I'd love for more research to be made into PWM sensitivity, if only to find out roughly how many people experience problems with it.
I've never had issues with it other than when trying to film certain old displays, but then again, I've never had issues with PAL TV sets running at 50 hz interlaced, nor even old PC CRTs running at 60, which definitely was not 'flicker-free', so I'm probably on the far end of the spectrum compared to the PWM sensitive.
It's an easy thing to forget, as with many accessibility features. And it's going to suck to have the nominally best display be one you just can't use if want to not feel like gouging your eyes out.
I do have issues with PWM everywhere myself while CRT was not big issue. I did tinker with refresh rates though.
And I think difference is that
1. CRT display phosphors had afterglow.
2. the cathode ray was a dot moving across the screen, that might be easier on eyes than whole OLED screen flashing at once.
[−]ulrikrasmussen · 2026-11-15 Sun 14:26 UTC ·
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I notice PWM all around me all the time. Lots of cheaper LED lights use it, and I see it whenever I move my eyes, also when not consciously looking for it - instead of a blur I see series of lamps as a brief afterimage.
As a child I got headaches from CRT monitors at 60hz and I could see them flicker. I haven't noticed the PWM on modern monitors, but maybe these Apple ones would trigger me?
Chevy/Cadillac tail lights? Hate them. Looks like 60Hz, no idea why such a low frequency in a car.
[−]ulrikrasmussen · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:16 UTC ·
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I haven't taken notice of the brand, but I certainly have also noticed a few cars with horrible PWM. It really does look bad I think.
I miss how amusement parks looked at night when I was a kid, all bathed in warm, colorful glowing lights. They are still bathed in warm colorful lights, but half of them now have shitty PWM.
[−]unpleasurable · 2026-11-15 Sun 17:35 UTC ·
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Why should battery-powered diodes flicker anyway?
[−]robotresearcher · 2026-11-15 Sun 18:01 UTC ·
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I am sensitive to PWM, but not CRT's (I have an old Sony CRT I use to play retro games). The reason is that CRT's do not turn the entire screen on/off like PWM does, they draw scanlines. This isn't nearly as bad as what PWM does. It's the on/off of the entire screen rapidly that is the issue.
In fact there is research being done in the retro gaming scene of using CRT-like scanline drawing to mimic what CRT's do for modern displays. This allows "blackframe like" insertion without the flicker. Only issue is you need a very high refresh rate display to take advantage of it and there aren't many of those.
I've never had issues with it other than when trying to film certain old displays, but then again, I've never had issues with PAL TV sets running at 50 hz interlaced, nor even old PC CRTs running at 60, which definitely was not 'flicker-free', so I'm probably on the far end of the spectrum compared to the PWM sensitive.
It's an easy thing to forget, as with many accessibility features. And it's going to suck to have the nominally best display be one you just can't use if want to not feel like gouging your eyes out.
1. CRT display phosphors had afterglow.
2. the cathode ray was a dot moving across the screen, that might be easier on eyes than whole OLED screen flashing at once.
As a child I got headaches from CRT monitors at 60hz and I could see them flicker. I haven't noticed the PWM on modern monitors, but maybe these Apple ones would trigger me?
I miss how amusement parks looked at night when I was a kid, all bathed in warm, colorful glowing lights. They are still bathed in warm colorful lights, but half of them now have shitty PWM.
In fact there is research being done in the retro gaming scene of using CRT-like scanline drawing to mimic what CRT's do for modern displays. This allows "blackframe like" insertion without the flicker. Only issue is you need a very high refresh rate display to take advantage of it and there aren't many of those.
Searching just gives me the same “PWM Sensitivity” webpages without any peer reviewed research.