Quote from bespoke:
Are non-tn panels better for the eyes? My eyesight has been getting worse since I've been trading. Can't put a price on my vision. I'm using acer tn lcds.
I've seen a lot of speculation and discussion regarding different panel types, but it is difficult to find results of actual tests.
There do appear to be a number of different factors that may lead to eye strain from some panels, while not from others. One of those factors is the result of manufacturers promoting their products on the basis of the so-called performance specifications. For any given screen size and resolution, the manufacturers want to compete on the basis of brightness and contrast. SO in order to achieve better contrast they pump up the brightness to ridiculous levels. This leads to monitors that have default brightness settings capable of inducing instant headaches. On many monitors it not even possible to turn down the brightness to a comfortable level - on a setting of zero they're still too bright. Unfortunately too many people don't realise this may be what is causing their eye strain.
This seems to be more of an issue for TN monitors, because they are promoted on the basis of simple raw specifications (particularly response time) rather than image quality, and they're brighter than *VA and IPS anyway.
I have also seen it suggested that the poor viewing angle of TN panels may cause eye strain, due to the possibility of one eye seeing a different image to the other. Doesn't seem likely to me though, unless the viewer's eyes are very far apart or they're sitting very close to the screen - which would be a bigger problem.
Other problems with TN panels causing eye strain seem to be related to their cheapness. They would have a higher likelihood of malfunctioning parts - such as the backlight, or the electronics that control the pixels. For example, the technique of 'inversion' apparently used in all LCD panels, as described half way down on this website
http://www.techmind.org/lcd/index.html may explain why some people see flickering or shimmering on their screens. This may be in cases where a cheap TN panel has met quality assurance as being 'good enough' to sell, but a flickering effect may still be visible to some users.
The website
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ has a series of tests for LCDs that explores the range of factors contributing to image quality and performance. The tests are interesting and fun (in a geeky testing a monitor kind of way).
My TN panels performed on the tests basically as expected by the website author. I'd be interested to hear from someone with an IPS panel, how much better theirs performed on the viewing angle tests. The performance of my panels was basically the same as shown on their example images - which was pretty bad.
