Hello !
I recently got an QD-OLED monitor to play some games on it. I was wondering except complete darkness in the room what light is appropriate ? For example I have some smart bulbs that I can control but what is the temperature of the lights I should use ? I have a "TV mode" on them and its maybe 10% of their intensity maybe less blue light. For the QD-OLED I can see that light is reflecting and screen is appearing to be influenced by the light.
Any ideas ? or sharing some setups and most important things to avoid ?
Personal preference is a big part of this... but there is also another angle:
you shape your personal preference as well. Make that subconscious process, a conscious one.
In other words, you can learn to 'prefer' the things that are generally considered to be 'optimal' in terms of qualitative aspects and viewing pleasure.
- Calibrated monitors tend to aim for 180-200cd/m2 brightness levels to get as neutral an image on the display as possible. Part of this 'relatively low' brightness level has to do with contrast capabilities of LCD, but another part of it is pleasant viewing. Our brain/eyes adapt to light. But when they need lower adaptation (there are sweet spots), viewing is more comfortable. Compare it to looking at the sun. You wear sunglasses to reduce the extreme contrast. Lowering brightness is a similar principle. Very bright monitors will not only crush certain colors if they are LCD, you'll also just not be able to appreciate the more subtle color variations. A clear case of 'less is more' -
unless you prefer to max out brightness because that made the image pop so nicely. The latter setting has no logic to it, just preference developed over time - many people keep making their screens brighter throughout the years, because they think they need it because if they lower it, 'it looks dull'.
- After the monitor brightness, you can look at ambient lighting conditions. The two are closely connected. Again: consider that sunlight you look into. The idea is to
reduce the contrast between the screen and the ambient light in the room, while keeping low/dim lighting conditions. This is the optimal experience. Minimal eye strain, maximum advantage of the display's capabilities at a relatively low brightness point, and the best opportunity to appreciate the entire color spectrum. For this reason, general recommendation is to not game in a dark room with a bright screen being the only light source. Contrast is too high. Optimal is probably having ambient lighting at some 75% of the monitor's brightness. The monitor image grabs the attention, but its not over the top.
- Ambient light temperature... always be on the 'warm' side of the spectrum for any lighting in the house. Why? Because you use it when its dark, and our biological clock likes to slow down in the evening. Being in the range of 5600k and lower is best. I wouldn't directly advise getting the monitor any lower than 5600k, which is already very much on the 'red/warm' side of neutrality. Color temp also warps and crushes colors.
- Last but not least, lighting
direction. Lighting behind you will reflect off the screen, even on matte panels. Lighting from the sides must be 'equal on both sides' or it'll also be suboptimal. IMHO the best solutions have either very diffuse light over the entire room, or you place light sources
behind the monitor. Get a static ambilight effect going, basically.
Also, QD-OLED has a higher black point than WOLED, and using it at lower brightness has a number of advantages that way: lowering the black point below 0.10 which we often perceive as 'real black'; much lower wear on the panel; a bigger range for (HDR) peak brightness and thus higher static contrast; and panel wear is also just not noticed because the overall brightness isn't reduced, whereas if you use the panel at high/max brightness, any reductions to eliminate pixel wear will be noticeable.
