31khz 60hz flicker more noticeable than 15khz 60hz?

[BONKERS]

Anyone ever find themselves noticing that 60hz 240p on a 15khz CRT is a whole lot less intrusive in terms of noticeable flickering than 31khz VGA monitors? (Or even LCDs that offer a 60hz flickering mode.)

On a VGA CRT, I find 60hz to be almost intolerable as the flicker seems more noticeable. On a regular 15khz TV the flicker feels almost undetectable except when viewing 480i content. (For example, last week I played through Contra 3 on my CRT and never noticed anything)

Is it all in my head or is there more to it?

[Xer Xian]

It's possible, but has nothing to do with the horizontal frequency and most likely all to do with the different phosphors employed in CRT monitors, which generally have a short persistence (vs. medium on TV sets). More on that (and a lot else) here.

If your source runs at 60fps, there's not much you can do about it. Lowering the contrast setting (not brightness) of your monitor might make the flickering slightly less apparent.

[ZellSF]

I'm guessing thicker scanlines and less resolution available means less flat single color surfaces, where flicker is more noticeable.

[Xyga]

For PC monitor use it used to bother me a bit while using Windows and all its static screens for a long time, but not ingame.

240p on a CRT TV -> never really noticed any, never been bothered by it.

60Hz strobing on LCDs that feature it -> completely different and much heavier than 60Hz VGA CRT honestly, it is beyond me why people compare them.
Insta-headache for me.

[mikejmoffitt]

For PC monitor use it used to bother me a bit while using Windows and all its static screens for a long time, but not ingame.

240p on a CRT TV -> never really noticed any, never been bothered by it.

60Hz strobing on LCDs that feature it -> completely different and much heavier than 60Hz VGA CRT honestly, it is beyond me why people compare them.
Insta-headache for me.

With a 60Hz strobing LCD, the amount of total light output can be represented with a very short duty cycle square pulse.

With a 60Hz vertical refrehs CRT, the total light output is almost at a constant, since it isn't flickering the whole screen at once.

[Xyga]

Yes, so I wonder why I often read people saying both feel/look the same, the former puts considerably more strain on vision, I don't believe I'm over-sensitive so it should appear the same to most. heh.

[mikejmoffitt]

Yes, so I wonder why I often read people saying both feel/look the same, the former puts considerably more strain on vision, I don't believe I'm over-sensitive so it should appear the same to most. heh.

Well, as someone who is hyper-sensitive to this kind of thing, I'll say the 60Hz CRT flickering is much preferable for me, especially since it really is manifested as a rapid movement at 60Hz.

[lukilla]

My samsung vga monitor was hideous at 60hz, eye burning pos

[BONKERS]

For PC monitor use it used to bother me a bit while using Windows and all its static screens for a long time, but not ingame.

240p on a CRT TV -> never really noticed any, never been bothered by it.

60Hz strobing on LCDs that feature it -> completely different and much heavier than 60Hz VGA CRT honestly, it is beyond me why people compare them.
Insta-headache for me.

With a 60Hz strobing LCD, the amount of total light output can be represented with a very short duty cycle square pulse.

With a 60Hz vertical refrehs CRT, the total light output is almost at a constant, since it isn't flickering the whole screen at once.

This is an interesting point.

Weirdly though, as long as I don't encounter a large white screen, the flicker on my 60hz LCD doesn't bother me as much when I get used to it sometimes (Seems contradicting with what I already said. Compared to a CRT it's still worse)
On a VGA CRT I remember white screens giving me the same feeling of bother at 60hz. Changing it to 75Hz seemed to be the sweet spot for me as flicker was unoticeable and not bothersome at all.

Turning the backlight down on the LCD does make the flicker feel less headache inducing though. I am unable to test at higher light levels however as this set tops out at ~85 or 90 cd/2 white point when in this mode.

[lukilla]

LCD´s were burning my eyes until I sold them and got a pwm free led. I can even play games @50hz now, no flickering