Do LCDs Fry Your Eyes?

[DasFox]

Do LCD monitors bother your eyes, and no matter what settings you put it on, it's just not as easy on your eyes as a CRT?

Personally for me LCDs really bother me, I have tried many different brands, and in the end they simply fry my eyes.

I hope soon before I'm dead there will be a better technology coming along, or some company that can do something to improve LCD viewing quality, or maybe I still haven't found the right one, but let me tell you I've played with quite a few. I guess I'm an unlucky bastard, LOL...

Please answer the poll...

THANKS

 

[taisingera]

LCDs don't bother my eyes unless they are low quality (some notebooks) or set really bright. Have bought 3 Samsungs 710N, 940MW (use it mostly as a TV) and 2253LW all are good, no dead pixels.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: DasFox
Do LCD monitors bother your eyes, and no matter what settings you put it on, it's just not as easy on your eyes as a CRT?

Nope, they don't bother me. It'd kind of be a killer if they did, because of the amount of time I spend in front of them either at work or at home...

Work LCDs: both Viewsonic (one of the two is a VGA, and that one does sort of bother my eyes because the slight blurriness is more obvious next to the DVI one)

Home LCD: HP

Laptop: Dell

Btw, I think you forgot to put Dell LCDs as an option.

 

[mb]

Um, not trying to thread crap, but I didn't think it was even possible for an LCD to bother your eyes like a CRT does. I've been using LCDs since back when a 17" LCD was over $600 and they have never caused me problems.

 

[Qbah]

No No Yes Samsung

 

[DasFox]

I don't know if it's the 60hz refresh rate, or that most LCDs are brighter then CRTs.

But even a NEC 20WMGX2, which is by no means a cheap monitor was to bright and bothersome for me, and no matter how many ways I tried to adjust it, it was just not comfortable to look at, and if I made it less bright, then it just appeared hazy looking, not so clear.

For me LCDs for gaming are great, it's just when it comes to 2D work on the desktop I've yet to find one my eyes can handle looking at.

 

[Seggybop]

One of the reasons I stopped using CRT was that the flicker and slight blur were messing with my eyes. Not to mention the radiation that possibly causes cataracts. I would still prefer to use CRT if not for those issues, because they still have much better color, response time, and most importantly can actually display black properly. I considered buying one of the gigantic FW900 24" widescreen CRTs for ~$100 but decided I was better off staying with LCD. I'm using a 20" Apple Cinema Display LCD right now (Apple wasn't a poll option).

 

[CP5670]

LCDs look fine to me as long as the brightness is turned down. Most of them come too bright out of the box especially for a dark room, but they can be adjusted down. I use a CRT for other reasons.

There was a thread here some years ago about this issue. Apparently the flicker of the CCFL backlight (which is in the 30-50khz range) gives some people headaches. If that is your problem, a LED LCD might be worth trying out, especially since they're also dimmer at their default settings.

 

[Modular]

Acer AL2051W here. Best peripheral investment I've made in a long time.

 

[Zap]

no
no
yes
other

I choose "other" because "many" was not an option. I use some Acer 19" at work on VGA. They are identical models, but I had to adjust them differently to get them to look the same, since they're right next to each other. My other work monitors are for testing, and are Dell 3007 and Dell 3008. At home I use a Soyo 24" for main machine, Westinghouse 42" for HTPC and Dell 2005 for LAN party rig. Used to have CTX 17", Acer 19", Acer 22", Dell 207, HannsG 22", Westinghouse 22".

I've found that across the board, I have had to greatly turn down the brightness. Also, I do get eye strain if I'm in a darkened room (why the fuck do people at LAN parties have to turn off all the lights?!?!?) but that also held true with CRT monitors.

 

[CP5670]

why the fuck do people at LAN parties have to turn off all the lights?!?!?

Games are much more immersive that way. My gaming time is usually in the evening or night and I always turn off the lights.

 

[DasFox]

My eyes when I got up today were hurting. For me that 60hz refresh on an LCD is to bright and buzzing... 85hz on a CRT seems gentle on my eyes, but yet text is crisper and cleaner on an LCD to look at.

For gaming I love playing on a 22" wide screen LCD, if anyone has recently played Fallout3 you'll know it sucks on a normal monitor, there is just to much in the game to see, and without a wide screen it just doesn't feel normal.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Going from a CRT to an LCD was hard. It seemed too bright, and the aspect ratio was not exactly the same. After a while, I got used to it and it was easy on the eyes.

 

[nismotigerwvu]

I play a lot of older games and it just makes the baby jesus cry to have to scale any resoltion and it is just a giant pain in the rear end to get everything tweaked to just look ok.
I miss the color quality, i miss the versatility (refresh rates, resolution...ect ect).
What I miss the most is the availability of quality CRT's at any reasonable price....sigh......

