Mathew Inkson

Force RGB Mode in Mac OS X to Fix the Picture Quality of an External Monitor

  |   technology

I recently bought a MacBook Pro (with ‘Retina’ screen), but when I hooked it up to my Dell U2410 monitor via HDMI cable I was shocked by the poor picture quality. The contrast was all wrong and text was misshapen. No amount of calibration in the monitor or software would fix it.

Short answer: OS X thinks my monitor is a TV, and is using the YCbCr colour space rather than RGB. I had to override an EDID setting to force the RGB colour space, and it is now working correctly.

Long answer: I haven’t owned a Mac for a while and had forgotten how difficult much of the “Apple community” can be when it comes to anything that can’t be adjusted in System Preferences. Googling for problems with external monitors on MacBooks found dozens of threads on official and unofficial Apple forums, all full of people with the same problem. The most common response was to blame the monitor, despite assurances from the stricken users that the monitor worked beautifully in Linux and Windows, even on the same machine under Boot Camp.

“You just haven’t calibrated it!”, “You are just too used to Retina now!”, “You just need to buy a Thunderbolt display!” Apple people also like to solve problems by throwing more money at it. (I realise that owning a Mac makes me an Apple person, too. Hypocritical self-loather?)

My lucky break was reading that the current colour space was “YCbCr” when I was browsing the monitor’s settings menu. I was sure that it was using RGB when hooked up to my PC, so I started searching instead for forcing RGB mode in OS X. It didn’t appear to be available out-of-the-box, but I have had some experience in overriding EDID settings for similar purposes so I searched instead for that.

I found this thread on the EmbDev.net forums. Mr Schwarz, thanks very much. Your thread and script was incredibly helpful and informative. It was written to fix problems connecting an external monitor via DisplayPort, but it fixed my HDMI issue just the same. I’ve summarised the required steps below.

My last word is to wonder what Apple is playing at. It seems that this problem has been reported by a lot of people for a long time, and I expect it would require a fairly simple software update. Do they just not care about those using third-party components, or are they actively attempting to force people on to Thunderbolt displays?

How to force RGB in Mac OS X

These steps have been updated for Mac OS version 10.11, “El Capitan”. See below for differences for previous versions of the system.

  1. Download the patch-edid.rb script from the forums thread above, or download Andrew Daugherity’s improved patch-edid.rb script from his github page. Put the script in your home directory.
  2. Disable “rootless” mode, you can follow these instructions: How to modify System Integrity Protection in El Capitan.
  3. Reboot.
  4. Connect only the external monitor(s) in question, if you can (I closed my MacBook lid, for example). The script will make override files for any connected monitor.
  5. Type “ruby patch-edid.rb” in Terminal.
  6. A new folder will be created in your home directory. Move it into the “/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides” folder. You may have to create the Resources and Overrides folders. If Finder tells you that you are overwriting an existing folder, consider backing it up first.
  7. Restart your computer. The picture quality should be fixed from this point.
  8. Re-enable “rootless” mode, the instructions are available on the same guide: How to modify System Integrity Protection in El Capitan.
  9. Reboot. Enjoy your monitor.

To undo the changes, either delete the folder you had copied to the Overrides folder (if it didn’t already exist) or replace it with the folder you had backed up. You will need to re-enable rootless mode to do this.

Earlier versions of Mac OS X

The process is a little more straightforward. There are two differences to the steps above:

  1. You do not need to disable/re-enable rootless mode and perform the subsequent reboots.
  2. The overrides folder location is “/System/Library/Displays/Overrides”.

Updates

I no longer own a Macbook Pro, but if you’re having trouble with any of these steps, please have a look through the comments below (and note that there are multiple pages). Many questions have been answered with helpful tips from others.

Update, 20 Nov 2016: In the comments Marcus has proposed a faster method that doesn’t require SIP to be disabled. Others have had success with it so give it a go if you’re uncomfortable with disabling SIP.

Update, 8 Feb 2016: A comment from nos1609 below, warns about a bootloop that can occur when running other patches (like the pixel-clock patch) simultaneously, and how to get around it.

Update, 23 Nov 2015: According to Peter’s post, you don’t need to disable SIP if you use recovery mode. If others have similar success with this method I’ll update the process.

Update, 3 Oct 2015: I have amended this post to target El Capitan. I have taken the steps from bigmcguire’s process, posted in the comments. Although some are still having issues, it appears to be working for people. Thanks!

Update, 29 May 2015: Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan does things a little differently. You must first disable the new ‘rootless’ mode and then use a different overrides folder: /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides. Rootless can then be re-enabled if desired, as confirmed by nos1609 in the comments below. El Capitan is still in beta, I’ll update this post if the issue is still apparent afterwards.

Update, 26 May 2014: If you have had trouble with limited resolutions being available after the fix, check out Ibrahim’s comments here.

Update, 28 Nov 2013: If the process appears to work but doesn’t seem to make a difference, consider Tom’s comments below. Depending on your monitor an extra tweak may be required.

Update, 13 Nov 2013: Andrew comments below that he has modified the script to add some useful new features, and provides a link to his GitHub for those wishing to use it instead.

Update, 27 Oct 2013: If you’ve applied this fix before, the OS X Mavericks update will overwrite it. I’ve successfully re-applied the fix by following exactly the same steps, and other commenters below have done so, too.


Comments

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uentoeuoeu

Brilliant! Would have saved me $33 on the stupid DVI adapter had I known thin months ago! Thank you for posting this on the forums.
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

No worries! It was someone else’s solution, it just wasn’t very widely disseminated. I’ve had some feedback since from people checking out beta release notes suggesting that a fix may be in 10.8.3. That’d be good, but it’s still pretty slow moving for what is a pretty simple update.
Glas Good's gravatar

Glas Good

Thank you very much Mathew for sharing this, very much appreciated.

Dimitri

Amazing, that did the trick! Thank you very much!
LinuxLinus's gravatar

LinuxLinus

Jeah!!!! It works!!!! Thanks!!!!
Derek Gates's gravatar

Derek Gates

This is so awesome. Fixed up my Dell U3011. I can now rotate the display (the Dual DVI adapter has this broken in 10.8.3) and now the display won’t have static/black outs! Woo!

Gian Marco Cinalli

Thank you very much! I tried to solve this problem since September, when I just received my MacBookPro. Finally, I can reuse my Samsung monitor without washed colors and with a true and deep black! For your information I use an adapter Thunderbolt (Mini DisplayPort) - HDMI, and I created a backup of the replaced folder in order to test if OSX 10.8.3 fixes the problem.

daneale

HI, I have an issue when I try to complete the script, I get a message \Syntax Error -Expected end of line, etc. but found unknown token.\ and I get a highlighted issue in the file \‘base64’ \, over the first symbol, anyone has the same issue? Can anybody tell me where am wrong, I will appreciate any help. Thanks.
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

daneale: Did you copy the code above into a new file? If so, the app you used may have copy/pasted incorrect characters, so try downloading/saving the script directly from Mr Schwarz’s post here: http://embdev.net/topic/284710#3027030

daneale

Dear Mathew, thank you very much for your help, I followed your steps and my mac is working perfect. Thanks.
Tamer's gravatar

Tamer

Thanks for the help.. but i rarely use Terminal !!

Could you please paste the code you wrote in the terminal to make sure aim doing it right !

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Tamer

ruby patch-edid.rb
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Tamer

Exactly what I’ve written above, if you have placed the patch-edid.rb file in your home directory. Unless you’ve made changes to Terminal, which sounds unlikely.
Joe Boyer's gravatar

Joe Boyer

You’re a very smart man Mr. Mathew. Well done.
Tamer's gravatar

Tamer

Thanks.. but should i have Ruby installed on my Macbook air (OS Lion) to be able to run this script ?

Thanks in advance.

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Tamer

I had wondered that, too, but it ran on my new MacBook without me installing ruby myself, so I guess it comes with it now. I have whatever 10.8 is, though. Mountain Lion? Mangy Cougar? Something like that.

Adam

That was awesome, I thought my monitor on my Mac Mini was just going bad. The script above fixed it perfectly.
Tamer's gravatar

Tamer

Thanks Mathew.. i will pray to make this work for my case.

John

Thank you for this pointer. I also have a U2410 that looked bad via HDMI, but this fix took care of the problem. I got tired of waiting for Apple and 10.8.3, which supposedly fixes the issue according to feedback on the numerous beta versions.
SMELTN's gravatar

SMELTN

Just to share I do not have a Dell monitor ( I have an Acer ) but the above method fixed my issue perfectly.. Thank you so much I was so tired of the washed out colors and bright display

Matt

I’m getting this error when typing in “ruby patch-edid.rb” to Terminal:

patch-edid.rb:9: undefined method `[]’ for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)

Is it because I do not have Ruby installed?

Nick

in reply to Matt

Change line 7 to look like this: data=ioreg -l -d0 -r -w0 -c AppleDisplay

Note: I’ve added the -w option and set it an unlimited width. This solves the “patch-edid.rb:9: undefined method `[]‘ for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)” error.

Sphinx777Sphinx777's gravatar

Sphinx777Sphinx777

Same issues… a Retina and external monitor (LG IPS). Finally perfect and natural images. THANKS A LOT!

Kevdawg42

Thank you so much. I always knew there was something off about my monitor, but i could never get it “right”. Enjoying my super crisp monitor now!

Rob

Well I’ve the same problem on a ‘12 mini and just checked the monitor settings and “space” is listed as RGB. The very same brand and model monitor are on this ‘11 mini and looks great. So now what? (the latest update has not been done yet however.

Thanks in advance!

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Rob

First step, definitely update it. But otherwise it sounds like you have an entirely different problem.

jason

Thanks so much for this!

Andrew

Thanks! This helped a ton. I have a new mac mini (2012) and the hdmi output was horrific, no matter what adapters I tried (asus vh236h monitor). 10.8.3 did not yet fix the issue for me. It still seems far less crisp than I expect, but is at least usable now – it was quite painful on my eyes before! I’ll keep following to see if anything other fixes arise.
Lee Eisenbarth (@intoairwaves)'s gravatar

Lee Eisenbarth (@intoairwaves)

I love you.
Tamer's gravatar

Tamer

I am back with failure :(

When i type ( ruby patch-edid.rb ) in terminal

i got this message ( -bash: ruby: command not found ) ..

Any clue or help why this happened ?!?

I am starving to make this work.. really appreciate your help.

Regards, Tamer

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Tamer

Sounds like ruby isn’t installed, or not in your PATH. I’m afraid it was installed already when I bought mine, so I’m not sure of the process to get it on the mac.
Rodrigo De Castro's gravatar

Rodrigo De Castro

A minor suggestion: the xml tags in the script on this page are gone, so I’d suggest to escape them, so they are displayed correctly or remove the script altogether. I ended up copying it and pasting into my emacs and only later, when comparing to the existing overrides file that I realized that it was supposed to be an xml and saw the comments suggesting to get it from the forum link :-)

Other than that, thanks so much for this post. I had researched how to get a better resolution with MacBook Pro and had not found any good solution until now.

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Rodrigo De Castro

Thanks for the tip, I didn’t notice that Wordpress had escaped the XML string. I’ve removed the whole section now to prevent confusion.

AJ

Thank you, worked perfectly. You saved my brand-new mac-mini, I was preparing to take it back tomorrow.

I had the washed-out/too-white color issue, and also the fuzzy-text problem. My new mini was already installed with 10.8.3, so whatever fix is in there did not resolve my issue. Your link and clear explanation did the trick. I’m using the HDMI cable without any adapters, and an LG 1920 x 1080 monitor at 1080p.

“Instant buyer’s remorse” was absolutely the LAST thing I expected upon powering up my new mac mini. Which only got worse upon reading all of the nonsense posted by apple “experts” who have apparently imbibed far too much apple kool-aid over the years. The numerous cheerful suggestions to buy a new Thunderbolt display at $1,000 to solve the problem were particularly unsettling. Thanks for restoring some sanity to the matter!

msc

I’m about to apply this fix, but I want to use DisplayPort audio. Is it really gone when that patch is applied?
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to msc

This is the first I’ve heard about it affecting DisplayPort audio. I would suggest you run the ruby script with only the HDMI attached, then backup any existing folder with the same name as the one created before putting it in the overrides folder. If it affects your DisplayPort audio, revert the changes by deleting the new folder (and reinstating the old one, if applicable).
ademuk's gravatar

ademuk

Works an absolute treat with MBPr 15 HDMI to Dell SP2208wfp monitor, Thank you!

Rocky Katz

Do you know if this fix also works on OSX10.6.8?
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Rocky Katz

I don’t know, give it a try! Just make a backup first.
Brett Nemeroff's gravatar

Brett Nemeroff

This seems to have worked for me as well! LG IPS monitor. Now it even shows more resolutions in the display settings. Not sure if that’s expected..

david

if you used dvi-d to connect to the mac instead of hdmi it would automatically be rgb mode
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to david

Yes, I’m led to believe that’s the case. I’m glad I didn’t have to buy an adapter and DVI cable, though.

twangsta

I’m using 10.8.3 and can confirm this wasn’t fixed in any update to date. Thanks a ton for the fix, Dell U2410 here.

azran

I’m connecting an external monitor to a new iMac (27" late 2012) and having the same issue with blurry text. Since I cannot turn off the main iMac monitor to only display the external display, I can’t run the script above. Any ideas how to fix this problem for an iMac? Thanks.
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to azran

If I recall correctly, when you run the ruby script an override is created for each attached monitor. I’m not 100% sure on this, but I presume you can run the ruby script and then determine which override represents your external monitor before copying just that one to the /System/Library/Displays/Overrides directory.

Ross

Have a Dell monitor and 10.8.3 didn’t fix the issue, but the ruby script did. Thanks a lot!
Andreas Fuchs's gravatar

Andreas Fuchs

Matthew, thank you thank you thank you for digging this up. The blurriness issue was driving me crazy! I should have known something was up when I couldn’t reproduce the issue on my TV, but the colors on my Asus PA248Q seemed just that tiny bit off. This is so much better.

Thanks again. If you ever should find yourself in San Francisco (or me in your neck of the woods), I owe you a lot of beers. (-:

Andreas Fuchs's gravatar

Andreas Fuchs

One follow-up to this: I didn’t have to restart my computer to get this to work. All it took was disconnecting & reconnecting the external display.
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Andreas Fuchs

Good to know, thanks!

Karen H

Hi,

I’ve changed line 7 as suggested above to be “data=ioreg -l -d0 -r -w0 -c AppleDisplay” but still receive the error:

undefined method `[]’ for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)

Any other suggestions?

Nick

in reply to Karen H

I’m not sure why this didn’t work for you. Try running “ioreg -l -d0 -r -w0 -c AppleDisplay” in a terminal window and see what the result is.

Nate

Thanks for posting. This solved my problems. The number of people suffering from this is problem in ignorance is probably very high. I wonder if it isn’t a strategy to drive sales towards apple displays.
pyrosever's gravatar

pyrosever

Works like a charm, thank you!

Malikman

@mathew where specifically do you mean by “home directory”? and can i leave my macbook retina lid open if i need to type the command? thanks
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Malikman

By home directory I mean your user folder. When you open up Terminal that’s where you are first put, so if you run this script the results are created in that location. Not sure what your level of expertise is with the command line, so check out this if you are unsure: http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/introduction-to-the-mac-os-x-command-line

For your other question see my reply to azran on April 22nd. I think it will just generate files for both screens, and you will have to determine which one was created for the external screen and use that.

Philip

Works absolutely great with my new Philips Brilliance 272P4!
Cam Incoll (@camincoll)'s gravatar

Cam Incoll (@camincoll)

Awesome - Thank-you! Got it working for our data projector in the office which was causing a problem for our Macbook Pros
disiei's gravatar

disiei

Thank you! It works. I’ve a MBPr using 10.8.3 and a HP Pavilion 23xi

kuehner

Thank you Mathew! The picture quality is much better, however I’m still running into a slight problem. I’m using a Seiki 48" 1080p 60hz tv as my external and it seems like the size is off. The screen is too big for the monitor. When I use display preferences, the option to scale the display is no longer there. Any extra help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to kuehner

In Windows I use the ATI or Nvidia settings to do this, but I’m afraid I’ve not had to deal with it with the Mac. Hopefully someone else can help you out.

Chris

Amazing.. Thanks!
James's gravatar

James

Didn’t work for my Samsung monitor, im not sure I put the patch in the right place but O have no idea where to find the home directory, when I run the command in terminal it just says “ruby patch-edid.rb” -bash: “ruby: command not found.

any help would be greatly appreciated!

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to James

It sounds like either ruby isn’t installed (I think it’s only there by default on newer versions of OS X) or it’s not present in your PATH. Not my area, I’m afraid, but there’s some info here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4945902/when-i-type-commands-in-the-terminal-i-get-an-error-command-not-found

Zen

Hello Mathew,

I’ve just bought my first apple product ever (a 13’’ rMBP) and three hours later ended up on your website.

My DELL 2412m has the “smudgyness” issue, aswel. It is connected via HDMI -> DVI. Maybe I should borrow someone’s HDMI -> HDMI cable and see what happens? OS X is fully updated and, if I can trust the color sync utility, both the native and external display are correctly detected as “display” and the color range is RGB. 2412m’s native resolution of 1920x1200 is available and selected.

I still tried the script you posted about, got the override running, but it had no effect.

Also tried forcing font AA, still no change.

I know it’s a software issue since booting in windows makes the external display look as amazing as it should be, but I’ve no idea where to go next with this..

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Zen

Beyond my knowledge, I’m afraid. If it were me I’d do as you’ve suggested and try an HDMI cable to see how it goes.

Alex

Hi everyone

i have an imac 21.5" and just baught a Dell U2913wm monitor and have the YCbCr issue.

i have followed the steps andreas has given and the terminal has created the new folder correctly but i dont have the Displays folder in my library my OS X is in french but there is not such folder or similar folder in the library folder

thanks in advance for your help

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Alex

craig

works down in NZ as well just fantastic thanks for the help

David

Worked great. Thanks!!
Thomas's gravatar

Thomas

I ran a MacBook Air Mid 2012 with a Dell u2913wm for a couple of weeks and then switched to my new MacBook Air 2013, which wasn’t able to support the display in the same quality as the previous one.

Your solutions works perfectly. Thanks a lot.

Greetings from Germany

Adrian

it worked for me with a Macbook Air 13" (Mid 2013) and a Dell U3014 Displayport, thank you very much!
ABE's gravatar

ABE

Hi! New rMBP 13" - using my Sceptre 32" LCD HDTV as an external monitor - looks horrid: ragged fonts, uneven color.

HOWEVER, before trying the fix, can you tell me if it is related to the fact that the Menu bar starts at a medium gray on the left and varies continuously to a pale blue on the right?

HDMI to HDMI cable (tried 3 - no difference).

I checked the color Space in the profile after I calibrated the HD 709-A color profile in the Displays:Color panel - it said RGB.

It doesn’t seem to make a difference to select the 1080p vs ‘Best for display’ (or any of the scaled ones, except that I get bigger text at 720p).

Thanks for your advice.

When I had this same monitor attached to a Macbook 1,1 running 10.6.8, it was BEAUTIFUL!

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to ABE

I’m afraid I can’t remember precisely what my screen looked like (with regard to the menu bar colour) other than it was bad, washed out.

I’m also not sure if the RGB color profile being selected necessarily means that the Mac is outputting the correct color space.

But considering your monitor was fine on another MacBook, I think it’s worth a try. You can always revert the changes if they make no difference.

Bruno

I’m having problems with my new external monitor, a Dell U2413 w/ a Macbook Pro 2013. My terminal won’t even do anything with that command. Can anyone help?

stevieoconnell

Hi. I’m new to all this but need help badly. When you say run the script, where do I paste the script? Into the Terminal? Thanks a mil.
Will Bastian's gravatar

Will Bastian

Wow, they really didn’t make that easy, did they? I’d tried manually switching the HDMI out monitor to RGB and the colors were fubar.

Thanks for posting this – I’d been searching and searching and was meeting the same palm-to-face reactions of the official forums.

Hat tip to you, and thanks again.

Gilly's gravatar

Gilly

Thank you so much! This fixed my Problem with a LG Monitor, that’s hooked up via Thunderbolt/DisplayPort (MacBook Air 2013 MiniDisplayPort -> LG Screen with DisplayPort / MiniDisplayPort -> DisplayPort Cable).

Zakaria

What is home directory ? I am still new here and I couldn’t sort it out. When I enter “ruby patch-edid.rb” in terminal, it shows : “ruby: No such file or directory – patch-edid.rb (LoadError)” I don’t know how to proceed. I have HP w2408h and MBP 2009.

Smashy

I have a brand new MBPr and followed all these steps and was still unable to make 2560x1440 work on a Dell U2713HM. I bought a $8 Mini Display Port to Display Port cable and all is well. Spent a few days banging my head on this. It works like a charm now!
mrmartinhoybye's gravatar

mrmartinhoybye

Thanks for the link to fixing this issue. It solved matters on my end as well (after I downloaded the right file, since I was too quick and just went for the first one at the top of the page to begin with. This is the page with the universal fix: http://embdev.net/topic/284710#3027030). Running a 2012 MBP, 15". Mountain Lion. Thanks again ;)
Borris the boss's gravatar

Borris the boss

This sh1t really works!! Im pretty much a complete retard when it comes to computers. The only thing I would add to this, for complete newbies like me, is to find the /system/library is click “finder” then on the top menu click “go” then “connect to” and type in /system/library and it will show if it’s not obvious. It really worked!! 11/10!!!!

Mad_Fool

I just want to say, I almost never leave comments on things like this. But it is very refreshing to see somebody using OS X that isn’t ignorant about the holier-than-thou attitude that Apple exudes.

Thanks for the tip. Fixed my friends U2713H!

Apple made a mistake with this and the attitude their support teams have taken should reflect poorly on them.

ABE's gravatar

ABE

I just followed the instructions: download patch. Close Macbook Pro lid. Run patch with Ruby using Terminal. Restart. Enjoy

I had a little trouble figuring out how to download the .rb file into my home directory because I right-clicked on the script link - the patch - and was presented with a menu that didn’t seem to include downloading a FILE. However, CS son informed me clicking SAVE A LINK… would download the file.

Then I played with the settings on the monitor (Sceptre 32" LCD TV, HDMI input) until I got a much clearer version of the text than I started with before the patch. Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness.

It is far, far better - thanks.

However, the menu bar still shades from gray on the left end to blue at the right end.

I can live with this, for now, but would appreciate any ideas on the weird shading. I may try one of the adaptors mentioned. If I do, I will report back.

Thanks for doing this thread.

noisymime

Worked a treat. Difference was night and day between the images. Thanks!
ABE's gravatar

ABE

This is embarrassing! I just figured out why the menu bar had a color gradient from gray on the left to blue on the right:

some #$%^@ created a TRANSLUCENT menu bar option - over in System preferences for the Desktop (Mt. Lion present to users???) - and the background was not a solid (few desktop pictures are), so the gradient came from the DESKTOP, not the MENU BAR.

Thought I’d put that out there in case anyone else had the same problem - because it isn’t cured by the patch because it CAN’T be cured by the patch.

My Sceptre 32" monitor now looks fine - I unchecked the Translucent Menu bar option. Sheesh.

