PWM #
Full-screen flicker of the display backlight. Typically invisible, but easily detectable.
- Article about PWM on notebookcheck
- Iris - software that emulates DC dimming, equalling PWM to that is used for 100% brightness on your device
- An old and experimental tool to adjust PWM driver frequency on Windows
- IEEE Std 1789-2015 - recommended practices for PWM in LED lights (pdf)
Vcom (LCD screens) #
Small flickering of separate pixels, visible with bad factory settings.
Inversion (LCD screens) #
Small flickering of separate pixels, visible on test images
Inversion tests:
Post about inversion leading to real life visible patterns
Post about inversion leading to real life visible colored spots (Russian)
Temporal dithering #
Small flickering of pixels to create a color, potentially visible. May happen faster than the screen’s refresh rate (which is usually 60 FPS).
- Article about dithering with link to example (Caution! Severe flicker!)
- Another article that has advice on where to find dithering setting for Nvidia and AMD
- Guide how to check whether dithering is affecting you and turn it off on Intel video cards (Russian)
- Solution for temporal dithering from si_edgey
- Post with a hardware and software setup to overcome dithering
- Disabling dithering on Linux with Nvidia
- On laptops, discrete GPU passes its output to the integrated GPU, so it has the final say on dithering or processing
- Ditherig, software to turn off dithering: home page
- Ditherig source code
You can find more about how to disable dithering through the forum search.
Dithering tests and capture:
- I have bought a capture card by Seagull
- GPU dithering by Seagull (Important findings: dithering frequency depends on the color and also dithering may disappear on some output modes of specific GPU)
- Screens under microscope in slowmo (dithering / FRC tests) by andc
- Video of undefined dithering-like flicker, made visible with e-ink by ShivaWind (scroll through user posts for more info)
FRC #
Small flickering of pixels to create a color, potentially visible.
Happens as fast as the screen’s refresh rate
(which is usually 60 FPS).
It is a form of temporal dithering that is tied to the matrix and is used to increase matrix color capacity.
Data about many matrices can be found here:
- http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/monitor_panel_parts.htm
- http://www.panelook.com/modelsearch.php?op=size
- How to check panel manufacturer on MacBook
Cables #
HDMI cable
- Post about symptoms from a specific HDMI cable
- Visible flicker from a malfunctioning HDMI cable (Russian) - this post was originally on ledstrain
- Post about HDMI cable influence on eyestrain (Russian)
VGA cable
Conversion cables
Image output #
- Post where eyestrain decreases a lot with 16-235 range (a.k.a. “Limited output”) (on NVidia)
- One user says (Russian) full-range output made it much more comfortable to work on his Benq GW2270 monitor
- One user says (Russian) YCbCr444 output mode made his eyes “focus and not hurt”
- Post where 16-235 helped to eliminate eyestrain completely (on NVidia, with one specific monitor)
- Article about 16-235 and 0-255 (Russian)
- Nvidia drivers automatically interpret monitor as TV when it is plugged in through HDMI and gives it 16-235 range (dated 2015) (Russian)
Image output and dithering:
- GPU dithering (Important findings: dithering may be absent with some image output modes)
Image resolution scaling #
Scaling algorithms make an image blurry
Software and OS #
- Detailed article about eyestrain from Linux (Russian)
- Thread about eyestrain from linux , where disabling dithering does not fix the issue
- Windows 10 anniversary edition (1607 and later) thread
- Thread where rebooting Windows 10 in audit mode helped
- Chrome thread
Visual effects in software #
Chromatic aberration in games:
Other visual effects in games: