The PWM of the Steam Deck OLED is harmful to the eyes, but Valve can patch it if we report it enough

[Sightlyjester]

CONCLUSIONS FROM MY PWM ANALYSIS OF MY STEAM DECK OLED SCREEN:

UPDATE: I have created a report on GitHub regarding this issue with evidence and proposals so that Valve's software engineers can take note and perhaps address it through software in the future if there is a possibility. Those of you who are affected or interested, I would appreciate your comment on the report, providing feedback that these effects exist. The more feedback from people, the more attention Valve is likely to give: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/1337

My profesional instruments have measured on the Steam Deck OLED what my eyes perceive; it is one of the worst screens with the most aggressive flickering that can affect sensitive eyes. However, Valve could fix it with a patch in SteamOS.

In this Reddit post, I have published all my measured evidence with on the screen to demonstrate what I'm saying:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/1882kys/analysis_of_the_pwmflickervisual_fatigue_of_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

The conclusion is that the Samsung OLED anti-glare panel of the Steam Deck OLED has proven to be very bad for the eyes in gaming sessions, and the damage is particularly pronounced below 45% brightness. Still, the high risk is common at all brightness levels equally. There will be a percentage of people with very low sensitivity to PWM who will not notice negative symptoms in their eyes. However, another large percentage of people, especially the most sensitive, will notice the symptoms.

The associated symptoms could include nausea, rapid eye discomfort or fatigue, a sensation of grit in the eyes, migraines, and general fatigue, blurred vision after playing.

It is important to note that each individual reacts differently, and although the measured values here offer an objective and recommended range for viewing], the response can vary from person to person. If you are especially sensitive, I cannot recommend this screen and this product in the actual state. Perhaps you try it, and it doesn't go wrong for you, but what my data says is that the risk of it not going well is VERY HIGH.

But not all the news is bad; if we send enough feedback about this issue, Valve could patch it and fix it with a new update in SteamOS and eliminating all the flickering.

This is what I think Valve could do and change now regarding the PWM of the OLED screen to solve this problem:

1- First option:

Patch SteamOS by adding an option to enable DC-Dimming: DC Dimming is an alternative software method of regulating screen brightness that eliminates almost 100% of the flicker of screens of this style where I have tried it or has been implemented.

For example, my Xiaomi Mi 9 phone with an Amoled screen and other Xiaomi Oled screens were unusable for me with the default PWM, but once DC dimming, also called "anti-flicker" mode, is activated, the phone is completely usable for hours without tiring. Valve is a company known for listening to and supporting its community and consumers by implementing their requests in software with new updates.

With this measure, Valve could reduce a high percentage of people who end up with eye fatigue and worse health playing their OLED steam decks to basically almost, It is about offering a product that takes care of your customers' eyes.

2- A second option by Valve could be instead of implementing a DC Dimming mode, that the screen still uses PWM, but increase its PWM frequency from 360% to 1100%. Look at what happens when the Hz frequency on the Steam Deck LCD reaches this value, even at its worst flicker percentage (99%), it manages to enter the yellow or green zone and be good for the 99% of eyes.

While in my use of the Steam Deck LCD Anti-Glare for hours, my eyes have never gotten tired; with Steam Deck OLED, I have already experienced eye strain and a feeling of blurry vision after playing or shortly after starting.

Please, if you care about what I explain in this post and want it to be fixed with an update or reach the most important people at Valve, you can reward, comment, and share this post to give it visibility, the same with my Reddit post. Thank you very much :)

[Matti]

Escrito originalmente por ?legit:

Escrito originalmente por slo:

I AM THE EVIDENCE.

Ah, the "trust me bro" evidence, gotcha.

Nice that you don't have this issue, but would it be nice that everyone could use Steamdeck who wants one?

[slo]

Escrito originalmente por ?legit:

Ah, the "trust me bro" evidence, gotcha.

Well, go on. Prove to me that my eyes don't hurt. If it works I'll pay you or something.

