Display Enlightment by NCX

Here's a backlight bleed test.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXHcRiSK_ys

My two HP monitors test almost perfectly. The Asus Eye Care IPS (the generation just before the current release) had really bad backlight bleed according to this test.

Are my HP units unusually good, or was the Asus with very noticeable bleed an anomaly?

I'm also wondering if how roughly the monitor is handled during the shipping process from the factory to the customer affects backlight bleed.

Well, many have said they find VA screens more comfortable than IPS.

Someone says, "I guess in theory VA would be better because it has better contrast (which will make it easier to read text) and dark parts of an image will be darker (so less light going into your eyes)."

"I must admit that VA are in some way more like flat surface in that eyes have at least surface to focus at, unlike IPS which seems to be more like watching transparent mosaic of colored glass."

But I'm mainly referring to real-world anecdotes, like: "It's been a couple of more weeks. Still no eye fatigue from a VA monitor. And I did end up staying with the 32UD60, despite the uniformity issue. Eye comfort is way more important to me. And after years of dealing with eye fatigue from monitors, no way I would go back to IPS or TN."

The grainy look of my HP 25er fixed itself, but now instead of one horizontal blue line, I have 2. Still very usable, but something obviously is failing. Only 13,000 backlight hours. Out of warranty. I wouldn't expect HP to help me given that I bought this in early 2017.

When I try that PWM test page, I get a "sync failure" error at the bottom, which is telling me to move all my apps to my primary monitor.

I don't know what that means, and if it means the test won't work properly.

I don't notice any difference running that test at various brightness levels on my 22xw, and the results look the same as on my 25er. I'm assuming the 22xw is flicker free, but with that sync failure error I can't know for sure.

Of my two HPs, I definitely prefer the low haze 25er. I bought this 25er when the 22xw seemed to be straining my eyes and someone suggested the low haze feature might help.

In the day environment I can see the benefits of a matte screen. It's a little less harsh on the eyes now. It's in darker environments that the low haze screen really shines. Also, I enabled "full color" on the matte screen and that made a big difference. I think many people could be running their screens at limited color 16-235 instead of 0-255 because HDMI sometimes does that by default. This can explain some of the reviews calling certain screens washed out and lacking good black levels. It's a big difference.

Actually, now that I'm using both the 22xw and the 25er side by side, there really is no comparison. I need a low haze or glossy unit. I just don't enjoy the washed out matte surface even for office work. The 25er is far superior.

You say the 25f is not quite as good as the 25er, or do you think it's the luck of the draw?

Also, should have a new HP low haze around this fall?

I found this interesting anecdote:

I have first encountered this eye strain problem when quite a few years ago I have sold my MAG500T Trinitron CRT and bought a flat screen TFT. It was - as far as I remember - a 22" 16:9 Acer with TN panel, 6+2 bit dithering and a CCFL backlight - all the bad things. I was happy. Well... for about half an hour, when my eyes started to hurt. I have tried every setting possible, looked up some forums... in the end, after spending a few hours in front of this monitor, I got such a terrible headache and eye strain that I literally could not work for a week. I could not watch TV or sit in front of a monitor, my eyes swelled up, it was tragic.

So I did some "research", and bought an S-PVA display - a Samsung 971P. I still have it. I turned down brightness, turned up contrast, etc. Also got a lamp behind the monitor that lights the wall, and I was happy again Later on I bought a BenQ BL2400T, which has an AMVA panel. It was somewhat harder to set up, but it was OK once again.

However, just today I got a Dell U2515H. I wanted to do some color sensitive work, get WQHD resolution, etc... And now again, my eyes are starting to melt. I look at the BenQ beside the Dell, and it's a relief. I look back, and it's starting to hurt again.

I am still evaluating this, but I strongly suspect that for me, it all comes down to contrast. And contrast is... well, more complicated than one might think. I am perfectly fine with the AMOLED screen of my Tab 8.4 S, even though it has very tiny text. I am also OK with the *VA panels, as they have about 3x the contrast of IPS panels: I can set brightness to almost zero, while turning up the contrast, so that I have really deep blacks. But on an IPS... even the blacks *radiate*. If I turn down the brightness up to the point where it is fine for me, the contrast becomes very low. There is just no sweet spot. If I increase the ambient light in the room, it is somewhat better, but still, IPS - and TN of course - just have way too much intrinsic light hitting my eyes, IMHO.

I would recommend to everyone that have this problem to try some sort of an *VA panel display with about 5% brightness and 50% contrast, with a lit background, and see whether it helps or not.

Also I've read good things about the LG 24BK400H. It's a TN screen, which has me wary. Any thoughts on why no one seems to complain about this monitor even though it's TN?