Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Any tips for LED screen sensitive people & Where can I buy a new pre LED macbook pro?

C

CurlyNYC

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 12, 2012
8
0
First let me start by saying, I have great eyesight and don't have this problem with my mothers PC. First had the 11 inch air and thought my eye strain and discomfort was due to the size. The feeling I get is like being to close to a TV. So I exchanged it for the 13 inch pro yesterday. I didn't even bother expecting the 13 when I was there because I thought since I had an 07 macbook it would be the same. Well as soon as I got home and turned it on the feeling was INTENSE. So I googled the issue, and there seems to be a large number of people with this issue. So far the suggestions are sunglasses (yea okay, lol) changing the resolution, getting red lights and blue lights, and an anti glare film. Today is not as bad as yesterday but I am going to give it a few more days before I decide to return it or not. From what I gathered it seems to be the LED backing and not necessarily the gloss, so I dont know if anti glare would do anything. Any tips? I really don't want to return it, but if it doesn't change then thats what I have to do.

Also, can anyone tell me whats the latest model with the older screen similar to the 07 white macbook. I dont have a problem with that one. It fell so the body is pretty damaged and would cost almost 800 to fix which I really don't think I would want to do. I called apple yesterday and the guy seemed pretty clueless. I asked him what year did they change the screen so maybe I can do my own search and he could not tell me. I would consider buying an older model as long as its not with this new LED screen. Thanks in advance.
 
I believe everything from mid-2007 on is LED. All of the unibody MBPs are LED. You'd probably have to go to Craigslist or something similar to find one that isn't.
 
I have a late 2007 so if its not the screen being LCD its something about the screen. I can't put my finder on it. :confused: What is the difference between the late 07s screen and the current one?
 
Yes I have lowered the brightness already. Its not that. How do you change the color profile? What would that do?

Oh and the previous screens were LCD not LED don't know if that makes a difference.
 
CurlyNYC said:
Yes I have lowered the brightness already. Its not that. How do you change the color profile? What would that do?

Oh and the previous screens were LCD not LED don't know if that makes a difference.
Click to expand...

Probably won't make a difference but you can do this in System Preferences/Displays.
I am on an older OS but think in essence it's still the same, you can choose an existing colour profile or calibrate it yourself.
 
CurlyNYC said:
Oh and the previous screens were LCD not LED don't know if that makes a difference.
Click to expand...

Let's get the technical terms right here. All MacBook screens use an LCD (liquid crystal display). The LCD selectively blocks light from the backlight that sits behind it. The backlight light source is either CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) or LED (light emitting diode). The light source is then spread across the screen surface using a system of light pipes.
 
CurlyNYC said:
I have a late 2007 so if its not the screen being LCD its something about the screen. I can't put my finder on it. :confused: What is the difference between the late 07s screen and the current one?
Click to expand...

But your old one was a MacBook, not a MacBook Pro. The information I found says that in mid-2007 the 15" MBP went to LED, and slightly later the 17" did. I didn't look up the MacBook, but it's very possible that it was still just LCD without the LED at that time.
 
What I meant to say is I believe the LED backlighting is bothering me. I will see if the above suggestion works.
 
You can fitrst try using f.lux or nocturne to change screen colour:

http://stereopsis.com/flux/
http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-nocturne/

They are designed for night time users, but may change the spectrum enough to make a difference for you, the night mode should reduce shorter wavelengths (blues/purples), much as gaming glasses are supposed to do:

http://www.gunnars.com/technology/lens-tints-ionik/

There is a lot of general pseudo-scientific nonsense on the gunnars description pages, but they or something similar may be a worthwhile investment for the colour spectrum filtering alone.

Have you been to an ophthalmologist? The potential issues with an LED backlight are frequency or colour related. Frequency is very unlikely as the backlight should ben a much higher frequency than you can perceive.
 
Have you just been tested for refractive power, or also a full retinal examination? Just because you are 20/20 vision it doesn't mean there may not be some other "difference" in visual function...

Also, you might still make these discounts for gunnars:

http://lifehacker.com/5950692/gunna...er-eyestrain-are-75-off-for-the-next-two-days

As an aside, dimming the screen usually involves lowering the frequency the LED backlight modulates at, and I remember one person saying they got more eyestrain when their screen was dimmed and I wonder if it was because the frequency drop caused problems. This suggests that glasses which filter light input would be better than a dimmed screen alone. That is conjecture and I don't think this has been carefully measured (or I haven't read about it anyway).
 
Last edited:
You are probably disturbed not by the brightness or the backlight but by the saturation of the screen. Recent Mac screens are more saturated than previous ones. Best way to deal with it is to calibrate the colors and make it less saturated.
 
CurlyNYC said:
Yes I have lowered the brightness already. Its not that. How do you change the color profile? What would that do?

