24" Acer monitor - killing my eyes! :(

[alex_ncfc]

Hi all,

Just looking for some guidance really, late last year I moved from using some LG "TV/monitor" combo (which ran at 1366x768) to a brand new Acer R241Y HD monitor. It's 24" and I believe the TV/monitor I used was about 18". It is a major step up in quality obviously, with a fantastic picture - well, for what I needed anyway - I didn't need any fancy 4K-ness, as I am not a gamer these days.

But one thing that's stopping me from using my desktop PC (which I am writing this message on) more often is that the new screen is killing my eyes and I can't seem to find a way to remedy this!

I wondered if I had gone for too big a screen, and maybe should have gone for a 22" or 23" HD screen, but my reasoning at the time was, when those particular sizes run at 1920x1080, screen elements and text will be even smaller, so I opted for a 24" model, but my eyes just feel so bl**dy strained! Changing Windows 10 scaling from 100% to 125% makes a difference, but a lot of apps then have blurry text - which isn't exactly clear for my poor old eyes either!

I thought I'd soon get used to the display but it just doesn't seem to be happening, so it's a relief when I go back to my laptop. I'm not exactly sitting too close to the screen, but not over the other side of the room either. Does anybody else experience this sort of thing? Any tips or settings to mess around with? (which, btw, the settings menu on this monitor is a nightmare to navigate )

Thanks

 

[sadbuttrue]

Brightness too high? Ideally you want somewhere near 120/cdm2 for a standard home environment. This will be roughly 20-50% depending on monitor. It will appear dim at first if you need to make a large reduction.

Colour temperature too cold? Too much blue is not good for long term use.

Contrast too high? While this makes images and games pretty, eye-wateringly bright whites are not conducive to comfortable reading. Just think how washed out and grey a paper document is in comparison to your monitor. I have my display set to 30% contrast, far below the recommended 50%.

One other thing to note, do you wear glasses?

I do and have the following monitors here atm:
27" 1440p IPS
21.5" 1080p VA

I find the 21.5" far more comfortable as it fits entirely in my field of view . The is likely due to wearing glasses lowering our fov.

 

[alex_ncfc]

Thanks for very informative the reply, @sadbuttrue.

I do wear glasses yes and I have recently (had an eye test yesterday) been told I need new ones - but I only got a new prescription last summer! So I am conscious of the fact that this screen could have been a reason for my change in vision, which concerns me. You saying that about the 21.5" model kind of makes me wish I had gone in that direction. I don't need a 24" panel but like I said, my thoughts were that 1080p on a smaller monitor would be too hard to see, but I do actually find that on a screen of this size, and even being sat about 2-3 ft away from it, I am having to do a lot of scanning around the screen because of its size.

I have just been fiddling with the brightness and contrast, trying 40% brightness and 30% contrast and like you say it is dim at first, but not as dim as I would expect it to be on those settings, so I am wondering if I will need to go even lower.

My eyes just feel so dry and strained using this thing! It is very annoying because it is a lovely display, and maybe it is just a case of me needing some new glasses, but then I just feel conscious of my sight getting worse.

How far do you sit away from your screen? Do you find the 27" model comfortable to use??

 

[Evian]

Look up your monitor online see if anyone has done any calibrations for it and check the brightness levels etc.

 

[montymint]

When I'm not gaming I use f.lux to add an amber hue to my monitor. I find it helps and I use f.lux all day at work

 

[sadbuttrue]

I always sit arms length from a monitor, regardless of size. I prefer sitting closer to a small display than further away from a larger display, even with scaling to make them appear the same.

I find the 27" tiring tbh. Too much light output and much of it in peripheral vision perhaps.

Another thing that may be an issue is the anti-glare coating - if yours is aggressive the sparkle may be causing eye-strain while reading text on solid backgrounds. My smaller display has a far lighter coating than the 27".

 

[Rofflay]

Brightness and distance is all you can do i guess i said this before how people expect some of us to use 27 inch screens in a desk unless its like "VR" with a screen in your face for me arms length is not enough for a 24 inch if im at arms length its like low FOV and i feel sick but if i move out just over arms legnth (just under 1ft with my hand from monitor) it feels better and i too upped the scaling in windows to compensate. What i did was go into chrome and set the screen text only in the options to something like 14-15 i think granted sometimes google cannot fit everything under a link description but my eyes feel better.


And its another reason why if i venture to gaming on one that size i want 4K DSR with 0% smoothness or 8xMSAA with high frame rate. If i dont get this within an hour my eyes hurt my head hurts and i cannot play anymore!

 

[Munchies]

I'm using a Samsung T260 currently. 25.5 inch TN 1920x1200 and never used to have a problem with my eyes tiring. I replaced it with a 27 inch IPS 144hz 1440p monitor, and had no problems with that whatsoever, however since switching back to the T260 i've been having the same eye strain issues and I don't wear glasses. I've tried moving it closer / further away, and adjusting all the settings I possibly can, seem to have gotten used to it again eventually, still feel eye strain but less so than when I first switched back.

All you can really do is adjust the colors, contrast and brightness as said above, and see if you get used to it. I can't imagine the size is the issue for the eye strain, more the colors / brightness.

 

[MissChief]

To give an example about monitor brightness, my LG 29" has a setting of 1-100. I have it on 8. Modern monitors are far, far too bright, mainly to shine on the showroom floor among the bright shop lights but when you get them home they tend to be set way too bright for regular use. I'd certainly turn the brightness way, way down and even down to its lowest and work up from there.

 

[LeMson]

I suffer from a problem like this, ps3 on the monitor was fine for hours, pc with same settings kills my eyes, I run with very low brightness now 5% I think

 

[EsaT]

Contrast too high? While this makes images and games pretty, eye-wateringly bright whites are not conducive to comfortable reading.

It's brightness which sets how blinding white is.

Contrast affects to how much of panel's light blocking range is used and decreasing it lot only pees and poops on black...
While monitors keeps hogging unnecessary amount of power because of high brightness of backlight.
(+wearing backlight&power supply faster)

In dimmer lightning environment 10-15% brightness is good starting point.
That improves also black value more toward actual zero because dimmer backlight lowers absolute amount of light leaking trough LCD panel.

Modern monitors are far, far too bright, mainly to shine on the showroom floor

And all that fancy "HDR" crap just worsens it.
Instead of making even more blinding backlights they should focus on replacing problematic LCD with something which doesn't have separate leaking backlight and all the contrast/colour problems of viewing angle problems.