Nikki's gravatar

Nikki

THANK YOU!!! Was about to maybe try buying a different adaptor to connect my 27" iMac to an HP 2509m, then I found this. It works just fine, even though you can’t turn off the iMac display when running the script. I also just added the folder that was created to the already existing Overrides folder (seemed to already have several different folders in there, so I thought best to just leave them)… worked just fine, no problems, and now my external monitor shows a perfect 1920x1080 res with non-jenky text (or at least worlds better than before). Phew. Thanks again!
piersb's gravatar

piersb

Thanks; this worked a treat!
JB (@KOTULCN)'s gravatar

JB (@KOTULCN)

Awesome, worked great on my HP w2207h w/ my MBP. Thanks you!
robin's gravatar

robin

Was looking for a solution. Thank you mathew :)

SteveM

Superb! Thanks! Oddly, the Dell 24" work fine with my older MacBook Pro 2011. But the MacBook Air 2013 had horrible text (no text smoothing, white shadow around text). This solved the problem!
Jason Hur's gravatar

Jason Hur

Thanks so much! My MacBook Air 2013 displayed perfect colors (or at least not washed-out) via Mini DisplayPort to HDMI, but when I switched to Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort (to output at 2560x1080 resolution natively) for my LG 29EA93, all the colors looked crap. Now it’s fixed.

I’m just frustrated that Apple didn’t make this an easy option that you can tick on and off in the settings.

federico vezzoli's gravatar

federico vezzoli

You made my week. Awesome! it worked for Philips 272p4 as well.

Ange

Unfortunately I tried this on my Retina LBP which is connected to a Samsung monitor and although it seems to have improved slightly it’s still not clear enough that I would want to use my monitor. Any other suggestions?
Rob's gravatar

Rob

Thanks a lot, it worked like a charm. I had similiar problems with the new MacAir Mid 2013 and my LG 29ea93, I was surprised that my girlfriend’s macbook pro has no problems with colors and AA, but the air was terrible. I had no idea until I found your article. THX!

Hadi

hey,

I use a MBP pro 13" late 2011 edition, and recently I bought a HP 22xi Pavillion IPS monitor. Unfortunately, the screen was really fuzzy and the fonts were all wrong, elongated would be the word.

would this patch fix it on the MBP edition that I have?

Thanks!

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Hadi

I can’t confirm that, I just don’t know. If you try it, please let us know!

Dean

i fucking love you for this. all the blurry text was driving me insane. i did pay insane money for a retina mac and dell ultrasharp to have terrible visuals but it looks fantastic now
Marcell Freitas's gravatar

Marcell Freitas

Thanks a lot. This worked for me also. I have a LG m2280a. When I connected it for the first time in a late-2012 mac mini (OSX 10.8.5) with HDMI cable the fonts was really blurry and the image was cutted (the top and bottom was “outside” the screen area).

After follow all the steps of this post the fonts are now totally fine and the image fits perfectly in screen (1080p) using the same HDMI cable. Just 2 considerations about the steps:

  1. Probably you will need to use the sudo command to copy the files. Instead of just use cp origin destination, use sudo cp origin destination. System will ask you for password.

  2. After restart your computer I opened the System Preferences and in Displays option i changed my resolution to something really small (like 800x600) and then to resolution I wanted (1920x1080). Just after this the image becames OK.

It’s really bad that Apple doesn’t fix this problem. It’s not an HDMI cable problem, or a monitor problem, or even a driver problem. A little hack fix the issue. But, if I want to do hacks to fix this kind of problems I will propably buy a PC and install some kind of Slackware Linux.

But it’s fixed now. Thanks again.

Ivan

I have a U2413 and macbook pro with mountain lion 10.8.5. I installed the script but now I can´t see any image at the monitor. No signal is going out of the mac. In system pref I can see the dell monitor and change the setting but with no image, just all black. Any idea??
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Ivan

Afraid not, haven’t heard of that problem before. I think the best you can do is undo the changes to get it back to how you had it.
Omri Ariav (@omriariav)'s gravatar

Omri Ariav (@omriariav)

I almost gave up this problem until I found this page and the script. Thank you very much !!!

Nico

Thanks!!! It works on my HP 23XI screen. I was crazy about the blurry picture and found out your webpage!

And I do agree…how crazy is Apple just to sold their 1000eur Thunderbold monitor!!!

Thanks thanks

haukeh

Thanks man, this helped quite a bit. Still not perfect but way better than before, when the display was actually detected as a TV…
ssbell@shaw.ca's gravatar

ssbell@shaw.ca

Just got a Dell 30" Dell 3014 with the same horrible display! My old Dell Ultrasharp’s were always great until the lamps started going. Hook this up and yuck! Downloaded the patch, ran from terminal which created the folder…which I put in the right place. The patch shows up in the color pref window, but still scarmbled text and aweful color. It’s an old Mac Pro tower from early 2008 running 10.7.5, not sure if that makes any difference. Any other ways to fix this?
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to ssbell@shaw.ca

Not that I’m aware of, but in the comments here and elsewhere others have discovered that their problems were something different, and have provided their solutions.
scott's gravatar

scott

I purchased a Gefen DisplayPort Extender over CAT7 only to have it show very weird colors when connected to my Retina MacBook Pro. However, it worked fine when I booted into either BootCamp Windows or switched to my dedicated Ubuntu box, etc. I suspect because OS X kept showing “NTSC” for the display that it “might be the problem.” Finding this page was AMAZING. Like the author said complex Mac issues are hard to get good info on (and I laughably must admit I almost considered throwing $1000 at the problem to get an Apple Cinema Display).

ANYWHO. This worked for me. Wanted to post in case anyone else goes looking for display issues with a DP extender. For me with YCbCr it showed everything as a purple tint.

Kevin

I made the script and everything works fine, clear and crisp texts, but i forgot to back up my folder before doing this. So i think i lost those files and i just would like to test how it was before. Can you send please your overrides folders contents or just list the names of the files? Many thanks!
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Kevin

It’s going to be different for different machines and monitors, but all the script would have done is create new override files. You might be able to just check which ones you’d copied across to your overrides folder by their date, and delete them (or just move them elsewhere) to get back to how it was.

Neil

I got this working before I upgraded to OS X Mavericks this morning but now the override seems to have disappeared and Mac System Report is saying my DELL U2711 is “Television: (Yes)”.

I ran the script and it has created the “DisplayVendorID-10ac” folder but I can’t see “/System/Library/Displays/Overrides” in my Library (Library is visible and I have run various “chflags no hidden” commands in Terminal for the folders).

I can see “/System/Library/Displays/Overrides" in Terminal but when I try to copy the folder over in there I get an error (not sure what I’m doing):

rsync -av /Users/[ME]/DisplayVendorID-10ac/* /System//Library/Displays/Overrides/ building file list … done DisplayProductID-a057 rsync: mkstemp “/System/Library/Displays/Overrides/.DisplayProductID-a057.QM32QP” failed: Permission denied (13) sent 757 bytes received 42 bytes 1598.00 bytes/sec total size is 613 speedup is 0.77 rsync error: some files could not be transferred (code 23) at /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-42/rsync/main.c(992) [sender=2.6.9]

Hmmmm.

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Neil

Thanks for the update, Neil. I’m external-monitorless for the rest of the week so I can’t test it, but I’ll see what I can figure out in a few days. Please let me know if you figure it out.

mikrohard

in reply to Neil

To me this seems like a simple permission problem. /System/Library/Displays/Overrides/ is owned by root and other users do not have write permissions. Solution? Sudo…
bpopp's gravatar

bpopp

in reply to Neil

Just upgraded to Mavericks and can confirm that using ‘sudo cp -R DisplayVendorID-xyz /System/Library/Displays/Overrides/’ works. After a restart my 1080p Visio TV looks noticeably better using any resolution. It’s still not as crisp as I would have expected (Gnome and Windows on the same display look crisper), but it’s better.

Thanks for the tip and I 100% agree w/ your observations about the Apple community.

ecf_in_md

I upgraded to 10.9 and when I connected it to my U3014 via a DisplayPort I got the problem of bad display quality that I had when I initially connected the monitor.The System Report said that the display was a TV (or something like that). I went into the /System/Library/Displays/Overrides and saw that the DisplayVendorID-10ac/ folder was no longer there. I copied it from the corresponding folder in my pre-Mavericks Time Machine Backup. Initially it said there was a permissions problem, which isn’t surprising since the Overrides folder is owned by root and has write permissions only for root. I then ran the cp command using sudo and it worked. I unplugged the monitor, waited a few minutes, and plugged it back in again. When it came up the image quality was good.

Mattias

This fix worked for me on Mavericks. If you get Permission denied when moving/copying, remember to add ‘sudo’

sudo mv DisplayVendorID-10ac /System/Library/Displays/Overrides

Will Bastian's gravatar

Will Bastian

This process worked for me on Mavericks. I can confirm the install blew away the previous profile, but re-generating the script and re-copying didn’t cause any problems for me.

Patrick

This isn’t working under Mavericks for my HP LP2475w. I even restored the old Override file from Time Machine and restarted and it doesn’t work either. I’m kind of at a loss here.

Miguel

in reply to Patrick

For me it works again with my HP LP2475w after upgrading to Mavericks.
Philip's gravatar

Philip

After upgrading to Mavericks: I did run the script again, copied the files into “/System/Library/Displays/Overrides” When doing this in Finder, you’ll be asked the password; when copying in terminal or script make sure to use SUDO. Monitor (Philips Brilliance MultiView 272P4QPJKEB - what a name…) working okay again. Thanks a million for providing such a simple solution!!
Bob Patterson's gravatar

Bob Patterson

Thank you very much for taking the time to share this solution. I’ve been searching for a solution for over a year with my beautiful monitor gather dust. I thought the only solution was to buy an Apple monitor, which I refused to do.

It’s nice to have my monitor back.

I think I"m going to hold off on Mavericks for a while.

Bob

yokken's gravatar

yokken

Holy crap… this worked. I just got a 15" Haswell rMBP yesterday running 10.9, coming from a first-gen unibody 2008 MBP running 10.6.8. As soon as I plugged my monitor into the rMBP I knew something was wrong. Text looked awful and colors were really off… way too saturated. IRC just looked awful.. the bottom curve of an “n” in Lucida Grande (12pt, bold) was a complete blur. It was awful. I knew it was going to upset me… and then I found this page. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

Essaimel

I tried the patch in Maverick on my macbook air 2013, it works but has very negative side effects : when using the profile with forced rgb, I lose the possibility to get the dock on the second screen (new maverick feature) and I lose also the dual screen settings shortcut on the menu bar… It rolled back by removing the forced rgb profile and all came back to normal. Do you know how to fix this ? Thank you very much
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Essaimel

That’s interesting, I wouldn’t have noticed unless you brought it up! I am seeing the menu bar and dock on both of my monitors now, which is great, but no I don’t see any extra icons on the menu bar. No idea why.
Alex's gravatar

Alex

Many thanks for this! I applied this fix on a Dell U2413 connected via mini displayport, but the image was extremely blurry and I thought it was applying some incorrect scaling. Turns out I’d set sharpening to zero to improve image quality some time ago and forgotten about it, bumping it back to 50 brought it back to normal. Colours are much improved now.

Also on Mavericks I found that you don’t need to reboot, simply moving or removing the files and power cycling the monitor is enough to enable/disable the fix.

Marc Elias (@marcintouch)'s gravatar

Marc Elias (@marcintouch)

Lifesaver. Retina MBP + U2711 in happy harmony. Can’t thank you and everyone involved in this fix enough!
Nick's gravatar

Nick

Thanks so much for posting this fix. It worked perfectly.

eliott

I am no longer lost in a sea of washed out colors and terrible font rendering.

Fix worked great. Thanks!!

vj

great fix, thanks

Noob

Hi guys,

I’m a noob at this and have the same issue. Can you please tell me how to put the script in the home directory? I can’t seem to figure that part out. Help would be appreciated!

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Noob

You can simply drag the newly-created folder into the /System/Library/Displays/Overrides folder, or as Mattias wrote in a comment further up you can type the following into the command line, replacing the name of the DisplayVendor-10ac folder with the name of yours:

sudo mv DisplayVendorID-10ac /System/Library/Displays/Overrides

Noob

I’m using Mavericks, and under /Library I don’t have any folders named Displays/Overrides folder. Do I have to create these folders? Or are they supposed to be there?
yokken's gravatar

yokken

in reply to Noob

It’s /System/Library.
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Noob

Steve

Thanks for this! My U2713HM DisplayPort RGB was fine from my 2010 MBP but my new rMBP didn’t like it.

Matt

I’m getting an error: patch-edid.rb:11:in ': undefined method []’ for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)

when running the file, help?

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Matt

blazo

Thanks so much for that article! You helped thousends of us! :)

Jez

Great many thanks, at last a usable display again! Also saw the oh so helpful “you’re just used to retina” comments on various forums when others asked the same question, err no it looked fine in bootcamp but not OS X or Windows via Parallels. All perfect now in RGB!
Esteban Zenteno's gravatar

Esteban Zenteno

Big, big thanks for this tutorial man. I’ve been looking for this for a long time, and thought this would have been taken care of on OS X Mavericks (which wasn’t), so I found this and applied on the latest version of Mavericks to date without any issue and fixed my problem. Cheers!

Badr

Hey man thank a lot for your for this!

I have been following your instruction, and used data=ioreg -l -d0 -r -w0 -c AppleDisplay in Terminal.. but I didnt get any massage or confirmation from terminal and I didn’t find and new file either. Help?

Note: I am using snow leopard

Andrew Daugherity's gravatar

Andrew Daugherity

Thanks for the howto. I used it to fix my Dell U2413, which worked fine over DVI (using the HDMI to DVI adapter shipped with my Mac Mini) but had this problem with straight HDMI or (mini)DisplayPort. Note that the monitor shows different IDs for each input so you’ll have to re-run the script if you change connections.

Since updating to Mavericks required my to do it again, I took the time to add some features I really wanted to the ruby script:

  • Use the monitor name (taken from the EDID data) rather than the generic “Display with forced RGB mode”
  • Multiple display support – patch the EDID for all connected displays, rather than just the first one. Obviously you only need to install the override file for the problematic display, not all of them.

It’s available on my GitHub: https://gist.github.com/adaugherity/7435890

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Andrew Daugherity

This is great stuff, thanks. Will add to my post.

Balajirao

in reply to Andrew Daugherity

I too have the same trouble with my MBP retina and HP pavilion 27xi I am not so expert in computer setup etc., can you please help me to fix the trouble by step by step procedure and I could not get the patch up file too

Leon

in reply to Andrew Daugherity

Thanks Andrew, I tried to follow your instructions. Not sure if I did it correctly, so please confirm if the below seems correct:

I copied your file and containing folder to the required folder, so that it shows in Finder as follows: System/Library/Displays/Overrides/gist7435890-66c54c17b179809b028b58a2ca7af0b9540d05b6/patch-edid.rb

Then I restarted my computer (Late 2014 Mac Mini, running Yosemite including all updates). I did not really see any changes, as the fonts still appear blurry on the screen (32" LG smart TV, connected with HDMI to HDMI; the TV has no DVI or VGA connections).

In the Display Preferences on my Mac, the resolution is set to “Default for display”, which is 1080p, and in the color tab I see the following profiles: HD 709-A LG TV Calibrated [this one I created before; it shows the richest colors] SD 170M-A Adobe RGB (1998) Generic RGB Profile sRGB IEC1966-2.1

Did I take the right steps? I have no idea what a script is supposed to do; was I also supposed to double-click on it, beside just copying it to the required folder?

And am I looking in the right place, under Display Preferences? As I never saw anything about YcBcR or something in any of the System Preferences, I don’t know if I am trying to apply the right fix here in the first place. Sorry to ask such basic questions. I did read through many of the comments posted here, but I might have missed any clarifications for dummies.

Would be great if you could help me optimise my brand new setup with my Mac Mini and HDTV! Thanks much, Leon

Darin

works like a charm…!!!

Ryan

This is awesome! Just got a new MBP Retina 15" and using my HP 2509m external display was giving me a headache and I have been searching all over for a solution. When I found yours I was worried about editing system files as I am not super comfortable doing this. But I gave it a shot and this solution worked perfectly! Thank you!

This is my first Apple computer. Their devices are amazing but having switched from Windows I am repeatedly annoyed with the lack of control over some basic functionality OS X.

Badr

Looks like a good solution,, it is just my first time running script files.. I have tried to download the patch-edid.rb script but I couldn’t figure out how.. when I press on the file it directs me to a webpage with the script. could you please help me thru it? really appreciate it!

Ryan

Badr, try right-clicking the link and selecting ‘Download Linked File’

Ross

Wow! An unbelievable fix. Bought a new mac-mini two weeks ago and have been looking ever since. My display was so blurry, I couldn’t read your copyright, at the bottom of this website. Now, I can read even the smallest text. Everything is crisp and clean. It’s like I have a new mac.

THANK YOU!

jkelley1000Jeff Kelley's gravatar

jkelley1000Jeff Kelley

Thank you!!!! I was so disappointed after connecting my MacBook Pro Retina to a brand new 29" Unltrawide LG Monitor (29EA93). Initially I used HDMI and couldn’t get over 1080p resolution. With the mini DP to DP cable from StarTech I got the full native resolution (2560x1080) but the fonts looked horrible. Then I gave this script a try. After running the script and copying the created folder to the overrides directory and a quick reboot - VOILA! It is gorgeous. Thanks again!
Robert Hopkins's gravatar

Robert Hopkins

And here was I, a 2 week virgin to MacBook where the external display was my only dissapointment thus far; thinking this would give me the same success as everyone else was reporting..but alas, no different before and after for my new MBProRetina (Late2103) displaying over HDMI to my Samsung 32" that displays beautifully for PC.

I ran the script, and the monitor preferences shows as the modified EDID RGB profile, but no visible difference. Is the problem maybe already solved in Mavericks and this is as good as it gets?

Andrzej

The problem is very much present in the latest Mavericks. I confirm that this fix works with the new 15" Macbook Pro Retina, Mavericks and Dell U2713H over Thunderbolt cable. Without this patch the external monitor was identified as TV and was barely usable.

The fix started working as soon as I copied the created folder to the right place (initially I missed this step, though it’s clearly described above ;) ) and re-connected the monitor.

Thank you very much!

Alex B.

Thanks. This fixed my problems with my MBP Retina 15" and a Philips 298P4QJEB.

Matthew C.

Thank you very much. Fixed the issues I was having with my rMBP!

Mork

Nice One!!
Mark's gravatar

Mark

Thanks, I used this for what seemed like the opposite direction, to force full rgb on a panasonic plasma TV with a mac mini. Outputting the limited color space (the default) would still crush blacks no matter how I calibrated the TV. The full colorspace fixed the problem.
Brien's gravatar

Brien

Wow Mathew see what you started! There are a lot of people frustrated right now (and a great many who seem much happier thanks to you and Mr Schwartz). I hope I could be one of those – HDMI vs mini-display-to-DVI into my nice new NEC monitor makes no difference, I don’t think it’s cables, I think it is the way the rMBP works with the 2d, non-internal-only Nvidia card to send its OS environment info to an external display. Here it’s the same, FusionWare emulator makes all the text much sharper, whether in an application or online in windows. But working in the mac apps only – pictures are great but text gets blurry, “astigmatic” to me, seen as someone with an astigmatism but no corrective lens. Zooming with a camera on it, there’s a spillover in the squares of grey or squares missing information. I have a couple more things to try but this fix is bookmarked… the NEC display menu shows many color “spaces” that make a difference, but of course thats all NEC’s hardware. If I like I can use color profiles as a ‘dirty fix’ to this issue, with an optional color setting that will make text more comfortable and throw everything else off! Any time I want I can dumb down the beautiful monitor for office mode (no, not my first choice)

Need to scope out the Mac’s color profiling onboard for color space, just because it is supposed to already be something that in our case could solve the issue.. maybe it’s still not right despite that, and the patch does the job. Got to fully understand this patch and what I am doing before I go doing it (but the text is very straining on the eyes in places, very sloppy and a beautiful monitor is not getting to live its full potential….

Martin

Same thing for me: New MacBook 13" running on Maverick and connected to a Benq2400PT 24" via mini dp-dvi adaptor. After one days work I got tired eyes like rarely before. Taking a closer look at the display I was pretty shure: “This is bad and not normal” You helped me out! It’s a shame that such things do not work out of the box! Thanks so much!!

Florian

Sorry, I have the Same issue after I installed the Patch. Mac mini 2012 -> Philips 52" TV (52PFL5604H/12)… What can i do?
Moose's gravatar

Moose

This solved my problem! Thanks so much! Really a shame that Apple has not fixed this yet. I was considering returning my $3000 laptop.
claochase's gravatar

claochase

Hi, I’m a new Mac user and have run into the same issue when plugged my rMBP to an HP monitor. When I followed the instructions to run the patch I got the following message after I’ve entered the “ruby patch-edid.rb” line in Terminal: “ruby: No such file or directory – patch-edid.rb (LoadError)” I already confirmed I do have ruby installed (version 1.8.7). Could anyone help me figure out what I’ve done wrong?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks,
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to claochase

A commenter previously had the same issue. I offered suggestions but don’t think I was much help: https://www.mathewinkson.com/2013/03/force-rgb-mode-in-mac-os-x-to-fix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor/#comment-9353

Fras

Thank you so much! This worked wonderfully with my HP Pavillion 23xi and MacBook Pro 13" running Mavericks.

Nate Swanson

in reply to Fras

I’m attempting to apply this fix working with the same monitor and macbook. I’ve followed all the steps and can see the override folder but don’t see any noticeable changes in the resolution. Can you please show me the exact script from the display override?
Tom Switzer's gravatar

Tom Switzer

I used Andrew’s script, which adds the monitor name. However, my monitor name had some garbage characters in it (not sure why), and this actually prevented the override file from being loaded - that is, I rebooted and the problem was still there. Manually editing the DisplayProductID-… file and removing the junk characters from the monitor name fixed the problem and my monitor is now usable. Might be worth mentioning, especially for those with a Phillips Brilliance 27" (272P4) monitor.

Anyways, thanks a bunch to everyone involved here. I’m glad my monitor works. I have no clue why Apple won’t just add a little “Television?” checkbox to their Display settings. It would save hundreds of people time and money. Ugh.

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Tom Switzer

Great feedback, thanks, I’ll add it to the post.

Frank

in reply to Tom Switzer

How did you change that DisplayProductID-… file? I have a Philips monitor just like yours and could throw it through the window; blurry fonts and flickering every 7 seconds with the Apple dual DVI adapter. Just Horrible…
Michiel's gravatar

Michiel

in reply to Tom Switzer

Thanks you and thanks Tom! I needed this extra step for my Philips 272P4QPJKEB.

The file generated by the script was a garbled binary file and not a clean plist text file. For people experiencing the same problem: you can check this by opening the generated DisplayProductID-xxx file in a text editor. You should see a readable script. If not, you can modify the patch-edid.rb file on the line that says: monitor_name=[disp[“edid_hex”].match (…) Change it to: monitor_name=“Philips 27 inch” or whatever you would like to see show up in your Display Preferences screen. All fonts are now razor sharp. No more blurry outlines.

Another tip: if you can’t run patch-edid.rb try: chmod +x ./patch-edid.rb This makes the file executable.

Eric

in reply to Tom Switzer

Thank you! It solved my problem. I needed to get Hexedit to be able to open the “DisplayProductID” file.

jd

in reply to Tom Switzer

Thanks Tom, this was the missing link for me. Much appreciated!

Michael McCool

I have just installed CS6 on my new ‘retina’ display MacBook Pro and unless I upgrade to Adobe CC certain apps like InDesign won’t display sharply.

If I buy a Dell monitor and connect it via HDMI to my MacBook Pro do you think I can get rid of these annoying display issues?

Cheers, Michael.

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Michael McCool

Yeah, this is because those apps weren’t made specifically for the retina pixel density - I have the same problem with a few of my Windows apps running in Parallels. It’s unrelated to the issue discussed in this blog post, but yes those apps then look fine for me when I display them on a regular external monitor.

Michael McCool

Thanks for getting back to me - so frustrating of Adobe not to release a patch for those affected apps. Who wants to pay a subscription when having already shelled out for CS6!?
Paul Skinner's gravatar

Paul Skinner

Add me to the list of people this has cured the problem for. An HP LP2475w 24" monitor now looks as good as it should at last.
Casey Barker's gravatar

Casey Barker

Thanks for writing this up, and thanks to the script authors. I keep seeing this issue on a range of Macs and monitors, but RGB override does the trick.