Oh and the previous screens were LCD not LED don't know if that makes a difference.
Click to expand...

LED is just the backlighting used, both screens are LCD.
 
nontroppo said:
You can fitrst try using f.lux or nocturne to change screen colour:

http://stereopsis.com/flux/
http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-nocturne/

They are designed for night time users, but may change the spectrum enough to make a difference for you, the night mode should reduce shorter wavelengths (blues/purples), much as gaming glasses are supposed to do:

http://www.gunnars.com/technology/lens-tints-ionik/

There is a lot of general pseudo-scientific nonsense on the gunnars description pages, but they or something similar may be a worthwhile investment for the colour spectrum filtering alone.

Have you been to an ophthalmologist? The potential issues with an LED backlight are frequency or colour related. Frequency is very unlikely as the backlight should ben a much higher frequency than you can perceive.
Click to expand...

Good advice...

nontroppo said:
Have you just been tested for refractive power, or also a full retinal examination? Just because you are 20/20 vision it doesn't mean there may not be some other "difference" in visual function...

Also, you might still make these discounts for gunnars:

http://lifehacker.com/5950692/gunna...er-eyestrain-are-75-off-for-the-next-two-days

As an aside, dimming the screen usually involves lowering the frequency the LED backlight modulates at, and I remember one person saying they got more eyestrain when their screen was dimmed and I wonder if it was because the frequency drop caused problems. This suggests that glasses which filter light input would be better than a dimmed screen alone. That is conjecture and I don't think this has been carefully measured (or I haven't read about it anyway).
Click to expand...

Yellow glass will filter out blue's, you can get it done by getting a transparent sheet and print it thinly yellow, much cheaper and more convenient than glasses.(And put that in front of the screen, and if this helps you could do the same again but this time with a transparent (print it thinly yellow) sticker.(screen protector)
 
I think the specifics of the chromatic filter are important so just using any old filter may not be the same. but I do know Bolle safety glasses come with a similar filters to the gunnars, and are an order of magnitude cheaper:

http://www.bolle-safety.com/lens-technology

I use Bolle ESP coated glasses for cycling, got them for about £5 and they are great. Their price means they are worth trying out and if they help, then you can think about upgrading to glass lenses later.
 
I tried changing the colors but it does sound like its the saturation. When I put it on for the first time it felt so intense, lol. Like being in the first row of a movie theater. I think I will go to the genius bar. Would an anti glare help with the saturation ?
 
CurlyNYC said:
I tried changing the colors but it does sound like its the saturation. When I put it on for the first time it felt so intense, lol. Like being in the first row of a movie theater. I think I will go to the genius bar. Would an anti glare help with the saturation ?
Click to expand...

Nope. In my opinions, anti-glare would just make it more hazy.

Best way to deal with it is still calibrating the display.

Go to Settings > Display > Color > Calibrate... and play around until you get something that won't hurt your eyes anymore.
 
Ur done for, nowadays EVERYTHING is LED. So hopefully u find another "fix" to your problem.
 
Thanks all. My moms comp is only a year or two old, but I still have hope.
 
I thought I was sensitive to LED screens too.. The 11" Air totally bothered me.. Always squinting, headaches..

But I got a 23" LED backlit display for my Mac Mini (anti glare) and I have no problems with that whatsoever. It's even more blueish than the 11" was.

My current hypothesis is that it's the DPI, on the 11" air the DPI is so high (135dpi) and there is no scaling like on the retina pro. So the text is quite small and in many cases can't be changed (most Mac OS programs allow changing of the content but not the sidebars, menus etc).

I also had a 13" Pro and never had any problem with it, besides the glare, I hate glossy displays. The 11" was not that bad actually compared to the 13" pro in that respect.

Anyway I know my experiences aren't necessarily the same as yours, I'm just saying it may not be LED backlights but something else.
 
I'm still trying to figure out what it is. When I changed the color it did nothing. Im trying to figure out what about the Macs do it to me. Other comps even PC netbooks don't do it to me. I see fine with those, so I will give it a few days, then hit the genius bar for advice then give it a few more days. Im going to go rest my eyeballs now. Thanks.
 
At one point, I would have thought it was the gamma, but even that is the same now. Apple DOES use a different type of font smoothing than Windows does, which makes the text slightly fuzzy to some people. That's the biggest different I can think of between how OS X and Windows put things on the screen. The current glossy screens are actually over-saturated, while the AG screens are not.

I highly doubt it is the fact that the backlight is LED. I admit the possibility, but the refresh rate is nonexistent at max brightness (or should be if they engineered it correctly) and only possibly noticeable at lower brightnesses. However, it's not like LEDs running on AC power, which refresh at 60 Hz. Everything in the computer is DC, which means that there's no power cycling.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back