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Optimal brightness?

L

Lostman

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 18, 2009
Messages
91
I'm on a lookout for a LCD screen first time in years (always used whatever screen my current laptop had :p) and I've been reading whatever I could find over last few days.

I have one question though -> what is the optimal screen brightness? I've been reading the review of Dell 2208WFP on Prad.de and they've said that with brightness set to 0, it produces 146 cd/m², which is too much; and the max is over 500 cd/m², which I reckon would burn my eyes out!

I have a problem of this sort with a crappy LCD monitors I have in my office. One is dim and I can't see well in brightly lit conditions, the other is incredibly bright and I can't stand to look at it if it's not sunny outside.

Can someone give me a rough guide on what to look for in this respect? i.e. for work (programming), games, internet, etc?

Thanks!
 
There is no optimal value. I would just go with whatever you're comfortable with, which can change depending on the lighting conditions.

The sRGB standard states that the brightness should be 80 cd/m², but I find that to be too dim.

The Adobe RGB standard states that the brightness should be 160 cd/m², which I like, but some find that to be too bright, and most CRTs can't even go that high.

Many people recommend something in the middle, like 120 cd/m², but many LCD monitors can't go that low without reducing contrast. Then again, the Adobe RGB standard defines a black point of 0.5557 cd/m², which implies a contrast ratio of 287.9:1, but that seems a bit ridiculous to me.

Basically, even pros can't agree on a number.
 
The required brightness depends on the light level where the monitor is used and how much brightness your eyes can take before pain sets in.. There is no one target.
 
I think the monitor should have brightness range from 40cd/m2 to 200cd/m2 for the most situations. 40cd/m2 is for a dark room, in a bright office as much as 140 cd/m2 could be used. By some :) 200 cd/m2 is just a reserve.
 
Hmm... It all makes me wonder about the Dell's (2209W and 2408WFP). None of them can get lower than 120cd/m2 and 2408WFP seems to be unable to go below 140.

I often work/play games in the dark room, and I really get eye-strain from too bright monitors.
 
I have my NEC 2490 set for 120 at home, which has dim, indirect table lamp lighting at night, and indirect light from a window off to one side during the day. During a sunny day 120 is just a little dim, and at night 120 is just a little too bright for my tastes but it's fully calibrated and I don't jack around with it unnecessarily. I haven't explored whether I could use some auto-brightness with a custom curve layered on top of calibration. I suspect not, but I could define "day" and "night" settings which get loaded via SpectraView. (Of course these musings don't apply to non-NEC 90-series products :)

Remember that CCFL brightness falls as the unit ages. If you keep your stuff a long time, you'll want some brightness in reserve. Unless you work in total darkness a lot, something which can at least do low-hundreds at a minimum will probably be "OK" for most situations. Something which has mid-hundreds as a minimum at 0% might be a little bright.

It is ultimately up to the individual and the work environment.
 
Brightness is mostly a personal preference. Too bright and things gets washed out, too low and images gets too dark, and at a certain point (depending on the make & model) color starts to degrade.

I have three LCD monitors with different brightness settings.

NEC 2690WUXI (H-IPS Panel) => 35%
Asus VK246H (TN + Hi-FRC Panel = > 45%
Planar PX191w (S-PVA Panel) = > 50%

One of the best things about the NEC is that it can auto adjust the brightness to a certain degree based on the ambient light of the room.
 
JaguarSKX said:
Brightness is mostly a personal preference. Too bright and things gets washed out, too low and images gets too dark, and at a certain point (depending on the make & model) color starts to degrade.
Click to expand...

This isn't the way "brightness" adjustments work on LCDs. There's no effect on colour balance, washing out etc... The LCD sub-pixels retain the same colour settings, the backlight behind them is varied (in normal cases, excluding NEC LowBright modes).

On CRTs, this would be the case, as Brightness was actually adjusting R,G,B bias (blackpoint).
 
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