[ante]

Hello guys,
I noticed the new feature of recently announced monitors, low blue light, and would like to know is it something that we can have on old monitors too by simply adjusting colour temperature. And what would be the best settings.
I have Ati Radeon graphics in my laptop but i cannot find colour temperature settings.
In Catalyst control center under Notebook Panel Properties / Color i can adjust Hue, Saturation, Brightness and Contrast.
In Catalyst control center under Color i can adjust Gamma, Brightness and Contrast for all colours and for each colour separately.

Thank you
Ante

Excellent website Adam.

[PCM2]

Hi ante – welcome to the forum and thanks for the nice feedback!

This ‘Low Blue Light’ thing started as part of BenQ’s ‘Eye-care’ initiative. It was part of the same campaign that heavily promoted ‘flicker-free’ backlights for their potential viewing comfort benefits. Both of these featured turned out to be a real marketing boon, and various manufacturers are now boasting such features.

As it happens, the most common way of achieving ‘Low Blue Light’ is to drastically reduce the blue colour channel as you’ve speculated. Really the settings are just presets which weaken the blue channel relative to the others, thus reducing blue light output from the monitor. Monitors from various manufacturers have had presets for such things for a while before ‘Low Blue Light’ modes took off. Samsung’s ‘Warm2’, Dell’s ‘Paper’ mode and ‘Warm’ or ‘Reading’ settings from various other manufacturers.

If your monitor doesn’t have such a setting, you could manually reduce the blue colour channel. Of course it can be annoying having to keep adjusting this without using presets. ‘Low Blue Light’ is a particularly important consideration for relaxing evening viewing, to stop your body feeling alert. But during the daytime the opposite is true – so it can be nice being able to easily toggle on and off such settings.

You can of course reduce the blue colour channel via the GPU, but I can’t tell you remember exactly how to do that in Catalyst Control Centre. It’s often better to try to do it on the monitor side if you can, as it can be less detrimental to contrast/shade variety compared to adjusting things on the GPU and it also sticks in all applications and games. You would also have the issue of wanting to change settings for different times of the day, perhaps, if making GPU adjustments. One program I like to use on monitors which don’t have useful presets for such things is f.lux. This will automatically lower the white point and reduce blue light output when it gets dark outside in our local time zone – it also does this for all screens connected to your PC simultaneously. This makes GPU-level adjustments, so the disadvantages I just described still apply.

[ante]

Many thanks. Very helpful. It seems it is not possible to adjust colour temperature in most laptops but i can reduce blue colour brightness and get somewhat similar look.

[bart533]

Last month, the eye surgeon told me that ARMD (age-related macular degeneration) is starting in one eye and will certainly start, at some point, in the other eye. I’m a heavy user every day of a desktop tower system. My flat screen monitor is an HP 1740 which is 17 inches on the diagonal.

I’ve read that blue light is thought to cause ARMD and that computer monitors emit such blue light. I thought it would be a good idea to buy a blue light filter for my HP monitor, the kind of filter that hangs onto the top of the monitor. I did a little reading on this matter finding out that some blue light filters alter blues and that some of these blue light filters do a better job in not altering much or so much anything blue in color.

Can anyone here tell me what blue light filter (by make and model) has a good reputation for people having ARMD?

[PCM2]

Hi bart553,

I’ve merged your thread with this one as it discussed the sort of alternative that exists on modern monitors to placing a specific filter infront of the monitor. I’m not sure how effective physical blue light filters in front of the monitor would be, but I know from experience that ‘Low Blue Light’ settings or configuring the blue colour channel of a monitor to a low value and combining that with reduced screen brightness cuts out an awful lot of blue light. If you’re particularly concerned due to AMD, you may also want to consider wearing some tinted gunnar glasses or something like that which places an additional filter in front of your eyes. Either way, I don’t feel a ‘blue light shield’ in front of the monitor is necessary these days.

[bart533]

Thanks PCM2 for your help and for the information which I’m sure is tip-top.

[jamiestreep]

I had the same problem like yours, bart533, I was diagnosed with ARMD last year. Then I decided I should take better care of my eyes since I work for long hours in front of my PC. A friend of mine recommended I try the Vizomax anti-blue light filter for monitors and so I did. My eyes don’t hurt that much now and are less red. It’s worth trying some sort of a blue light filter for your PC and see how this works for you.

