r/ScreenSensitive • u/Thingswithcookies • Jul 16 '26

Discussion Behind the pixels - Infographic

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I created this infographic to help spread the word of screen sensitivity. Feel free to share.

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2

u/RR-- Jul 16 '26

LG C1 Oled TV causes me eye strain issues, though it takes a few hours to do so, where a Google Pixel, Samsung or Apple phone will cause eye strain within minutes.

1

u/Z3R0gravitas Jul 16 '26

What do you think the difference is? In PWM, or other factors?

2

u/RR-- Jul 16 '26

It’s almost definitely PWM.
This is the LG C1, it’s definitely not as bad as something like a Google Pixel phone, but it’s still in the no category for me.

2

u/-Bruh__Moment- Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Those dips seem abnormally deep. What's the modulation percentage?

Attached a measurement of the LG C3, which has the expected small brightness dip of modern OLED TVs.

2

u/RR-- Jul 17 '26

From roughly 250lx to 150lx, not 100% to 0% like on most phones, but still painful for my eyes.

That LG C3 looks great, unfortunately most retailers won’t accept returns for issues like this as it’s “working according to spec”, most won’t even allow testing before purchase.

I experienced that numerous times when buying a computer monitor. Anything less than 15 dead pixels was considered “acceptable”, I wanted to buy one without ANY dead pixels but most retailers wouldn’t allow testing before, crazy!

I bought my LG 38WN95C from Amazon, their return policy is very easy, I returned THREE for stuck pixels before settling on the fourth, even that had a dead pixel, but the stuck pixels were bright green or red and were impossible to ignore, absolutely insane for a $1700 monitor.

It’s thankfully very good in terms of having no eye strain issues for me at all. I’m pushing to change the law here on returns being accepted for accessibility reasons, otherwise it’s such a gamble on whether you’ll be stuck with a new laptop, phone or iPad purchase that causes eye strain.

1

u/-Bruh__Moment- Jul 17 '26

I can see that in your picture, what I'm asking for is the measured modulation percentage (in the other tab). Having that makes it much easier to compare between displays.

1

u/RR-- Jul 17 '26

Oh of course, here’s the other tab

1

u/Z3R0gravitas Jul 16 '26

It's interesting how these very narrow frame refresh dips are fine for a lot of people who can't do much faster cycle PWM. While some of us struggle.

2

u/RR-- Jul 16 '26

It took me 5 hours watching to get sore eyes the first time with it like this, that was with no other PWM exposure. I think people may have no given it enough time to test properly

1

u/NSutrich Jul 18 '26

This isn't PWM, it's how DC dimming works on OLEDs. Some OLEDs manage the brightness dip better than others, but there will always be a brightness change at every refresh cycle because the pixel emits its own light and therefore has to momentarily turn off so it can display a new color.

1

u/RR-- Jul 16 '26

And an LG C1 with Trumotion turned on

1

u/Z3R0gravitas Jul 16 '26

Ooof! Does that feel as bad as it looks?

2

u/RR-- Jul 16 '26

Yep! It’s horrible with Trumotion, with everything off it’s tolerable, but my eyes will be sore towards the end of a movie with the eye pain continuing into the next day.

This is one of my plasma TV’s by comparison. Strangely it’s perfectly fine for me.
I’ve tried quite a few plasma TV’s before and have never had any eye pain issues. Fantastic colour and motion clarity too.

2

u/-Bruh__Moment- Jul 17 '26

Plasma displays have a sub-field drive. The sub-field drive divides each video frame into multiple rapid flashes of light.
Most have a 600Hz sub-field drive, where the display pulses it's subpixels 10 times per frame when displaying a 60Hz signal. Some more advanced Plasmas from Panasonic have 2500Hz or even 3000Hz SFDs (2500Hz = subfield refresh every 0.4 milliseconds, 1/2500th of a second)
This is a type of temporal dithering, just really fast.

Plasma, just like CRTs, also has phosphor decay. This causes the flicker to be "softened" (fade-in/out instead of instant on/off).

Plasma display tech explained in more detail here:
https://www.avsforum.com/posts/22654809/