I disabled dithering on Apple silicon + Introducing Stillcolor macOS M1/M2/M3

specamfi purchased an open-box M3 15" MBA

specamfi The bad news is that there's still something going on that's causing eye-strain/headache albeit to a lesser degree than before

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!

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…)

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.

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

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.

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?

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

Videos: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/0p4yxanhwgdzfkh6glaf1/AGj2zhDGrb5vWyqB7zyimO0?rlkey=eedmt5vc2i3si98iv2n18940a&dl=0

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.

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?

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

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

photon78s Interesting… so both of your panel IDs have the long strings of zeroes (but differ in other ways instead) but you're saying one of them flickers and one doesn't. That's really strange, good to know

To be clear, you're saying the one that ends with VS6896895 does not flicker? And the one that ends with KS6896893 does?

Others with M2 TB Pros have also posted their panel IDs in this thread and the long string of zeroes seems to be a common theme…

However, that means that my second M2 TB Pro panel that doesn't have the zeroes at all is probably a really rare type of panel… considering that no one else has posted a panel ID that looks quite like my second TB Pro's yet.