Is there an Apple forum thread we can pile onto and maybe get this fixed?

David's gravatar

David

Anyone up for walking me through this? I’m using a Macbook Pro (Mavericks) and attaching the HP Pavillion 23xi monitor. I am on GChat and would really appreciate any help. I get confused when it says download the patch - I get a page with code, do I create a file out of that? Then it says move the folder, to the home directory, but I don’t have a folder, just that file.

Thank you…

k.nowak's gravatar

k.nowak

Could anyone help with Eizo Foris fs2332? No idea what to do with that. I use minidisplay port-hdmi adapter, and of course colors are as described by you all.

Atanas

thanks for the workout!

It really helped with the blurry text, however after applying the script and restart it no longer shows my native resolution on the list (I have a 29" Philips Brilliance). Biggest option now is 1920x1080 and I need 2560x1080. Any hints how to fix that ?

Thank you !

Roberto's gravatar

Roberto

Hi all!

Late 2013 rMBP here.

I have a korean ips panel ( 27", 2560x1440 ) and i get the blurry text issue. The trick above did not work for me. The strange thing is that if i put side by side 2 Chrome pages, one running in osx and one running in VMWare Fusion linux guest, the Chrome running in VMWare fusion displays perfectly crisp text.

Anybody else has this issue?

R

Antero

Roberto Your not alone! With your issue that WM-Ware texts look better running a virtual mode I run a old XP system with much better quality on text then in Mac.Try checking system information, I checked it and it’s pretty clear that Mac OS think I have a super high resolution television, I wish! Check the last line in below text dump compare it with your’s. I will try the suggested fixes.

I hope it will work

/A

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M Type: GPU Bus: PCIe PCIe Lane Width: x8 VRAM (Total): 1024 MB Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de) Device ID: 0x0fd5 Revision ID: 0x00a2 ROM Revision: 3688 gMux Version: 3.2.19 [3.2.8] Displays: Color LCD: Display Type: LCD Resolution: 2880 X 1800 Retina: Yes Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888) Mirror: Off Online: Yes Built-In: Yes Connection Type: DisplayPort 27EA83: Resolution: 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888) Display Serial Number:
Main Display: Yes Mirror: Off Online: Yes Rotation: Supported Adapter Type: DisplayPort Adapter Firmware Version: 0,15 Television: Yes

Michael McCool

Would anybody that has successfully used the EDID override method as mentioned above be able to create ‘an idiot’s guide’ to downloading and running the patch in this forum?

It would be of massive help to myself and i’m sure those other users that are afraid of using Terminal!

I am using a late 2013 retina MBP and have it connected to a Dell U2413 external monitor but the text does not look sharp.

I downloaded the patch and thought I entered the ‘Ruby…’ command properly into Terminal but nothing seemed to happen.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Thoschi's gravatar

Thoschi

in reply to Michael McCool

Hey Michael, I had the same issues but with another Monitor. Just download the script in your download folder or copy ’n paste the script code in a blank text document and save it as “patch-edid.rb”. Then open your terminal and go to your download folder (type “cd Downloads” if you´re in your User Root-Folder). Then run the ruby-Script with “ruby patch-edid.rb” and follow the steps 4. and 5. from above. That´s all!
Thoschi's gravatar

Thoschi

Thank you very much! The modified script from Andrew worked well with a LG 29EA93 Ultra Widescreen 27" and a MacBook Pro Retina 15" late 2013 running on OSX Mavericks!

Antero

Guideline for RETINA dummies, ;-)

IMPORTANT I used a HDMI cable at first and got only 1920x1080, I returned it and bought a “Thunderbolt to Displayport” Adapter, the resolution got corrected‹ “I do not know why”( yes I am also a dummie, I probably could have kept the hdmi adapter?). Anyway Great resolution but at this point the text still were blur-ish.

How to confirm resolution and television mode.

  1. click on Apple icon upper left corner
  2. click on About this Mac
  3. click on More info
  4. click on system Report
  5. click on Graphics/Displays
  6. click on Nvidia Geforce

“if you have wrong settings but correct resolution " it will look like below dissregard my comments “NICE” it’s just guidelines to the real dummies to quickly find what is of interest.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M Type: GPU Bus: PCIe PCIe Lane Width: x8 VRAM (Total): 1024 MB Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de) Device ID: 0x0fd5 Revision ID: 0x00a2 ROM Revision: 3688 gMux Version: 3.2.19 [3.2.8] Displays: Color LCD: Display Type: LCD Resolution: 2880 X 1800 Retina: Yes Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888) Mirror: Off Online: Yes Built-In: Yes Connection Type: DisplayPort 27EA83: Resolution: 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz NICE! Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888) Display Serial Number: Main Display: Yes Mirror: Off Online: Yes Rotation: Supported Adapter Type: DisplayPort Adapter Firmware Version: 0,15 Television: Yes NOT SO NICE…..

SO FAR SO GOOD If it looks like below I think you got it right already:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M Type: GPU Bus: PCIe PCIe Lane Width: x8 VRAM (Total): 1024 MB Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de) Device ID: 0x0fd5 Revision ID: 0x00a2 ROM Revision: 3688 gMux Version: 3.2.19 [3.2.8] Displays: Color LCD: Display Type: LCD Resolution: 2880 X 1800 Retina: Yes Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888) Mirror: Off Online: Yes Built-In: Yes Connection Type: DisplayPort Display with forced RGB mode (EDID override): CORRECT Resolution: 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz = YOUR MONITOR MAX RESOLUTION Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888) Display Serial Number:
Main Display: Yes Mirror: Off Online: Yes Rotation: Supported Adapter Type: DisplayPort Adapter Firmware Version: 0,15 NO TELEVISION NO MORE!

For you users that still have monitor set to TELEVISION. I hope someone soon will make a step by step instruction in the terminal.

/A

thanks

oh! you are a beautiful person … BEAUTIFUL!

Gerry

This fix really helped me with a MacBook Pro Retina and LG EA93 - thank you to all
Breno Augusto's gravatar

Breno Augusto

Hi! Im trying make this works with my monitor LG M2380A, i followed all steps, the paste was created successful but the resolution of monitor keep very bad.

Have something that I can try?

Thank you a lot!

  • Sorry my bad english! haha
Bret Berger's gravatar

Bret Berger

No luck with MacBook Air (Mid 2011), BlueRigger brand Thunderbolt to DVI, and Dell E2414H. A new display profile – “Display with forced RGB mode” – shows up, but still get fuzzy fonts.
Bret Berger's gravatar

Bret Berger

in reply to Bret Berger

OS is Mavericks

Clem

Oh my god you saved me ! I was so disappointed with my Philips 298p4qjeb, I just followed the stepts and it worked like a charm. THANK YOU.

Ernesto

I’m on a mac Mini and LG 22" TV/Monitor with HDMI conection. When I run the script, I have the following error:

patch-edid.rb:26:in pack': can't convert MatchData into String (TypeError) from patch-edid.rb:26 from patch-edid.rb:24:in each' from patch-edid.rb:24

Can anyone help me?

TIA

MrSchaeffer

I LOVE YOU!! Thanks very much guys!

Kevin

Brilliant! This fixed font and resolution display issues with my Mac Book Pro and HP 23xi! Thank you!
David's gravatar

David

in reply to Kevin

Hey Kevin… I have the same exact monitor, but don’t really understand the process. Any chance you are willing to give me a quick tutorial/step by step on how this works?

thanks..

Felipe Rovere's gravatar

Felipe Rovere

Awesome!!! Finally no more crappy fonts! Works great with LG M2380AF Thanks a lot

Jeff

thank you very much. worked like a charm.

Bram WUyts

Hi, I have tried your solution but i didn’t work although I have a monitor that others seem to have gotten to work.

setup:

  • MBP mid 2012
  • OS X 10.9.1
  • Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter -> HDMI cable
  • 2nd display: HP Pavilion 23xi

system graphics info after installing file: Displays: Color LCD: Display Type: LCD Resolution: 1440 x 900 Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888) Main Display: Yes Mirror: Off Online: Yes Built-In: Yes HP 23xi - forced RGB mode (EDID override): Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888) Display Serial Number: 3CM3280C94
Mirror: Off Online: Yes Rotation: Supported

it is still blurry as before…

note: Even though the file got installed, I was not able to do install it with the lid closed because I need that ’enter/return’ button to confirm the command in terminal of course.

Any help is appreciated! Desperately trying to avoid having to buy aspirine after looking at the screen…

Bram WUyts

addendum: Got it to work with a Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter and a VGA cable. Not sure why HDMI has issues…
David's gravatar

David

in reply to Bram WUyts

I have the same exact monitor, almost same setup…but not understanding these directions on what needs to be installed. Any help would be appreciated.
Jay Shepherd's gravatar

Jay Shepherd

Thanks, guys. What a huge help! My HP LP2475w 24" connected to a 2013 iMac 27" via HDMI and Mini DisplayPort adapter now works after suffering from the weird no-font-smoothing problem. Great work, Mathew and commenters (especially Bram). Happy New Year!
Rob Corradi (@Ribrob)'s gravatar

Rob Corradi (@Ribrob)

Hi there, when i run the script i just get returned to the command line and nothing’s been created.

Get it to run in debug, i get the following…

Exception LoadError' at /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems.rb:1082 - cannot load such file -- rubygems/defaults/operating_system Exception LoadError’ at /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems.rb:1091 - cannot load such file – rubygems/defaults/ruby

I never used Ruby before, but it looks like something’s up with my Ruby?

Rob

JBG (@j_bg)'s gravatar

JBG (@j_bg)

Works fine for me (macbook pro 13" inch retina Late 2013) with a mDP DP cable connected to a LG 29EA93-P).

Jens Ulv

Thank you so much for this fix!!!! My samsung T240 looked like absolute crap connected to my MBP retina 13" via HDMI. I was actually about to buy a new $300 monitor thinking the monitor was the issue… However with this fix it looks a gazillion times better!!! Thanks again :) :)
Sancho Retáblez's gravatar

Sancho Retáblez

Thanks. You made me save money.

My monitor is an HP Pavillion 23xi (very popular here, I see). In case this info could be useful to you, my OS is Mavericks and first attempt didn’t work, so I had to try the second link.

Excuse me but now, I am going to enjoy my brand new monitor.

henrycordesHenry's gravatar

henrycordesHenry

Thanks! It fixed my fonts on the PHILIPS 272P4QPJKEB with my late 2013 Macbook Pro 15" via displayport. Tried calibrating for two days until I found your post. Thanks a million!

Amor

in reply to henrycordesHenry

I have the same monitor, but the highest resolution I can get is 1920x1080 @ 60 Hz after I have run the Ruby file. What is your max resolution, can you go op to 2560x1440, and is it possible that you could e-mail me yours ruby file?

Henry

“but I’m no authority” is perfect because the author did not understand much of the problem.

Each display must be sent to a Mac EDID: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_display_identification_data) or a DisplayID (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayID) and when they do not then OS X can not come up with the correct data.

So if something does not work is not the responsibility of Apple but just displays!!!

Going to modify the system files is not a solution when you just use the button [Detect Displays] (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5019?viewlocale=en_US) to obtain useful data to the GPU. It would always be better to use the Mini DisplayPort output port and a DisplayPort input.

I have not read all the posts, but I hope that others have already pointed out the absurdity of this procedure … or the “limits” of some monitors!

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Henry

You’re right that Apple has no responsibility to fix the shortcomings of third-party hardware. I could have bought a mini DisplayPort cable as you’ve suggested, but this was a free and immediate way to maintain the experience that I was accustomed to under Windows (and Linux) with the same cable and monitor.

I disagree that the process is absurd, though. It’s not the ‘Apple Way’ to do things, but it’s a very simple software mod that produces the desired outcome. The [Detect Displays] button does not fix the problem (at least not for me). I shared Mr Schwarz’s script since it worked perfectly for me, but readers are free to ignore it if they’d prefer to buy the according-to-Hoyle hardware and not delve into the command line.

Thanks for taking the time to respond, I do see your point. And I’m glad you like my tagline!

Mike

WOW !! What ever you guys did above it worked perfect !! I can’t thank you enough !!

Simon

Just wanted to give you a giant thanks for this. For three years I’ve been trying to get my macbook to play nicely with my HP monitor; fonts were totally unreadable, because the monitor was detecting a TV signal and turned on its (annoyingly unmodifiable) TV filters. This happened with HDMI and DisplayPort connections, and I ended up having to use VGA, which obviously resulted in a blurry display. I was on the verge of buying a new monitor, just to fix this problem.

I just ran the script you link to, and now DisplayPort and HDMI work perfectly. Massive thanks to you, and to the author of the script!

Maren's gravatar

Maren

just #excellent!
sgreszcz's gravatar

sgreszcz

Thank you sooooo much for your assistance. I just opened my new Dell u2913WM and couldn’t believe how crappy it looked compared to my “old” Lenovo Monitor. I did some digging and someone suggested to turn sharpening down to “0” when in yPbPr mode but it still didn’t look OK.

This fixed the problem, and although it is not a Retina Display, text is pleasant to look at in web browsers and mail.app.

Cheers!!! (And thanks to the original script author, and the guy who forked/served it up).

proxop's gravatar

proxop

It worked beautifully on my LG27EA28R monitor. I’m connected via HDMI 1.4 to my 13" retina macbook. Granted the picture and fonts aren’t as crisp as on retina, but much better than on tv-like display. Thanks!

Now my only issue is the ‘hatched’ pattern in the lower part of the screen. Any solutions?

Ehlwitz

I was close to get sick by the ugly ultra-sharpness of my new 21:9 Ultrawide Philips 298X4 (2560 x 1080) which was also detected as TV device. Thanks to your instructions I can now work with my monitor without getting eye-pain.

Thanks very much!

By the way: If you are too lazy to read exactly where to put the files then you should not wonder: It does not work putting the override in your home library, or somewhere else… headdesk

Enrico Caruso

Simply genius. The terrible text quality is fixed!
GeekyNerdDad (@GeekyNerdDad)'s gravatar

GeekyNerdDad (@GeekyNerdDad)

I have looked through the comments and don’t see the answer for me, I don’t see the “Display” folder in my library. I am running the newest version of Mavericks and I am using the new Mac Pro.Any help would be appreciated.
GeekyNerdDad (@GeekyNerdDad)'s gravatar

GeekyNerdDad (@GeekyNerdDad)

sorry I found it and it worked!!! I am using the Acer B276HUL and this fixed work fantastic!! I also was trying the MacPro with a 4k tv but it didn’t look good…I will be trying this!

Raini

Perfect! My Dell U2713HM shows the initial 2560x1440 again on my late13 RMBP15! Thanks a lot for the script. After using FHD-TV on HDMI and then going back Dell on MiniDP and also trying Dell on HDMI, the problems begun. Now, after following Bram`s guide and carefully select the right Folders, everything is fine again.

debra

Hi -

When I run the script, I have the following error:

patch-edid.rb:26:in pack’: can’t convert MatchData into String (TypeError) from patch-edid.rb:26 from patch-edid.rb:24:in each’ from patch-edid.rb:24

Can anyone help me? I have no idea what to do!! Thank you in advance!

Debra

chrisb

in reply to debra

FIX: can’t convert MatchData into String (TypeError)

Change line 26 (add .to_s behind the closing curved bracket): monitor_name=[disp[“edid_hex”].match(/000000fc00(.?)0a/){|m|m[1]}].pack(“H”) monitor_name=[disp[“edid_hex”].match(/000000fc00(.?)0a/){|m|m[1]}.to_s].pack(“H”)

.to_s means convert to string, so it does just what the error told us todo.

Peter

Hey Guys,

Thank you very much for the solution, seems to work for a lot of people! Unfortunately I have the same Problem as Ernesto and debra.

When I run the script, I have the following error:

patch-edid.rb:26:in pack': can't convert MatchData into String (TypeError) from patch-edid.rb:26 from patch-edid.rb:24:in each' from patch-edid.rb:24

I run a MBAir, Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5, HDMI-cable, HP Pavillon 23xi.

Can anyone help?! After searching the Internet now for several hours I am still clueless…

Thanks a lot in advance!

Peter

Crystle

same as Peter, I get patch-edid.rb:26:in pack’: can’t convert MatchData into String (TypeError) from patch-edid.rb:26 from patch-edid.rb:24:in each’ from patch-edid.rb:24

:(

Fred

Thank you so much. I have a problem with my monitor viewsonic VP 2770 LED. (Cable : mini display port to display port It can’t possible to have a 2560x1440 resolution, it stuck to 1080p. After i apply the patch, my monitor work great !! full resolution :)

simon

Awesome, that rocks, thanks!

Simon

bigmike7801's gravatar

bigmike7801

Worked great for me on my 15" macbook pro retina with HP 2509m. Thanks!

Galileo

Trying to force the max the resolution on vertical / portrait mode (90 degrees) on a dell u2713hm (1440 x 2560). Any ideas on how to?

John Brown

Thanks! This solved my problem with my Dell S2440L. :-)

Kyle

I ran the script and it worked great for about 30 minutes. After that, I couldn’t reproduce the results.

Here is my situation, it’s a bit complicated: I am running a video switch (iogear gcs1782) and I have a minidisplayport to dual link dvi adapter to connect to the switch. On the other port of the switch I have my desktop. Up until earlier tonight, if I wanted to switch from desktop to mbp (late 2013 model) it would give me a snowy screen. Sometimes it just wouldn’t turn on at all.

After applying the script, the monitor was fixed, and when I switched between desktop and mac, the monitor never had any snow again. Then about 30 minutes later, the snow returned.

Any suggestions? This has been driving me insane because I put so much into getting the setup that should have theoretically worked.

Pam's gravatar

Pam

I have followed instructions explicitly and here is screen shot of the (LoadError)


Last login: Sun Jan 19 00:23:36 on console

Pamz-BIG-iMac:~ pam$ ruby patch-edid.rb

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin13/rbconfig.rb:212: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Library/Application Support/GoodSync in PATH, mode 040777

ruby: No such file or directory – patch-edid.rb (LoadError)

Pamz-BIG-iMac:~ pam$


Any suggestions to help me out? Running on iMac 27 to Samsung SyncMaster 27" T240-HD via HDMI

rainer spaeni's gravatar

rainer spaeni

in reply to Pam

You need the miniDP to DVI cable.
Zak's gravatar

Zak

When I try step 3, it says “ruby: No such file or directory – patch-edid.rb (LoadError)”. What do I do?
mukki2013's gravatar

mukki2013

Great! Thank you this worked on a my retina 13 macbook pro and Dell Dell U2913WM (connected via HDMI). Second display looks much better! I will report if there are any further issues! Again awesome :) nice option and way better than having to buy an expensive apple DVI or dual DVI adopter :)
rainer spaeni's gravatar

rainer spaeni

in reply to mukki2013

Is it a miniDP-HDMI or a HDMI-HDMI cable?

Scott

Wanted to add my success story and thanks for this thread as well. I was able to fix the display output of a Mac Mini (OS X 10.8.5) on a 29" AOC (has virtually no Apple support) using the link you cited. So far, everything is working as expected.

This article (and link) saved me from from returning a monitor I wasn’t sure I could get working. Again, many thanks.

Yiftipon

Hey guys,

I’m using the Dell U2312HM monitor connected with Display Port to Mini Display port to my MBPr 13", Mavericks.

I tried the script, did the whole procedure, in System Preferences > Displays the display name is “DELL U2312HM - forced RGB…” still the fonts look quite horrible :(

I tried it with DVI - HDMI cable before with same results and with a MBPr 15" with the same result.

Anyone has an idea how to solve this problem? Thanks!

mukki2013's gravatar

mukki2013

in reply to Yiftipon

@Yiftipon sorry to hear it didn’t work

maybe this helps?

You can force OS X to use LCD font smoothing on all displays with this Terminal command: defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2

And to restore the default: defaults -currentHost delete -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing

found it here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1390034&page=1

maybe that helps?

Pam's gravatar

Pam

in reply to Yiftipon

@Yiftipon, I’m no expert, but it did take some trial and error in following the explicit instructions of the procedure to get my external monitor to look good and “fly right.” Are you getting any errors (might be embedded within a message) after running the script on Console? I saw one on my first few attempts and stopped to think about what it was telling me. I concluded that I had moved the folder containing the Ruby script file, but needed to move only the script file itself so that it could be found and run. That took care of all my problems and I have a beautiful external display now! Good luck in your troubleshooting…

Phil T.

in reply to Yiftipon

did you find a fix with the dell u2312hm???

gara manda

this fixed the issues with my cheapo 24 inch samsung bought from costco. model T24C550

Cloudmoose

Worked for me on 15 inch late 2011 Macbook pro (10.9.1) connected via DP to 29 inch LG 29EA93 (2560 x 1080).

Not mentioned in the guide but implied… The first time I tried it didn’t work. Folder got cleared from overrides when I rebooted.

Did it again, this time changing permissions on the folder/file to root:wheel instead of my user and it worked.

ekougs's gravatar

ekougs

I tried this trick with my Asus VX238H and a late 2013 retina 15 but the text is still blurry especially on the menu bar. However when I open “System preferences” for my display devices, it explicitly displays “VX238 - forced RGB mode (EDID override)”. Do I still have the problem because I directly plug the external screen via the HDMI port ?
ekougs's gravatar

ekougs

in reply to ekougs

Finally works fine with appropriate settings and a mini displayport to hdmi adapter. Anyway, thanks to the author for the trick.

kjloch

Has anyone seen issues after patching with their display intermittently going black for a few seconds, then returning to normal?

I’ve got a Dell S2440L connected to a rMBP that does this every so often. I’ve reseated cables, replaced the HDMI cable, everything and can’t seem to replicate the issue consistently or perform any kind of fix.

I’m now testing it with a Windows desktop in the same configuration and seeing no issues.with it.

John Brown

in reply to kjloch

Yes. I have the Dell S2440L and experience the same problem. The problem is the driver for Intel HD 4000 graphics. It has problems with HDMI to HDMI. Some people use a Thunderbolt –> HDMI adapter and it works. Other people like me use minidisplayport –> VGA and it works. Mine used to go black for a few seconds until I switched to VGA.

Windows has the updated driver from Intel but Mac OS X does not (yet). The same problem occurs in Linux.

Many people are complaining about this on Intel’s and Apple’s websites. I hope they will release a driver update to solve the problem.

brettcrumley's gravatar

brettcrumley

Thank you! This worked for me, and was relatively easy considering I’d never used Terminal before.

You’re right about the general Apple ‘answers’ that simply gave up after identifying the problem is an OSX update.

Just have to figure out how to underscan the image now without losing any crispness.

Stephanie

I can’t find any trace of a folder called ‘Displays’ in my Library. With so many others able to find it instantly, can anyone give me any pointers? Is it perhaps hidden? Do I need to create a new folder with this name? I’m running OS X 10.9.1…

Stephanie

I tried cd Library/Displays btw, this doesn’t find it either.

Stephanie

Figured this out – I’m sure I missed something everyone else saw or knows, but just in case anyone else is stuck, here’s what’s up – I found two library paths, Macintosh HD>Users>[username]>Library and Macintosh HD>System>Library. Displays/Overrides is in the System>Library path.

Unfortunately I can’t report success, my Samsung T27C350EW did look sharper, but the image is still shifted about 10 cm offscreen.

Martin K.

I have a new Mac Pro on pre-order and I plan to use an ASUS PA279Q as my monitor. Hoping that this will eliminate the subject issue, if it occurs.
Chris's gravatar

Chris

I can’t thank you enough. I was going mad until I found this thread.

