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

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

Rikl It doesn't seem to make much difference.

Funnily enough, I actually turned off Metal adjustments on my m1air recently as I was starting to see a little bit of flicker/static (with my own eyes) on gray colors when in a pitch black room. Quitting BetterDisplay / turning off the color adjustment seemed to stop this or noticeably reduce it… I think?

It was veryyyyy slight though so not sure if I was actually seeing anything coming from the screen itself, or if I was just noticing the PWM for some reason, or just the non-screen-related static I usually see in dark rooms? But I feel pretty good without the adjustments at all though, possibly better?

The Metal adjustments seemed to help on M2 TB Pro, but not sure if they are useful at all on m1air.

bpo19

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs Just got the M1 Air. Wasn't great before installing Stillcolor. Now that it's installed, it's better but not a huge difference. I am still experiencing a headache, straining and feels a little blurry. I also switched the color profile to srgb and turned true tone off and changed the resolution to one larger than default. I ran the command through terminal to verify that still color is working and it is. Is there anything else I can do?

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

Rikl The M1MBA is as usable as any current laptop screen now. Not perfect.

What other "current laptop screens" do you find usable?

(Or am I misunderstanding the grammar here and you are actually saying "the M1MBA is the only current laptop screen that is usable"?)

Rikl

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs I meant that I'm sure that you could find a usable screen on another laptop. But most l've seen are not usable for me. This opinion is as casual observer in BB etc. not from a deep study . And not that MBA is the only screen I can use. But none are without strain for me. Sorry for the confusion.

Interesting what you found with Metal. Brings back the option for Stage Manager. These fixes are really getting narrowed down now.

Rikl

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs BTW. I dug out my antique Nexus 7 2013 A6 and compared it to the fixed M1 MBA. The MBA is far better.

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

Rikl I bet there was a panel lottery with the Nexus 7 too, LOL. I actually have used two different 2013 Nexus 7 tablets in the past year… the screen and colors definitely felt different on each.

(Also, if yours has a screen protector on it, that can negatively affect screen comfort.)

I also noticed that for some really weird reason, the Nexus 7 is MUCH more comfortable in portrait mode than in landscape mode. Polarization related?

By the way, it's actually awesome to hear that the m1air is more comfortable than even an old tablet for you!

photon78s

async

Thanks for the suggestion. This discussion is getting so long it's hard to find the mention of the display calibrator. At some point we need a summary of the latest tools and tricks.

Donux

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs Maybe will need to try U-turn. Should not be that hard to trade M2 Air for M1 Air 🙂

Rikl

bpo19 Use BetterDisplay Image Adjustments. Install FontSmoothingAdjuster to turn off font smoothing.

Use 1280x800 retina.

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

bpo19 still not sure if this terminal command does anything but i do it after every reboot and it weirdly seems to help things, like it somehow makes the screen feel lower contrast

/Applications/BetterDisplay.app/Contents/MacOS/BetterDisplay set -namelike=built -framebufferNumericProperty=0x0 -specifier=overdriveCompCutoff

of course you need latest betterdisplay installed to run this. after running enter sleep mode then after it fully goes to sleep wake it back up (in order to re-initialize display output)

also, i am still using default Color LCD profile, not sRGB. sRGB profile oversaturates things too much

make sure stillcolor is running constantly, set to launch at login, and has a checkmark next to disable dithering in the menu bar. (it will not work if you quit the app or it's not running in the background)

i also checked "disable uniformity" in stillcolor but not sure if that actually does anything on m1air

in addition to turning true tone off, also turn auto brightness off

i was having strain at max backlight but it's actually way better for me to run this laptop at low backlight

often times you see opposite advice here like ""use 100% with a screen dimmer helps (because that avoids PWM)"" and yeah, usually that helps me on other devices — but IMO that's NOT true with this Air!

i actually still use the real hardware backlight, feels more comfortable to me than virtual screen dimming. i just turn hardware backlight all the way down to around 5-6 squares and that's what feels much more comfortable to me

also, turn off font smoothing, as Rikl said (i've done this on macOS since even before i knew i had screen sensitivity LOL, it's always the first thing i change on every Mac)

i'm also on Ventura 13.6.6 if that matters. my laptop came with 13.0 and i upgraded it to 13.6.6. (i'm not on Sonoma)

turn keyboard backlight off!

if you're still having strain after all of that, then maybe your m1air has a different panel from mine

does it feel like your m1air has tons of glare or "doesn't feel dim enough" at low backlight?