[[?]legit]

Escrito originalmente por slo:

Escrito originalmente por ?legit:

Ah, the "trust me bro" evidence, gotcha.

Well, go on. Prove to me that my eyes don't hurt. If it works I'll pay you or something.

That's not how it works.

[Aepoh]

Escrito originalmente por ?legit:

Escrito originalmente por slo:

Well, go on. Prove to me that my eyes don't hurt. If it works I'll pay you or something.

That's not how it works.

They don’t need to prove jack to you. They say their eyes hurt and you can either believe them or not. At the end of the day they paid good money for a product that they can barely use, and it can be resolved at the software level. Nothing more needs to be discussed or argued, Valve should handle it. Simple as.

[Aepoh]

I don’t have the issues in question since I don’t have an OLED Deck, but for everyone in this thread experiencing issues you should honestly all send a support ticket as a mass and get real annoying about it. That’s the only way you’re going to get noticed and have anything done about it, is if you’re plugging up Valve’s customer support to the point they’re losing money.

[[?]legit]

Escrito originalmente por Aepoh:

Escrito originalmente por ?legit:

That's not how it works.

They don’t need to prove jack to you. They say their eyes hurt and you can either believe them or not. At the end of the day they paid good money for a product that they can barely use, and it can be resolved at the software level. Nothing more needs to be discussed or argued, Valve should handle it. Simple as.

So you don't want to prove jack, but expect Valve to accomodate to an issue you can't even explain?

[Aepoh]

Escrito originalmente por ?legit:

Escrito originalmente por Aepoh:

They don’t need to prove jack to you. They say their eyes hurt and you can either believe them or not. At the end of the day they paid good money for a product that they can barely use, and it can be resolved at the software level. Nothing more needs to be discussed or argued, Valve should handle it. Simple as.

So you don't want to prove jack, but expect Valve to accomodate to an issue you can't even explain?

I think it’s reasonable. People are clearly having issues with the screen and there are already anti-flicker modes on other devices. So already there is precedent for other manufacturers taking customer complaints at face value and then creating software solutions to effectively remedy the problem. I think it’s a good use of dev time. Anything that makes your product more accessible to more people is a good use of dev time.

[Mich-666]

I think the problem only surfaces at certain refresh rates and certain brigthness/contrast levels so they could run tests at least and add antiflicker option to Deck settings for people who have problem with it and want to turn it on. Let's not dismiss the problem as nonexistent as there are clearly people sensitive to this.

The way it could work is this setting would limit certain specific bad refresh/brightness combinations and allow users with this setting on to use only the safe ones.

For comparisons, I have older Samsung AMOLED tablet which don't have this issue and I can clearly see the difference on newer Samsung phones. TVs or Deck display (also with Samsung OLED). So this issue is not exclusive to deck only, it's the display technology that changed (for a worse in this case).

Personally, I can say that while I had big problems with Deck in the beginning, those are barely noticable for me half a year down the row. But maybe that's because I locked refresh rate to 60Hz with VSync ON, VRS OFF and kept brigthness on 35-40%.

[That girl from Celeste]

Not entirely sure if this is the culprit necessarily, but for the short period I owned my OLED model (sent it back two weeks ago) I had a pressure between my eyes type feeling.

Never had this happen on pretty much any other LCD or OLED display that I have used. I really hope Valve fixes this, because I want to re-purchase the OLED model due to it being a massive upgrade over the LCD, but I cannot.

[[?]legit]

Escrito originalmente por Aepoh:

Escrito originalmente por ?legit:

So you don't want to prove jack, but expect Valve to accomodate to an issue you can't even explain?

I think it’s reasonable. People are clearly having issues with the screen and there are already anti-flicker modes on other devices. So already there is precedent for other manufacturers taking customer complaints at face value and then creating software solutions to effectively remedy the problem. I think it’s a good use of dev time. Anything that makes your product more accessible to more people is a good use of dev time.

I don't think so. OP claims it's harmful, I've asked for evidence a couple of times, no evidence was ever presented.

