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djlythium

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 11, 2014
1,170
1,619
M2 MBA -> 4k 120hz LG C2, res @ 2K.

No issues until the past few days. I just noticed that all text font seems blurry, as if font smoothing is exaggerated. I'll turn off font smoothing via Terminal, but it only lasts for a time (varies), then reverts back to being overly smoothed.

Anyone else? I filed a bug report.
 

vanc

macrumors 6502
Nov 21, 2007
489
154
Possibly caused by resolution change?

You may check the display settings, or the Display section from System Information, or the OSD from the display itself.


1713812582514.png
 

djlythium

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 11, 2014
1,170
1,619
Possibly caused by resolution change?

You may check the display settings, or the Display section from System Information, or the OSD from the display itself.


View attachment 2370906
No, nothing in that respect has/was changed. Literally, it was clear, then suddenly went slightly blurry as if font smoothing was turned on.

The laptop's display itself is not affected; only the external C2.
 

djlythium

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 11, 2014
1,170
1,619
Also, the font will change from clear to blurry, and back again, with no known time interval or cause. This just started. I haven't updated anything recently.

WTH?!
 

HobeSoundDarryl

macrumors G5
Take the MBA to a local store (or work) and hook it to another monitor or two, then give it some time to see if the problem happens on another one(s) too. That would narrow in on the problem being MBair vs. monitor. It would be particularly good if you could find a store with a display model of the very same monitor as then most variables would be identical.

If it doesn't replicate what you are seeing on another monitor(s), something is likely up with the monitor you own. If it does replicate- while it could still be a monitor issue- odds increase that it is the MBair.

A TechSpot review of this monitor includes this relevant info...

For text clarity, the LG C2 isn't a great monitor for desktop work due to the RGBW subpixel layout. This means that in addition to the normal red, green and blue subpixels for each pixel, LG are also including a white subpixel to improve brightness and other aspects to display quality. However, in the modern world of subpixel text rendering, any time the pixel structure differs from RGB, text clarity tends to suffer to some degree.

We still found the C2 to produce generally clear text, but it was inferior to the IPS displays we use daily, though the Windows ClearType utility can fix this to some degree.

I don't think Mac has any equivalent ClearType utility anymore. Instead, Apple wants us to pay up for oddball "retina" resolutions vs. cost efficient commodity resolutions like 4K.

Narrowing down the variables is often the only way to resolve a tech problem that seems isolated to a single (or perhaps few) user(s). Other things you could try (some of these solely to narrow in on exactly what is driving the issue):
  • Pull the plug on the monitor, wait a few minutes, plug it back in and see if a cold (full) reboot perhaps shakes out some bug that snuck into the monitor... perhaps in a power blink.
  • Pull the video plug, let Mac adapt to using its own screen, then plug video plug back in so it can do a fresh "handshake" connection with this monitor.
  • Is "auto-update" turned on on the monitor and it perhaps did a software update just ahead of this starting?
  • Cable: easy enough to try a different cable, so try it. If you perhaps pinched some pennies on the cable, consider replacing it with one that is high-rated and even a little overkill for the connection, like maybe HDMI 2.1 8K cable or similar.
  • If there is more than one input port, try the other port. LG C2 has FOUR HDMI ports. Try the others to rule out a single port issue.
  • Going through a hub (Mac to Hub to C2)? Temporarily try a direct connection to rule out the hub.
  • Have another Mac or maybe a friend has one? Hook it to this monitor with the very same cable and use it with the monitor for a while to see if this problem shows itself again. If possible, try to run the same app(s) for about the same amount of time that typically triggers the issue. If another Mac doesn't show the problem, you'll know your Mac probably causes the issue.
  • Any new technology added within about 50 feet of this monitor, coinciding with the start of the problem? Sometimes other tech can cause interference issues.
  • Dust in the ports? Ants?
  • Heat? Maybe high demand use or hours of use before things get too warm and perhaps cause this? As the northern hemisphere shifts into late spring and then summer, is the Sun now perhaps hitting the monitor front or back this time of year?
  • Some kind of time-based, energy efficiency mode on the monitor that kicks in and uses less power, maybe after a period of apparent inactivity- such as if you are reading a web page or staring at the same code without interacting with the content?
  • LG C2 is an OLED monitor... which means it almost certainly has "burn in" avoiding modes. Could one of these be kicking in due to bright elements on the screen being in one spot for too long... like when you just leave the same content in the same place for a good while? On this very topic in that same TechSpot review...
There are some mitigation strategies in place, some of which the C2 activates on its own and some that you can do yourself. For example, the C2 implements pixel shifting and logo dimming to improve the lifespan of the TV, and dims the entire panel when long periods of static content is detected. However, we found the pixel shift feature annoying as it can cut off vital information from the desktop at times, depending on where the image is shifted to, so that might need to be disabled for desktop use, further hurting burn in.

