Macbook Pro - External Monitor Blurry Text

[Draagonthep]

Hello guys,

so I've had this problem for quite a while... I have a 1920x1080 Acer Nitro VG220Qbmiix monitor and I have the same problem - text is blurry, the rest of the content is completely fine... I tried forcing RGB mode but nothing really changed about the font. I also tried to use DP instead of HDMI, tried different cables... Then, I also bought another monitor with 2560x1440 resolution and there was the same problem. I wonder if a 4k monitor would have solved it... I read somewhere that the problem is with monitors that have lower resolution that the built-in Mac's display (2560x1600).

By this point, I have given up on trying to fix this issue on my current monitor, so the only question is, if someone who has the same MacBook 13 2017 base model, can confirm, that the font is gonna be okay on a 4k monitor.

I like MacOS a lot and it suits my needs, although this really bothers me:/... I hope there's gonna be a way for me to use an external monitor without any issues... Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[robvas]

No problems with external monitors her. Make sure you have the right cables and resolution set
[automerge]1585397211[/automerge]

There is some misinformation in this thread.

Twenty years ago, we had analog cables, VGA. With VGA, the brightness of a pixel was represented by the voltage level on the cable. The brightness of a particular pixel could range from 0.0 volts to 0.7 volts. A really low quality cable could have some resistance, which could turn 0.7 volts into 0.65 volts. Low quality cables could make the image worse.

Nineteen years ago, DVI (Digital Visual Interface) was introduced. Everything since then has been digital. The allowable digits are "1" and "0". The voltage in the cable is either on or off. There is no "quality" of on and off. A cable cannot cause a "blurry" signal. An HDMI, Thunderbolt, etc cable is either connected and passing signal or it is not. Replacing a digital cable will help *only* if the cable is broken, causing the screen to go black. It is absolutely 100% completely impossible for a digital cable to ever cause a fuzzy picture. If you have a picture, if the cable isn't loose and falling out, you would be 100% wasting your money to replace the cable.

That said, HDMI is different from DisplayPort, which is different from DVI. Switching from DVI to DisplayPort can make sense. But it would always be a waste of money to replace one HDMI cable with another HDMI cable, unless the cable is falling out of the jack or otherwise causing you to completely lose picture. An HDMI cable cannot possibly be blurry. There is no such thing as a blurry DisplayPort cable. Any digital cable either works or doesn't; 1 or 0, on or off.

Except that some macs can only do certain resolutions out of certain ports, and cables like HDMI have different specs and some have limits on what resolutions they can do and at what refresh rate.

so it is possible for a cable to make a monitor "blurry"

 

[Draagonthep]

Nah. in bootcamp Windows it works just fine... it's the mac's software

 

[Brondi]

I just buy an BenQ PD2500Q 25”.
I used a HDMI cable and DisplayPort to connect the monitor to my MBP mid 2015.

The external monitor is a 2k monitor and when connected to my mac as external display, not mirroring, the text look like a bit blurry, but the main problem is that the text, the menu bars are really small.
I have a really hard time reading.
In your opinion is a 25” monitor too little for that resolution?

If I connect the same with windows, at 2k resolution, windows suggest me a 125% scaling and it’s works perfect!

Any solution?

 

[ebengtso]

Hi,

Facing the same issue after buying Samsung Frame TV QLED 2020 32 inches (1920x1080). I'm also using this TV as monitor and from time to time as TV.

Here is how I fixed or improved my setup. It's far for perfect, but the blur has reduced.

MacOS is optimized for retina screens, and thus adjusting the screen ratio of the external monitor was needed for me.

I have MacBook Air 2018 13 inch, connecting via USBC-HDMI.

First, I tried to fix using EDID, and it didn't work for me

This is the step by step to try the EDID fix:

A script to fix EDID problems on external monitors in macOS

A script to fix EDID problems on external monitors in macOS - patch-edid.md

gist.github.com

Secondly, once I found the EDID didn't help, I read about the concept of HIDPI, and
this tool help me to improve my situation:

GitHub - xzhih/one-key-hidpi: Enable macOS HiDPI and have a native setting.

