I disabled dithering on Apple silicon + Introducing Stillcolor macOS M1/M2/M3
new-jdm honestly, no idea. Something changed on the MacBooks around 2015-16 for me (same with recent iMacs). Since it affects both the MacBook displays and external monitors, I'd always assumed it was dithering. I suspect that for issues, Stillcolor does something but doesn't eliminate the issues completely. Unfortunately, I'm not technical enough to suggest anything, just a sufferer.
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Check out my posts in this thread — there is definitely still something weird about all of the Airs!
For example, flicker can be detected on solid gray on both the M1 Air and M2 Air, when filming at 240hz slow motion (I suspect this is equally as true on the M3 Air too).
I also agree that the Airs did not work for me. I tried M1 Air and M2 Air, M1 Air made me feel very tired to use and M2 Air made me feel motion-sick when trying to think while looking at the screen, even with Stillcolor.
However, there is an Apple Silicon Mac that is not an Air but has a standard LCD screen…
I've been mentioning it many times already — so I hate to sound repetitive to others who have been reading my posts — but it's the 13" M2 Touch Bar MacBook Pro.
This MacBook has a standard IPS LCD similar to the Airs, but does not flicker on camera even on dark grays, and for me has none of the problems that all of the Airs had! For example, unlike the M1 Air, I don't "suddenly feel tired" after I start working on it.
The M2 Touch Bar MBP works perfectly with Stillcolor and appears completely still to my eyes!
It's 100% worth a try if the Air isn't working for you.
The screen feels very different to me compared to the Airs and works for me in areas where the Airs simply didn't.
The only issues are PWM on the OLED Touch Bar strip, but you can turn the touch bar off or create a custom setup with "invisible" buttons to get past this.
(One thing to note is that the screen is also slightly more reflective than the Airs, even when the computer is turned off. If this bothers you, you can always apply a matte screen protector or the like.)
The M2 Touch Bar Pro is the only Apple Silicon Mac out of every single one I tried that seems to eliminate dithering on the internal screen entirely after activating Stillcolor!
DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs repetition is good in a thread with 800 posts!
Regarding the 13" M2 TouchBar MBP, I'm going to see if I can find one and try it!
DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs have you tried it with Stillcolor on an external monitor?
new-jdm it was completely fine until last year
There seems to be a running theme with iOS 17. I'm pretty sure that temporal dithering was either "enabled for the first time" on iOS 17 or "bumped up in strength by a significant amount".
For example, I saw a good amount of people here say that the iPhone SE 2020 is their "only usable iPhone".
Seeing this, I decided to buy an SE 2020 earlier this year as a secondary device as they have been going for really cheap recently — but mine came with iOS 17.2.1.
"At least with iOS 17", I hate the screen on my SE 2020. Even the screens I wasn't really satisfied with on the M1 Air and M2 Air are still hundreds of times better than the seasickness-inducing, blurry, and "constantly twitching" image that I get out of my SE 2020 despite it having a "PWM-free LCD". The colors on app icons also look way too oversaturated to me.
On the other hand, I also own an iPhone 14 Pro that is still on iOS 16.4.1. Even though I 100% get all of the familiar OLED PWM symptoms and generally do not like the screen on this phone either, the image is sooooo much more "stable" and I don't really notice anywhere near the dithering I see on the SE 2020. It only has really bad PWM — so I still wouldn't try to do any heavy work on it — but it's generally tolerable for basic phone use and web browsing.
I have some older LCD devices like an iPad 6 and iPhone 7, both on an earlier version of iOS 15, that are so much more usable than the SE 2020. So I suspect iOS 17 is related in some way.
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specamfi All Apple Silicon Macs should have the same behavior with Stillcolor and an external monitor. I've found output from Apple Silicon Macs (with Stillcolor activated) to look the same as output from an Intel Mac, and aiaf has verified this with capture card footage too.
In addition, another factor on macOS that can affect screen quality is whether macOS attempts to send out a "YCbCr" or "RGB" signal. RGB is generally ideal, but a lot of times macOS will choose YCbCr instead which can decrease quality. Search up "M1 Mac force RGB EDID" method for more info on how to fix this.
Outside of this if you're still having strain with a monitor, it's probably an issue with the monitor itself such as FRC.
Note that you should avoid any "HDR", "local dimming", "P3 color gamut", or "10-bit capable" monitors, as Apple Silicon Macs attempt to send out a 10–bit signal whenever possible, which would activate the monitor's own built-in temporal dithering functions on those types of monitors.
The best monitors to use with Stillcolor and an Apple Silicon Mac are "true" 8-bit that do NOT use built-in FRC temporal dithering (which are unfortunately hard to find, as information can be inaccurate about whether a given "8-bit" monitor uses FRC or not…)
specamfi BTW, the M2 TB Pro is currently still available on Apple's refurbished store with their 14 day return policy, which is a good way to try it out.