The name of the tech problem diagnostic game is to systematically test variables to figure out exactly what is causing a problem. As is, there are MANY possibilities from software updates (Mac and Monitor) to hardware (cable, possible hub, ports) to environmental (heat, shifting sun, power blink (without a reboot)), to misc (some new purchase in the vicinity causing signal interference, some kind of energy save mode kicking on, etc).

It very well could be a Mac fault, macOS fault, etc but there is plenty of other potential here too. Work through the list and you may discover the cause. If so, you can then focus on alternatives to overcome the issue.
 
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djlythium

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 11, 2014
1,170
1,619
Take the MBA to a local store (or work) and hook it to another monitor or two, then give it some time to see if the problem happens on another one(s) too. That would narrow in on the problem being MBair vs. monitor. It would be particularly good if you could find a store with a display model of the very same monitor as then most variables would be identical.

If it doesn't replicate what you are seeing on another monitor(s), something is likely up with the monitor you own. If it does replicate- while it could still be a monitor issue- odds increase that it is the MBair.

A TechSpot review of this monitor includes this relevant info...



I don't think Mac has any equivalent ClearType utility anymore. Instead, Apple wants us to pay up for oddball "retina" resolutions vs. cost efficient commodity resolutions like 4K.

Narrowing down the variables is often the only way to resolve a tech problem that seems isolated to a single (or perhaps few) user(s). Other things you could try (some of these solely to narrow in on exactly what is driving the issue):
  • Pull the plug on the monitor, wait a few minutes, plug it back in and see if a cold (full) reboot perhaps shakes out some bug that snuck into the monitor... perhaps in a power blink.
  • Pull the video plug, let Mac adapt to using its own screen, then plug video plug back in so it can do a fresh "handshake" connection with this monitor.
  • Is "auto-update" turned on on the monitor and it perhaps did a software update just ahead of this starting?
  • Cable: easy enough to try a different cable, so try it. If you perhaps pinched some pennies on the cable, consider replacing it with one that is high-rated and even a little overkill for the connection, like maybe HDMI 2.1 8K cable or similar.
  • If there is more than one input port, try the other port. LG C2 has FOUR HDMI ports. Try the others to rule out a single port issue.
  • Going through a hub (Mac to Hub to C2)? Temporarily try a direct connection to rule out the hub.
  • Have another Mac or maybe a friend has one? Hook it to this monitor with the very same cable and use it with the monitor for a while to see if this problem shows itself again. If possible, try to run the same app(s) for about the same amount of time that typically triggers the issue. If another Mac doesn't show the problem, you'll know your Mac probably causes the issue.
  • Any new technology added within about 50 feet of this monitor, coinciding with the start of the problem? Sometimes other tech can cause interference issues.
  • Dust in the ports? Ants?
  • Heat? Maybe high demand use or hours of use before things get too warm and perhaps cause this? As the northern hemisphere shifts into late spring and then summer, is the Sun now perhaps hitting the monitor front or back this time of year?
  • Some kind of time-based, energy efficiency mode on the monitor that kicks in and uses less power, maybe after a period of apparent inactivity- such as if you are reading a web page or staring at the same code without interacting with the content?
  • LG C2 is an OLED monitor... which means it almost certainly has "burn in" avoiding modes. Could one of these be kicking in due to bright elements on the screen being in one spot for too long... like when you just leave the same content in the same place for a good while? On this very topic in that same TechSpot review...


The name of the tech problem diagnostic game is to systematically test variables to figure out exactly what is causing a problem. As is, there are MANY possibilities from software updates (Mac and Monitor) to hardware (cable, possible hub, ports) to environmental (heat, shifting sun, power blink (without a reboot)), to misc (some new purchase in the vicinity causing signal interference, some kind of energy save mode kicking on, etc).

It very well could be a Mac fault, macOS fault, etc but there is plenty of other potential here too. Work through the list and you may discover the cause. If so, you can then focus on alternatives to overcome the issue.
This is amazing! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 I think the most probable of all of these would be software update-related. I’ll rollback the software on the LG to see if that works. The most recent update was about a week ago.
 

HobeSoundDarryl

macrumors G5
There you go. It may be that. Or maybe the software update reset some settings you may have previously adjusted- which sometimes happens with AppleTV & iDevice updates too. If that doesn't do it, work the list and you'll probably come to discover the actual cause... by narrowing in on exactly what is behind it. As is, there are so many possibilities.
 
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