LCD monitor - TTLG Forums

rushina on 10/4/2010 at 09:12

Can a flatscreen LCD monitor with a low refresh rate cause blindness? My brother has been convinced (by a computer salesperson, surprise surprise) that his flatscreen LCD computer monitor is going to cause him to go blind because its a couple of years old and has a slower refresh rate. My husband and I think thats bunk and that the salesperson is trying to pull one over on him. Anyone know for sure?
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Al_B on 10/4/2010 at 11:06

I'm not a doctor and can't say for sure but no, a slower LCD monitor refresh won't cause him to go blind. A slower refresh may make the LCD flicker slightly more obvious but I can't see it causing anything other than slight eyestrain - and they're much better than CRTs anyway.

I suggest your brother asks the sales person to back up his claims with some actual evidence.

bikerdude on 10/4/2010 at 16:56

Quote Posted by Al_B

I suggest your brother asks the sales person to back up his claims with some actual evidence.

I also suggest that your brother reports said sale person to that companies head office, as this quite obviously scare mongering and quite illegal.

Renzatic on 10/4/2010 at 17:16

First off, refresh rates don't really exist on LCD monitors*. This might've been somewhat true with CRT monitors, where the lower the refresh rate, the less defined and flickery the screen appears. But with LCD monitors, you don't have an electron gun scanning the screen at differing speeds. Instead you've basically got a bunch of dots that are either on or off. Thus...no refresh rate.

In short, that guy be dumb. Even an old CRT monitor running 60hz won't do anything worse than give you slight eyestrain and a headache. And that's after staring at it for extended hours without any breaks.

*(despite those advertisements for new 120hz screens...not sure what the hell is going on there.)

bikerdude on 10/4/2010 at 19:10

in fact what was the name of the shop and do you have the name of the sale person..?

Al_B on 10/4/2010 at 21:30

Quote Posted by Renzatic

First off, refresh rates don't really exist on LCD monitors

Well, yes and no. Updating the screen happens at a specified rate - e.g. 60 times a second so changes can't occur quicker than that. However, there's a more subtle effect. To prolong LCD life the voltage applied to cells is alternated each frame - even those that don't change and this causes flicker. If you're interested, go to (http://www.techmind.org/lcd/#inversion) this website and look at the test patterns to see which one causes your display to flicker. It's a completely different effect to CRTs and in practice it's rarely noticable.

dj_ivocha on 10/4/2010 at 23:17

Quote Posted by Al_B

(http://www.techmind.org/lcd/#inversion) this website

Blimey, that's some extreme flicker (on my Samsung T220, the "Line-paired RGB sub-pixel dot-inversion" is the most noticeable)! :o

SubJeff on 11/4/2010 at 00:24

Quote Posted by rushina

My brother has been convinced (by a computer salesperson, surprise surprise) that his flatscreen LCD computer monitor is going to cause him to go blind because its a couple of years old and has a slower refresh rate.

Ha ha. Hilarious.

Anyone who believes this should buy the latest monitor. I mean the highest spec one they can find.