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DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs In that case it probably won't make a difference for me (although i may try the HDMI cable instead). My monitor is a HP Spectre 32 Studio Display (4K) which i've used with several older MBP's with no issues (specifically Late 2013 15" MBP, Mid 2015 15" MBP, pre-retina MBA). MBP's with touchbars, 16" MBP's, retina MBA's, and all M1's cause me headaches/nausea on the built in screen and with this monitor.
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specamfi Mid 2015 15" MBP
really surprised you were able to use it with this with no issues, did you have one of the 15" MBPs that had integrated graphics only?
if so, then that makes sense it would work better since on those models Intel graphics are wired to the HDMI port
but if you had a version with AMD dedicated graphics, the HDMI port is hard wired to the AMD dGPU and that's the 2015 15" rMBP I own. it clearly shows moving temporal dithering in monitor output LOL (was able to disable it through one of the more obscure AMD dither disable methods, however)
aside from that, the internal display of the 2015 15" rMBP is uncomfortable for me regardless though, even if forced to Intel integrated mode. i actually quite prefer the Intel 2016 13" (four thunderbolt 3 ports) screen over the Intel 2015 15" surprisingly
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DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs I'm talking about a mid-2015 MBP 15 with integrated graphics that I tested. My current machine is a late-2013 15" MBP with discrete nvidia. I may have access to a mid-2015 MBP 15 with AMD which I'll test and report back on if i can.
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Will check when I have the full testing gear.
Some 13 inch M2 MBP TB have more pixel flicker than others.
This is hard to say but I tested a 24GB ram version M2 MBP TB and it has edit: "different" or slightly more pixel flicker than my base model version all else being equal (same sonoma 14, stillcolor running, same patch on gradient test chart). I used to say much more and similar to the Legion 7i Pro windows laptop at 60hz refresh rate but re-testing shows a more subtle difference. Whether this has a meaningful impact on eyestrain and how it can be still better than the other models I cannot say.
I didn't have enough time for subjective feel but the screen seemed slightly off but this is hard to describe. PWM test with camera test seems the same as the base model with no backlight flicker at default resolution.
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photon78s I tested a 24GB ram version M2 MBP TB and it has much more pixel flicker
what's the raw-panel-serial-number? which one has the panel serial number with a lot of zeroes in it, does one of them not have the zeroes? does each have different System Firmware Version or OS Loader Version in System Information?
are you running them at 1280x800 or the default 1440x900? if you're still on 1440x900, you should be testing them at "looks like 1280x800" instead as that's the true native resolution (even though it's not selected by default)
true tone and auto brightness is off on both of them correct?
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On second thought, the difference is subtle. The base model I measured at 510 nits max brightness and the other "bad" unit at 470 nits.
Both are refurbished and running 10151.101.3 as system firmware version. Any way to fix the bad one by changing firmware? Where do I find the raw-panel-serial-number?
I was testing using 1440x900 and I don't see a difference by using 1280x800 for pixel flicker. True tone and auto brightness off on both.
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photon78s Where do I find the raw-panel-serial-number?
run ioreg -lw0 | grep -e "panel-serial-number" in Terminal
Here are the two raw-panel-serial-numbers from the two M2 TB MBPs for reference…
First (had really noticeable color uniformity issues, yellow tint, looked slightly blurry to eyes, but still usable, whites backgrounds look VERY greenish on right side of screen):
F0Y235201ADNTJGAW+000000000P11C5+PROD+Y000000000000+00000000000000000000000000+PY19N0709PA07N0717+6755DKF4P9002214TTTYYW1EA80526916+S6896893Z8S6896893Z8S68968932US6896893
Second (current, appears much sharper, very uniform colors, NO yellow tint, white backgrounds look "ever so slightly" more greenish on left side of screen)
Edit: WARNING after using this FMX panel for a week it actually gives me a lot of strain, despite being more uniform. Avoid the FMX panels, the panels with lots of 00000000 in them are more comfortable.
FMX229114YDNTJHAM+GE1S2405893931+PROD+B214121852196+11228722228722228722228710+K12120392K12220403+645052209KW80A00TTCYYGAHN62628520+S252891HR1S252891HR1S252891HR1S252891H
Which type of serial number does "the one you have that flickers" have?
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The above one with the zeroes with this unit also ending in 6896893. The slightly blurry to eyes sounds close to what I was experiencing.
DCN230500YSNTJGA8+000000001P17E3+PROD+Y000000000000+00000000000000000000000000+L02120504L12220532+6760DKF3W4002214TTTYYW1FB71227806+S68968930KS68968930KS68968930KS6896893
My good screen is your first screen type as well:
F0Y24450298NTJGA2+000000003S02H4+PROD+Y000000000000+00000000000000000000000000+PX15N0804PX23N0921+6755DKK0W3002224TTTYYW1EB92420277+S68968957WS68968957WS68968952VS6896895