Chad

I have a HP 25xi IPS and I know it’s only 1080p but I didn’t remember it looking so terrible when I was using my previous Windows laptop. I was about to give in and buy the thunderbolt display but after following the steps and using Andrew’s edited script the monitor looks ten times better. Thanks a lot!

Ayhan

Hi, I have 13" Macbook Retina and HP Pavilion 23xi. I did all steps. But not working. Please help. Thank you for tutorial.
Bynne's gravatar

Bynne

This is absolutely amazing fix. I was thinking I got a faulty monitor or something similar. This made my week.

rob

oh man what a difference! it worked for me (the original method). Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013. On a HP monitor.

thank you so much!

Elliot

I tried this to fix what I thought was a blurry font issue on a new Macbook Pro connected to an old-model 27" LED Cinema Display, and it meant that the machine crashed on boot, playing the end of the boot chime over and over like a broken record. I had to boot into an Ubuntu installer USB stick to undo the change, and then it could boot again.

BoBo

WORKED FOR ME! Macbook mid 2013 + 24” Philips fullHD Led LCD! T H A N X ! ! ! !

ludwig70

Mathew, Andrew and Tom thank you very much!! This ‚fixed’ my monitor problem too!! My setup is a bit different than with the rest of you, but the solution also works for me. I have the 27” Philips 272C4QPJKAB/00 monitor at 2560x1440. It’s the consumer version of the Philips 272P4QPJKEB. I wanted to use the monitor as a second monitor to my late 2013 27” iMac that runs OSX Mavericks. The cable I use is a „mini-displayport to displayport version”. That resulted in very distorted text display as with the rest of you. So I was very glad to find this forum/thread in a consumers-review on the site of a Dutch supplier.

A few insights on the problems I encountered while fixing the problem (hopefully this will help people with the same monitor on a Mac):

I downloaded Andrew’s enhanced version of the script through Github and extracted patch-edid.rb from the .tar file. I placed in /root (I thought /home was the same as the root) and tried to run it. That didn’t work (although I logged on as administrator). But when I executed it in /users/username it worked. I was a bit scared it wouldn’t, because I can’t ‚close the lid’ on my iMac as MBO owners can. No problem there though. Remember you have to place the resulting folder in your root: system/library/displays/overrides instead of the user/home.

Restarting my Imac twice resulted in a much better text quality (and in settings the „TV” line disapeared). BUT I had to fine tune my monitor on the monitor itself to have normal text quality. Turning the „Smart Image” to „Movie” and turning OFF Smarttext (and Smartkolor; I have Smartcontrast turned on) did the rest of the job.

I also followed the tip of Tom Switzer (thanks) who has the professional version of the monitor (272P4QPJKEB), but encountered the problem that I couldn’t view/edit the file that the patch-edid.rb produced (file format ineditable). I bought an hex-editor that was able to open and edit the file. It resulted in a byte bigger file that (seemed to have) added a unicode-8 flag. Now I was able to edit it with text-editor. And I could remove the ??? characters in the file name. With me the patch seemed to work without it too. But at least it looks nicer without the ??? characters in the monitor name (showing up in systeminfo).

Thanks again!! It prevented me from returning the monitor as useless for my iMac. Now I have an AWESOME double 27" desktop space (2 times 2560x1440).

larry

This is awesome!!! how dumb is apple on this one? Or maybe just crooked trying to get people to buy their monitors. I was really unhappy how my monitors looked as on Windows they looked great. Now I’m back in business, thank you!!!!

deasrew@gmail.com

Does this fix apply to TV’s? I’m trying to connect my 2012 mbpr to a vizio tv via HDMI but the colors and text look terrible.
jm9k's gravatar

jm9k

Holy shit, it worked. I have a Philips 42", and I was about to throw this thing out the fucking window.
Pam's gravatar

Pam

in reply to jm9k

@jm9k; without regard to freedom of speech or feeling “holier than thou,” please refrain from off-color language and “f” bombs in this technical setting. It is not necessary as it only highlights your lack of class and actually offends the sensibilities of many.

Alidarium

Thx all of you! I fixed my AOC i2353Fh and now it works correctly with rMBP 13" (2012) through HDMI cabel.

I used Mr Schwarz script. At first after reboot nothing happend. I had to reset my monitor to “default”, after that I saw effect of the script.

Max

Holy hell. I can’t believe this actually worked. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Tia

Hi,

I experience trouble following step 4 in the guideline

I can’t find the System/Library/Displays/Overrides folder. I just bought a mac mini and a HP 27 inch monitor. I found out the library is hidden, but when I finally found it, I still couldn’t find displays or overrides.

Can anyone help me out?

ludwig70

in reply to Tia

Tia, probably not, but just to be sure: are you looking in the root directory, or in the /Users/user/ directory. Should be in the first: Macinthosh HD/System/Library/Displays

breadfairy

To add an additional success, I have a new Mac Pro (2013) with a Dell U3011. I followed the instructions, applied the patch and I’m in business with RGB! My thanks to everyone.

Olivier

Tried everything. Still not working with my iMac mid 2010 and Samsung UE32ES6530 connected via display to HDMI.

jb

it worked using andrews new script..for some reason it didn’t work with the original..

i just recently switched from PC and was getting really ticked off with the pixelated text..

thank you so much!!!

Manuel Maicol Osorio's gravatar

Manuel Maicol Osorio

Hi all I’m running an iMac (10.9.1) I have an Asus ProArt PA279Q and I’m connected over the DisplayPort. I can get the monitor up to 2560x1440, but the text on it looks horrible. Can someone walk me through the above configuration but on an iMac?
Bernard Boulanger's gravatar

Bernard Boulanger

Can’t seem to make the script work with a Philips Ultrawide Screen 298P4 model… everything seems to work. The folder gets created and I move in the override folder.. same pixelated fonts with not constrat on the screen… ugly as hell..

Anyone has a thought ? Thanks..

Bernard Boulanger's gravatar

Bernard Boulanger

in reply to Bernard Boulanger

Btw… I have a macbook pro 15" non retina 2013.

ludwig70

@Bernard,

  1. What shows up when you look at the systeminfo/Video information on your macbook (through Apple/About this Mac/More Info/System Information)? Is the “TV” flag still showing up there, or is it gone?
  2. With me (I have a 27” Philips 272C4QPJKAB/00 monitor at 2560×1440 as second display on my iMac 27) the text looked still blurry after running the script and putting it in the right place UNTIL I turned OFF smarttext in the OSD menu on my Philips monitor (resetting the monitor through OSD-menu also did the job). Hopefully this helps…

PS. Dit you take a look at this (Tom has a Philips monitor too): Update, 28 Nov 2013: If the process appears to work but doesn’t seem to make a difference, consider Tom’s comments below. Depending on your monitor an extra tweak may be required.

Manuel Maicol Osorio's gravatar

Manuel Maicol Osorio

I finally got the script to run on my iMac and force the Asus ProArt to be non-TV (I called Apple Support, they helped me with the script, told me where to place it and run it). They fixed it back to the original setting, I had made a modification that didn’t work and couldn’t figure it out, the rep fixed the script and told me where I need to place it, restarted my machine and it worked. I still had the issue where the text wasn’t as good as the iMac, but thanks to @ludwig70. What he recommended for @Bernard got me thinking went into the settings looking for the OSD menu, instead found the Splendid menu switch the display to Adobe RGB Mode instead of Standard Mode and the text issue went away, Also tried the sRGB it also worked well just the colors were a bit muted. Hopes this information helps others.

sophiet

Thanks so much for this. Just bought the HP Pavilion 23fi and turned it on to find the fuzziness. after half an hour searching thank goodness I found this thread. It worked beautifully and I’m not that technical but I found my way thru (funny I only stumbled when trying to find the Overrides directory). So a very big THANKYOU.
riccardo delfanti's gravatar

riccardo delfanti

I still have problem with the patch… and an Asus PA279Q.

patch-edid.rb:11:in ': undefined method []’ for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)

why?

Damo

Scripts works perfectly for a ‘Dell UltraSharp 24" U2414H’ saved my bacon! Using with a MacBook 13" Al Late 2008, don’t lol its still working great and has been ‘fiddled’ with. Much thanks to the maker of the magic script of bacon saving :) +5 respect.
edwin's gravatar

edwin

Hi guys,

i’ve followed the steps exactly but the display still looks fuzzy. restarted my MBP twice and the results look the same. i’m using a Dell S2340Lc. Any advice?

The override appears to have been registered when I go to Apple/About this mac/More info/“Graphics/display’’ as i see “Display with forced RGB mode (EDID override)”

i am using a 2010 13” MBP, OS 10.6.8.

Appreciate any help!

JohnE

Worked perfectly on Philips Ultrawide using mini-DP to DP cable on a Macbook Air (2013)

Nisei

I’m using an LG L245W monitor which is known to have incorrect onboard EDID data. I have solved this on my Windows computer by overriding it in the nVidia drivers so it should be possible on my Mac as well. However, this patch doesn’t seem to work for me. Can anyone help me in the right direction please?
Michiel's gravatar

Michiel

in reply to Nisei

Hi Nisei, if you open the generated configuration file in a text editor, does it look like regular XML or garbled? In case of the latter it could be because the internal name of your screen has invalid characters. There’s solutions offered here in the comments by me and others.

Nick Mowinski

Has anyone had any success forcing an actual TV into RGB mode over HDMI?

My 2008 Mac Pro and Bravia 40D3000 connects via VGA, however the time will come when I go 1080p, and I’ll be forced to go digital and be unable to avoid the RGB issue anymore. I have a DVI-HDMI cable that I never used due to this years ago.

I tried this last year, the, however I suspect that the EDID info is incorrect and is ignored, nothing changed on boot. Just tried today again in a spare moment, and now the script doesn’t create anything at all, no idea what has changed to cause this. That said I’m no worse off, having never had any success.

Darren Seetoh

Its works on me. Simply GREAT!!! 2011 Macbook Pro + DELL S2340L 23" Monitor. All this is done with connection using VGA cable + Mini display Port to VGA convertor.

Thank you very much to all the originators. :)

Adam

I did this fix and it works perfectly for smoothing the text on my Toshiba 24" TV, however the max scaled resolution that I can now output is only 1360 x 768 so I’m wondering if there’s a way that I can get this back to full 1080p resolution like I had before.

I’m using a 2012 iMac by the way.

Adam Pullen's gravatar

Adam Pullen

Thanks a lot, i was just about to give up and continue with my horrible resolution

Mac User

I love you. Thank you so much! Worked great for my Dell U2410.
Courtney's gravatar

Courtney

I’ve tried this and the fonts are still rendering poorly. Have a 27 inch brand new Samsung and I’m fit to be tied, not sure what to do anymore to fix this. My display settings how “Display with forced RGB mode (EDID override) but still shows “TV” graphic. Help?

Benoît-Marie

Hello !

I have a little problem : patch-edid.rb:11:in ': undefined method []’ for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError) Do you have any solution ?

Thanks

lolanose's gravatar

lolanose

Freaking that you. To be clear - for one reason or another, the external monitor worked great on my Macbook Pro Retina – until I reset the PRAM. Then it had these gamma issues. I updated to 10.9.2 and the problem continued – until I found this thread. Now, no problems. Man what a PITA!

Amit

Awesome! I was going nuts trying to figure out the configuration on my own. Worked like a charm! Thank you

unusimba

apple did shit work here with the thunderbolt - mini display port! mr apple, why no bug correction with system update?

I have also some minor bugs with my screen - when MacBook Pro goes to sleep, external screen, display this message: “invalid mode” but everything else seems to work correctly. Obviously there is something that does not work 100% ok, but I can’t figure out what is this “invalid mode” message about… I mean where in the system to look for the info about what’s wrong.

Any ideas guys? Thanks so much

Andrea

Thanks so much for proving that I do not need any eye test and am not just really fussy - was all set to fork out a fortune for the apple monitor as I just can’t survice using my macbook air 13" screen but was getting no joy with the new monitor. Hope it works - am going to try it out on my new Dell monitor when it arrives (I took my HP 23xi back as I thought the problem was with my monitor!!)

Amit

I tried the script on a Lenovo 22" monitor, but the display still remains the same. Is there some additional settings for the Lenovo.
Falk's gravatar

Falk

Thank you god!!! Perfect.
Rob Franz's gravatar

Rob Franz

This is great…works as advertised. Thanks for putting this together.

Les

Frustrating… I’ve got a Dell U2713H with a late 2013 MBP - the fix worked, and then I updated to Mavericks. Nothing I do makes it work again :(

Phil. T

I have a dell u2312hm, the script worked with sending RGB signal, but the fonts still look blurry. Any help??? thank you
kai gwee's gravatar

kai gwee

it worked like a charm. but right now, my dell u2713h is unable to display 2560 x 1440. Is there a way to fix this?

fernando

i can’t run the script on maverick.

i get “command not found”

help!

ninaundmomo's gravatar

ninaundmomo

Yeah thanx Apple, this is the user experience we know and love. Feels like patching Macs to use DVD-drives all over again. ;-) btw: works with HP LP2475w and DisplayPort and Macmini 2012

maiky

you make my day!

works perfect for a DELL3014 on a new MacPro

first i had some issue with the terminal. nothing happend after typing “ruby patch-edid.br”.

i checked the user - set the Administrator again on read+write.

i verfiy disk permisson - repair disk permisson

i restart - and the the terminal line works.

put the new folder into the library like above in the description.

restart the mac - runs perfect.

thank you for sharing this!

btw. the DELL support has in germany not nearly an idea what the problem is!

fernando

ok. this works but it sets my resolution to 1080i. there is no P option unless i go to 720.

fernando

so i dugg around other override profiles and found one that works. now i got 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 900x1600, 50 and 60 hz and pal and ntsc

i used the data from DisplayVendorID-4d10

hope that helps someone. for me i was having a hard time playing games on my tv with the interlaced image.

Joanna

Thank you!! You saved my eyes from that horrendous shit that was on my screen before I applied this fix. You are awesome! Although after restarting, I did have to go back to system preferences and select the resolution that’s less than 1080p then reselect 1080p..
skylife88's gravatar

skylife88

One important thing if you have a Samsung SyncMaster monitor!

  • Using the Samsung remote press the ‘source’ button
  • Now press the ‘Tools’ button
  • Highlight ‘Edit Name’ and press the ‘OK/Accept’ button
  • Move the selected input to HDMI and press the ‘OK/Accept’ button again.
  • Move the selection to ‘PC’ and again OK your selection.

After that, in order to fix any color issues press the Menu button from your remote and in the Picture Tab go down to Picture Options and change to these settings: *Colour Tone : Normal *HDMI Black Level : Normal

That did it for me! Hope it was helpful. Thank you!

gavin

in reply to skylife88

Unbelievable! Thanks, skylife88 - I wish I’d seen your comment 3 hours ago. That was exactly it - I’d swapped the HDMI inputs around on my SyncMaster, and relabelled them accordingly. My rMBP is now plugged into a splitter, and the input was labelled HD STB (which is its primary use). I thought it was only a label, and not also a function setting! The STB and PS3 which are also plugged into that splitter work just fine with its name set to “PC”, so now I can breathe a sigh of enormous relief.

Thankyouthankyouthankyou :)

Adrian Bashford's gravatar

Adrian Bashford

in reply to skylife88

You sir, are awesome!! Thanks so much for posting that, and thanks to Mathew for generating this thread in the first place. I didn’t realize the Samsung ‘source’ actually made changes to the settings.

tommy

works on late retina macbook pro 15" w/Dell U2713H

Sundeep

skylife88, you literally saved us from blurry text forever!! thank you, thank you!! for anyone with a Samsung this will solve your textual problems

Shawn

Thank you so much!!!

Works perfectly on a Dell U2414H connected to an 21.5" iMac (mid-2011).

Hopemeister's gravatar

Hopemeister

Pleased to say this worked for me. My setup is a Mac Mini with two displays. LG Flatron E2290 connected via mini display (thunderbolt) and HP 25xi via HDMI. When I first connected the HP, it was awful to work with. I made sure I disconnected the LG, followed the instructions and rebooted - worked like a charm. Thanks for your help.
mkvstheworld's gravatar

mkvstheworld

Just wanted to say thanks for this! I can’t believe you have to do a custom hack on a Mac for a second display to display correctly. For me, the problem was simply faint red (or pink) dots that were only visible on white screens or objects. I could use the display correctly though. My Viewsonic was detected as a “Television” as well. I just got the Viewsonic VP2770-LED on a Woot deal and at first thought there was something wrong with my iMac, the mini displayport cable, or the monitor itself. Turns out that it’s Apple as I was able to use the monitor with the same Mac in Bootcamp on Windows 8.1 without any issues. I could tweak the monitor on a different User Mode, but that was sort of a setting workaround. This fix is more permanent and long-term. Thanks again!

sandergovaers

How can i download the script?

Andrew

Dear Sandergovaers

I just control clicked and chose download. Choose “Go” “Home” from menu bar and drop the file from the downloads into this. Then “Go”, “Utilities” and open “Terminal” and type “ruby patch-edid.rb”

Thanks i reckon. Hadn’t had any problem with Asus and LG monitors, just this HP Pavilion 23xi. Patch worked brilliantly. Had to switch to lower resolution and back again after restart. I have a 2013 MacBook Pro.

Thanks again.

Daniel

Very grateful for this!!! Worked like a charm on a 2014 13" MacBook Pro (Retina) running OSX 10.9.2, connected to an LG 29EA93 monitor.

Phil T.

Hey there, I applied this script using a dell u2312hm when using mini display port to display port adapter on a haswell retina macbook pro. The monitor gets the rgb signal but the fonts still look fuzzy. It’s like if one letter is sharp and the next isn’t. Sometimes I even see like some reddish or bluish shadow around some letters. especially when the same letters are following each other like : ll or tt. When I zoom in and the font gets bigger, the shadows go away.

The same thing happens when using a mini display port to dvi adapter.

I have put the terminal command to AppleSmoothing -int 2 .

Could it be the monitor?? The monitor was fine under mavericks connected to my old 2008 macbook pro with dvi cable.

I just ordered a viewsonic vp-2770 and im afraid to have the same result on such a quality monitor.

Dan Gordon

in reply to Phil T.

Unfortunately you are not alone. I have a Dell 2312HM and I have the same problem. Sometimes letters are okay, and sometimes not so much. I have a specific ’m’ that looks awful in my terminal. I applied script, restarted, and no luck

Dode

Can’t find the folder that should be created after Ruby patch-edid.rb any help? Checked the folder where patch-edid.rb is but nothing there …

Dode

I solved that, if you have problem like that unplug and plug in again the adapter. Now i have other problem can’t find Displays folder or Overrides
Jim's gravatar

Jim

Saved my life….and my eyes from tumbling out of my head…

Not what I expected to have to do with a brand new MacPro after unboxing…

nicola

Phil T, same here. I have the same monitor as yours. Tried numerous font smoothing configurations and this fixed the RGB issue too, but fonts still look blurry.
Alexandros Pennos's gravatar

Alexandros Pennos

Forgive me for being noob, but how can I only use the external monitor? When I close the lid, my macbook goes to sleep…

blue person

in reply to Alexandros Pennos

your laptop need to be plugged into a power source.
mukki2013's gravatar

mukki2013

@Alexandros Pennos oddly enough I don’t have that problem but maybe try this app it might help NoSleep https://code.google.com/p/macosx-nosleep-extension/
Alexandros Pennos's gravatar

Alexandros Pennos

in reply to mukki2013

Thanks @mukki2013 , after a couple of crashes, I figured it out…thanks for the tip!
Alexandros Pennos's gravatar

Alexandros Pennos

Well, it did changed my external screen to VGA, but I think the issue remains…
nrsphrt's gravatar

nrsphrt

Just bought a rMBP and I had this ugly issue with my ASUS PA238Q(That I did not have before obviously)…You made my day :)

Michael

Thanks for the Hack, however I have a new problem that might be easy to fix. I have TWO Dell U2414H monitors, connected to my 2012 mac mini. One is connected with the supplied mini display port to display port cable, and the other monitor is connected with an hdmi cable.

I got the second monitor later and was using the fist one quite happily with your hack. When I connected the second monitor and selected the profile for the Dell U2414H that was made for my first monitor I got no results. I then disconnected my first monitor and did the hack, I rebooted and my second monitor looked great! Only my first monitor looked bad again… So I disconnected the second monitor and ran the hack on the first monitor, I rebooted and my first monitor was fine, but my second monitor was bad again! I then ran the hack with both monitors turned on, I saw in the terminal window that the hack detects 2 monitors, i removed the old color profiles and put the new one in the display folder, in the folder there are 2 color profiles, but only one shows up in the settings window.. I now have one nice and one not so nice monitor and Im really bummed out :-( Does anyone know how to get it working on both monitors at the same time?

Michael

in reply to Michael

Oke here is an update, I could not get my second monitor to be less yellowish of warm if you will. I contacted Amazon.de and they replaced it with a new one. Too bad that this monitor had the same problem. For the record all the U2414H’s I had (including the good one) where Rev 00. So I contacted Amazon.de again and I returned the monitors and got 2 Samsung S24C750 monitors instead. When connected they both registered as TV’s but the hack on this page quickly fixed that, I connected both monitors and they were both on during the hack. Needless to say the Dells were crap and the Samsung’s are great. There are no H IPS but the are MVA, I think there better, their black levels are amazing, its almost like watching an OLED display. I can recommend the Samsung monitors to anyone.

So if your having a DELL U2414H that has a yellow glow to it, return that thing and get a different brand. :)

happy

Great! Now my Dell U2711 looks a lot better over displayport on my macbook air running mavericks. Thanks a lot :)
cyberalexgm's gravatar

cyberalexgm

Since LG ULTRAWIDE screens like 29MA73D (29MA73) are almost a TV, you’ll need this fix when connected using mini-displayport to displayport cable. Thank you!

Calumbas

Guys, sorry if you have already gone through this, but I still can’t make the images on my brand new Dell U2713HM look sharp at all.

Before doing the “override”, there were several resolution options, but the max resolution available read “1080p”; now that the Display Preferences show “DELL U2713HM - forced RGB mode (EDID) Override”, there are only 3 resolutions available:

  • 1920 x 1080
  • 1600 x 900
  • 1360 x 768

Even after the override, all these options look horrible (blurry); feels similar to when I use Airplay do project images from the computer on my AppleTV (and consequently to my FlatScreen TV). Seems as if the issue is more connected to the resolution than with RGB color…

Do you guys have any suggestions? What do I have to do to use my DELL Display at max capacity (2560 x 1440) with my MacBook Pro?

Thanks a lot!

Tom's gravatar

Tom

@calumbas: I’ve the same problem with the exact same monitor (dell U2713HM) ;-(

Please help us! Thanks

gasperzi

you are not alone macbook air late 2010 no way to get max resolution

skimon

Even after following these steps and even using the updated script from github my monitor still looks terrible (asus ve278q) and it seems to think it is a TV (1080p pal/ntsc ). Anyone have any idea how to fix this ? My eyes hurt and im considering just getting rid of the monitor as its painful to read text on it.
£ÐУЯ's gravatar

£ÐУЯ

Thanks for the post, It helped me with my AOC TV

John Barker

@Calumbas; Are you perhaps using an HDMI adapter and cable? HDMI can only display up to 1920x1080 (or 1920x1200 on a 16:10 monitor). You really need a mini display port to DVI cable to get higher resolutions.
Tom's gravatar

Tom

in reply to John Barker

@john barker;

Are you talking about this cable ? -> http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB570Z/B/mini-displayport-to-dvi-adapter?fnode=51

Personaly I’ve got the Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter. -> http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB571Z/A/mini-displayport-to-dual-link-dvi-adapter

And it doesn’t work on my Dell U2713HM

Calumbas

in reply to John Barker

John, just got a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable and finally got full resolution (2560x1440) at my monitor!

What a difference!

