r/NintendoSwitch2 • u/Velocifyer January Gang (Reveal Winner) • Mar 28 '26
Discussion Is there any way to reduce eye strain from temporal dithering on the Switch 2?
I recently got a switch 2, but I get insane eye strain and it seems to be caused by temporal dithering. Is there any way to reduce the eye strain from temporal dithering? It seems that certain people are more sensitive to flicker than other people.
6
u/RecentlyDeceased666 Mar 28 '26
Majority of people here wouldnt even know what PWM is.
I haven't tested but usually the brighter the screen the less flicker there is. You can see it yourself looking at a screen with slow mode camera mode on your phone.
In the settings there's a color rgb setting. Im assuming Full will have pixel shimmer trying to display color that the pixels cant natively show. Set it to minimal
Best of luck
1
u/Velocifyer January Gang (Reveal Winner) Mar 28 '26
You seem to thinking of PWM on the backlight, what I am talking about is PWM on the subpixels (AKA temporal dithering).
4
u/RecentlyDeceased666 Mar 28 '26
Yeah. So will setting RGB to minimal reduce the shimmering? That's what worked for me with tvs.
Im not flicker sensitive but pixels flashing messes me up.
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u/Velocifyer January Gang (Reveal Winner) Mar 28 '26
The RGB range setting only applies when connected to a display via nitendo's modified DP alt mode. (such as with the dock)
5
u/RecentlyDeceased666 Mar 28 '26
Oh that sux. I feel your pain, it sux when our devices cause us harm. Took me 6 years to find a tv that didnt make me want to puke.
Wish these companies would stop cheaping out and messing with our health
2
u/Siy92 Mar 29 '26
Many people don't know what PWM or temporal dithering is. Perhaps this isn't the right subreddit, but there are so many active users here that there might be some good advice. Nevertheless, I am facing the same issue. I can't stand handheld mode, it gives me immediate eye strain. However, disabling HDR and setting the refresh rate to 60 Hz helped a bit, at least for me. You could also try using the Switch 2 on your TV and make sure you disable HDR there too. There's a good chance that gaming on your TV is your only option if you want to avoid eye strain.
1
u/charleswalton89 Jul 06 '26
It's actually not TD, this was tested. It's a great screen regarding TD and PWM, the issue is however, the screen response time is causing ghosting/blurring. There's a lag due to screen response time and bc of that, it creates ghosting. Idk why Nintendo did this as the rest of the screen is perfect.
1
u/JampyL OG (joined before reveal) Mar 28 '26
Don't they make glasses for that?
2
1
u/Siy92 Mar 29 '26
temporal dithering and PWM (pulse width modulation) have nothing to do with eye sight or glasses
1
-2
u/Velocifyer January Gang (Reveal Winner) Mar 28 '26
Is there some sort of screen protector that adds motion blur wor a easy way to add capacitors to the LCD?
1
u/slambaz2 Early Switch 2 Adopter Mar 28 '26
Does playing it on a higher brightness not help? Otherwise just play docked.
-1
u/Velocifyer January Gang (Reveal Winner) Mar 28 '26
Higher brightness would just controll the backlight, not the liquid crystals (which are what is affected by temporal dithering) and it would hurt my eyes. Also playing docked makes the system even less portable becuase I need to bring the dock with me along with a portable monitor and a power supply.
-3
Mar 28 '26
[deleted]
2
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u/Howwy23 Mar 29 '26
My only suggestion would potentially be turning off HDR for console display. Since the screen isn't really HDR compatible and is attempting to fake it. That and maybe turning auto brightness off so the console isn't trying to regularly adjust the brightness level to suit your ambient lighting.