Enable macOS HiDPI and have a native setting. Contribute to xzhih/one-key-hidpi development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Please check below the settings I'm using, in particular the resolution is quite important:

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xzhih/one-key-hidpi/master/hidpi.sh)"
Remote Mode
Password:
  _    _   _____   _____    _____    _____
| |  | | |_   _| |  __ \  |  __ \  |_   _|
| |__| |   | |   | |  | | | |__) |   | |
|  __  |   | |   | |  | | |  ___/    | |
| |  | |  _| |_  | |__| | | |       _| |_
|_|  |_| |_____| |_____/  |_|      |_____|
                                       
============================================

                      Monitors                  
--------------------------------------------------------
   Index   |   VendorID   |   ProductID   |   MonitorName
--------------------------------------------------------
    1    |    0610    |         |  Apple Display
    2    |    4c2d    |         |  KQ
 
--------------------------------------------------------
Choose the display: 2

(1) Enable HIDPI
(2) Enable HIDPI (with EDID)
(3) Disable HIDPI

Enter your choice [1~3]: 1

-------------------------------------
|********** Display Icon ***********|
-------------------------------------

(1) iMac
(2) MacBook
(3) MacBook Pro
(4) LG Display
(5) Pro Display XDR
(6) Do not change

Enter your choice [1~6]: 6

------------------------------------------
|********** resolution config ***********|
------------------------------------------
(1) 1920x1080 Display
(2) 1920x1080 Display (use 1424x802, fix underscaled after sleep)
(3) 1920x1200 Display
(4) 2560x1440 Display
(5) 3000x2000 Display
(6) Manual input resolution

Enter your choice: 6
Enter the HIDPI resolution, separated by a space，like this: 1680x945 1600x900 1440x810
:2560x1440 1280x720 3840x2160 1920x1080 3200x1800 1600x900 2562x1440 2732x1536 1366x768
Enabled, please reboot.
Rebooting the logo for the first time will become huge, then it will not be.

Once run, I restarted the computer and selected the best resolution to tackle the blur. Then it's a matter of keeping the monitor at good distance.

The sub pixel antialiasing can also be tried. Possible values are between 0 and 3. 3 for the strongest setting and 0 for disabling.

defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 3

Also note, that using an HP laptop with Windows 10, the image is pretty sharp with resolution 1920x1080.

Sadly, I didn't find TV models with DPIs retina like. Only monitors like Pro Display XDR are capable to handle 32 inch screen size.

 

[kyussmondo]

I've also noticed an issue on my Samsung C34J79x 1440p with Thunderbolt 3. I noticed it wasn't too bad most of the time. It is good in Xcode, Safari, Music etc. Where it was noticeable was in apps like Messages and Podcasts. The one thing that Messages and Podcasts have in common is that they are both Catalyst apps (i.e. they are iOS apps that have been ported ported to Mac, so this could also be a potential issue. I also know it is not a monitor issue, because it works great on Windows 10 (Nvidia GTX 1080 DisplayPort to DisplayPort).

Also on Podcasts I have noticed the podcast on the left most scroll appears sharp, but the ones to the right appear blurry.

This is an issue on both my work MBP 16 and also my M1 MBA, so it doesn't appear to be an issue with the new M1 Macs as it is even having problems on the Macs with AMD graphics, it appears to be mainly an macOS software related problem.

It is also worth noting that I have used a 4K monitor in the past. I tried Thunderbolt to HDMI but it turns out that was a limitation of the monitor and the version of HDMI that was available at the time. Thunderbolt to DisplayPort or Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt is a better option, although not many monitors accept Thunderbolt directly.

 

[ebengtso]

Problem fixed for me with latest BigSur 11.1.

MacbookAir, Samsung Frame 32 inch, 1600x900 resolution. Text is quite clear now, of course, not a Retina display, but pretty much standard

 

[RolfNoot]

Thanks so much, this fixed the issue with the RX-560 in my MacPro5,1 for the second monitor via HDMI on Monterey!

🥳