[PCM2]

Did you also try ‘Low Blue Light’ settings and reduced brightness, as above? Because I think physical filters are largely cumbersome and unnecessary. But if it’s something you’re confident with and happy using then I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

[jamiestreep]

Yes, PCM2, I tried reducing the brightness but it didn’t help in my case so I decided to give the blue light filter a try and I like it very much.

[PCM2]

It’s unfortunate that you didn’t get the relief you needed from LBL settings (they do vary in effectiveness). But I’m glad you found something that gave you relief and was highly effective.

[vegetaleb]

Would a benq EW2775ZH be better for people with retina problems (I had 2 surgeries for detachments) thanks to a hardware filter for blue light? Or other brands like samsung “eye saver” and Lg “reader” modes will be as good?
A true 8bit panel vs 6bit + frc has any impact on the eye safety?

[PCM2]

Hi vegetaleb,

I’ve put your post here as there is some relevant discussion on this. The advantage of BenQ’s implementation is how easy it is to activate and de-activate, plus the flexibility you get with the settings themselves. Their LBL settings are no more effective than some of the stronger settings offered by other manufacturers or indeed manually decreasing the blue colour channel and reducing brightness yourself. BenQ’s “-70% / Reading” LBL setting on models like the EW2775ZH is still very effective, though. Especially with reduced brightness.

FRC dithering has no significant impact on visual comfort, certainly not anything related to your condition. There is a relevant article on things from the perspective of viewing comfort – https://pcmonitors.info/factors-influencing-pc-monitor-viewing-comfort/.

[vegetaleb]

Thanks for the quick answer.
Do you know if the LG 24MP59G or Samsung LS24F350 are as good in terms of LBL?

[PCM2]

The S24F350 is identical to the S24E390HL in its LBL functionality. So you’ve got 2 highly effective LBL settings. The ‘Eye Saver’ mode also massively reduces contrast, which is intentional as explained in the review but not something most users find attractive or useful. The ‘Warm2’ mode is very effective without such a reduction in contrast. Similar to the ‘Reading’ setting on BenQ models.

LG implement a ‘Reader’ mode in most of their models, including the 24MP59G. It’s sometimes like Samsung’s ‘Eye Saver’ mode in that it purposefully reduces contrast, other times it’s more like the ‘Warm2’ mode. Not sure which applies to the 24MP59G.

[vegetaleb]

Thanks
So all these models have a pretty good LBL, now i have to choose between the perfect size for my desk aka 24” but 6bit + FRC and 27” slightly bigger than what I wanted but with a true 8bit panel.
Will the VA 8bit panel of the BenQ be obviously a better choice for my photo/ video editing?
Or the IPS of samsung or LG with 6bit + FRC be pretty much the same?

[PCM2]

For photo and video editing or accurate colour reproduction in general you need to be aware of the limitations of the different panel types. You should read some of our recent reviews as they hammer these points home, but there’s a good summary in our panel types article. In short, 6-bit + FRC is of little relevance, colour consistency is crucially important and that’s where IPS-type panels have a clear advantage.

[vegetaleb]

Thanks
Yes I have read a review saying that the benq 27” has some colour shift on the corners, it definitely needs colour calibration to match IPS.
So let’s pick between the LG and Samsung, the LG has a better design though and display port
Did you publish an article about 6bit frc vs 8bit?

[PCM2]

The vast majority of users can’t tell whether a monitor is 6-bit + FRC. Says it all really. And often the GPU will add a small amount of dithering regardless. So there is no basis to write an article. It is mentioned where applicable in relevant reviews and also in the viewing comfort article I’ve linked to.

The VA colour consistency and viewing angle issues aren’t related to calibration and can’t be overcome by calibration. I think either the Samsung or LG would be suitable for your needs, I’d recommend searching the forum for Samsung S24F350 as it is mentioned in various threads.

[vegetaleb]

Thanks
What about AOC 24” under 200$, they all miss LBL?

[PCM2]

I’m not aware of any specific ‘budget’ AOC models that do have an LBL setting (”Low Blue Light’ or ‘LowBlue Mode’ as AOC now calls it). But as above you can simply create your own with manual colour channel adjustments (see our ‘relaxing evening viewing’ settings on the AOC I2481FXH for example). If you intend to switch between using this and not using it then it can certainly be more convenient to have an easily accessible toggle, though.

[Author]

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