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iMac 27 Severe Eye Strain and Migraines (Display Design Flaw

C

crows

macrumors member
Nov 26, 2012
90
0
to the OP and anyone who has this problem I am another victim of eye strain, the first time I noticed was when I bought a samsung tv, I just couldn't stand it at first it took a month of watching the TV to finally get rid of the feeling and im talking it actually hurt while I was watching the tv. I went to an ophthalmologist very knowledgeable woman and she told me that the tv was only making the problem obvious, that I had a sensitivity to the display and that everyone is different in this sense it would be very hard to determine the exact cause of the problem and that if it persisted for a long time that I should return the tv and get one that didn't bother my eyes... long story short it was a year before I actually got a prescription glasses made, and now that I wear them often I can tell you that if I take them off to watch the TV I get that old eye strain feeling back from watching the TV..

anyway I would recommend going to an ophthalmologist and explaining the problem in detail, they might have a solution even if you have 20/20 vision there can be a lens configuration to help you not get the eye strain on the specific activity
 
E

Emyemilyem

macrumors newbie
Feb 23, 2013
1
0
Oh come on, people. This guy is just asking for help, and so many of you take the opportunity to make him feel like a freak. Eye strain is a very common problem because of monitors. I don't have any suggestions to help other than giving up your iMac. I wear eyeglasses that I had made just to reduce monitor eye strain. They definitely help, but your dissection of the monitor and your theory about the 1/4 inch space makes a lot of sense to me, and most likely won't be fixed with glasses. Good luck! And sorry about some of the other A holes on this thread.
 
NutsNGum

NutsNGum

macrumors 68030
Jul 30, 2010
2,856
367
Glasgow, Scotland
Emyemilyem said:
Oh come on, people. This guy is just asking for help, and so many of you take the opportunity to make him feel like a freak. Eye strain is a very common problem because of monitors. I don't have any suggestions to help other than giving up your iMac. I wear eyeglasses that I had made just to reduce monitor eye strain. They definitely help, but your dissection of the monitor and your theory about the 1/4 inch space makes a lot of sense to me, and most likely won't be fixed with glasses. Good luck! And sorry about some of the other A holes on this thread.
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karl878 said:
Your eye strain is most likely caused by sensitivity to the LED backlight flicker. There is a short discussion and video where a MacBook Pro's flickering is slowed 40 times at this site, http://www.squidoo.com/led-backlight-flicker .
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This thread is almost a year old, folks.
 
M

macthefork

macrumors 6502
Feb 2, 2013
467
7
Did the OP eventually find a resolution to this?

His 1/4 inch space theory is a possibility, and does make some sense. When I first bought a 27" iMac with LED in Late 2009, I had a similar problem with what I considered was the brightness, and blue spectrum light... I turned down the brightness rather low, but the problem, eye strain, and headaches, persisted.

I talked to my ophthalmologist about whether he had heard anything about a problem like this, and he hadn't. I changed to another Dr., and he hadn't heard of anything about LED displays causing problems like this, either.


I did look into how LED displays differed from the florescent backlit displays. and eventually just sat back at least three feet, and left the screen dimmed, and enlarged the text. Eventually it didn't seem to bother me as much.

This may not bother too many people, but to those it does, it's a real issue.
 
W

WilliamG

macrumors G3
Mar 29, 2008
9,922
3,800
Seattle
karl878 said:
Your eye strain is most likely caused by sensitivity to the LED backlight flicker. There is a short discussion and video where a MacBook Pro's flickering is slowed 40 times at this site, http://www.squidoo.com/led-backlight-flicker .
Click to expand...

THIS. My eyes are so, so much happier using my Asus V236H CCFL screen over my 2012 27" iMac. The eye-strain is killer for me on all LED-backlit display. Dealing with it is no fun...
 
Andrey22

Andrey22

macrumors newbie
May 20, 2016
1
0
pctomac99 said:
Ok guys I have a quad 27 inch iMac that I bought back in 2009. I have been having severe eye strain and migraines that have gotten really really bad to the point where looking at the screen for five minutes now makes me sick to my head.

I've read pretty much everything on the net about what might be causing this. Most people say it's the glare on the iMac (which I don't agree with). Some say to turn the brightness down, others say to turn it up. Some people recommend having some light in the room so the light from the display is not too harsh on the eyes. Some people say to place the iMac further away. Some people say the resolution is too high. Some people say it's the LED back lighting technology, some say it's the flicker when you dim the display etc, etc. Well I've spent time thinking about it and actually looking into how the display panel is built and I think I've possibly discovered what it is.

If you take a really close look at the top left corner of the 27 inch display at an angle (with glass panel off), you can see two layers, the transparent lcd surface where pixels reside (don;t know what you call it) and the actual backlight surface panel. I have three other non apple displays that I use at home of different sizes and have compared them with the 27 imac screen and have noticed that the imac has at what looks like a 1/4 inch gap between these two surfaces, while the other non apple displays have less than that. My theory is that the terrible eye strain that I have been experiencing and that many people have been mentioning in posts on the net has to do with this 1/4 inch space. The eyes need a solid surface to focus on, if there is a huge gap like the apple displays use, the eyes constantly fight to focus between the two, hence the eye strain. As the space between these two surfaces increases the worse it gets.

I have been dealing with this issue for a while know. I even went to my eye doctor and everything checked out fine as he said I had 20/20 vision. He did say to spend less time on the computer. I probably spend 1 hour a day which is very little. Right now I have an apple 23 cinema display which I use with absolutely no eye strain or headaches and I can use that for hours. I am now in the process of putting the iMac up for sale on ebay. I love my iMac very much. I like looking at it, but can't look at it if you know what I mean. What I would like to do is get a good used apple 30" cinema display and pair it with a mac mini or older mac pro. What do you guys think of all of this. Comments please.
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Flicker due to backlight dimming (Wikipedia)
LED backlights are often dimmed by applying pulse-width modulation to the supply current, switching the backlight off and on again like a fast strobe light. If the frequency of the pulse-width modulation is too low or the user is very sensitive to flicker, this may cause discomfort and eye-strain, similar to the flicker of CRT displays.[10][11] This can be tested by a user simply by waving a hand or object in front of the screen. If the object appears to have sharply defined edges as it moves, the backlight is strobing on and off at a fairly low frequency. If the object appears blurry, the display either has a continuously illuminated backlight or is operating the backlight at a frequency higher than the brain can perceive. The flicker can be reduced or eliminated by setting the display to full brightness, though this may have a negative impact on image quality and battery life due to increased power consumption.

Also check this: http://www.eizo.com/library/basics/eyestrain/
 
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joeloesch

macrumors newbie
Dec 19, 2018
1
0
Occamsrazr said:
Could be hypochondria. Try affixing a magnet to the back of your neck. This may help with the symptoms.
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Technical clarity is needed, i.e., vertical position of magnet on the back of neck, and what size magnet. Also, are there stereo benefits from wearing magnets on both sides of the neck, instead of the mono approach.

***

Kidding aside, I'm on this website because of 3 years of sudden headaches. After almost no headaches in my life, at the time of the Porter Ranch gas leak 3 years ago I started getting intense brain lock-ups as if a tourniquet is twisting around my head, and then can't deal with details or long-familiar tasks often for hours. I'm back here because there is likely no gas leaking now, and I think I've had all the medical tests available for a popped skull. Plus, I had the same symptoms while working with my PC laptop when I was out of town for a week, so it can't be "just the Mac" in my case, but computers and EMFs are one suspect for me. As anyone with this problem knows, it stops everything you want or need to do, again and again. And you decide again and again to "just ignore it," but until it lets go, you're very limited.
 
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