Thanks a lot! Problem solved!

arbitraryy's gravatar

arbitraryy

Champ! Was about to put an ad out on CL for my AOC 2963PM. Thx!
Sagit's gravatar

Sagit

Hi All, I tried the hack, and it did not work! I have an MBP 13 inch, I use a connection thunderbolt (instead of mini dislay port) to VGA. Here is the output of the file in the overrides directory:

DisplayProductName ASUS MS246 - forced RGB mode (EDID override) IODisplayEDID AP///////wAEafckAQEBARMUAQMKNB14JjWFplZImiQSUFS/7wDRwLMAqUCV AAEBgYCBQHFPAjqAGHE4LUBYLEUA3QwRAAAeAAAA/wBBNUxNSVowMzk3NTkK AAAA/QA3Sx5VEwAKICAgICAgAAAA/ABBU1VTIE1TMjQ2CiAgAHw=

DisplayVendorID 1129 DisplayProductID 9463

Does this look OK? I still see blurry text, and when I use parallels, the letters are crystal clear.

Sagit's gravatar

Sagit

Can anyone please help me?

Skimon

in reply to Sagit

I have a similar problem, the fix just has no effect on the visuals, it does appear in the display seytings but like you the quality is still poor
Tom's gravatar

Tom

@calumbas

I finally get my resolution thanks these files: -> http://embdev.net/topic/284710

I get the file present in the zip file and change the name of the file “DisplayProductID-a092″ to the filename generated by the script above.

Everything working well now !

Finally get the expected 2560×1440 resolution on my U2713HM on MacBook Pro late 2013 with this cable: Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter. -> http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB571Z/A/mini-displayport-to-dual-link-dvi-adapter Hope it helps someone ;-)

Ivan

Hi Friends,

I’m not certain this fix is what I need, but I’m not a programmer and will need someone to counsel me and if it is necessary, walk me thru it. I’m a designer, and getting the clearest onscreen image out of the equipment I have is important.

I have a brand spanking new 13" MBPr running 10.9.2, with an external HP 23bw IPS HD 1920x1080 LED display. I’m seeing what I would consider a blurry image on the larger remote display. Text for sure is noticeably out of focus. I realize it won’t ever be as crisp as the Retina display, but I was hoping that it would be clear enough to get my work done on. It really isn’t very good currently.

The monitor is currently connected directly HDMI to HDMI port using the HP cable. I also tried connecting with a Rocketfish TB Mini to HDMI adapter, and see no difference. Is there something else I should try?

Thanks in advance! Ivan

lizamae1's gravatar

lizamae1

I cannot express my appreciation enough. Absolutely stoked! I was about to throw my monitor out the window after 3 months of blurry fonts.

LG29EA93

Awesome! thank you very much. worked for the LG29EA93 perfectly. not a problem at all.

Christian

Hello everybdy, i’m trying to run the script (ruby patch-edid.rb) and i get this answer

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0. 0/universal-darwin13/rbconfig.rb:212: warning: Insecure world writable dir /usr/local in PATH, mode 040777 patch-edid.rb:11:in ': undefined method []’ for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)

Any help on this issue?

Thanks in advance

I have a MBP 13 early 2013 retina running 10.9.3

Michael

Hi,

I’ve find this thread through this http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1699375

Where was a question:

“I have MacBook Air 13” 2012, OSX Mavericks 10.9.1 and just got a Dell U2414H monitor. Settings in OSD are: RGB color, Mac Gamma, sRGB color preset and in OSX Dell U2414H color profile. It is connected with mDP to DP cable, works good and image appears good, but it is recognized as HDTV by the OS. This annoys me and I am not sure if the OS sends full (0-255) or limited (16-235) RGB."

I’ve the the same situation: hakintosh with OS X 10.9.2 and dell U2414H monitor. In OSD menu it shows RGB signal and in OS X information about this monitor: 32-bit Color (ARGB8888).

I have applied this fix, no error when it was run, but it’s still 32-bit Color (ARGB8888), and I don’t see any changes.

How to understand that this fix worked or it has been applied.

Thanks.

Keto

Hi,

this was the only thing that worked for my MacBook Pro retina late 2013 and external HP LP2475w with HDMI. Thanks very much.

Felipe Martins Peixoto's gravatar

Felipe Martins Peixoto

I LOVE YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!

Ibrahim

First of all, Thanks for sharing this. It really worked after 2 years of searching and struggling. You are guys just awesome.

Secondly, I had to face a problem that was mentioned by some others in the comments but no clear cut solution has been provided. I guess.

Here it is:

When I pasted the file in the " Overrides " folder. It didn’t replace any folder. Just beeing added to the bunch of folders. What happened is: Colors were perfectly corrected. But, Resolution choices were narrowed to: ( 1080 - 1600900 - 1360768 ) ONLY and scaling has disappeared and the maximum resolution I can get is 1360 * 768 other wise the scale will outfit the screen ( larger).

Here what I did, thanks to people who mentioned that but indirectly.

1- I deleted the file I generated and pasted from the folder “Overrides”. 2- I went to the file I generated in the " Home directory " and rename it by a name of one of the files present already in the “Overrides” folder. In my case it was this " DisplayVendorID-4d10 “. 3- I pasted the generated and renamed file to the folder " Overrides " again, then it asked to replace I clicked OK ( N.B I backed up that folder present already to the desktop in case something happened). 4- Then, restarted the monitor and it worked.

Regards Ibrahim

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Ibrahim

Thanks, I had never had this problem so had no solution. Will link to this from my post.

thebenkahn

in reply to Ibrahim

Ibrahim, how did you know which DisplayVendorID folder to replace? My Resources\Overrides folder is full of dozens of folders.

Husky In Denial

in reply to Ibrahim

I’m seconding Ben on this. When I did that, it stopped working and Color Sync Profile came up when I restarted to tell me it needed to be repaired.

doudou

Do anyone know how to force YUV mode . the patch-edid.rb is a bit obscure for me. Specific necessity to output to a Blackmagic Hdmi to SDI 4K. thanks
Brian's gravatar

Brian

After running through the process and rebooting I’ve got a garbled screen (see pic in the link):

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/ZXrT6U4wd0XJMBcP6eZ3zuvLk_RpAvHhfS_tOkg7sibT=w816-h612-no

I can get back to normal by restoring the original folder I backed up from /System/Library/Displays/Overrides. Anyone else ever seen anything like this? I’m using a pretty new monitor (the LG 34UM95 21:9 3440x1440). My understanding was that the script should extract the existing profile and just override to force RGB. Time for some more EDID research I guess.

Tony

in reply to Brian

That is exactly what I had! You can “fix” it by selecting 50Hz, but I choose to restore the old VendorID. I also don’t think that a patch is necessary for this display, colors and gradients seem fine, I think it’s running in RGB mode even though OS X think it’s a TV. I’m running it in Cinema picture mode by the way.
chris's gravatar

chris

omg, I love you! I thought the washed out colors are a hardware issue… works now! Awesome!

Christian

Hello Please anyone can help me???

i’m trying to run the script (ruby patch-edid.rb) and i get this answer

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0. 0/universal-darwin13/rbconfig.rb:212: warning: Insecure world writable dir /usr/local in PATH, mode 040777 patch-edid.rb:11:in ’: undefined method []‘ for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)

I don’t know what to do, and absolutely no idea what could be the problem

I have a MBP 13 early 2013 retina running 10.9.3

lin lcat's gravatar

lin lcat

in reply to Christian

Did you solve this problem?I met the same problem with you

Roger

Thanks so much for all involved in this solution. It saved me a $60 restocking fee and return shipping for my new Acer K272HUL display. Not to mention the hassle. Much appreciation all around.
andiros's gravatar

andiros

You’re a hero, thanks! Great article. Solved my problem and turned an excellent my excellent Dell U2713H with a good price tag into a perfectly functioning MBPr companion! I used the original patch-edid.rb script and followed your instructions.
Michael Reitsma's gravatar

Michael Reitsma

well this didn’t work for me. I applied the script (i used the improved one which generates monitors name in the file) and put it at the correct folder. I rebooted and it is still fuzzy. And the colour file itself though is used since my screen now has a title of DELL U3014 - Forced RGB mode (edid override). It has to do with the 10.9.3 update. I tried to go back to a 10.9.2 version with TimeMachine but the restore failed twice. So i restored tru a SuperDuper backup to my 10.9.3 version which has this problem unfortunately.

Anybody any ideas here ?

Jeff

in reply to Michael Reitsma

Is it because of the 10.9.3 problem? Have you fixed it now?

Martin

Hello everyone,

this is my first post and sorry for my English.

I bought the Dell U2414H and hooked it up with my MacBook Pro Mid 2009. It has the Nvidia GeForce 9400M inside. In near future the display will be connected with a 2012 Mac mini with the Intel HD4000 inside.

My question is: how do I recognize that my setup suffers under the problem that is discussed here? By now, I can give you following details.

On the monitor side:

  • I own the revision A00
  • I use the original Display Port to Mini Display Port cable
  • When I first connected the monitor with my MacBook Pro the Display Port Mode 1.2 was automatically disabled
  • The Dell OSD menu tells me that the monitor is running with RGB input format, Mac Gamma and sRGB mode
  • For my eyes, everything looks fine

On the MacBook side:

  • I runs OS X 10.8.5
  • “About this Mac > Monitor” tells me that I’m using “Monitor: Dell U2414H”
  • “About this Mac > System > Grafik/Monitor” tells me “TV: Yes”
  • “System Preferences > Monitor > Colours > Open Profile” tells me “Colour Room: RGB”

Thank you very very much in advance, Martin

nos1609

Thanks a lot! The script helped me solving the issue with my Mac mini and HP 2159m monitor. Now works like a charm over the default HDMI output!

Francis

The image & screen sizes are matched up with the forced RGB display profile. However, the resolution is still on 1920x1080 @ 60Hz. I’m using the Acer K272HUL as the external/primary monitor, what else need to be modified/added in order to output the 2,560x1,440 resolution, which is the main reason for my purchasing of this 27" monitor? I’m using an Apple MacBook Pro 13", Early 2011 with elgato thunderbolt dock output to HDMI. Thank you in advance.

Phil

in reply to Francis

Hmdi has a max output of 1920x1080! Try displayport!
Alex Yamil's gravatar

Alex Yamil

THANKS!!!!

Aristoteles

Worked amazingly well for an Acer K272HUL monitor! Thank you so much! Fonts are still not as crisp as on Windows 7 but I am using a HDMI cable. I ordered a Mini DP adapter, maybe this will help. At least the Monitor is usable now.
fenstarizor's gravatar

fenstarizor

This worked on my Late 2013 rMBP, OSX10.9.3 w/Dell U2410 – many thanks :)

chammika@nus.edu.sg

A gargantuan ‘THANK YOU’. Your solution worked fantastically with my DELL U3014 attached to a Mac Pro via HDMI-Thunderbolt.
johnnydough's gravatar

johnnydough

I just bought a new MacBook Pro Retina 13" a few weeks ago and for some reason, I don’t have a “Displays” folder within the Library directory. Thoughts?

Andre

in reply to johnnydough

You have to go to /System/Library. Not /Library or ~/Library.
yokken's gravatar

yokken

I believe I left a comment here already, but I just want to say thank you, again. I would have gone insane without this fix. I can confirm it works in Mavericks 10.9.3 as well as Yosemite 10.10 Dev Preview 1 with my HP ZR2440w. Great monitor, by the way. Thanks again!!
Steve Olson's gravatar

Steve Olson

in reply to yokken

How did it work? I dont see the Dsiplay/Overrides in the library folder? Did it move in yosemite?

Per

Has anyone gotten this fix to work with 10.9.3 and Dell U2414H? Everything in settings looks as it should after applying the fix, however the picture is still fussy after reboot. Just tried with Windows laptop to make sure I wasn’t just picky, but nope - sharpness using Windows is 10x better than OS X.

Anyone?

Todd Cranston's gravatar

Todd Cranston

HP Pavilion has the same issue with my mac book pro 2011 and Mavericks. The 23fi monitor shows up as Television, any chance someone with knowledge can help me out with a fix , thanks.

Andre

Worked great, thank you!

Etienne Pralong

From Switzerland Thank You very much this is great !
JB's gravatar

JB

I tried this with my HP w2207h connected to my late 2013 27" iMac via hdmi-to-mdp adapter and the test on the HP still isn’t very crisp and seems a little fuzzy. Is there anything else I can try?
JB's gravatar

JB

*and the text

ni.

Has anybody used this script on the new LG 34UM95 Monitor. I use it with a GTX680 graphic card and despite adding the generated “DisplayVendorID-4c2d” folder it keeps showing up as a TV with horrible fonts.

My script looks like this:

DisplayProductName Display with forced RGB mode (EDID override) IODisplayEDID AP///////wBMLYELV0hLMA4YAQOAPSN4Il+xoldPoigPUFS/74BxT4EAgcCB gJUAqcCzANEABHQAMPJwWoCwWIoAYFkhAAAeAAAA/QAYSx5aHgAKICAgICAg AAAA/ABVMjhENTkwCiAgICAgAAAA/wBIVFBGNDAwODU3CiAgABM=

DisplayVendorID 19501 DisplayProductID 2945

ni.

I forgot to mention, that I’m on 10.9.4. Maybe this matters?

ni.

Update: the hack was successful. The correct override folder seems to be “DisplayVendorID-1e6d”. LG 34UM95 now reports as “display with forced RGB mode”. But still fonts look awful. Less color fringing now but detail rendering is not good at all.

Pat

Hi,

I have a late model 2013 Mac Pro with the D300 GPUs and an LG 27EA83 monitor. I am unable to run the monitor in native 2560x1440 resolution. My selections are limited to 1080p at best. I have tried the script here, but the monitor then distorts with lots of ghosting and the resolution remains at 1080p. Using a min displayport to displayport cable. Worked great with late model Mac Mini. I also tried switching display port cables and no change.

I have also tried using Apples $99.00 Displayport adapter with dual link DVi cable. Monitor comes on at boot, and it appears to be in the native 2560x1440 when the apple logo first shows on the gray background, and then the monitor goes dark.

I have also tried StitchresX and it allows me to select 2560x1440, but the fonts are so fuzzy as to be painful in reading.

Much thanks to anyone who might be able to assist with any ideas.

Pat

Vimal Kaul

Thanks a lot. This helped on my HP2311X monitor.

ni.

Ok, was trying more stuff. The solution: turning the monitors sharpness down from 5 (standard) to 4. Looks a bit soft at first sight, but fonts on Mac PS X 10.9.4 are much better rendered. Was almost selling my LG 34UM95… now I think I’ll keep it.
hamishirving's gravatar

hamishirving

in reply to ni.

Hi Ni,

Did you find a solution for your LG 34UM95? Mine has just arrived, I installed the override correctly (displays the override in System Prefs) but now it wont display at full resolution, it is locked to 1920x1080.

What cables are you using? I’m stuck on Thunderbolt to HDMI until a Thunderbolt cable arrives in the post. Even with the override, the text looks blurry and the colours are wrong, I’m running it off a late 2012 rMBP. Also, I cant access the Sharpness level like you mentioned (it’s greyed out in settings?).

andy

hi guys just bought a dell 2713hm and i am having the same problems I’m using an iMac 27inch late 2009 with 10.9.4 i have used the downloaded folder and still the same bad resolution any ideas with this im am using the apple mini dv to dvi-d connector with the dell black cable thanks
christian's gravatar

christian

i contacted apple support about this. they passed it to the engineers who said - this is how it works. “anti aliasing was on application level” ignoring the fact that it wasn’t looking correct in the finder level.

so there is no solution beyond switching to windows.

christian's gravatar

christian

also worth noting, nvidia support referenced this article, so the script/patch here seems to be the only solution.

Alex

Doe anyone know if this script will work with an ASUS PA279Q 27-Inch Screen LCD Monitor?
Riccardo's gravatar

Riccardo

in reply to Alex

@Alex yes it works! I have the Asus
areapower's gravatar

areapower

Worked great with my AOC Q2963PM!
misa_'s gravatar

misa_

I probably have the most stupid question but, it 7 pages are too long to see if someone else asked same question. Anyway, I am using late ‘13 MBP with retina display and DELL P2414H. I’ve connected it via HDMI from MBP to DVI into monitor.

Question 1 : As I can see here, it is okay to use this cable as hdmi to hdmi too ?

Question 2 : I am still stuck at downloading this script, since I am new to OS X i really hardly understand how to use those scripts. I see there is a zip file for one type of monitor but I am not sure what to do with textual script that is given and it should work for all monitors. Where to copy that text ? If it is text editor, how to name it? Should I place it in folder and zip it and copy to home folder ?

If anyone can be so kind and tell me how to do this step by step ?

Thank you very much! Misa_

misa_'s gravatar

misa_

UPDATE:

I probably succeeded to instal this script, but I do not see changes. The picture is not even close to my retina display on MBP. I would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks

Garzas's gravatar

Garzas

Hi There. Need some help

I forced my IMac to RGB and was pretty good. Now I just bought a HP LP2480zx monitor with Color Calibration Solution. Through a AJA T TAP no chance to calibrate but using thunderbolt adaptor I tried to calibrate but the program always crash. I calibrate this monitor by a laptop and worked fine.

  1. Do I need to worry about the color trough AJA? Is well calibrated?
  2. Should the monitor keep my last calibration?
  3. Is there any chance to calibrate through AJA?
  4. Any bad experience with HP Calibration solution? Thank you all

mo

Hi there! i am a new MAC user and i am struggling in general with the whole operating system.. now i have bought 2 new BENQ screens however text is blurry as all of you have been facing. i downloaded the patch however i am not able to create this override file! in terminal when i write “ruby patch-edid.rb” i get the load error. therefore i really would appreciate if someone can help me

thanks in advance

passing

in reply to mo

Works fine for me on my new mac with benq 27 inch monitor. follow the steps exactly as mentioned try saving the script file by right clicking on the link and save as option copy the saved script to the home by clicking shift command and H run the script with the lid closed. and the terminal window running on the external monitor. if it keeps switching off on closing the lid try nosleep app for mac to keep it on,

abi

Many thanks got it working finally!

2 hours trying to figure out that the system folder is here. install tinkertool app unhide system foders. go to finder click GO after file,edit,view,go in the task bar now click COMPUTER or shift ,command , C find the system folder here!

Peter's gravatar

Peter

I followed all the steps mentioned in this post and it just didn’t work for my AOC monitor. After more experimenting, I deleted the Overrides-XXX folder, restarted the machine again and then it magically picked up my monitor and the sharpness was back to normal. I was also fiddling with my monitor settings (hardware), not sure if that helped too. Anyway, might help to someone in similar situation.

_Susanin_

Worked! I have 2 HP 23xi IPS. And latest MacOs on MacMini. Run the script. Didn’t work first, then switched cables betweens displays, dvi to hdmi, and from hdmi to dvi and now works! Thank you, you are genius!

Kroos

Hey guys

I used MacBook Pro retina display 15’ and my external monitor is LG 29EA93. I have exactly the same problem and when I tried to follow the step I was kinda stuck even on the first step, where do u actually download the script ?

Quin Lausberg's gravatar

Quin Lausberg

Worked great for me, thanx!

I have a MacBook Air connected with a minidisplay to display port cable from StarTech to a LG 2560x1080 pixel 29EA93 Monitor. After connecting the colors looked awful and fonts looked liked they were made with LEGO bricks.

Now the colors are so bright I have to wear sunglasses but that doesn’t matter I ’m very happy.

This is a much better advice that the Dutch Apple helpdesk gave me (as always: clean instal).

Very bad that I have to make such changes to the OS myself and Apple doesn’t solved this problem in almost 9 months…

Thanks again for this great article!

kroos

in reply to Quin Lausberg

hey where did u download the script ?

Nick

Worked perfectly, and solved nearly two years of me having to change the input setting on my Dell S2440L from RGB to YPbPr every time the monitor went to sleep. Thank you!

Bjorn

Thanks for your post.. Can’t wait to figure it out tonight. Mac user since yesterday..

Dembo

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation - I was ready to send an Acer K272HULbmiidp (using the complete model number to make this page easier to find) back after it gave me a horrible grainy picture via HDMI or DIsplayPort when connected to a 2013 Retina MacbookPro with discrete NVIDIA graphics.

Generating the RGB override via the Ruby script took 1min and the Acer looks as expected - ready for calibration/profiling. Once again two thumbs up!

Bjorn Burgh's gravatar

Bjorn Burgh

where do I find the script??
Bjorn Burgh's gravatar

Bjorn Burgh

Sorry I’m blind

JW

Hello! Looking forward to trying out this script, but every link I click on in the post leads me to a page that says “This webpage is not available”. Could someone please post the script in the comments here? Thank you so much!
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to JW

Hmm, looks like the forum hosting the script is down. I don’t have a copy, but poster Andrew uploaded an improved version last year, perhaps you could try that one? https://www.mathewinkson.com/2013/03/force-rgb-mode-in-mac-os-x-to-fix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor/#comment-9463

Roger

So this fix stopped working for me after 10.9.4 update :-/

Kitty Bessie

I thought I would have to do this, but I didn’t. Instead I used the big fancy dual cable Mini Display Port to DVI Adaptor (purchased by my company when the MPB was bought recently and didn’t work on my 24) to connect to my Dell P2314H as it worked fine, and used my partner’s spare basic single cable Mini Display Port to DVI adaptor to connect my Dell U2413, which was the one that didn’t work originally on the bigger, fancier MDP to DVI. So now, without having to rewrite anything, I have my dual monitors up and running and looking sweet! So, if you don’t want to fiddle around for hours with the code, ask around and try a few different cables and connectors that people have lying around in their desks and cupboards. Worked for me, might work for you too! :)

Conrad Rodas

Thank you for your file. Unfortunately it didn’t work for me.

I have a MacPro (new model) with Thunderbolt to HDMI and a Dell 2711. This setup worked with 10.9 Mavericks. I had to press “Alt” while pressing “scaled” in preferences in order to get 2556x1440 as an option. As soon as I upgraded to 10.10 (currently on 10.10.3 beta) the resolution went away and the highest I can reach is 1920x1080.

I downloaded all 3 scrips, even the alternative. I put the Ruby file in my home folder, run the script, create the new folder with the new text file with I name DisplayProductID-a055, restart my computer and nothing. I still only see 1920x1080 as my highest resolution possible. I am putting it in the correct folder System<Library<Displays<Overrides

What can I be doing wrong?

Please please help!

Thank,

Teryl Boothe

thanks a ton. This worked on a Acer K272HUL, retina MacBook Pro.

Pissed Mac User

This doesn’t work for me. I am running OSX Mavericks with a Dell 2407WFP and after running the Ruby script, replacing in Overrides, also doing the font smoothing with -2, my screen still looks blurry. Very frustrating when this display worked perfectly with an older MBP (non-Retina, 10.8) and also works perfectly with Linux. I’m going Thunderbolt to DVI-D, I guess I’ll try other combinations … Thunderbolt to VGA … HDMI to VGA … this is just stupid.
kickpunchblock (@kickpunchblocks)'s gravatar

kickpunchblock (@kickpunchblocks)

Thanks! This worked on a Dell U2414H, retina MacBook Pro 13 inch (late 13), Mavericks 10.9.5

John

The patch-edid Ruby script worked perfectly for me and my dual Dell 2413 monitors. Because I have a new (spring 2014) MacBook Pro (with retina display), I have one monitor connected via HDMI and the other via Thunderbolt / Display port. The problem affected only the monitor connected via HDMI.

I played the swap game trying to isolate the problem (swapped cables, swapped monitors, swapped MacBooks) … eventually proving that it ONLY occurs with a Dell U2413 monitor connected via HDMI to a new MacBook running Mavericks. The problem does not occur with a) an old MacBook, or b) connection via Display Port, or c) using a Dell U2410 monitor.

Thanks again!

