New monitor, now my eyes hurt.(BenQ 24" BL2411PT IPS)

Gnuffi

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Sep 14, 2013
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So recently i got myself a new monitor, the BenQ 24" BL2411PT IPS

and being a "fancy" monitor and all that it ofc comes with all sorts of nice features and possible display settings

now, since im no AV geek, i got no clue to what im fiddling with and have thus always primarily used factory standard settings on all my display device, mainly only tuning brightness in case it was way off

everything looked good with this new gorgeous crystal clear monitor, however i have noticed a huge difference in this compared to my old one

my eyes start to hurt really bad, pretty fast, (talking couple of hours), where as on my old one i could do a 24+hour sitting and not feel anything

is there like some common factors to what display settings that influence "hurting eyes"

any1 familiar with the BenQ 24" BL2411PT IPS, and could give specific advice on how to setup the display (so i dont mess it up) if there is such a solution

i really like this monitor(not to mention its new and paid a pretty penny for it), so would really hate if i had to go back to using my old none hd monitor

so i really hope there perhaps might be some common factors/causes with this type of issue, and a common/easy fix

thx
 

neon neophyte

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yeah.

refresh rate. ie, 60hz or 75hz or whatever. some people complain of eye strain at 60hz and need a higher refresh rate on a monitor. could also have something to do with the amount of light hitting your eye. is our screen bigger? is it brighter?
 

Gnuffi

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the refresh rate is native 60 hz, cant change that anywhere(just like my old monitor), seems like its due to it being an IPS they wont go over 60

screen size is same as old one too 24inches

it doesnt really appear to be all that much "brighter" i mean not to the point of where i have felt the need to adjust brightness like with some other display devices where they were obviously too bright,
its like, everything is clearer, much more, but i was expecting that this being a HD monitor, and my old wasnt.. its like crystal clear and crisp colours.. kinda like my HD tv, but better still

light hitting eyes, hmm well, i guess i could try lowering the brightness a tad and give it a couple of days and see if that makes a difference
 
The problem isn't the refresh rate. That was a problem with CRT's. LCD's do not flicker from refreshes, as CRT's did, so forget that.

However, the backlighting used in monitors can flicker and cause eye strain (not related to refresh rate). It is not a common problem, but common enough that you see people come here once in a while and complain about it. BenQ even has a few monitors with a low eye strain feature; Gaming-comfort ZeroFlicker™ Technology.

I'm no expert on the problem, as I do not have it, nor studied it, but good luck on your monitor search. The people I've seen complain about this issue, have had lots of problems finding a good monitor at times.

You may also want to tone down the brightness. Monitors these days have WAY over the top brightness levels. I set mine to 30% brightness, and it is still quite bright.
 

Gnuffi

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actually one of the notes when looking up monitors on the user reviews on this BenQ 24" BL2411PT IPS, was that it is flicker free, nice compared to older monitors(like the one i had)

did go through a lot of user comments before finally settling for this monitor

so sofar thats 2 notes on brightness, i guess ill lower it a tad more then and check how it goes

 

Gnuffi

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changed the brightness, tried 25, 50, 75, back to 100, then 35, and 60..
just doesnt seem like a setting that allows me to play/watch the same lengths of sessions im used to on the old monitor..

any other settings i need to adjust?, like if i increase/decrease brightness i need to increase/decrease contrast/colour temps equivalent to X?
 

Harakiri

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BenQ 's supposed to be a very soft-on-the-eyes brand. I'm experiencing the same problem with my new Dell monitor and I'm looking into what went wrong as well. IMHO, it could be either of two things 1) IPS technology, praised by many for its color accuracy and vividness, yet too bright for some of us with sensitivities. A solution to this could be VA panels, with less brightness and deeper blacks, or even the good old TNs. 2) Lower pixel density (i.e. higher pitch): You said you 've been using the same 24" monitor size but at a non-HD resolution. This means your real estate got bigger and everything else (desktop icons, text) got smaller. Smaller things can be harder to read, thus causing eye strain. Test this by changing your resolution back to the one of the old monitor, say 1680x1050. It may not look as sharp, being non-native, but if it does help you know that you should be looking at a 27" FHD monitor next time.
 

GilliB

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Jul 23, 2014
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I've never had sore eyes before. I have had this monitor for ten days and have seriously sore eyes. I spent four hours on the computer last night and woke with eyes still sore. I would also be grateful for advice.
 

Gnuffi

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what solved it for me was a few things.

First of like many suggested, Brightness, its incredible intense on this monitor, so turn it down, like max 50, below even better if your room is nicely lit
(the new monitor settings also means you have to readjust visual settings, such as brightness, in all applications you use, games and such)
using Word, Excel or other "white" windowed applications, like most common web pages, give serious strain on the eyes with the amount of brightness and contrast and sharpness this monitor provides, make sure you tone it down for all "white" window type applications, and it will relieve a lot)

secondly a thing that helped the next and biggest part for me was a trip to my optician as suggested, turns out i was due for an "upgrade" in terms of lenses in my glasses, that relieved a lot for me too

the third thing that took a last little piece off and made everything smooth, was changing the default text size in applications, so that texts and symbols and stuff scaled a little better, and stopped being microscopic

but just lowering the brightness and getting the monitor in a better distance helped
if you dont use corrective lenses, and optician might not be able to help as much for you as it was for me, if you do check out if your lenses are the correct strength since it changes with time,
otherwise you might want to look into those monitor glasses designed for normal people to relieve eyestrain
 

HDCRT

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Sep 29, 2014
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Have this problem since 2011... I went to doctor cause of that, he said everything is ok with your eyes, but problem remained..
After 3 years of gathering "experience " from watching all sorts of monitors i can "almost" narrow problem to : IPS technology,IPS glow, very hard coating they glue to screen which produces grainy picture (you should see dell ultrasharp monitor through my eyes ) , blue light which LED produces , backlight frequency :)
Can i mention in time of CRT i could notice 50Hz blinking without watching spot behind monitor, or any sort of distracting to be able to notice. My dream back then was 17" CRT 100Hz with highest possible resolution.
Who would guess that in 2014. the standard would be 15.6" with 1366*768 (OMG, i had 1680*1050 on 15" laptop then).... They say, this new technology is healthier , i say maybe it was but they made it very dangerous for humans. Few days ago i saw picture on 17" CRT, 1280x1024, 50Hz blinking ... It was a sight for sore eyes after all that blinking, switching, dispersion, blurriness from so called healthier technology which makes me sick....