cont-temp Not trying to be obtuse but just making sure I understand....those wavy lines that look like a topographical map are what you are referring to right? I had assumed those were just the sort of moire pictures of displays often show due to the camera. I thought dithering banding would be more uniform for some reason I can't explain but now feels silly anyway since LCD's don't scan in some uniform way...interesting. Either way since we still cannot selectively shut it off universally and see I feel so stuck. If you could reliably turn it off and on on different hardware and OS (I only have access to linux so cannot even try other ones except in a shop) the way you can adjust fonts etc, it would be a quick test. Even people who use Windows and dithering.exe don't seem to be sure if it's even on or working. I need to look at the same images on my "good" vs "bad" devices and see if I notice banding...does it need to be blurry to really notice?

      hpst What does that mean for his results?

      I'm not entirely certain 😐

        martin The dithering would be different with the different graphics card models.

          hpst Yeah, I avoided the moire lines by using manual focus and slightly focusing beyond the monitor. That way no moire was present but visible color banding lines could be seen. Color banding is also static - you can see it with your own eyes - its not something that can only be captured with phone camera like LED PWM flickering for example.
          And I think the picture needs to be blurry - that way there would be more subtle color changes that monitor can't hardware-handle them so the banding occurs.

            JTL Sorry, don't know if you posted this as a good example or a bad - but this is moire effect.
            the topographic lines do not follow the flow of the colors on the screen.

            • JTL replied to this.

                cont-temp That's exactly what I was pointing out, that your demonstration is different from the moire interference patterns we see.

                  martin Jep, no prob will report back in a day or so - its evening right now where I am and I need to be heading home 🙂

                    martin That command never worked for me on my 2015 MBP with El Capitan. It just says "Color LCD" and doesn't give me a model number :/

                    Assuming it's a Samsung. I'm not going to take it apart just to find the model number.

                        JTL Wouldnt want you to do that with the only working mac🙂 The command changes depending on the OS unfortunately, can be googled for specific OS. Btw I want to ask you about your cannabis medicine, could I via chat or email?

                          16 days later

                          cont-temp What is the configuration of the 2013 macbook that doesnt hurt your eyes? Also, did you try it without external monitor?

                              yesanton Hi, It was Late 2013 15" with Intel Iris Pro only, no added graphics. What panel of LCD I do not know yet. Will try to find out tomorrow.

                                martin I have LG panel on the 2018 MacBook Pro. I dont think I can test the 2013 Intel Iris one with external screen anytime soon, but I'll but it in my backlog.
                                Right now my daily Mac is late 2010 with NVidia and this is all good for me with the integrated screen. Haven't tried any externals with it yet.

                                  Found some new stuff while poking around with the blurred pictures.
                                  Still with the 2018 MacBook Pro 15” intel UHD 630/ATI Radeon Pro 555X with LG Screen

                                  1.Color profiles to make a difference - the default profile (color lcd) is a lot smoother than say Adobe RGB1998 - so the older Adobe1998 might have less dithering. Who knows - but it does produce more color bands.
                                  Link to video

                                  https://streamable.com/d2was

                                  2.With both True Tone OFF and Night Shift OFF the display adds like an additional dithering layer when either of them is turned off (and the other one is off as well)
                                  Link to video - notice the black color bands on the left changing, stoping and after a second the final pop of smoothness.

                                  https://streamable.com/yjljj

                                  3.ATI is the devil indeed. When running the display with Intel I see more bands (maybe this means less dithering) but with ATI enabled - everything is smoothed out - means more dithering I guess.

                                  https://streamable.com/54m3s

                                  Will try to do a full workday with this new configuration soon-ish and see how it holds up.
                                  The integrated LG display on this model is sluggish as hell though, so even a couple of back and forth swipes in that place where all the app icons are is making me puke 😃

                                  Also this has got me thinking that maybe the 2018 15” are ok cause they have only Intel stuff and with older color profile and nightshift on (not for the yellow tone but somehow nightshift removes some dithering) that they might be ok.

                                  Maybe someone has some newer MacBooks they can test this out on. 2015 or 2017 ones.

                                  Steps to reproduce all of the above. - open Spotify web player playlist (it has this nice gradient there) and mess around with the display settings (eg color to Adobe RGB1998 or default), TrueTone on and off (with adobe color profile and nightshift off at the same time) and performance settings Automatic graphics switching on and off.

                                  • JTL replied to this.

                                    I've found various "better than others" Macbooks, but the only one I found that was AWESOME was an early 2013 with nVidia graphics. The screen was glossy, it was just a standard unit. The problem is that the config was sub-optimal - 8GB - and by now the screen was quite scuffed. But ZERO pain when using it, which is a great thing for me. I'd love to find a loaded-up one with the same config.

                                      deepflame 15" Early 2013. nVidia chip. I've found some newer 13's that aren't too terrible, but they're far from perfect. They're what I'd call "ok", but not what I'd want to relax and play a game on.

                                          Gurm I see. Would you mind making a list of MBPs you tested with ratings of "eyefriendlyness" from 1 to 10 or something? Would be really interested in your findings.
                                          Currently I was using a 2018 13'' model that I cannot stand anymore after looking at it for some seconds. Really bad. Now I am trying my 2015 13'' model again which seems to be better.

                                            dev