Guide
Colour Temperature Through the Day
Warming the screen at night is the famous half of this. The room's light is the half that does more, and the two only work when they agree.
5 min read
Displays & Lighting
Seeing the screen properly, in a room with the wrong light.
Start here
Screen Fixes That Are Not a New Monitor
Five cheap things that fix what people blame the panel for — glare, eye strain at night, windows rearranging, and a haze that turns out to be dirt.
Guide
Dead and Stuck Pixels
A dead pixel and a stuck pixel are different faults, and only one of them ever fixes itself. How to tell which you have before deciding what to do.
5 min read
Guide
Response Time Claims and Overdrive
The 1 ms on the box is achieved by overdrive, and overdrive is what causes the pale trail behind moving objects. Same feature, both halves of the story.
5 min read
Guide
Scaling, and Blurry Text
Blurry text on a sharp monitor is almost always the panel being driven at the wrong resolution, or a scale factor the software cannot render cleanly.
5 min read
Guide
When a TV Works as a Monitor
A TV can be an excellent desk display or an unusable one, and the difference is three settings and a viewing distance rather than the panel itself.
6 min read
Comparison
Ultrawide vs Dual Monitors
One gives you a continuous surface, the other gives you a hard divide. Which suits you depends on whether you want to split your attention or spread it.
4 min read
Guide
Lighting for Video Calls
The camera exposes for the whole frame, so a window behind you makes a silhouette. Direction and softness matter far more than buying a brighter light.
5 min read
Guide
Running One Screen in Portrait
Rotating a screen is close to free and transforms reading. What decides it is the mount, and the viewing angle you inherit when the panel turns.
5 min read
Guide
Backlight Bleed and IPS Glow
One is a manufacturing defect worth returning and the other is how the panel works. Telling them apart decides whether you have a faulty monitor or a normal one.
4 min read
Guide
HDR on a Desktop Monitor
Most monitors that accept an HDR signal cannot display one, and the badge does not tell you which you have. What the tiers mean and when it is worth enabling.
4 min read
Comparison
Refresh Rate vs Resolution on a Fixed Budget
You cannot max both without paying for both. Which one to spend on depends on what you play and how far away you sit, not on which number is larger.
3 min read
Collection
Screen Fixes That Are Not a New Monitor
Five cheap things that fix what people blame the panel for — glare, eye strain at night, windows rearranging, and a haze that turns out to be dirt.
3 min read
Comparison
Monitor Light Bar vs Desk Lamp
A light bar lights the desk without touching the screen. A lamp does more for less and takes the space. Which one depends on how much desk you have left.
3 min read
Comparison
Privacy Filter vs Screen Hood for a Shared Room
One stops people seeing your screen and darkens it doing so. The other blocks light landing on it. They are sold together and solve opposite problems.
2 min read
Guide
Cleaning a Monitor Without Damaging the Coating
Modern panels carry a coating that household glass cleaner strips permanently. What is safe, what is not, and why the damage only shows up later.
3 min read
Guide
Does Bias Lighting Actually Reduce Eye Strain?
Lighting the wall behind a screen lowers the contrast your eyes keep adapting across. That mechanism is real — and it is not what most RGB strips are sold on.
3 min read
Guide
Is a Monitor Calibration Tool Worth It?
For gaming, almost never. For anyone whose work leaves the screen — print, video, photos — it answers a question guesswork cannot.
3 min read
Guide
Desk Displays That Are Not Another Distraction
A second small screen is either a glance that saves reaching for a phone, or one more thing pulling at your attention. What separates the two.
3 min read
Guide
Reducing Monitor Glare in a Bright Room
Glare is a geometry problem before it is a product problem. Which free moves to try first, and what each of the hardware fixes actually costs in image quality.
4 min read
Guide
A Streaming Backdrop You Can Pack Away
Chair-mounted and roll-up green screens both promise a clean background in a room you also live in. Lighting is what decides whether either works.
3 min read
Guide
Testing a Display Cable Before Replacing It
Flicker, black screens and a monitor that will not hold its refresh rate are often the cable. How to prove it before buying a third one.
3 min read
Guide
Webcam Placement and the Privacy Shutter Question
A camera balanced on a monitor points up your nose and cannot move. Where it should sit instead, and whether a sliding cover is worth the small risk it adds.
3 min read
Guide
Why Your Monitor Keeps Going Black
Intermittent signal loss and windows rearranging themselves are cable and handshake faults, not monitor faults. The cheap parts that fix each one.
3 min read
Other things that might be annoying you
- Warning lightThe light is on and nobody can tell me why.
- A long drive coming upSix hours in the car and I have not thought about any of it.
- Wi-Fi that keeps droppingThe PC is upstairs and the router is by the front door.
- The desk is set up wrongThe screen is too low, the chair is too high, and I have never changed either.
- A screen that is hard to look atGlare across it, or text I keep leaning in to read.
- Stuck at the roadsideSomething failed away from home and I had nothing useful with me.
- Taking a handheld awayCharging it, filling it, and getting it there in one piece.
- A PC that will not startIt was fine yesterday and now nothing happens at all.
- A car that barely movesIt sits far more than it drives, and that is its own problem.
- Nobody can hear me properlyHum, echo, or a microphone that picks up every keystroke.
- Losing work to a power cutA flickering supply, a failing drive, and no backup worth the name.
- Dead batteryThe car sat for a month and now it won't turn over.
- No garage spaceThe car fits, but only just, and nothing else does.
- Car clutterEverything I own is loose in the trunk and rattling.
- Dirty interiorThe interior has grit in places a vacuum cannot reach.
- Bad lightingI cannot see what I am doing under the hood or under the car.
- Lost toolsI own three 10 mm sockets and can find none of them.
- Loud PCIt sounds like a hairdryer the moment a game loads.
- PC runs hotFrame rate drops after twenty minutes and never recovers.
- Cable messBehind the desk is one knot I refuse to look at.
- Cannot drillI rent, so nothing can leave a hole or a mark.
- Nowhere to put itThe flat is full and there is nowhere left to put anything.
- Bag will not closeIt all went in last time and now the case will not shut.
- Everything needs chargingFour devices, one socket, and a flight in the morning.