OLED Eye Strain [Doesn't affect everyone]
Posted: 27 Aug 2023, 12:22
Hi, I’m hoping someone might be able to help me with diagnosing my issue. I’m suffering from serious eye strain from newer OLED TV’s. I’ve bought and returned many after finding that they all gave eye fatigue. Here’s a list: LG G2 (77”), Sony A95K (65”), LG B2 (77”)… and now I have a Sony X85K (75”, LED) and a Samsung S90C (55” OLED) in my possession. And for a bit of history, I had a 2017 LGE7 OLED (65”) for years that never gave me any issues that I can recall. I also own an HGIMI Horizon Pro Projector, and use a 100” screen, and this causes minimal eye fatigue.
The Sony X85K LED is marketed as flicker free, so I was convinced this would solve my issue if it was indeed PWM sensitivity that was giving me eye strain — and at first things seemed ok. But the second or third long session using it, I came away with major eye strain that lasted into the next day. It was at this point I decided to try the Samsung S90C QD-OLED as it’s a *much* better TV (I figure if I’m going to get eye strain, might as well do it in style). Also I learned that the S90C does 144hz, and since I use my TV as a computer monitor and primarily for gaming (including PS5), that’s a major plus. Also I thought that perhaps a higher refresh rate could help my eyes. I’ve had a decent enough time with the S90C but there are still obvious issues going on. Since it seems every TV affects me now, I’m determined to get a 77” of this model (which I love) and figure out what’s happening to my eyes and how to minimize it.
I have used the wonderful tests on this website and determined that the “microstuttering test” causes me the greatest amount of eye strain which feels most similar to what I generally experience.
Things I know:
-Eye fatigue seems worse when things are in motion.
-While super high contrast (like HDR) appears to hurt my eyes more, reducing the brightness and contrast to 0 and using SDR does not fix my issue, which is like severe dry eyes and tired muscles, but is somewhat agnostic to brightness.
-Sometimes I have an ok time with certain content. I am using GSYNC on PC (I have a 4080), and can sometimes have longer gaming sessions that don’t hurt too bad. Primarily testing with Uncharted 4 (PC release), Rocket League, and others. Mostly at 144hz.
-Yesterday I noticed I was doing well enough playing Rocket League at 144hz for an hour, but then I started a movie on VLC (a 23.97fps film I believe) in SDR, TV set to 144hz, and IMMEDIATELY felt eye strain. This made me believe more than ever that a content/ framerate mismatch could be a factor. I watched an entire 23fps movie on the S90C OLED the other day but set the graphics output refresh rate to 23fps and that seemed to go much better.
-Yesterday I had this succession of events: Played PS5, in game mode: COD MW Remastered (60fps 1080p upscaled to 4k by TV). I experienced some actual motion sickness, which I have never had before from a TV. So I tried sitting a foot further from the screen, and that seemed to help (or I just adjusted and it was placebo, hard to tell). But I have never experienced that nausea feeling from a TV, it’s usually just sore eyes. So hopefully that’s a hint. I then switched to playing Uncharted 2 Remastered (which is 60fps and 1080p upscaled by the TV to 4K), VRR and HDR off. I enabled BFI eventually, and it did seem to help, but it’s hard to tell as I was already sore. That session was a decent experience overall, but I ended up with eye fatigue (could have been from before I turned on BFI — more testing is needed with BFI). After the PS5 session, I switched to PC, set it to 120hz and played Uncharted 4 at 120fps with GSYNC enabled and found it easier on the eyes. I also found just staring at the static desktop to be not an issue.
The evidence is mounting that this is more of a motion issue than a brightness or flicker issue as I had originally thought. I’m sure there’s more testing to do, but I’m hoping I’ve provided enough evidence that someone knowledgeable can ascertain what my issue is and offer some suggestions that help! Thank you!
The Sony X85K LED is marketed as flicker free, so I was convinced this would solve my issue if it was indeed PWM sensitivity that was giving me eye strain — and at first things seemed ok. But the second or third long session using it, I came away with major eye strain that lasted into the next day. It was at this point I decided to try the Samsung S90C QD-OLED as it’s a *much* better TV (I figure if I’m going to get eye strain, might as well do it in style). Also I learned that the S90C does 144hz, and since I use my TV as a computer monitor and primarily for gaming (including PS5), that’s a major plus. Also I thought that perhaps a higher refresh rate could help my eyes. I’ve had a decent enough time with the S90C but there are still obvious issues going on. Since it seems every TV affects me now, I’m determined to get a 77” of this model (which I love) and figure out what’s happening to my eyes and how to minimize it.
I have used the wonderful tests on this website and determined that the “microstuttering test” causes me the greatest amount of eye strain which feels most similar to what I generally experience.
Things I know:
-Eye fatigue seems worse when things are in motion.
-While super high contrast (like HDR) appears to hurt my eyes more, reducing the brightness and contrast to 0 and using SDR does not fix my issue, which is like severe dry eyes and tired muscles, but is somewhat agnostic to brightness.
-Sometimes I have an ok time with certain content. I am using GSYNC on PC (I have a 4080), and can sometimes have longer gaming sessions that don’t hurt too bad. Primarily testing with Uncharted 4 (PC release), Rocket League, and others. Mostly at 144hz.
-Yesterday I noticed I was doing well enough playing Rocket League at 144hz for an hour, but then I started a movie on VLC (a 23.97fps film I believe) in SDR, TV set to 144hz, and IMMEDIATELY felt eye strain. This made me believe more than ever that a content/ framerate mismatch could be a factor. I watched an entire 23fps movie on the S90C OLED the other day but set the graphics output refresh rate to 23fps and that seemed to go much better.
-Yesterday I had this succession of events: Played PS5, in game mode: COD MW Remastered (60fps 1080p upscaled to 4k by TV). I experienced some actual motion sickness, which I have never had before from a TV. So I tried sitting a foot further from the screen, and that seemed to help (or I just adjusted and it was placebo, hard to tell). But I have never experienced that nausea feeling from a TV, it’s usually just sore eyes. So hopefully that’s a hint. I then switched to playing Uncharted 2 Remastered (which is 60fps and 1080p upscaled by the TV to 4K), VRR and HDR off. I enabled BFI eventually, and it did seem to help, but it’s hard to tell as I was already sore. That session was a decent experience overall, but I ended up with eye fatigue (could have been from before I turned on BFI — more testing is needed with BFI). After the PS5 session, I switched to PC, set it to 120hz and played Uncharted 4 at 120fps with GSYNC enabled and found it easier on the eyes. I also found just staring at the static desktop to be not an issue.
The evidence is mounting that this is more of a motion issue than a brightness or flicker issue as I had originally thought. I’m sure there’s more testing to do, but I’m hoping I’ve provided enough evidence that someone knowledgeable can ascertain what my issue is and offer some suggestions that help! Thank you!