then it's probably different from mine, because my m1air has a really good antireflective coating where even though it's still glossy, it actually feels like it doesn't have that much glare at all compared to other MacBooks i've used — and dimming mine feels like it reduces contrast in a really relaxing way

what's your panel ID? run this to get it

ioreg -lw0 | grep -e "panel-"

mine is FP1223202CVP3WVBD+5AQK240320A9JA+PROD+Y218621852194+2122321L22322122322B223220+K10720181K11620413+5425A2205KT30T00TTUYYJY5A41424483+S23D688Z79S23D688Z79S23D688Z79S23D688Z

Donux

bpo19 I remember using Air M1 with Generic RGB. Its was terrible color wise, but it was best for the eyes. But I do remember really well why I sold it - because I could not bear it! Definitely not 8 or at least 6 hours working per day. If I would be using it for smaller sessions, then it is ok ish.

bpo19

Rikl I installed Better Display but I have no idea how to use it lol. Font smoothing app seems to make things worse for me.

bpo19

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs I am on Ventura 13.0. Stillcolor is running and I checked disable uniformity as well. I installed Better Display but don't have it running because I am not sure how to use it. True tone and auto brightness are also turned off. Font smoothing made things worse so I uninstalled it.

I don't think it has tons of glare, it actually isn't bright enough for me. It feels as though auto brightness is still on because I keep having to increase the brightness but it's still dim. Also, compared to my old mbp the screen is more yellow instead of bright white, as if true tone is on.

GMG205700S1NR89AJ+00000000CH05C3+PROD+Y000000000000+00000000000000000000000000+PX19M1210P81011112+6758DKM73T002147TTCYYK12121B27530+W1CH128134W1CH128134W1CG126538W1CH1281

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

bpo19 just make sure betterdisplay is open, then run that command at the top of my previous post in terminal

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

bpo19 seems like yep, you don't have my panel, instead it seems like you have the type of panel that @Rikl has (starts with GMG, zeroes, last 2 sections start with 6 and W respectively)

so maybe they can help you

although mine is a different panel, mine also has yellow tint BTW

(sometimes they actually are manufactured with correct white instead of the yellow tint, but yellow tinted screens always seem to be the most common across both iOS devices and Macs)

if you still can't get it to work… now that you know it isn't my panel type, you can try exchanging or returning/rebuying a different m1air, it will probably have a completely different panel

sometimes i buy another one before i return the first, so i can have them side-by-side for a day or two to compare what's different about the panels

Rikl

bpo19 I had the opposite issue. Too bright, too white. I have to tame mine with BetterDisplay, then it's close to fine. Looks like you lost the panel lottery. I'm thinking that this lottery is present in any laptop from any manufacturer. Good luck.

Donux

Rikl Problem is really for folks that live in countries where there is no return policy for electronics.

bpo19

Rikl Interesting because when I open BetterDisplay, the screen automatically gets really bright and then I have to turn it down. Are you using specific settings in BetterDisplay? I just open it and haven't changed anything. I do think I got a bad panel. It really seems like auto brightness is turned on even though it is off. Also at start up on the wifi screen, it wouldnt load, I had to keep pressing enter several times for it to finally go through. Maybe I will order another one and see if it's any better. Is yours usable for you now?

Rikl

Donux got it

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

bpo19 Interesting because when I open BetterDisplay, the screen automatically gets really bright and then I have to turn it down.

in main tab of BD settings, turn off "combined brightness" and turn off "apple hardware backlight control" in the section for your internal laptop display

in keyboard tab, turn off "map brightness shortcuts to apple brightness keys"

this will prevent betterdisplay from messing with your brightness level

honestly i really personally dislike that betterdisplay changes a bunch of brightness settings for new users the moment they first open it, switching to combined brightness (which messes with your color profile) etc… it should just leave settings the same as stock IMO until they're changed, at least in regards to the internal laptop display. turning those specific settings off should prevent it from messing around with stuff like that

Rikl

bpo19 It's useable but not like the early led backlights from the 2000s. If you know of one like that, please let us know. AFAIK, BetterDisplay should not be able to make the screen any brighter than the Mac Fn keys. BTW. FontSmoothingAdjuster needs restart after changing the setting.

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

btw, just as an update, i do NOT reccomend BetterDisplay color adjustments in "Metal mode" on m1air, it definitely adds flicker that i can literally notice with my own eyes. (the moment i turned off Metal mode while in a dark room, i could visibly see the flicker vanish, LOL)

instead, just use the regular (default) "Color table mode" for color adjustments.

ignore my previous posts about trying metal mode, there's a chance that maybe that is better on other laptops, but NOT the m1air. the default color table adjustments work better (as long as Stillcolor is activated)

i am actually not using any color adjustments at all, i don't even have BetterDisplay open. i just use Stillcolor, and around 8 squares of hardware brightness, and that is working really well

Rikl

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs So did you decide that overdriveCompCutoff does not make a difference -- as you need BetterDisplay to set it. Or do you have another way. Are you using the standard ColorLCD profile. Thanks.

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