.