How to configure an XDR preset against eye strain/PWM?

[nimo23]

I used an old Intel-based MacBook and had no problems with eye strain and headache on that display. However, with the new MacBook Pro (M4) I actually have the feeling that the display hurts and damages the eyes and I almost always get a headache after 1-2 hours. This is not a subjective experience, as I am not alone with this problem:

• https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254774275
• https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255372278
• https://ledstrain.org/d/1227-headache-from-latest-hd-graphics-display/12
• https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/14w0wr7/macbook_retina_vs_xdr_display_eye_strain/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/13ydt6q/2023_macbook_pro_eye_strain_headaches_help/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/14w0wr7/macbook_retina_vs_xdr_display_eye_strain/
• and many more..

I have come accross

• https://ledstrain.org/d/2313-my-possible-solution-for-the-eyestrain-on-m1pro-16-macbook-pro/5

which suggests to create a new color profile. I tried it and it helps a little (but is not a full solution due to my unknownness of those different display settings).

What I also see is that if I disable Apple XDR Display (P3 - 1600 nits) or Apple P3 (600-nits) then Apple (Mac OS) disables both the "Night Shift" and the possiblitiy to adjust the brightness (which is absolutely not user friendly) and warns the user about possible excessive energy consumption (because Apple cannot or will not adjust the brightness automatically on other display presets).

In order to perhaps find a (temporary) solution:

Please add presets against eye strains so the user can simply click the preset (e.g, within menu item XDR-Preset) from the menu bar. I think BetterDisplay does know all the culprits about the settings (e.g. sRGB instead of x, dithering-off, 60hz instead of x, etc.) and can provide presets which come close the eye-friendly displays.

[waydabber]

Hi @nimo23 - you can solve this using the following method:

• Configure the BetterDisplay XDR profile to 1000 nits (or 600 nits) flat, whichever you find pleasing. This should disable hardware brightness control by macOS (you can confirm this by looking at the Control Center brightness bar).
• Also turn off "Enable Apple display hardware brightness control" in the app. This should allow you to control brightness using software dimming with BetterDisplay.

Some find this helps with PWM issues (I myself don't know as I did not do measurements + I myself am not very sensitive to PWM as I grew up watching horrible 60Hz CRT displays from up close, them sending all kinds of harmful radiation straight to my face... 🤣). Don't forget to turn off temporal dithering under Color Mode as well.

Let me know if this helps.

[nimo23]

A few points after a little investigation:

1. Look at https://www.change.org/p/apple-add-accessibility-options-to-reduce-eye-strain-and-support-vision-disability-sufferers. There is even a petion for that! I cite:

Many users have attempted to contact Apple Support about these issues and have been told that they have eye problems or to see an eye doctor.

This is another typical “You’re holding it wrong! It’s your fault!”-statement from Apple..

2. I also read https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/wiki/Eye-care:-prevent-PWM-and-or-temporal-dithering and also found https://github.com/aiaf/Stillcolor which can disable both dithering and uniformity2D. With BetterDisplay, only dithering can be deactivated. I checked it with

Result from BetterDisplay (after disabling dithering):

% ioreg -lw0 | grep -i enableDither
    | |   |   |   "enableDither" = No
    | |   |   |   "enableDither" = Yes
    | |   |   |   "enableDither" = Yes

Result from Stillcolor (after disabling dithering and uniformity2D)

% ioreg -lw0 | grep -i enableDither
    | |   |   |   "enableDither" = No
    | |   |   |   "enableDither" = No
    | |   |   |   "enableDither" = No

Thus, Stillcolor can completely disable dithering, while BetterDisplay apparently cannot do this completely.

3. Your answer shows that there are different (very technical) settings need to be made against eye strain. My issue in add presets against eye strain #4033 suggests to add presets to the menu XDR Preset, for example, two presets:

• Preset 1: BetterEyes-Color (by clicking this preset, it makes all the required settings automatically)
• Preset 2: BetterEyes-Ebook (by clicking this preset, it makes all the required settings automatically + the suggestions of https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/wiki/Eye-care:-prevent-PWM-and-or-temporal-dithering#creating-an-e-book-like-appearance-and-limit-number-of-on-screen-colors)

@waydabber Would be nice to solve this issue by providing these presets. What do you think?