Also, which devices have an anti flicker mode? I've had different oled devices, from laptops, monitors, smartphones, tvs, etc... none of them had this setting.

[alexmaru]

Escrito originalmente por ?legit:

I don't think so. OP claims it's harmful, I've asked for evidence a couple of times, no evidence was ever presented.

Also, which devices have an anti flicker mode? I've had different oled devices, from laptops, monitors, smartphones, tvs, etc... none of them had this setting.

All OLED screens are extreme harmful, comparing to the LCD (backlight) or Eink (no light).

LED flash directly to your eye is the one thing - it causes dry eye, pain in the eyes in the short terms (i just taked the first study what found, there are a lot
of them ) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8212737/

Another thing is PWWM. It was the big problem of the Cinema projectors, CRT, Plasma screens, OLED. It can make effects from headache to epilepsy, it's also can be googled.

His symptoms are made by the first thing, removing flickering should not help.

I remember the screens/phones with this setting from the beginning (hello Nokia), where you can enable anti-flickering dimming. Its makes the leds to flash in full light but with compensated colors to make it look not bright. In iPhone this setting is hidden as "Reduce White Point". Also, there is no "non flickering oled", its just "less flickering".

Less flickering modes on OLED makes wrong colors.

More younger is a person, more bigger frequences in motion and in sound it can see. Game console should not be made and tested by 50+ years old persons.

[Aepoh]

Escrito originalmente por ?legit:

Escrito originalmente por Aepoh:

I think it’s reasonable. People are clearly having issues with the screen and there are already anti-flicker modes on other devices. So already there is precedent for other manufacturers taking customer complaints at face value and then creating software solutions to effectively remedy the problem. I think it’s a good use of dev time. Anything that makes your product more accessible to more people is a good use of dev time.

I don't think so. OP claims it's harmful, I've asked for evidence a couple of times, no evidence was ever presented.

Also, which devices have an anti flicker mode? I've had different oled devices, from laptops, monitors, smartphones, tvs, etc... none of them had this setting.

I don’t care, beyond telling you off. You’re here to argue, nothing more. Other people are here to state problems they’re having with the device they purchased and suggesting solutions.

[Andrius227]

Escrito originalmente por ?legit:

Escrito originalmente por Aepoh:

I think it’s reasonable. People are clearly having issues with the screen and there are already anti-flicker modes on other devices. So already there is precedent for other manufacturers taking customer complaints at face value and then creating software solutions to effectively remedy the problem. I think it’s a good use of dev time. Anything that makes your product more accessible to more people is a good use of dev time.

I don't think so. OP claims it's harmful, I've asked for evidence a couple of times, no evidence was ever presented.

Also, which devices have an anti flicker mode? I've had different oled devices, from laptops, monitors, smartphones, tvs, etc... none of them had this setting.

How do you expect them to provide evidence?

Its like asking a colorblind person to provide evidence that they are colorblind.

Some displays hurt my eyes also, but i could not prove it.

[🙈🧬👨‍💻🥽Jerry ✡️ VRcia⛐🏁✈️🏓]

gonna get a long session in on my G3 77" after i'm done with my 55" B9 at my desk. then i'm probably gonna hit some deck while on the deck later, since OLED looks so good outside.

looking at my OLED phone in between all that too!

vibes to those affected. in my thoughts and prayers

oh, and it's all driven by a 4090, waiting on a 5090! looks so gooooood!!!! paid courtesy of NVDA

[Mr Cook]

Escrito originalmente por 🏌 Jerry 🍕 VRcia 🏓:

gonna get a long session in on my G3 77" after i'm done with my 55" B9 at my desk. then i'm probably gonna hit some deck while on the deck later, since OLED looks so good outside.

looking at my OLED phone in between all that too!

vibes to those affected. in my thoughts and prayers :teddyrupert:

oh, and it's all driven by a 4090, waiting on a 5090! looks so gooooood!!!! paid courtesy of NVDA :takemymoney:

Don't blink. Trust me.