Eye pain may actually be your TV’s fault. Here’s what you can do about it

Your HDR TV might be the reason for your eye pain if you’re watching it at the hours of darkness. 
Sarah Tew/CNET

Nearly all fashionable televisions are appropriate with excessive dynamic vary video. While that does not imply all of them carry out the identical, many HDR TVs are brighter than their older, non-HDR counterparts and improvements like mini-LED make them even brighter. Some of the brightest TVs we have reviewed are additionally a number of the finest TVs, together with the Samsung QN90A, the TCL 6-Series and the eye-watering Hisense U8G. Their vivid, colourful photos are a surprise to behold. Brighter does not essentially imply higher, however it can make the TVs simpler to observe in a vivid room and it makes the highlights of HDR actually pop. High-quality films and TV reveals are finest loved in a darkish room, nonetheless, to cut back reflections and assist enhance distinction. And with the lights down low, the acute brightness of many of those TVs can trigger eye fatigue and in some instances even irritate your eyes.There are some things you can do about this, however it’s not fairly as easy to repair as you may think.
Brett Pearce/CNET
What is HDR and why is brightness an “situation”?High dynamic vary, or HDR, is the newest TV tech. It’s obtainable on PlayStation and Xbox recreation consoles and streaming providers together with Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. Nearly TVs and streaming gadgets which have 4K decision additionally deal with HDR. Mid- and higher-end TVs provide considerably extra brightness when watching HDR content material. For instance, the solar or a streetlight will be noticeably brighter than the encircling scene. This is nice, as it makes a picture that basically pops in a sensible means.However, if you’re watching TV in a darkish room, which we extremely advocate for any high-quality video expertise, these scorching highlights may appear too vivid, inflicting your eyes to turn out to be sore or scratchy. If you’ve ever stared at your telephone in a darkish room, you’ve most likely skilled this.I put “situation” in quotes for this part as a result of the very same factor can occur with non-HDR materials. Any TV that is too vivid in a darkish room can trigger eyestrain. Modern TVs are a lot brighter than older TVs that even at decrease backlight settings they can nonetheless be eye-searingly vivid.The highlights of HDR content material on HDR TVs are a lot brighter than “regular” normal dynamic vary TVs (Image for illustrative functions solely. Actual HDR on an HDR TV will be bodily brighter).
Dolby/Geoff Morrison
Why your TV would possibly be hurting your eyesSomeone shining a flashlight in your eyes at evening is annoying, proper? But standing in a room with the lights on is not. Your eye adjusts to the typical quantity of sunshine hitting your retina. A darkish room with a vivid TV continues to be, on common, darkish. So your iris is huge open. But the elements of your retina getting hit by the sunshine from the TV are overwhelmed. They get fatigued, inflicting the drained, scratchy feeling. In common, the way in which to stop that is lowering the typical quantity of sunshine hitting your retina. You can do this by turning down the general gentle output of the TV, or, counterintuitively, growing the sunshine within the room.

CNET TVs, Streaming and Audio

Get CNET’s complete protection of residence leisure tech delivered to your inbox.

How to observe TV with out the painful eye pressure 1. Get a much bigger TV, or sit nearer.Want an excuse to get a much bigger TV? Here’s a great one. A small, vivid object in a darkish room confuses your eye. The “common” quantity of sunshine is low, your irises open up, and the brilliant “pinpoint” of sunshine strains a part of your retinas. A bigger TV, or sitting nearer to your present TV, will fill a higher share of your discipline of view. With extra of your eye full of gentle, your irises will contract, so much less gentle general is hitting your retinas. Generally it will imply much less eye fatigue. Personally I’m a fan of projectors, which create even greater photos and are not as vivid as TVs. Way simpler on the eyes.2. Turn down the TV’s gentle output.Adjusting the backlight can assist, although not at all times.
Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
Though the plain resolution, this is not essentially essentially the most splendid. Many TVs robotically set their backlights to most to indicate HDR content material. Turning the backlight down (or turning down OLED Light on an OLED TV), can influence how the TV shows HDR content material. It’s potential the picture would possibly look odd. How odd is tough to say — it will rely upon the TV. This is not the identical because the Contrast or Brightness controls. These controls sometimes don’t have anything to do with how vivid a TV is. Read extra: Want higher TV? Change these 9 TV image settings at present (you’ll thank us later)Most HDR-capable TVs can have a number of HDR presets. These would possibly be apparent within the image settings menu, and they won’t be. These might be labeled, for instance, Dolby Vision Bright and Dolby Vision Reference, or HDR Bright and HDR Normal. In these instances, Bright would be designed for brighter rooms, whereas Reference/Normal is healthier for darkish rooms.Your TV may not have these modes, or the decrease setting would possibly nonetheless be too vivid. If so, there are different fixes.

3. Add a strategically positioned lamp.Turning a light-weight on is an alternative choice, however after all, this can create reflections (or worse, be a distraction in your eyeline). Again, you may not care about both of those two drawbacks, however I’m hoping to assist you discover essentially the most good resolution for your setup.Ideal lamp placement is someplace not in your eyeline to the TV, and never someplace it causes a mirrored image. This might need to be someplace out of the extraordinary, like behind a settee.Dimmable recessed ceiling lights would possibly work too, however after all, it relies upon in the event that they trigger reflections on the TV. A TV mount you can transfer or pivot would possibly assist with reflections, too.The level is, including extra gentle to the room raises the “common” quantity of sunshine within the room, making your irises shut a bit, letting much less gentle in, and doubtlessly inflicting much less eye fatigue.4. Add a bias gentle.A bias gentle, like this laptop computer proven above, is a neutral-white gentle that brightens up the room a bit. 
Taylor Martin/CNET
One step additional than a lamp is a bias gentle. These neutral-white lights add a bit of sunshine to the room, they do not negatively influence the picture on the TV, and so they cut back eye pressure.The shade is essential as a result of no matter shade the lights are, that shade is “subtracted” by your mind from the colour you see on display screen. So if you have a blue gentle behind the TV, the TV will look crimson. The proper shade for bias lights is a impartial white; as near the D6500 shade temperature normal as potential.Bottom lineThis is not a brand new situation. TVs have lengthy been far brighter than mandatory for the typical room. HDR does doubtlessly make the issue worse, since they’re, on the entire, a lot brighter than older, “SDR” TVs. If you expertise eyestrain with HDR or different materials, hopefully our fixes can assist.Note (9/2021): This article was first printed in 2017 however has been up to date with new hyperlinks and data.As properly as overlaying TV and different show tech, Geoff does photograph excursions of cool museums and places world wide, together with nuclear submarines, huge plane carriers, medieval castles, airplane graveyards and extra. You can observe his exploits on Instagram and his journey video collection on YouTube. He additionally wrote a bestselling sci-fi novel about city-sized submarines, together with a sequel. 

Recommended For You