–John

Nazar M's gravatar

Nazar M

Thank YOU!!!!! SO MUCH!!! Worked on my Dell U2713H - amazing!

Jordan Harrop

Hello,

Does anyone know how to force RGB on an iMac. I have an HP DreamColor Monitor, but unlike a laptop, I can not seem to shut off the main monitor to the iMac for the override to work.

Thanks, Jordan

Griff

Great work everyone, but especially to Andrew for making it foolproof for non-coders like me!

John

I hit the same problem again today with a brand new-out-of-the-box Mac Mini running OS X Server 10.9.5 and a Dell U2413 connected via HDMI. I ran patch-edit, moved the DisplayProductID to the Override folder, rebooted and presto chango! Thanks again Andrew!

(I also submitted this problem and the fix to Apple, asking them to fix it in the OS so that we don’t have to patch every machine …)

–John

Nisse

Thanks! Works perfectly with Macbook Pro Retina, mid 2014 with OS X 10.9.5 and Acer B296CL display
Dave's gravatar

Dave

I’m using a HP 2509m with a mid-2014 retina macbook pro and this worked great for me, thanks!

Colin

Thank you very much! I used Andrew’s modified script and proceeded through all the steps while my MacBook’s lid was closed. After the fix was applied, I re-opened my lid and the external screen momentarily flashed black signifying the MacBook’s connection.

When I checked the color space on the monitor’s control panel it was RGB. I didn’t have to do a restart, but I assume that’s because the display’s override files were reloaded when the lid was opened.

For reference, I used this on a Dell S2340L (HDMI) and a MacBook Pro Mid 2012 running OSX 10.10 Public Beta 4.

Teryl Boothe

Update: I loaded Yosemite Beta 4 onto my rMBP and lost the resolution. Found the directory created by the script under Mavericks and, after a couple of tries, got it moved into the Overrides subdirectory. Got my nice resolution back.
Danilo's gravatar

Danilo

Also I have the same problem. MBP (mid 2010) - MiniDisplayPort to HDMI - 1080p - Tv Haier 22 “Full HD 200Hz LE22m600. The resolution is correct (1920x1080 60Hz) but the colors and fonts are bad. Applying the patch nothing has changed …. Today I try with the modified version.

Gaurav Varshney

Great solution it worked for my HP 2509 monitor. Thanks a lot!!!

Nick Mowinski

Danilo, I’ve had the same issue with a TV (Bravia 40D3000, see page 5), however I suspect, that unless it’s an actual monitor the chances of getting the correct EDID is slim to none. Nobody here seems to have success here beyond dedicated PC monitors.

I’ve essentially given up, but Google this issue occasionally in the faint hope that Apple get their finger out of their collective arse and fix this.

Sadly, this is still the number one hit when I search.

Brady

I don’t know if anyone can help me with this however…. I stupidly came on here thought I knew what I was doing. So I copied that long ass command this into terminal and pressed enter. Now my second monitor is really laggy and grainy. Is there a reverse command so I can get it back to normal?

Mocha Gromurph

Just updated to newly released Yosemite.. and it overrode the rgb fix. Fortunately I remembered that I’d done it and the ruby script described above still works.

psbrubaker

Upgrading to OSX Yosemite caused my display to revert back. Tried running the script again and it does not create and override file. Any idea what to do?

psbrubaker

in reply to psbrubaker

Found the override file… got it fixed.

thohow

I have the same trouble after upgrading to OS X Yosemite. My previous setting for my Monitor LG 29EA73 worked fine with the script under the OS X Mavericks. Now it´s all gone. Can anyone give me some advice which script to run and how to do it under Yosemite? Thanks

SL

Still works for Yosemite. Same script as above. Look in the home folder for the file created.

ludwig70

It seems to me that Yosemite now recognizes my Philips 272C4, and I don’t need the script anymore. That’s the way it should be. I hope this will be the case with all other (your) monitors in the near future.
Christan Fergus's gravatar

Christan Fergus

For Mavericks this worked perfectly right away. Upgrading to Yosemite erased the script, but on reinstallation I haven’t been able to get it to work for my Asus PA248. Any ideas? I also tried replacing and renaming the script to an existing script…but nothin'.
Christan Fergus's gravatar

Christan Fergus

in reply to Christan Fergus

Got it to work the third time. To start over each time, I replaced the Overrides folder with my back up, and started the entire process over again. Finally, by the third try, it worked. Most likely user-error.

Philipp

My Dell U2412M still looks like sh*t. The script hepled a little, but it still doesn’t look crisp at all. No matter how it’s connected (VGA, DP, DVI). I tried different screen (Asus VW266H) via HDMI and it was soo much better.
Brian Schell's gravatar

Brian Schell

Just wanted to mention that I have a brand new Mac Mini *Late 2014… the stores just got them in yesterday) and an HP2509m monitor. I had the blurry font problem, and this script fixed it instantly. Thanks to whoever came up with this, but I’;m having a hard time understanding why Apple hasn’t fixed the problem since it’s obvisouly been going on for so long.
reiiz's gravatar

reiiz

Worked on 2012 iMac with the new OS X Yosemite + Dell U2410. Thanks once again!

Caleb Liau

Hello, I’m using a retina macbook pro 13’ late 2012 with intel HD graphics 4000, running Yosemite, 10.10 hook to a DELL 3007WFP with dual link DVI to mini display port cable. Ran patch-edid.rb, replace the folder in system, reboot but it doesn’t work. :(

Pat

Thanks, I installed the script and now I can use full 2560x1440 on my new Asus K272HUL. I am using via HDMI on my 15" MBP Retina late 2013.

Yas

Patch was working fine until the yosemite update. Tried process again and did not work. Any ideas as to what I can do? Screen looks terrible. Not crisp at all. The screen I’m using is a Dell U2413.

Any help will be very much appreciated.

Dembo

As expected I lost the RGB on an Acer K272HULbmiidp connected via HDMI when I moved from Mavericks to Yosemite. Re-ran the Ruby script (the improved version that correctly names the display), put the folder into the right folder as instructed, rebooted and… it work like charm.

I really find it quite embarrassing for Apple that you have to jump through so many hoops to get things up and running but at least it is working as expected.

_Susanin_

Installed Yosemite. I have 2 Pavilion 23xi and MacMini. First connected via miniport-DVI no problem. Second monitor via HDMI, had problems. Used this script no problem. Works great. Make sure to disconnect dvi one during running script.

Eduardo

Hey there guys! I have the same issue, but my problem is so dumb I’m even ashamed to ask. Have done all the stuff, but I can’t find the Display folder in my Library. Simply no folder with that name. Running on a Mac Air with Yosemite. Anyone?

Nick Mowinski

Still running Mavericks here, but try System/Library, not your home folder or the top level library.

Eduardo

Ok, thanks Nick! It’s working now with this profile, but the fonts are kinda pixelated. Any idea on how to improve it? Anyway, it’s much better now!

Nick Mowinski

in reply to Eduardo

I never got it to work sadly so can’t help you much more, but off the top of my head, make sure your running at the native res, ensure that display contrast in accessibility is set to normal, play with your font smoothing settings etc.

Glad you got the RGB issue nailed though. :-)

Francesco

Help me, macbook pro retina 13", i put the file in my folder, i run the terminal it says “command not found”. Sorry for my bad English :)

Francesco

update: i’ve the new folder but i can’t find “Displays” folder :(

Francesco

update II: i paste the file into override folders but it doesn’t work, now pc doesn’t find external displays :/

Eduardo

Francesco, I found the folder Displays in the Library (but there are in fact two folders called Library in Mac. Click the Terminal icon until the options appear (long click), click the “Go to Folder…” option and then type /system/ and you’ll find the Displays folder there. Another thing. After running the script, you gotta paste the file into the Override folder and erase (or backup to the desktop) the file that was there previously. It worked for me, though I’m still facing some pixelated fonts.

Francesco

in reply to Eduardo

Wait, i’ve done everything but it doesn’t work. In Override folder there are many folders so when i paste the folder created by the script, I have to erase all folders previously?

Eduardo

No, not at all - don’t erase all the folders! In my case, there was already a folder with the name the script created with another file on it. I just moved that file to my desktop and replaced with the new one, keeping the folder. Today I found out that it must be a balance between your display AND the mac configs. I spent some time adjusting the display configurations (white balance, blur, etc, etc) and now the image is perfect!

It is worth giving it a try!

Francesco

in reply to Eduardo

It doesn’t work :( anyone explain me how to do step by step? It’s incredible i did everything and it doesn’t work :/ i ran the patch, put the file into the display folder but it still doesn’t work

jarnail

Thank you. It worked on HP Pavilion 23xi with Macbook Pro Late 2011.

John Hightower

i tried it. Macbook pro mid 2010 with samsung 32" monitor.

What it did was wipe out the speakers in the monitor. Now i have no sound and an annoying 2" square box with a speaker diagram with an X through it migrating around the screen.

No difference to screen appearance I can detect. I can’t find the display folder or the override folder.

John Hightower

Update - of sorts: This morning I have sound back, I’m not aware of changing anything. I did finally manage to find the systems library and overrides folder and get the new display folder pushed in there. The sound was still out after doing that, but it has returned this am. The display is noted as being forced RGB, I don’t really notice much improvement. I have continued to mess with the color display calibration and I’m getting closer to a tolerable color mix.

First thing this morning the screen started flashing. Every few seconds it would flash. I rebooted and it’s been fine since.

Pedro Ferreira

I have the PHILIPS 298P4 monitor and i can’t find a way to use the full resolution of the display, i’ve tried these steps, but had no success.

ps: i’m using the HDMI cable, but i’ve already ordered an Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable that i’m waiting to arrive and test it.

Anyone could help me to achieve 2560x1080 on my monitor, please?

MBP 13" Retina late 2012 / running Yosemite 10.10 Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB

Adam

hello, i have a problem i downloaded the patch, i have it on my desktop, and then when i go to terminal, and type: ruby patch-edid.rb and hit enter, this is what i get :/

Last login: Sun Nov 16 14:30:16 on ttys000 MacBook-Pro-uzivatela-Adam:~ Winstead$ ruby patch-edid.rb ruby: No such file or directory – patch-edid.rb (LoadError) MacBook-Pro-uzivatela-Adam:~ Winstead$

im very new to mac, i dont know what to do, i have it on my desktop but it says no such file or directory, so i dotn know what to do,

i would much appreciate for any kind of advice! ty everyone

Francesco

in reply to Adam

take the patch e place it into your user folder, go to the spotlight and search macintosh hd, then go to users -> your folder. Try again :)
Panos Spiliotis's gravatar

Panos Spiliotis

Hello, I recently bought a DELL 2713HM to use on my MacBookPro 2011 (Yosemite 10.10.1) connected through a Mini Display to Display cable. The problem is that the colours are off, washed out. The best color profile I have found is ‘Apple RGB’, although it’s still not right.

I downloaded and run the ruby script and placed the files in the /System/Library/Displays/Overrides, and rebooted by these new profiles that appeared (Dell U2713HM EDID override) are just as bad as the original.

Is there a way to fix this? Has anyone got the same problem?

Ethan

I have a new iMac 27-in Retina 5K and am extending my monitor onto a Dell U2711. It looks like crap. Will this solution work here?

Chris

I’ve tried running this script, but no folder is created. When running it in verbose mode, I get these errors.

Exception LoadError' at /Users/MyUser/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p598/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.0.0/rubygems.rb:1216 - cannot load such file -- rubygems/defaults/operating_system Exception LoadError’ at /Users/MyUser/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p598/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.0.0/rubygems.rb:1225 - cannot load such file – rubygems/defaults/ruby

I’ve got both of those gems installed though, so I’m not sure why I get that.

Phil

Worked like a charm! :-) Thanks. This was driving me crazy!
kiliklinux's gravatar

kiliklinux

it’s a miracle …. Thanks ….
tapp's gravatar

tapp

It didn’t work for me on a late 2012 iMac 27" with a Pavilion 23xi. OS X version is 10.10.1. It creates me a 1920x1080@60Hz mode, but I still get the same results. In case it’s a different issue, what I find is that the desktop size for the secondary monitor seems to be the same as for the 27" display, so I only see part of the desktop (I have to underscan the secondary screen to be able to see the menubar and the dock).

I’ve ordered a thunderbolt to DVI converter, and I hope it fixes the issue, otherwise, I’ll return the monitor.

Paddy Bauer

I am in Yosemite 10.10.01 and the folder Displays/Override simply does not exist.
tapp's gravatar

tapp

in reply to Paddy Bauer

The full path for the folder is /System/Library/Displays/Overrides. It exists, at least on my system. Thanks.

Paddy Bauer

I found it. It does not work. In my case though the colours are good. I calibrated them even. But the fonts are just not sharp. They are blurry. Damn it, this drives me crazy.

Nick Y

in reply to Paddy Bauer

Any luck since you posted this, Paddy Bauer? I’m in the same boat.
Sridhar Katakam's gravatar

Sridhar Katakam

Mid-2014 15" rMBP hooked to Dell U2415 using the mini-displayport to displayport cable that came with the monitor.

Used Andrew’s modified script. Restarted laptop and the monitor.

No dice. Text is still blurry.

It does show in the window’s title bar that RGB mode is being forced though: http://cl.ly/image/1k0t101K232V

Display setting screenshot: http://cl.ly/image/3M3o0b2u0m2s

Connection Type did change from TV to DisplayPort: http://cl.ly/image/0i403k3g442w

Larry

Thanks a million to you and the originators of that patch. Worked great with my new iMac running Yosemite and external Acer K272HUL

john doe

Script doesn’t seem to be working for me on Asus MX279H with OS X 10.10.1

Nick Y

Anyone have success with this under Yosemite, where there is no /System/Libraries/Displays/Overrides folder?

Trevor

in reply to Nick Y

There is. You need to make sure you’re looking at your hard drive globally, not just “all my files”

Ben

I am trying to get this to work on my Benq 27 Monitors and just not getting there. The file I create and copy to the folder is not editable with my txt reader and therefore I suspect I need to change a part of the source file as per Tom’s message, however when I change ANYTHING in this line: monitor_name=[disp[“edid_hex”].match(/000000fc00(.?)0a/){|m|m[1]}.to_s].pack(“H”) I simply get error messages when running the script. I tried running the ORIGINAL script, however display was even worse…I am not sure WHICH bit of that line to change to get it working. Any help would be really really appreciated!!

Juan

Thank you very much!

It worked for me.

Macbook Pro 15’ Late 2013 running Yosemite 10.10.1 Acer B276HUL

Trevor

in reply to Juan

Same setup here…isn’t it crazy the difference it makes?

dave

in reply to Juan

Similar setup here too, and worked perfectly to smooth over the jagged fonts.

Late 2013 mbp, OS X 10.10.1, Acer K272HUL 2560x1440 27"

total3dxSergey's gravatar

total3dxSergey

Thank you! That helped. I had a problem with s2415h dell. gray and blue gradients were’t smooth, now it look perfect!

Charles

I can’t get this to work at all? I’ve downloaded the file but where do I put it next? After that where is the /System/Library/Displays/Overrides area, I can’t find it? How am I meant to close my Mac lid and do something on it at the same time? All very confusing…
Peter Swartwout's gravatar

Peter Swartwout

Worked like a champ. I have a 2014 MBP Retina with an external Acer K272HUL. Thank you so much!

Haldor422

I was on the line to AOC for their AOC Q2963PM 29-inch IPS (21:9) with the same jagged text problem… He explained that the problem would go away with a DVI to DVI cable… I’m currently waiting on Amazon to find out if he is right… I’ll let you all know soon…

Trevor

Unbelievable. I can’t believe this worked. 2013 rMBP with DP connected Acer B276JUL at 2560 x 1440 running Yosemite.

Again, I can’t thank you all enough. This has made such a difference.

Yaron Guez's gravatar

Yaron Guez

WOW!!! Game changer, sir. I was THIS close to returning my brand new monitor before reading a comment in Amazon that mentioned this trick. Why is this a thing?? THANK YOU!!!!! Got PayPal? Let me buy you a drink! :-)

JK

Just did this with Acer K272HUL and it worked. Thanks!!

Jim A.

No joy with 2014 13" rMBP and Asus 248H-P monitors connected via TB to HDMI adapter and HDMI direct connection. (no Displayport on this monitor). It forced the RGB mode but text is still blurry. Anyone else have success with this monitor?

Daniel Gordon

in reply to Jim A.

I still have this issue, even after running the script. Is it possible this could be because I am not using certified Apple ‘dongle’ - I am using a cord (no adapter) that goes from displayport to DVI (and another one for displayport to VGA). Both the cords are from Amazon.

Ken

I’m having a bit of trouble. I’ve followed all the steps and the resolution is great now, however the screen is too large and I cannot see the dock at the bottom; it is cut off. How can I fix this issue?

Joshua C.

Someone made a video on youtube using the (almost) same instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdd9MZIZBKs

Hope this helps.

bigbaum's gravatar

bigbaum

Weird, doesn’t work for me using a late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro connected via DisplayPort to a Dell Ultrasharp U2412m. Similar to Sridhar Katakam above, connection type is listed as DisplayPort and the display title bar says RGB forced. Anyone have an idea what else I could try?

neond

Thanks, this is an awesome feature! works on Yosemite with Mac Mini.

The only problem with it is that for me is that I cant choose the refresh rate 24hz (hertz) in the Mac Display Menu any longer, I could do that before the “fix”. The only choices are 60hz, 60hz (probably i, interlaced) and 50hz, and that means that it will not do 24p any more and therefore it will not automatically change refresh rate in media apps like XBMC,Kodi and Plex HT. Any help..? if someone could fix it with a 24hz option it would be awesome. I had choices of 60, 50, 30, 25 and 24hz before and now I only have 60, 60 and 50hz.

neond

I figured it out, you just recreate the missing resolutions with SwitchResX.

ph0togeek

Hello everyone, i purchased dell u2415 monitor that i connected to my rMBP 2014 but the fonts are really bad. Is any change to the script needed in order to work properly? thank you!
Chantel Hormuth's gravatar

Chantel Hormuth

I am a novice and I can’t thank you enough for this fix. It took me a while to figure everything out, but I did it and now my ACER K272HUL is working great with my Mac Mini. Yahoo!!!!
RC4 Wireless's gravatar

RC4 Wireless

This helped a lot with an HP Pavilion 27xi 1920 x 1080 LED monitor connected to a MacBookPro 13". It went from horrible to bearable. I think the rest of the problem is related to the pixels being quite spread out on this monitor, which is fairly low-res for 27 inch.

Thank you!

Philipp

Here is a little comparasion between Windows 8 and OS X Yosemite on DELL U2412M. This is AFTER forcing the RGB mode. As you can tell, fonts are still blurry, compared to windows.

http://cl.ly/image/0Y1H3r0v021C/Font-Rendering-Comparasion.png

Srikanth Sivaramakrishnan's gravatar

Srikanth Sivaramakrishnan

in reply to Philipp

Facing the same issue on my ASUS VN248H :( forcing the RGB mode doesn’t seem to help much Works so perfectly on windows (even the ones before 2008)

Chris

new to mac and have maybe a dumb question. In the overrides folder I have a bunch of other folders titled “DisplayVendorID -xxxx”. Are they supposed to be there? This process is not working for me at all.

Thanks!

Stefan

in reply to Chris

@Chris: it is normal that you see all kinds of “DisplayVendorID -xxxx”. Copying the new folder into the folder System/Library/Displays/Overrides/ and restarting the MacBook should do it.

@Leon: 1. Download the file ‘patch-edid.rb’ and put it into your home directory.

          2. Run the patch by opening Terminal and typing in Terminal the following:

              ruby patch-edid.rb

              After doing that you'll see a new folder in your home directory.

          3. Go to System/Library/Displays/Overrides/ and make a back-up
              of the folder 'DisplayVendorID-4dd9' if it exists, i.e. back-up the folder you are going to overwrite.

          4. Copy the new folder from your home directory to System/Library/Displays/Overrides/.
          
          5. Restart your laptop.

Hope you will have more succes now.

Philipp

I was about to send my new Acer K272HUL back because the main reason I bought it was the 1440 lines in resolution and then I founf this post and it worked: Thanks a lot to all the people involved finding the cause and writing the fixes! I ended up using Andews ruby script mentioned in his comment above: https://www.mathewinkson.com/2013/03/force-rgb-mode-in-mac-os-x-to-fix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor/#comment-9463

My configuration: Yosemite 10.10.2 on a MacBook Air Mid-2012 with Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024MB connected with a Mini Display Port to DP cable. I bought both of these, both work finally. I only bought the more expensive one because originally I thought the cable might be the reason for my limit in resolution:

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0094WTC2C?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B002XVYZ82?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

Original problem: From the Display settings I could select 2048x1152 and it would display the content on my big screen with black borders at 2560x1440 (told by the monitor menu –> info). Switching to 2560x1440 in the mac settings would result in a totally broken image: Mainly black, some heavily distorted parts of the screen on the left third of the monitor.

Followed the instructions exactly as described and it works like a charm: 2560x1440 @ 60Hz now!

Leon

in reply to Philipp

Hi Philip, glad this worked out so well for you! I am trying to improve my own brand new setup with my Mac Mini and HDTV. Not sure if I did it correctly, so please confirm if the below seems correct:

I copied Andrew’s file and containing folder to the required folder, so that it shows in Finder as follows: System/Library/Displays/Overrides/gist7435890-66c54c17b179809b028b58a2ca7af0b9540d05b6/patch-edid.rb

Then I restarted my computer (Late 2014 Mac Mini, running Yosemite including all updates). I did not really see any changes, as the fonts still appear blurry on the screen (32" LG smart TV, connected with HDMI to HDMI; the TV has no DVI or VGA connections).

In the Display Preferences on my Mac, the resolution is set to “Default for display”, which is 1080p, and in the color tab I see the following profiles: HD 709-A LG TV Calibrated [this one I created before; it shows the richest colors] SD 170M-A Adobe RGB (1998) Generic RGB Profile sRGB IEC1966-2.1

Did I take the right steps? I have no idea what a script is supposed to do; was I also supposed to double-click on the script file, beside just copying it to the required folder?

And am I looking in the right place, under Display Preferences? As I never saw anything about YcBcR or something in any of the System Preferences, I don’t know if I am trying to apply the right fix here in the first place. Sorry to ask such basic questions. I did read through many of the comments posted here, but I might have missed any clarifications for dummies.

Thanks much, Leon

Martin Ségur-Cabanac (@martinsegur)'s gravatar

Martin Ségur-Cabanac (@martinsegur)

Thank’s so much, worked perfectly with my LG 29EA93-P.

clem

Thanks so much! This worked like a charm on my mid 2011 11" MacBook Air and brand new HP 25xi monitor.

So glad I found this post and didn’t try to buy new expensive cables as suggested on forums for nothing!

More details if it can help anyone: resolution 1920*1080@60Hz, plugged from Mini Display Port to HDMI with a $7 Mini Display Port to HDMI adapter + HDMI cable.

Leon

Hi all,

So, I am wondering if the blurry fonts on my LG 32" HDTV, connected by HDMI-HDMI to my Mac Mini (late 2014), are caused by the same problem you are all dealing with here…

Please could anyone review whether I correctly followed the instructions of Matthew’s post and Andrew’s comment? I am an absolute dummy in this department, so I probably skipped some step that to others seems too obvious to mention. This is what I did:

I copied Andrew’s file and containing folder (see his post above) to the required folder, so that it shows in Finder as follows: System/Library/Displays/Overrides/gist7435890-66c54c17b179809b028b58a2ca7af0b9540d05b6/patch-edid.rb

Then I restarted my computer (Late 2014 Mac Mini, running Yosemite including all updates). I did not really see any changes, as the fonts still appear blurry on the screen (32″ LG smart TV, connected with HDMI to HDMI; the TV has no DVI or VGA connections).