4. I also found two other issues when selecting a non XDR Preset (e.g. HDR Video, Internet & Web (sRGB), etc.):

• NightShift cannot be enabled in Mac OS (and BetterDisplay).
• The brightness is drastically reduced and cannot be increased anymore.

@waydabber It would be nice to look at these issues too. Why is Apple's user forced to have a very dimmed and unadjustable brightness just because they have set Internet & Web (sRGB) for example? Why does Apple prohibit higher brightness and NightShift in these color modes. Can BetterDisplay solve this issues? Would be great.

[waydabber]

Hi there,

what you get with the grep command is the dithering state for each framebuffer port (display connection). In BetterDisplay you can toggle this on a per display level while Stillcolor probably has a single toggle for all displays (?). The first entry is for the built-in display, the second and third for external displays (if connected).

The calibrated presets mentioned are explicitly made for certain types of graphical works and ensures that all Macs for example in the work place have the same calibrated colors. It is not meant to be used by average users (content consumers). But in terms of brightness, customizing the BetterDisplay XDR preset as described above does the job, it makes no sense to use these other Apple calibrated presets for eye-strain purposes. They only fix the brightness at a certain level and have some specific standardized white-point/gamma configured (that's why Night Shift and True Tone is not allowed to work with them).

Yes, it might indeed make sense to have some readily available preconfigured settings for various eye-strain reducing configurations indeed. I added an issue for this: #4040

[nimo23]

@waydabber thanks so far.

I tried your recommendations:

• Dithering is disabled - I hope the terminal didn't lie and return a "false negative".
• PWM/flickering should have been disabled using the settings described above.

However, it doesn't help! I don't know why. I'm using a brand new Apple M4 Pro with NanoTexture-Display (Mac OS 15.3). This laptop display is NOT suitable for work - Under no circumstances should something like this panel be installed in a laptop (intended as a work device), it feels more like a typical and bad TV than a workstation screen.

I'm currently looking at the screen of my old 2019 Intel based Macbook Air and the screen of the new M4 Pro and I can definitely confirm that the old screen is very suitable for the work, but the M4 Pro's display is absolutely not. And I have excellent eyesight and have even worked with old CRT monitors - which were still far more pleasant than the bullshit that is built into this new Macbook. Despite the fact, that your tool is cool, it seems it cannot solve these panel issues.

I can only advise everyone: stay away from devices with such displays - they are absolutely not suitable for work!

[markomitranic]

I understand your frustration @nimo23 . As someone who has similar issues with noise cancellation in headphones (it is becoming increasingly hard to find them without NC) I've been presented with a "you're doing it wrong" answer many times which made me furious.

However, I'd advise you to chill out with the tone when talking to nice people who are actually trying to help you. waydabber is on your side, and spends time answering to your question in detail, researching, reaching out to the authors of Stillcolor - to which you answer with a very cold tone, then state "false negative" which shows that you either haven't read his answer or you didn't understand it, and then go about writing an offtopic manifesto about which displays are suitable. I know, I've been there, trust me. I felt scammed by the industry. But nobody here in this conversation works at Apple or has the power to change the display technology. Just a tiny bit of warmth goes a long way, and we all want to help and learn more! I'd personally love to see an option like this be successful.

As for your expectations stated above (dithering disabled, pwm flickering stops) i may be misunderstanging @waydabber answer but from what I am reading:

• Dithering is disabled - I hope the terminal didn't lie and return a "false negative". - there is no false negative. What he wrote is that you seem to have multiple monitors, and in BetterDisplay, you need to turn this off for each one individually. The grep command you posted simply gets all text lines that mention dithering. When I ran it locally i could see 3 entries. Now, I'm a dumbass, so I don't know how to parse a huge plist like this, but hope this explains why there are 3 entries:

  • built-in display
  • general display pipeline in the M2 Pro GPU
  • the display controller managing external display

• PWM/flickering should have been disabled using the settings described above. - I may be very dumb and misunderstanding this, but what I'm reading from Stillcolor's documentation, PWM is a completely separate concept, that is related to backlight flashing on certain levels of brightness. Afaik BetterDisplay has no functionality that is able to eliminate PWM, and the only way to eliminate it, according to Stillcolor's docs is to just run the display at 100%. So waydabber wrote that "some find this helps" and pointed to some settings that may help spread out the scale of brightness - which isn't a solution, just a possible helping hand.

