High Dynamic Range (HDR) video is a basic feature that is compatible with almost all modern TVs. That doesn’t mean they all have the same performance because many HDR TVs are brighter than their older, non-HDR counterparts. Innovations like mini-LED have also made the TV look even brighter.
These TVs’ bright and colorful images are pleasing to your eyes, but brighter doesn’t always mean better. While the bright TV makes it easy to watch in well-lit rooms, it also brings out the true highlights of HDR.
High quality movies and TV shows are best enjoyed in a dark room to help reduce reflections and increase contrast. The low light as well as the excessive brightness of many of these TVs can cause eye fatigue and irritation in some cases.
Here are some things you can do about it:
HDR and brightness ‘issues’ explained
High Dynamic Range, or HDR, is one of the newest TV technologies. It is available on PlayStation and Xbox game consoles and streaming services. Almost all TVs and streaming devices with 4K resolution also handle HDR.
Mid-end high-end TVs offer significantly higher brightness when watching HDR content. For example, the sun or street lights will be brighter than the surrounding scene. This is great, because it creates an image that pops in a really realistic way.
However, if you’re watching TV in a darkened room, which we highly recommend for any high-quality video experience, those burning highlights can look too bright, causing your eyes to ache or scratch. . Is. Is. If you’ve ever seen your phone in a dark room, you’ve probably experienced it.
The exact same thing can happen with non-HDR products. Any TV that is too bright in a dark room can cause eye strain. Modern TVs are so much brighter than older TVs that they can get too bright even in a low backlight setting.
Reasons why your TV hurts your eyes
It’s really annoying when someone shines a flashlight in your eyes at night. But standing in a room with lights won’t affect you in the same way. Your eye adjusts to the average amount of light hitting your retina.
A dark room with a bright TV is still dark on average. So your iris is wide open. But the light coming from the TV is affecting parts of your retina. They become tired, leading to a tired, scratchy feeling.
Normally, the way to prevent this is to reduce the average amount of light that falls on your retina. You can do this by reducing the overall light output of the TV or increasing the illumination in the room.
Tips to watch TV without eye pain
sit close or get a big TV
This is not just an excuse to get a bigger TV, but there are many reasons why you should get a TV. Your eyes may be confused by a small, bright object in a dark room. The “average” amount of light is less, the pupil of your eye opens, and the sharper “pinpoint” of light affects part of your retina.
A large TV, or sitting near a small TV, will fill a large percentage of your viewing area. As your eyes fill with more light, your pupil will shrink, so overall less light is affecting your retina, which will ultimately lead to less eye fatigue.
Projectors are easier on your eyes because they produce even bigger images and aren’t as bright as TVs.
Lower your TV’s light output
Although the obvious solution, it is not necessarily the most ideal. Many TVs automatically set the backlight to maximum to show HDR content. Backlight on OLED TV Turning off (or turning off) the OLED light can affect the way your TV displays HDR content. It is possible that the image may look strange depending on your TV.
It’s not the same thing as contrast or brightness control. These controls usually have nothing to do with the brightness of the TV.
Most TVs that support HDR will have multiple HDR presets. These images may be clear in the settings menu or labeled as Dolby Vision Bright and Dolby Vision Reference, or HDR Bright and HDR Normal. In these cases, bright will be designed for brighter rooms, while reference/normal is better for darker rooms. There are other fixes if your TV doesn’t have these modes or the lower setting is still too bright.
strategically place lamps
Turning on a light is another option, but it can create reflections (or worse, be a distraction in your eye line).
Ideal lamp placement means somewhere in line with your eyes from the TV and certainly not somewhere that would cause reflections. It could be something out of the ordinary, such as behind a sofa.
Dimmable recessed ceiling lights may also work, but it depends if they cause reflections on the TV. A TV mount that you can move or pivot can also help with reflections.
Adding more light to a room increases the ‘average’ amount of light in the room, which can lead to eye strain, low light and potentially eye fatigue.
adding bias light
A bias light is one step ahead of a lamp. These neutral-white lights add a bit of light to the room, they don’t negatively affect the image on the TV but they do reduce eye strain.
Color is important because whatever the color of the light, that color is “subtracted” by your brain from the color you see on the screen. So if there is a blue light on the back of the TV, the TV will appear red. The correct color for bias lights is a neutral white; As close to the D6500 color temperature standard as possible.
This is not a new issue. The TV has long been too bright for the average room. HDR potentially makes the problem worse, as they tend to be brighter than older ‘SDR’ TVs.
If you experience eye strain with HDR or other content, trying these fixes may help.
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