What I am about to ask is related to a similar question I asked. Several people suggested several solutions, but nothing worked for me. That particular LCD (ViewSonic) continues to cause immense eye strain to my eyes.
I recently purchased an HP x22LEDc LCD. I use it with my 15" MacBook Pro (those of you who have read the post I've linked to may have noted that in that post I mentioned having a 13" MacBook. Since then, I have moved to a 15" MacBook Pro). I use the mini-DisplayPort (thunderbolt) to DVI adapter to connect the MBP to the screen. I use it at the native resolution. The refresh rate is fixed to 60Hz, and I can't change it to anything else from within OS X. The panel on the LCD provides much more options to configure all sorts of things. However, I still feel the strain. It is definitely not so great as it was with the ViewSonic LCD, but it is there, and it leaves me eventually with headaches.
I feel nothing while working on the glossy 15" display of my MBP. I can work for hours without so much as a problem. However, after ten or twenty minutes working on the HP LCD, I can start to feel the strain, and later on, the headaches.
I have tried every conceivable setting. Tried a different number of brightness and contrast settings, tried different colour temperatures, tried calibrating the colour profile through the MBP display calibration utility, but, apart from decreasing or increasing the strain to some extent, I couldn't get rid of it. I also use the Apple Font Smoothing hack to set the font smoothing value to "2". (I've a blog post that explains the Apple Font Smoothing thing for those who may not be familiar with it).
So, well, here's what I want to ask: Why is this happening? I would really like to use the 22" LCD, especially my mechanical keyboard with it. But I can't. And what if anything can I do to possibly make a difference?
Any feedback on this will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks!
PS I should mention that I'm nearsighted, with a dioptre count of -6 both eyes. However, I should think that if there was something amiss with my eyesight that was causing the strain, it would show up while working on both my MacBook and MacBook Pro. If I am wrong, please do tell me.
Best Answer
I can sometimes detect with my naked eye if a monitor is using 60 Hz refresh rate. Rumor has it that 60 Hz is the frequency that somehow resonates with internal frequencies of the body, whatever that means.
In the past, with a CRT monitor, that was a real pain for my eyes, so I had to drop resolution in favor of refresh rate. With LCD screens, that's normaly not a problem but you may be more sensitive to that. Try to get hold of a large monitor with high refresh rate (85 Hz or higher), even if only for ten minutes, and see if it helps.