 

[faxon]

poll didnt have all the options i wanted, but i put i still prefer CRT, only because of input lag and color quality, LCDs do hurt my eyes, but LCDs are so much better all around that i will live. you need to make the last one a multiple choice. i prefer LG, Acer, some HP, few Samsung, and there are probably others i havent found yet. not counting dell since none of the good ones are good for gaming on w/o spending a shit ton on graphics cards

 

[thilanliyan]

Nope, CRTs kill my eyes.

 

[boglwe]

I went to my eye doctor after having problems with my eyes, and had to get glasses at age 36. I asked him "Is it because of the amount of time that I spend in front of two LCD monitors all day?" His response was, "There are no studies that prove that LCD monitors have any effect on the eyes." So, do what you will with that information.

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: DasFox
My eyes when I got up today were hurting. For me that 60hz refresh on an LCD is to bright and buzzing...

It couldn't be the refresh rate. LCDs don't flicker every refresh like CRTs do, instead the pixels just shift from one color another when the image changes.

 

[zerogear]

I think people who have LCD hurt their eyes, the brightness is probably too high. Go do monitor calibration.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: CP5670
LCDs look fine to me as long as the brightness is turned down. Most of them come too bright out of the box especially for a dark room, but they can be adjusted down. I use a CRT for other reasons.

There was a thread here some years ago about this issue. Apparently the flicker of the CCFL backlight (which is in the 30-50khz range) gives some people headaches. If that is your problem, a LED LCD might be worth trying out, especially since they're also dimmer at their default settings.

There is no way flicker will be perceptible on a CCFL driven at 30-50KHz due to the phosphor persistence of the tube itself! LED's WILL flicker WORSE if their PWM driver is too low but most are in the upper century to low kHz range to prevent just that with dimmer settings.

I have an LED backlit notebook that has a cold cast to it and is too bright for my tastes.

CRT's are super fuzzy to me especially at the higher resolution. Back in the day the best CRT's were running with either BNC cables or the 13W3 interface. DB15 was not good at 1600x1200@120Hz and above.

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
There is no way flicker will be perceptible on a CCFL driven at 30-50KHz due to the phosphor persistence of the tube itself! LED's WILL flicker WORSE if their PWM driver is too low but most are in the upper century to low kHz range to prevent just that with dimmer settings.

I have an LED backlit notebook that has a cold cast to it and is too bright for my tastes.

CRT's are super fuzzy to me especially at the higher resolution. Back in the day the best CRT's were running with either BNC cables or the 13W3 interface. DB15 was not good at 1600x1200@120Hz and above.

The CCFL issue seems strange to me too, but that is what everyone was saying back then.

I use a VGA/DB15 link at the same setting and it looks no different from lower bandwidth settings. The effect of that depends on the particular CRT as well as the surrounding environment.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: boglwe
had to get glasses at age 36... "There are no studies that prove that LCD monitors have any effect on the eyes."

However, AGE does have an effect on the eyes.

 

[videogames101]

Originally posted by: DasFox
I don't know if it's the 60hz refresh rate, or that most LCDs are brighter then CRTs.

But even a NEC 20WMGX2, which is by no means a cheap monitor was to bright and bothersome for me, and no matter how many ways I tried to adjust it, it was just not comfortable to look at, and if I made it less bright, then it just appeared hazy looking, not so clear.

For me LCDs for gaming are great, it's just when it comes to 2D work on the desktop I've yet to find one my eyes can handle looking at.

60hz doesn't hurt your eyes like CRTs, because there is no flicker. The backlight is always on.

 

[DasFox]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman

Originally posted by: DasFox
My eyes when I got up today were hurting. For me that 60hz refresh on an LCD is to bright and buzzing...

It couldn't be the refresh rate. LCDs don't flicker every refresh like CRTs do, instead the pixels just shift from one color another when the image changes.

For me the 60hz does bother me on an LCD, it has more of a buzzing, vibrating look to the screen. If you place a CRT that normally runs at 85hz on 60hz and then look at you'll get what I mean. Now if this isn't what I'm interpreting with my eyes, because 60hz won't affect you the same was as a CRT, then the brightness is something I can never lower far enough without it bothering me.

With the brightness and backlight adjustments that some LCDs have, I have turned it down as far as you can go, and then when you do this some LCDs start to take on a hazy look to the screen. So with the LCDs I've had I can only turn the brightness down so far before the screen isn't clear, and still it hasn't been enough, the screen is still to bright and hurts my eyes.

 

[CP5670]

For me the 60hz does bother me on an LCD, it has more of a buzzing, vibrating looking to the screen. If you place a CRT that normally runs at 85hz on 60hz and then look at you'll get what I mean. Now if this isn't what I'm interpreting with my eyes, because 60hz won't affect you the same was as a CRT, then the brightness is something I can never lower far enough without it bothering me.

This doesn't sound like it has anything to do with the refresh rate, but have you tried a (proper) 75hz LCD for comparison? A few of them exist in the 19" and smaller sizes.

Any sort of "vibrating" look is probably either the screen door effect or something to do with the backlight though. The 60hz refresh rate will limit the framerate to 60fps, which can be annoying and is noticeable with mouse movements in Windows, but that shouldn't cause the effects you describe.