Now, let's imagine for a second that i am not misunderstanding this - does Stillcolor fix the flickering issue for you, while BetterDisplay doesn't? Perhaps there are additional differences that Stillcolor does, apart from just dithering, which could be implemented here.

[nimo23]

However, I'd advise you to chill out with the tone when talking to nice people who are actually trying to help you. waydabber is on your side, and spends time answering to your question in detail, researching, reaching out to the authors of Stillcolor - to which you answer with a very cold tone

I think you have a language barrier and problems understanding how to correctly interpret my tone. Your subjective perception of my tone is absolutely wrong here. There is no cold tone from my side.

By the way, my recommendations help to improve this software or at least get to the bottom of the causes. See #4050 or #4040.

Now, let's imagine for a second that i am not misunderstanding this - does Stillcolor fix the flickering issue for you, while BetterDisplay doesn't?

Another language barrier on your part: There is no A versus B. And if “flickering issues” were fixed, I would say so. I really believe that both tools are not capable of “solving” the microLED problems. Anyway, thank you for trying to help ;)

[markomitranic]

Ah, yes it is me who has issues reading the tone...
Enjoy your flickering 👋

[waydabber]

Hi guys,

to clarify: disabling the GPU side temporal dithering will not solve display side temporal dithering (which might still happen with external displays and even possibly with internal panels, depending on the LUT they have which might require colors that require FRC which generates flicker - not sure if MacBook panels do that or not). GPU side temporal dithering also does not affect PWM.

the benefit of running a mini-LED display at fixed higher brightness is a mixed bag/inconclusive afaik and might depend on the panel again. For Apple's OLED mobile products having 100% brightness and instead lowering white point (using software dimming) clearly reduces or even eliminates PWM. For the various mini-LED pannels I am not so sure. I don't think the leds are driven differently for local dimming. The only true solution would be to turn local dimming off which is something I can actually do (lock the entire array at a certain brightness level), but after some experimentation I removed that feature from the app as it caused instabilities + might not even work for all MacBook models. There is a hidden option though to enable this via CLI (have to dig it up, was working on it long time ago now), you can try if you'd like.

[nimo23]

The only true solution would be to turn local dimming off which is something I can actually do ..There is a hidden option though to enable this via CLI

@waydabber Thank you for bringing up this idea. I can try if you give me the CLI commands.

[waydabber]

You need to enter the following command while the app is running:

/Applications/BetterDisplay.app/Contents/MacOS/BetterDisplay set -n=built -framebufferBoolProperty=on -specifier=BLMStandbyEnable

That should lock the backlight array in its current configuration (at least it did on earlier MBPs, not sure about the M4, did not try it). It is advised to have the XDR screen display a full white screen as you run this command so all zones are evenly and fully lit otherwise you will just lock-in dark blotches.

Please note that this command will most probably compromise system stability, you might need to reboot your Mac to restore normal operations.

[nimo23]

You need to enter the following command while the app is running:

/Applications/BetterDisplay.app/Contents/MacOS/BetterDisplay set -n=built -framebufferBoolProperty=on -specifier=BLMStandbyEnable

ThanksI tried it several times. I think the local dimming doesn't seem to be turned off (since, like before, I see the typical glowing "points of light" scattered around the display, e.g. the glowing around white text on dark background - no difference here). And as soon as I run this command, a few seconds later the MacBook always hangs (freezes) and I have to restart again.

[waydabber]

All right, it might not work on M4 then. I tried it back then on M1-M3.