In the Display Preferences on my Mac, the resolution is set to “Default for display”, which is 1080p, and in the color tab I see the following profiles:

HD 709-A LG TV Calibrated [this one I created before; it shows the richest colors] SD 170M-A Adobe RGB (1998) Generic RGB Profile sRGB IEC1966-2.1

Did I take the right steps? I have no idea what a script is supposed to do; was I also supposed to double-click on the script file, beside just copying it to the required folder?

And am I looking in the right place, under Display Preferences? As I never saw anything about YcBcR or something in any of the System Preferences, I don’t know if I am trying to apply the right fix here in the first place.

Thanks much for any suggestions! Leon

Stefan

in reply to Leon

Hi Leon,

See my reaction on Chris above, I put my reaction there by accident. Hope this helps you.

Stefan

I was glad to see that this trick worked, but I see that the colors on my Macbook Air are now wrong. After overriding the folder with the old back-up folder and restarting, nothing has changed.

Does anyone know how to solve this?

Stefan

in reply to Stefan

It’s already fixed yet, just by adapting the color settings in system preferences.
lostnthesound's gravatar

lostnthesound

Hi Guys,

I used this fix before when connecting my K272HUL to my MBP Retina and it worked perfectly. Now I have the monitor connected to my iMac Retina. Has anyone used the fix with success? I wasn’t sure if it would work since I can’t have only the external monitor working to “force” the override. Cheers.

lostnthesound's gravatar

lostnthesound

Turns out it works just fine. :-) I’m surrounded by glorious hi-res. Cheers.

Leon

Hi all,

Could anyone tell me whether the blurry fonts on my LG TV might be due to the colors problem you all are discussing here? I am not sure about this myself, since the following profiles are all listed in my Mac Mini’s (late 2014) display preferences when connected with HDMI to my HDTV:

HD 709-A LG TV Calibrated [this one I created; it shows the richest colors] SD 170M-A Adobe RGB (1998) Generic RGB Profile sRGB IEC1966-2.1

My question: can anyone tell me what is missing from these profiles that should be there for the fonts on my display to appear sharper? And so, should I go through the procedure described here to fix this supposed colors problem?

Thanks! Leon

Ela

how to get rid of this “problem” on my external monitor samsung t260hd while working on macbook retina 13" (hdmi -> hdmi) /var/folders/yt/f3jrdqxx3sdbfkcffvzyq2kc0000gn/T/com.apple.iChat/Messages/Transfers/IMG_0001.JPG
iambrianscottreed's gravatar

iambrianscottreed

AWESOME thanks!
AlamoPS's gravatar

AlamoPS

There is a way to revert this modify?

Because I bought another Monitor and now RGB is crashing my display.

Jose

I have macbook pro 2010 with Mavericks, Monitor Dell U2414H and worked perfect!!. Thanks a lot!
neond's gravatar

neond

Hi is there any way to send Limited RGB..? On my Mac Mini 2012, Intel4000 it sends extended/full RGB and it messes up my TV..
neond's gravatar

neond

What I mean is that it sends Full RGB after this “fix”.(patch-edid)

Matthew

This helped a ton!! THanks!!!

pete

i would like to add that you CANNOT EXPECT ACCURATE COLORS FROM AN HDMI Connection. The first step would have been using the mini -DVI (aka T-Bolt aka mini Display) to Display (or DVI) as it allows for the full RGB spectrum (0-255) (HDMI will default to 16-235 = no absolute whites or blacks)

Aaron

I am on a Macbook Pro Retina 15" late 2012 running Yosemite using a an HP 2509m monitor. The Mac knows which monitor I am using, however it was still blurry. I used this script and it totally works. So awesome. I had my doubts. Thank you!

David

I sense that I’m still in a different stadium, but this is the closest thread I have yet found in my dilemma. I’m using a pair of late ‘12 Mac Minis with simultaneously both HDMI as well as Thunderbolt to VGA video paths. The HDMI works fine, but after upgrading from 10.8.6 to Yosemite, everything has gone haywire with my 1080P monitor that is down stream from the Thunderport/Displays port. That port is converted to VGA which then must pass through a Starview 4port VGA/USB hub. The hub used to be “supported” but now is the weak link. The monitor is some industrial (VER G32LW170STD702LGF3) nameless brand. I would switch out the hub or try DVI if my Mini wasn’t sharing a monitor with a Windows 7 embedded computer that works best with that specific hub and connectivity. What happens is that the Mini cannot express a full screen usage of the monitor (it trims vertically on both sides). I could accept this anomaly if 1 out of 3 startups the Finder and Pointer didn’t go nuts. The system bogs down and cannot function properly even with nothing else running. Apple has replaced the logic board twice as wells as both HD’s to no avail. Currently I’m going to try downgrading to Mavericks to see if the support for my hub still existed there. Otherwise it’s going to be an admittedly very steep learning curve for me to learn more about EDID forcing and exactly what Apple’s “Genius” engineers are up to in dropping support for such peripherals as my Starview hub. Starview has no updates. And Apple simply suggests different monitors and/or hubs. I want them to put the older supports back in!

Nick Mowinski

I had the same problem with Yosemite and a Bravia TV.

Previously I had managed to get SwitchresX to force the correct res, right up to Mavericks, however Yosemite does something that negates even this, the best I could get was pillar boxing like yourself, so I gave up in the end and rolled back to Mavericks after fighting with it for two nights, very frustrating.

Matt

How can you see what color space OS X is outputting? It says Television:Yes. But in pixeldepth: 32-bits color (ARGB8888). And on the monitor menu: input color formst: RGB.

Does this mean my Dell monitor doesn’t have this problem?

Abdusalam

Hi Mathew,

I follow the steps but after restarting the my Mac mini there s no changes happen !! My device is Mac mini with Yosemite 10.10.2 connected to ViewSonic VX922.

Please is there any think that can I do ?

Gunnar

Thanks you so much!!! Fantastic! MBA mid 2013, Acer K272HUL, 10.10.2
lin lcat's gravatar

lin lcat

hey man

Insecure world writable dir /usr/local in PATH, mode 040777 patch-edid.rb:9: undefined method `[]’ for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)

how can i fix this error??

Alexey Buharov's gravatar

Alexey Buharov

Thank you very much !!!

Sebastian

Just when I was giving up with my monitor (AOC 2560x1080) I found this post. I have no word to tell you how grateful I am. I am in the nice-text-and-beautiful-colors world again!
mikequery's gravatar

mikequery

Hey there, new Mac user here. I can’t seem to find the /System/Library/Displays/Overrides folder. Anyone know where it is? I was able to unhide the Librarys folder, but there’s no folder called Displays in there.

EvPowers

in reply to mikequery

/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides This is on Macs running 10.11, El Capitan

Kent

I cannot find the /System/Library/Displays/Overrides folder either..I’m using OSX Yosemite.
mikequery's gravatar

mikequery

Oh cool someone from the apple forums helped me, this worked:

Choose Go to Folder from the Finder’s Go menu and paste /System/Library/Displays/Overrides into the dialog box.

The trick seems to have worked, though I can’t tell if the quality is still a little off, or if it’s just hard swapping between retina and non-retina? I’ve got a headache and I can’t tell if it’s because of this…

jeremy

Hi,

I tried what you wrote but it didn’t work for me… I’m using a Macbook Pro from 2012 with Yosemite. When i connect with HDMI my laptop with my screen (HP 2311x), my Macbook see the screen (it recognizes it) but the inverse is not true…

Thanks a lot for your help, i’m a little deperate ^^"

dave

Hi, thought i’d post this as it may help some: I’ve been using an ASUS Pro Art PA279Q monitor for 12 months with my MBP 15" mid 2012 running more recently 10.9.3 yosemite connected via daisy chained thunderbolt drives (imac->promise pegasus R4->WD mybook thunderbolt duo->display) with display at end. crisp fonts and colours great, never needed tweaking. MBP logic board died so bought a refurbished imac 27" 2013 and setup from MBP time machine backup. when PA279Q was plugged directly into imac thunderbolt port (using mini display port-VGA adapter same as before) it gave me shitty resolution (1280x800 or less) with fuzzy fonts. rerouting the display through the HDD daisy chain restored previous display settings for external monitor giving me 1920x1080 and crisp fonts as well as a PA-248 colour profile to work with. I’ve no idea why but perhaps this may be useful to others experiencing similar issues. i was about to try the force RGB suggestions of the past 2 years of threads but this solved my issue.
Ivan's gravatar

Ivan

Hi Mathew,

I came today with my new laptop home and was loosing my mind over this problem. Now works like a charm with Andrew’s script. I’m so very grateful to both of you.

Alexey

Thank you, it helped on my Dell!

Igor

Thanks! Working fine with OS X 10.10.3 and Acer B296CL !

Alexis V

Thanks! Worked like a charm on rMBP 13" Early 2015 (running Yosemite 10.10.3) connected to HP 2310m via HDMI cable.
Felipe Andreoli's gravatar

Felipe Andreoli

Works like a charm! Awesome job!

Rob

Worked beautifuly for me. I have a Dell U2715H via display port to mini display port cable to a 2010 aluminum Mac Pro. On OS X 10.8.5. before the script everything looked great except for text which was a little fuzzy and gave me headaches. Also i realized on system profilethat the monitor was detected as Television. Wfter the script the text looks great, i have no headaches and the monitor isn’t recognized as a Television on the system profile. Thank you!! Btw. if on system profile it says Television:yes i think you have to run the script.

AM

Thank you so much for this post !!!
vizyweb's gravatar

vizyweb

The short story: I now have my MacBook Pro running my new Acer K272HUL 27" running at 2560x1440 pixels and it is sweet!

The longer story: I have a Macbook Pro (Mid 2012 model) manufactured in 2015 (got it in an emergency for $800 its only a few months old and they are around $1,300 Australian Dollars and I bought an Acer K272HUL 27" display to get me by until I get my new iMac Retina 27" (I get it early June 2015 really can’t wait) as my iMac 27" Mid 2009 27" decided it would die a week or so before I was going to update anyway and I wanted to use the Macbook Pro with the Acer at full resolution 2560x1440 in the meantime, well tried everything all the hints tips suggestions I called a local Apple dealer and called Apple support who put me on to this site.

The solution was as follows:

First be fore you try anything you need one of these its called a Mini-DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort Cable http://shopap.lenovo.com/au/en/itemdetails/0B47091/460/67FB3393C9474D4EBB539D3DC944B8CE

I tried a Mini-DisplayPort-to-DVI and a Mini-DisplayPort-to-HDMI They both only gave me 1920x1080 resolution which is not right.

You will only get this wroking correctly if you get the Mini-DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort Cable

You have to use the Mini-DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort Cable they should only cost you around $10-$20 Australian dollars mine is 2mtrs and cost me $9.00 Australian dollars

How to force RGB in Mac OS X

  1. Download the patch-edid.rb script here: http://www.vizyweb.com.au/git-files/gist-patch-edid.rb.tar-3.gz and extract it in to your home directory, If you don’t know where your home folder is use these instructions: In your home folder, there are folders for your desktop files, downloads, pictures, documents, movies, music, and for any public files. To open your Home folder, click the desktop to make sure you’re in the Finder, then choose Go > Home.

2.Connect only the external monitor(s) in question (I closed my MacBook lid, for example). The script will make override files for any connected monitor.

  1. Type “ruby patch-edid.rb” in Terminal.

  2. A new folder will be created in your home directory. Move it into the “/System/Library/Displays/Overrides” folder. If finder tells you that you are overwriting an existing folder, consider backing it up first. Restart your computer, enjoy your monitor.

To undo the changes, either delete the folder you had copied to the Overrides folder (if it didn’t already exist) or replace it with the folder you had backed up.

Hope this helps some people as I wasted more than 7 hours on this issue before I resolved it.

You have to use the Mini-DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort Cable they should only cost you around $10-$20 Australian dollars mine is 2mtrs and cost me $9.00 Australian dollars

soppadoppa

All I had to do with my external 1920x1080 Samsung and retina MBP 13" was.. go through the display’s menus and find “screen fit” option from there. Blur gone.

Scott

This method fixed the Acer 27" B276HUL

D

in reply to Scott

Scott what version of OSX are you running? I’m trying on 10.10.3 with no avail. Very frustrating.

Colin

Thank you so much! This worked perfectly! Incredibly frustrating that apple hasn’t addressed this directly.

Stefano

Hi guys,

I’m having the same blurry text rendering issue on my new NEC EA274WMi. Connected to windows machine it’s perfectly sharp. Connected to a macbook pro retina late 2012 OS X Yosemite all texts are blurry.

I used the patch mentioned in this post but it doesn’t work. Once installed it forces me to use a lower resolution than the native 2560 x 1440, making everything more blurry.

Already tried with hdmi/DVI/displayport cables, disabling the lcd font smoothing and reducing the transparency in System Preferences.

Who can give me some suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Ste

HotJoint's gravatar

HotJoint

Can anyone know how to delete the new preset this created? I deleted the folder but the option is still on the os x screen menu
Roberto Peribáñez Iglesias's gravatar

Roberto Peribáñez Iglesias

Thank you very much!, HP LP2375w fixed.

Erik

Hi Guys, Im on a Mac Book Pro running Mavericks 10.9.5. Im on a AOC monitor, through Mini Display Port. Ive just run the script and placed it into my display /file/ overide. After restarting, and looking in system pref /displays,/scaled, its showing display with forced RGB mode. Is this what people show? Is this correct? My font is still not crisp and has some blurriness so I’m thinking I might have done something wrong? Im also on 1920x 1080.

Daniel

in reply to Erik

I have the same problem as Erik. It seems to work, I can see my monitor´s name and it has only regular letters and numbers. I just need and use 1920x1080, but it´s still blurry.

nos1609

Method not working anymore on OS X 10.11 El Capitan. There’s no /S/L/Displays/Overrides/ folder anymore and nothing happens if even we place one. Any Ideas how to solve it?
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to nos1609

I don’t run OS X anymore so I can’t test myself, but according to this post the folder has moved: http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/os-x-el-capitan-working-not-working-apps.1890772/page-4#post-21435739

Would you let me know if “/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides” works, and if so I’ll update the post.

Otherwise, I don’t know. I’m hearing that the new ‘rootless’ feature of El Capitan is causing people issues in other ways, maybe it’s just a beta problem.

Wyatt H

What if I want to stop using the RGB override? Can I just delete the folder?

Martin Crossley

Sweet. Totally fixed me on Mac Mini to HP2309m HDMI to HDMI. Thank goodness there are still SOME people out there who know what they are doing.
Christian Handl's gravatar

Christian Handl

When I use my Nikon 9000 scanner I need one thunderbolt port on my mac book pro for it, the second is used for the display, a Hp 27x. But then I cannot use my main harddsik, a thunderbolt WD my passport pro. Tried first Hdmi for my Hp, but type was pixelated which gave me a headache, then a docking solution with the same result. Tried Hdmi to display port cable I had lying around, did not work either. Now tried this patch and yes the display is as good as it was attached to the display port! Thanks a lot and shame on Apple! As a late switcher from win to mac I was so far very satisfied with the switch (lesser problems with hardware and software) but this issue got on my nerves. There is really the danger that Apple is relying more on more on golden watches for rich people than on rock solid products for professionals.

Paul M.

Thank you so very much for this! I have a Macbook Air 11 2015 and bought one of those Display to HDMI adapters. When I connected my Macbook Air to my Dell Ultrasharp monitor the text was so fuzzy I could barely read anything. After Googling around I found your site. I followed the steps and everything worked perfectly. For those still needing help: I had to go into Preferences on Finder to turn on the ability to access the Home folder (your Username).
Ted Power's gravatar

Ted Power

i’m experiencing this issue on el capitan (it worked fine for me before i got on the el capitan beta). I don’t really want to mess with these scripts so im going to live with it and hope a subsequent beta release fixes this issue

gabriel

It workerd here on El Capitan, after disable the root! Thanks a lot!
Paul Lipatov's gravatar

Paul Lipatov

after upgrade 10.10.3 - 10.11 beta3 i have no 2560x1080 anymore on external monitor on my hackintosh. After ruby patch-edid.rb - i even have less options then before ( no 1080p 1080i) Looks like Aplleintelframebuffer azul patches (10.10-Azul-Port_0x6-DP2HDMI and 10.10-Azul-Port_0x7-DP2HDMI) do not work on 10.11 (
Paul Lipatov's gravatar

Paul Lipatov

added 10.10-Azul-Port_0x5-DP2HDMI - now works 2560x1080

MJ

My setup: Late 2015 Retina Macbook Pro. Dell P2715Q 4K. Dell U2414H. … The 27" 4K is beautiful! The Retina Screen is beautiful! The 24" blurry …. but I use that screen for VMWARE WIN8 and its crystal clear! So I ran across this site…. I ran the fix, the 24" seems a tad better but something is still off. Using this 24 on my windows PC it shines but on the Mac it looks blah. Kind of disappointing but very happy to have found this site and realize I’m not alone with this issue.

erichbean@gmail.com

Ok guys, following the instructions. I am not seeing a new folder being created. Here is my setup. Early 2015 MBP Retina. Mini Display out to VGA to HP 23w Monitor. Help?

Loby

Question: Have a DELL U2414H and an Apple Thunderbolt Monitor.

I want to run both monitors at the same time. If I run the script, will it effect the Thunderbolt Monitor as well or just change the settings on the DELL U2414H monitor?

I am using a mac mini 2012. I can use the extra Thunderbolt out on the monitor to daisy chain the monitors and the DELL looks ok, but would rather use the port instead for a thunderbolt hard drive. I would like to attach the DELL to the HDMI port of the mac mini and not have the OS X see it as a T.V. Anyone else try to do this? Will it work and not cause a problem with the thunderbolt monitor?

Those with a mac mini 2012 question: also, I can use the thunderbolt hard drive to daisy chain the DELL monitor and get the system to see it as a monitor and not a T.V. But due to the lesser graphics card in the mac mini 2012 it works but system is pushing it. If I hook up the DELL instead to the HDMI port, does it lessen the work on the graphics card since the system was designed to have a secondary monitor or T.V. on the HDMI port instead of daisy chaining the Thunderbolt port to carry two monitors?

Thanks and appreciate the help. I hope this method will make my second monitor look better!!!

sclyeah

Do twice exactly as your post and my Dell U2415 display shows “Display with forced RGB mode (EDID override)”, but the text on external monitor still blurry as before. So sad.

Adam

in reply to sclyeah

Same here. Maybe this is not for the new macbook pro retina. The original post is quite old (2013.) Anyone?

Roberto Verde

took 3 mins.. worked perfectly..

Alexander Kohr

Restarting may be un-nessicary. In Yosmites 10.10.5 with a 2ndary HDMI monitor, instead of restarting I disconnected the Monitor’s HDMI cable and reconnected it and the Font quality improved drastically, though it is still not a clear as my built in display. Note sure if this makes any difference but I already had a /System/Library/Displays/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-… with the same number so I only copied in the resultant DisplayProductID-#### and left the other pre-existing DisplayProductID-#### files in place.

eve

I just bought a new 3.0 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i& mini mac and an ultrasharp 27" dell U2713H monitor. I connected the computer to the monitor with a Mini-DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort Cable and get nothing but a “No DVI-D Cable. The display will go into Power Save Mode in 5 minutes” message. Can anyone help?!

Danny S

Brilliant, thank you! This just fixed the problem on my LG 34UM95 with a new Macbook. I’m hoping I can get it working with my Dell U2412M at work as well!

marcoam

Hi: I just bought this Screen ACER K272 HULA and i have the same issue. Connected DVI-DVI I have no issues but max. resolution is FHD, when i try to connect mDP - DP all i get is a No signal error… I have a Mac Pro mid 2010 with this wire

http://www.startech.com/Cables/Audio-Video/Display… DisplayPort-Adapter-Cable-Male-to-Male~MDP2DPMM6

I tried to force RGB but still with no luck and no signal income. I also tried to change DP setting but i have not any DP setting in my menu, so I cant do it.

Please help. What can i do?

Sia

I followed all the steps and I think everything worked correctly. The script ran, It said “found display ‘SyncMaster’: vendorid 19501, productid 639, EDID:” and then I placed the folder in the Overrides folder. I checked the generated file for weird characters but found none. However, I’m not able to see any significant improvements.

Computer : MBP Mid-2014, 15 retina. Os:Yosemite Monitor:Samsung 226bw

Any ideas?

C

NEC EA243 works like a charm - thank you!!!

C S

Fab fix - thank you!
Austin "TheFrosty" Passy's gravatar

Austin "TheFrosty" Passy

Thank you! Couldn’t figure out why the monitor was so blurry! Such a eye saver.

Irfan

Thank you for this amazing post. I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one facing these issues. I tried your solution, and it created a file and folder, which I’ve added to the Overrides folder, but my monitor still appears blurry. The monitor is set to its max resolution of 1080 (I realize this is not terribly high), but the fonts are still blurry. Could it just be the monitor itself?

Valued Customer

THANK YOU!! I’d tried everything else, and nothing had worked. You a straight pimp, son.

ale

i tried to write ruby patch-edid.rb in terminal but give me an error. I anyhow copied the two file in the override folder but nothing happen. what shall i do? i have a macbook air brand new.
Jao's gravatar

Jao

I found that upgrading to El Capitan had wiped out my override on my ASUS PA279. It had also changed the background picture to something I used a year ago and killed my calibration! Of course I couldn’t copy the override folder anymore. So I rebooted into recovery mode, opened a terminal in recovery and manually copied the folder into the new overrides folder (System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides) . In recovery mode, the internal hard disk gets mounted into /Volumes/Macintosh HD/ so make sure you take that into account. I would guess that you can also do this using a single user boot (hold command-S during a boot).

0x62ash

Worked perfectly until El Capitan. Now i got acid colors :( Switched back to apple monitor profile with ugly fonts ((((

Paul McGuire

in reply to 0x62ash

It still works in El Capitan. After installing El Capitan on my MacBook Air I was distraught to see fonts all fuzzy again. So I ran the script again and tried to copy the override folder but it wouldn’t let me copy it. Read the end part of the article he has a way to make it work in El Capitan. You have to disable rootless mode then copy the script again. I turned rootless mode back on and fonts are sharp again. :). Just boot into recovery and run that command in terminal to disable rootless. It works.
bigmcguire's gravatar

bigmcguire

in reply to 0x62ash

The exact steps I took (to simplify):

  1. Re run the script to generate the folder to copy to ovverrides.
  2. You’ll notice override in a new location: /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides and you can’t paste anything to it.
  3. Boot into recovery (pressing Command+R repeatedly as Mac reboots).
  4. Go to Utilities –> Terminal and type: csrutil disable. — Reboot.
  5. Now copy the new file created to /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides overriding the one already there.
  6. (See 7). Reboot. Text is sharp again!
  7. Boot into recovery (press Command+R repeatedly as Mac reboots).
  8. Go to Utilities –> Terminal and type: csrutil enable. — Reboot.

You now have Rootless and sharp text!

roccomyman

The csrutil disable command didn’t work for me! What do I do?
stocktraderninja's gravatar

stocktraderninja

I restarted normally after step 3 and I stil have grainy text. If I worked for a few minutes on my computer with rootless mode, the computer would reboot automatically telling me it has problems in it.
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blueeyedblondape

Hey, I’ve tried this, it did make “Television” disappear in System information, but reported pixel depth is “still” “CGSThirtyBitColor”, not the usual “32-bit Color”, any ideas?
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Tom NJ

I couldn’t hate Apple any more for doing this every time they do an OS upgrade.

I’ve been following all the instructions and for me I can’t generated the override folder while in El Capitan. So I’m going to restore to Yosemite and see if I can copy to folder to an external drive. Restore to El Capitan and try again.

Like tomeek I too have a Dell U2410 and shouldn’t have to suffer like this every time Apple does and update!

