• OS
  • New attempt to disable dithering on M1/M2 chipsets

MTNEYE maybe I need to enter this command again and testing (SIP is disabled)

10 days later

NewDwarf The new version (1.4.2) of the BetterDisplay has a new function - EDID override support for Apple Silicon Macs. Can it help us?

    Ruoma if I understand correctly, this option allows to overwrite the display EDID, and perhaps it is possible specify that the video output is 8 bit

      10 days later

      At this point I'm honestly hoping for a OLED MBP in 2023/2024. Even if it PWMs at 99% brightness and under, I would be fine to keep it at 100% and used third part/OS tricks to dim the display, assuming it was a true 10(or 12) bit display there for no dithering. I can use I phone X thru 12 at 100% brightness no problem, acutely my preferred device, dim it at all and the PWM starts and its a no go. iPhone 13/14 PWM at 100% and could feel it in the store almost immediately. Also, my 2020 MBP M1 is fine hooked up to one or more external monitors, however when I airplay via my Apple TV 4K on my Samsung 2017? 65" LCD TV, It'd not as bad as the MBP screen but here is some dithering or font smoothing or something that I notice being slightly irritating afterwards. Nowhere near like looking at the actual dithering M1 screen.

      All that being said it seems like they could make it DC dim like any of these new OLED TVs that DC dim with just a slight dip in brightness every 8ms that coincides with the refresh rate and not full PWM. Although, I haven't spent much time in front of one of these, sounds good in theory though..

        MTNEYE I can use the Iphone X too, and it's one of the most comfortable devices that I have with the LG B8, and i tried the 13 pro and 14 pro but i wasn't able to use them or adapt.

        So are you using the 12 or the 12 pro? Have you tried also the 11 pro?

        Thanks

        3 months later

        I tried the command line above after partly disabling SIP on my MBA M1 2020 system (in recovery mode terminal: csrutil enable --without nvram).

        When running the log command after reboot I also see the confirmation, that the boot parameters where somehow at least read into the system:

        2023-06-02 12:11:35.698427+0200 0x2676 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (Sandbox) System Policy: nvram(1001) allow boot-arg-set iomfb_disable_dfr_display

        2023-06-02 12:11:35.698431+0200 0x2676 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (Sandbox) System Policy: nvram(1001) allow boot-arg-set iomfb_force_block_Dither

        Since I was not sure if this changes anything, I looked with a hand Microscope (up to 60x magnification) on the pixels and also filmed it with 240fps slow motion with my iPhone with and without this option. In both cases I saw no flicker on the pixels.

        It looked in both cases like in this video from Notebookcheck, where they also found no temporal dithering on MBA M1 devices.

        MacBook Air M1 Temporal Dithering Test

        In contrast they found temporal dithering on iPad Pro 11" M2 devices with same method.

        Apple iPad Pro 11" 2022 M2 Temporal Dithering

        I also looked with the tool AllRez from github into the Display and grafics values on my M1.

        In both cases that tool read out that dither is enabled (enableDither = true ?) what is in contrast to what Notebookcheck and I saw under the Microscope (but maybe we have a systematic problem how we look for it ?).

        Here the AllRez output:

        IOMobileFramebuffer: /AppleARMPE/arm-io@10F00000/AppleT810xIO/dispext0@70000000/AppleCLCD2 = {
        
            IOMobileFramebuffer 0x5317 = {
        
                IOMFBTemperatureCompensationEnable = false;
        
                enableDither = true;
        
                PDCSaveRepeatUnstablePCC = false;
        
                ...
        
        IOMobileFramebuffer: /AppleARMPE/arm-io@10F00000/AppleT810xIO/disp0@30000000/AppleCLCD2 = {
        
            IOMobileFramebuffer 0x5153 = {
        
                APTEnablePRC = false;
        
                APTEnableLogs = false;
        
                ...
        
                PCCTrinityEnable = true;
        
                enableDither = true;
        
                IOMFBSupportsXFlip = true;

        @NewDwarf:

        I wonder in what binaries you found the iomfb_disable_dfr_display and iomfb_force_block_Dither ?

        The strings you mentioned in the other thread here like enableDither and iomfb_RuntimeProperty_enableDither I found with Hopper Disassembler in IOMobileGraphicsFamily.kext but not those from this thread here.

        Do you still get eye pain from it?

        There have been displays I have captured slow-mo video showing no flicker and yet still get eye pain. Others have reported the same experience. It seems not all sources can be rooted out via slow-mo capture.

        In the past talking with the CEO of blurbuster, he told me that 240fps is too low, we need at least 5000fps camera to identify dithering.

          6 days later

          I did not saw any improvement or worsening when using this boot options or not using them. As long as I have no 5000fps camera to measure it I can not see if this boot option did anything or not.

          But there was one change that I tried in the last 1-2 weeks that helped quit a bit to reduce eye strain in my opinion. I used the calibrated color profile from notebookcheck for the MBA M1 display that shifts the colors back to a more realistic color gamut in compare to the oversaturated default color profile from Apple. Especially the white did not hurt so much anymore when using the color profile from notebookcheck. Additionally I also disabled "true tone" and I use "night shift" only with a fixed blue light reduction (custom schedule from 6:00 to 5:59 with 'turn on until tomorrow') that I change manually depending of the time of the day and how I feel. During daytime mostly cool color with just a tiny bit of warm color. At evening or night a bit more warm color but never over 50% of slider and still in the cool half.

          Here the link to the calibrated color profile from Notebookcheck for the MBA M1 display. It was a bit hidden on their review site. Just copy the icc file after download to the folder /Users/your_username/Library/ColorSync/Profiles and it will be available in the display options.

          Apple-MBAirM1-1.icc

          3 months later

          Hi!! I suffer from debilitating computer vision syndrome...had to leave medical school in the meantime...now I work at a startup in San Francisco that builds eye strain free computer tablet. It is fast like iPad, easy on the eyes like Kindle.

          We are interested in having 10-20 enthusiastic users to receive our tablets and share their experiences with us. It will also help us understand what type of eye conditions does the tablet help with the most, and helped us discover our super fans!

          if interested, you can email me at: tiffany@jangleinc.com

          Thank you! 🙂

          dev