Ishan

This is a very helpful article. I always use this whenever my mac is updated. Thank you so much!!

Dembo

Worked perfectly on El Cap (I used the modified ruby script from Github that uses the actual display name). After rebooting, El Capitan even recognized the custom color profiles I generated in Yosemite.
stocktraderninja's gravatar

stocktraderninja

in reply to Dembo

Can you please point to the modifies ruby script URL from Github?

David

Thanks bigmcguire. Your steps saved my 2nd monitor and my eyes, after upgrading to El Capitan. I was furious over not being able to paste to the ‘Overrides’ folder and had even spent hours with Apple Support to fix it( they were useless by the way. All they suggested was to downgrade back to Mavericks!). Thank you again!
Justin Lee's gravatar

Justin Lee

will this affect ability to use a custom color profile created by a screen color calibration tool such as x-rite colormunki or Spyder?

Thank you

Dembo

in reply to Justin Lee

Nope - color calibration works as expected. Of course you have to calibrate after applying the patch/override.

Karl

Unfortunately it does not work for me:

patch-edid.rb:9:in scan': invalid byte sequence in UTF-8 (ArgumentError) from patch-edid.rb:9:in '

I got an 5K Retina iMac. Please help! The colors on my Philips TV make me crazy!!

Dembo

in reply to Karl

I am unsure whether the patch would work on an actual TV. After all it is meant to force OS X to recognize a monitor misidentified as a TV. If you do have color problems on your TV, calibration might be the way to go.

Karl

I came across this solution because I found this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5931799?tstart=0 This is excatly my problem.

Now I see, that the problem described here is different, because it is there right after you connect the display - not after 20 minutes.

But somehow it must be connected, because after 20 minutes, the colors switch…

Andrew B

Thank you very much for posting these instructions - these worked perfectly with MacOS X 10.11 and an Acer K272HUL monitor.

Jorge

it’s not working for me. when I type “ruby patch-edid.rb” patch-edid.rb:9:in scan': invalid byte sequence in UTF-8 (ArgumentError) from patch-edid.rb:9:in '
Andreas's gravatar

Andreas

Thank you, so if I’m doing the whole thing with El Capitan, then I get a picture as soon as I turn off my monitor. Does somebody has any idea?
Ken's gravatar

Ken

Thank you so much for the post, I followed the steps and it worked for my MacBook Pro Retina with El Capitan, with my monitor samsung S27D850T. However, after applied the RGB mode, it says now at 59Hz instead of original 60Hz. Can this be changed or forced to 60Hz?

Cheers.

Zipped

I had to do this in Mavericks and Yosemite and then in worked very well with the same Macbook Pro and Philips 272P monitor. Now I’ve followed the exact steps as described above in El Capitan (including the command+R reboot) and the problem stays: fonts, icons, pictures… it looks awful. Does anyone know why it isn’t working here? I’m considering going back to Yosemite :(

jay-d

Used this for Yosemite successfully. But it unfortunately had no effect with El Capitan, with a DELL U2410.
star840's gravatar

star840

Thank you so much for your sharing.
yyovkov's gravatar

yyovkov

Unfortunately my fonts are still blurry on EIZO EV2450 after the script is applied.
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bnsblue

Thank you so much for the great post. I am using El Capitan and this works perfectly for my when I close the lib of my rMBP and use the external monitor as the only display; however, when I use my external monitor as the extended desktop, the font on it becomes blurry again :( Is there a fix for this situation?
bnsblue's gravatar

bnsblue

in reply to bnsblue

Sorry, a lot of typos here: … works perfectly for “me” … … when I close the “lid” …
Michał Wiktorowski's gravatar

Michał Wiktorowski

Thank you, I confirm it works on Dell U2913WM. Just make sure you are running RGB in display menu in “Color Settings”.

Ash

I didn’t try this fix when running Yosmite but I did when running El Capitan and it doesn’t work.

I changed the name of the monitor as suggested and that enabled me to see the new profile in the display settings but choosing the new file did not have any effects on the screen so I’m still dealing with blurry fonts and wonky colors.

After looking around and googling, this problem seems to be isolated to Philips monitors. I can’t test the theory but..the fix supposedly worked on Philips when running Yosmite but once installing El Capitán it doesn’t work anymore.

It would be amazing if you could find a solution to the problem. :/

Justin Lee's gravatar

Justin Lee

I have OSX Yosemity 10.10.5

I can’t seem to move the ruby file (unzipped) to the Home directory. There is an error. Also, In the Recover mode the csrutil disable command doesn’t work at all for me either :(

terngz's gravatar

terngz

do i need to connect and external monitor all the time of process or just run the script with internal display (macbook air)

Sebastian

I had been using Yosemite with this override trick flawlessly… until El Capital came. Then things went awful again, and with “things” I mean colors, shapes, blurry fonts, etc. So I came back here to see if there was a new trick for this new OS or something, and voilà! I followed the same steps stated above, i.e.: 0.- Disconnect all displays but the one is giving you problems. In my case, I use mac mini with an AOC Q2963PM 29" 2560x1080 as primary display and a Samsung S23B370 1920x1080 as secondary display. Since the problem is with AOC, I unplugged the S23. 1.- Download the improved script https://gist.github.com/adaugherity/7435890 || Put it on home directory. (For newbies: where is home folder? Is the one it has a “house” icon, and it is named with the user name you created when the first OS was installed on your machine) 2.- Reboot to disable SIP. See http://www.macworld.com/article/2986118/security/how-to-modify-system-integrity-protection-in-el-capitan.html Go down to “Follow these steps to disable SIP” section. If you use a wireless keyboard, the “Command+R” combo does’t work. I had to plug an USB Keyboard just to make it work. 3.- Reboot again 4.- Run the improved script you downloaded in step 1. 5.- Copy the folder created by the script (in my case it was “DisplayVendorID-5e3”) into the “/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides” folder. 6.- Reboot 7.- Notice everything is back to normal again. Enjoy the view. 8.- Reboot again to enable SIP. Just in case.

That’s all. I really hope it works for you too.

Nick

This works amazingly on my Dynex HD tv!

Thank you for this!

yeahoffline's gravatar

yeahoffline

Thank you so much! I was already freaking out about that issue…

Peter

i finally bought a new display and it works now with el captain. i had the DELL 2410 before and nothing worked :-( new model is AOC 2577pwq

Kimball

I disable SIP in recovery mode. I verify status while still in recovery mode and is shows disabled. I reboot normally and check csrutil status, it shows SIP as enabled and denies access to systems folder to copy my new monitor profile. When I reboot in recovery mode and check status, it still shows SIP as disabled.

Agustín

Second time i have this issue when updating OS and second time i come to this page and get it fixed. Thank you so much!

chenli zhou

help me i doan all step but there is no different before i forcing to rgb

here is my final create file :

DisplayProductName BenQ EW2440L - forced RGB mode (EDID override) IODisplayEDID AP///////wAJ0Th5RVQAAAwZAQOANR54JjClpFVTnycNUFSla4DRwIHAgQCB gKnAswABAQEBAjqAGHE4LUBYLEUAEyohAAAeAAAA/wBUM0YwMTc1MlNMMAog AAAA/QAyTB5TEQAKICAgICAgAAAA/ABCZW5RIEVXMjQ0MEwKALQ=

DisplayVendorID 2513 DisplayProductID 31032

and put it in right /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides,and no old file to replaced btw

Matthis

Anyone else without a “diplays” folder in “library”? Using El Capitan and the patch won’t work for me.

Timo

in reply to Matthis

Same here. I cannot find a “displays” folder…

AlexAtr

in reply to Matthis

Don’t have one either!!! Creating a new directory as mentioned in description doesn’t help either.

AlexAtr

in reply to Matthis

FOR THOSE ONES WHO CANNOT SEE THE DISPLAY FOLDER!!!! Hi there. Just want to let you know that I got it work just literately following the steps as described above. The reason I could not see the “DISPLAY” folder was that I was looking at the wrong directory. Yes, there are few “LIBRARY” folders in Mac. The first one I looked at was under my username home directory. You can access there by going to GO tab in Finder and holding ALT(option) bottom that reveals LIBRARY folder. But it’s the wrong one. You need to go to your actual MACINTOSH HD drive. Than skip the library folder in there and go to System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides. If you have been likeminded (lets call it BLIND-STUPID) than you should solve the problem and get your monitor to work properly! THANK YOU!!!!

ludwig70

Did anyone successfully installed El Capitan with a Philips monitor as dual display? I ask this because I don’t dare to upgrade to El Capitan after someone told here that the script didn’t work with Philips monitors (I have the Philips 272C4QPJKAB successfully installed using this script on Lion and could do the migration to Yosimite without running the script). Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences with Philips duals screen on El Capitan!!

gea

It works! Again! For my screen (HP LP2475w) it was necessary to switch if off and on again as last step.
Mirko's gravatar

Mirko

in reply to gea

Thanks for this tip gea. I have the same monitor and forcing RGB mode with these instructions have always worked before without any monitor swiching offs and ons. Did not even come to my mind to do that.

Philipp

Hi, for anyone still having problems AFTER going through the whole process: I came across a fix by user jkgeyti on github that worked perfectly for me:

“I just realised what the problem was for me. I hope this will be useful for others.

Opening the produced config file in nano showed the device name has a bunch of “unsupported” characters Philips 272P4^@^@^@�^@^WL^Oc^^^@ - forced RGB mode (EDID override). I replaced it with Philips 272P4 - forced RGB mode (EDID override), saved, unplugged and reseated the hdmi cable, and success!

Maybe it was worth adding a line to the script that strips all non-alphanumeric characters from the display name?”

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Philipp

This is good advice, someone said similar earlier: https://www.mathewinkson.com/2013/03/force-rgb-mode-in-mac-os-x-to-fix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor/#comment-9491

Andrew would presumably accept a pull request if anyone wanted to make the required changes: https://gist.github.com/adaugherity/7435890

mk77

I have a Macbook Pro Unibody with Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB and I’m trying to have the correct resolution display on my LG 29um57-p Ultrawide 21:9 monitor. Unfortunately the fix isn’t working as it only shows Resolution Scaled options:

1920 x 1080 1600 x 900 1280 x 720

Any ideas how to add the maximum 2560 x 1080?

Nick Mowinski

in reply to mk77

Try holding down the option/alt key while clicking on scaled.

sam

hi, i did the thing ,everything went well.. but my text only got problem…. its text clarity is not as good as in boot camped windows 8.1 …

Please help me..

SeeSaw

Hi all,

I run the script and no folder is created (no error message). I’ve seen comments of a couple of people in the script link with the same problem and no reply. Any way you can help?

Ruens

Thanks guys! Awesome it works… still unbelievable that Apple is not able to get this sorted out! For all guys with a Philips monitor, the comment from Phillipp to remove the strange characters from string of the generated file of the script: Philips 272P4^@^@^@�^@^WL^Oc^^^@ – forced RGB mode (EDID override) was the last thing made it work.
Ross O. BrownRoss's gravatar

Ross O. BrownRoss

Wow thank you so much. I was getting ready to send this monitor back and now it looks amazing. I’ve never run a “script” before so I was really shooting in the dark. Thanks for laying it out flat.

Steve Mullen

BACK AT THE FIRST POST: “When I hooked it up to my Dell U2410 monitor via HDMI cable I was shocked by the poor picture quality. The contrast was all wrong and text was misshapen. No amount of calibration in the monitor or software would fix it. OS X thinks my monitor is a TV, and is using the YCbCr colour space rather than RGB. I had to override an EDID setting to force the RGB colour space, and it is now working correctly.”

  1. What determines why a monitor IDs themselves as a TVs while another monitor ID themselves as a RGB monitors?

  2. My 3840x2160 RGB monitor supports audio via HDMI. My laptop HDMI works to a TV, but no audio goes to my monitor. My first thought, does the fact it correctly sees it as an RGB monitor mean it assumes monitor does not have audio? The monitor does show-up under Sound Output as HDMI, but no audio goes to the monitor. Anyway to OSX that the monitor does accept audio?

  3. Same problem, but with the monitor connected by Thunderbolt/Displayport 1.2. I assue DP supports at least 2 channels of audio, but no audio flows to the monitor.

  4. Somehow OSX 10.9.5 thinks my 3840x2160 RGB monitor has a resolution of 6400x????. So the QT Player fits a 3840x2160 video into the center quarter of the screen. I can manually make it go Full Screen, but is there some way to tell OSX the correct resolution?

Peter's gravatar

Peter

There’s no need to disable SIP on “El Capitan”. Just download the script and run it. Then boot into recovery mode (Command+R) and start Terminal from the Utilities menu. Your root drive will be mounted under /Volumes/Macintosh HD in writeable mode without SIP. Just copy the file generated by the script to the right folder. In my case it was the following:

mkdir /Volumes/ Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-4c2d cp DisplayProductID-902 /Volumes/ Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-4c2d

and reboot.

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Peter

This is good info, I’ll add it as a footnote to the first post and if it it works for others I’ll change it.
Jose Ignacio Andrés's gravatar

Jose Ignacio Andrés

in reply to Peter

Thanks, but how can I access the generated directory from the recovery mode? I can’t see any of my files from the terminal…

Matt

in reply to Peter

Adjusting for the El Capitan update I navigated to /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides in terminal from recovery mode, however when attempting to copy the generated file I get a Read-Only file system error. So, it seems in El Capitan this work around does not… work.

branden

in reply to Peter

I also can’t see my regular drive when I fire up Terminal in Recovery Mode…

branden

in reply to Peter

Realized my drive wouldn’t mount by default because it’s a FileVault volume. First, look for the “Logical Volume” number, grabbing it from the last entry with the following command. It’s a long string of hex numbers with some hyphens. (Not “Logical Volume Family” or “Physical Volume”, but “Logical Volume”)

diskutil coreStorage list

Then, unlock it:

diskutil coreStorage unlock 

which should also mount it. (If it doesn’t, try diskutil mount ). Then, make sure you’re using the full paths, i.e., “/Volumes//System/…” and not “/System/…” (Matt, that’s why you were getting read-only errors: you were referring to the Recovery Volume paths.

vvojtek

in reply to Peter

Thanks for this post! I can confirm Peter version working on El Capitan.
Andy Pickler's gravatar

Andy Pickler

in reply to Peter

Peter’s solution worked for me on 2 separate Macs that I use.
Frederik's gravatar

Frederik

in reply to Peter

Working with LG 34UC97 under 10.11.3 (15D21), too.

Matthias

Hi,

I just wanted to let you know that Peter’s comment concerning SIP is correct. If you are in the recovery mode you can do the move or copy operation without any problem. No need to disable SIP and re-anable it later. A possible complication is FileVault. If FileVault is enabled you have to unlock the System disk. Instructions for that can be found in Rich Troutons blog entry https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/using-the-command-line-to-unlock-or-decrypt-your-filevault-2-encrypted-boot-drive/.

Thanks to everybody that contributed to solve the problem.

Matthias

frustrated

I’m frustrated with my mid 2014 MBP 15 integrated GPU version. I processed all steps but still not working with my U2414H. Fonts are blurry as before. I tried all types of HDMI and DP. Not working for both Yosemite and EL Capitan. ECID shows it is changed to force RGB mode. Wondering why…. Is the script not working for build-in GPU?
guthram's gravatar

guthram

Hi all. I have tried Petes recommendation however I am at a standstill. When I restart in recovery mode, I cannot access or see the Macintosh HD. I only see the recovery partition. Is there a command or something to change to be able to do so? I am new to MACs and have spent a great deal of time on this, and have searched til I am blue. Some help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. JC

Also, I am using a dual monitor setup. I see two different files created by the Ruby Script. Do I need to move both of them? And which override folder do I place them in? I am getting weary looking at the blurry text. Thanks again.

guthram's gravatar

guthram

I forgot to mention I am on the latest version of El Capitan.

MoB

Should this script work on a Mac mini also ?

Robin

You’re my hero, dude! Just got a new monitor and I was having the fuzzy text issue, as well as the occasional flicker to black and flashing pixels. There seemed to be a woeful lack of support from Apple for the external display issues when I searched around, but this solution fixed it right up for me. Thanks for sharing, and keeping it so up to date!

sad@sad.com

I went through all the replies. It seems the script is not working for mid 2014 or later RMBP? Many followed the exact steps but get no improvement

raj

Thanks for the post. This was useful and saved me some time. Works with my Dell U24 monitor. Peter’s simplified method that skips disabling SIP worked for me as well.
Elson Ponte's gravatar

Elson Ponte

Hello there. I have made severalattempts and the image quality is still nowhere near how it shows on windows via virtualbox.

Using: macmini end 2012 Screen: ASUS VX248 24''

Does anyone have any tips?

Serkan

in reply to Elson Ponte

It will never be as good. But you can improve a bit by changing the font smoothing level. See: http://mserdur.blogspot.com.tr/2015/12/macbook-pro-retina-15-el-capitan-with.html

Jana Wurdel

Hello! I am so frustrated. I did it once before El Captain… I got El Capitain now, and i am back to the pink/green philips screen every couple of minutes.

I tried it again, but it doesn’t work this time. Here is whats not working:

Type “ruby patch-edid.rb” in Terminal. - causes:

ruby: No such file or directory – patch-edid.rb (LoadError)

so i can’t find a new folder. :-(

Besides i am not sure about the script writing thing. how to do it with my macbook.

Please, anyone can help me?

Thank you, Jana

Jana Wurdel

in reply to Jana Wurdel

Still hoping for anyone to help me out. I tried anything… Please anyone help me. :-( already thinking about being an old macbook to use with the Philips.
Allan Martin (@allan_wl)'s gravatar

Allan Martin (@allan_wl)

Is there any way to tell beforehand if the display is being seen as a TV by my macbook pro? So I dont have to go through all of this and in the end find out my problem was something else?
Allan Martin (@allan_wl)'s gravatar

Allan Martin (@allan_wl)

Is there any way to tell if my macbook pro is seen the display as a TV beforehand, so I dont have to go through all of this and in the end find out the problem was something else?

Kevin

A million thanks, was about to order a way overpriced cable from the applestore but now i can finally code for real with my Dell U2913WM THANKS!

Serkan

I confirm this solution worked for my setup: late 2013 mbp retina with El Capitan + U2715H connected via hdmi. Now my monitor shows the input as RGB and there is a significant improvement in image quality. Although it is now ok quality I am not sure if it is still as good as connecting my windows pc though. Maybe I should play with font smoothing.

Btw, I did not try Peter’s method because I did not see it until I complete the fix :) Maybe you can put an information about that up in the instructions.

Thanks a lot!

Serkan

I can say that although it is much better with RGB now. Text is still not as good as neither on mb pro retina display nor on my monitor connected to windows pc.
Jered's gravatar

Jered

worked. thanks for the article. almost retuned the monitor.

Dmitry Smirnov

I have an imac and sony tv, and cant solve this problem

Anton

How did you know which displayvendor folder to replace with the “patched” one that you re-named?

Charley

Unbelievable how much this changes the clarity! Thank you so much, I would’ve never figured this out.

Monitor: HP 27xw Display

regards!

Bulent

in reply to Charley

Hi Charley. Did you used thunderbolt to vga or thunderbolt to HDMI

Thank you

ablondal

It wasn’t working for me so after some intense digging around I found out that you might need to disconnect and reconnect the monitor. Worked for me!

Camila

How do I put the patch-edid.rb script file in my home directory? Thanks

BC

Life saver. Thank you very much for the article. The fonts on my Acer K272HUL are actually readable now.

onos2001@yahoo.com

in reply to BC

Hello, I just purchased an Acer K272HL monitor and I trying to improve the picture quality. I am not an IT Guru therefore would appreciate a simplified version of resolving this problem. Thanks in advance.

Dan

I’m extremely grateful for your detailed email! I just upgraded to a newer MacBook Pro and was fighting grainy text and dull colors. This worked like a charm!
Lucida's gravatar

Lucida

Hello, Many thanks for your detailed instructions. I have copied the executed file into the Overrides folder, renaming the folder to be the same as one of the original ones as suggested in the comments. Despite restarting this does not appear to have improved the blurriness of the text. Is there anything else I can do?

nahouto

in reply to Lucida

same thing here
Richard Cullen's gravatar

Richard Cullen

And there was I thinking that Macs were supposed to be easy to use. Wrong again…

JTL

I have a BenQ XL2720Z monitor hooked up via displayport to my 2015 Macbook Pro with AMD graphics running El Capitan. When I patch the EDID I lose the 144hz refresh rate and get only 60hz.
nos1609's gravatar

nos1609

If anybody is planning using this patch in combination with pixel-clock patch one has to keep in mind, that prior using pixel-clock there is the need to remove any previous RGB patches. So every custom folder added to Overrides directory should be removed, then apply the pixel-clock patch, and finally the patch-ede one.

Otherwise, you’ll face a bootloop like this one https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/11856987/12868039/b7be90a4-cd0e-11e5-9ef6-9ee97c671bf4.jpg

PS Confirmed working on mac mini 2012 MD388 with two dell u2913wm over HDMI and USB with freed up thunderbolt port for any other use at their full res on El Capitan 10.11.4 Beta 2 (15E33e), so the code of improved script remains still up to date. Many thanks!

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to nos1609

Have added this to the updates, thanks.

SniCel

Hi, I dont have a folder Overrides, I have to create it? please help
Chad Garber's gravatar

Chad Garber

in reply to SniCel

I don’t even have a folder called “displays”?

Benedikt D.

The full resolution for my Dell U2711 is not showing up even after following this fix.
Павлухин Иван's gravatar

Павлухин Иван

Hi!

Thanks a lot for solution! It works great for my MBP 15’’ retina connected to DELL U2412M via apple Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter.

Kath

in reply to Павлухин Иван

what os version are you running? I’m on Yosemite, having same external monitor as yours and didn’t work :(

Peter

You’re awesome and I love you!

Jimmy

Dudes! I can now use my MBPr “13” with my Dell 2414H Ultrasharp (previously Ultra-fuzzy) for more than just web surfing. It’s crazy how much better everything looks with this fix. Thanks to all who put time and effort into explaining this.

John Garrick

Can anyone help me with instructions to “Put the script in your home directory.” Not sure what that means. I assume that is NOT the same as “Home folder”. Please assist. THANK YOU!

Dex

in reply to John Garrick

It’s exactly what you read, in finder find your home directory is your name on the left hand side. the icon is like a house. Hope it helps…

Luke

I have an early 2011 Macbook Pro 15" running Mavericks connected to a LG 23MP47HQ-P IPS monitor. It is connected through a thunderbolt to HDMI adapter and is being recognized as a TV. I’ve run the patch multiple times with no success. I’ve gone into the Display Vendor ID file and the LG monitor is being recognized and has the correct name in the code. I’ve also tried to edit the display name in the patch file (as per Michiel’s comment) before running the terminal command but this causes an error in the execution and doesn’t create a new folder.

Would anyone have any other ideas of what might solve my issue. Did I buy a monitor that this patch just will not work on?

Thanks!

Maximne's gravatar

Maximne

you are my hero!!! I have a macbook pro late 2013 and a ACER B296CL and now finally is working great on El Capitan! Thanks!!!

ME

Executed the procedure as explained but was not successful with my setup. Using a MBpro with HDMI-HDMI on a BENQ GL2450H. Override is working correctly but the font is still blurry. Looks like I have to switch to DVI as a lot of people saying this works better for them.

Anyway, thanks for your efforts working on this patch.

Cheers, Markus

Robert Geranio

I have a mac mini MAC OS X 10.7.5 using HDMI cable to DEL U2410. I tried running this script and copied to Overrides folder. It makes no difference, Dell monitor settings for colour settings colour input mode still shows heavy green hue if I set it to RGB and I’m forced to keep it a YPbPr.

Robert Geranio

apologies. I also later noticed that the string for the Dell U2410 had some weird characters. I modified the file using vi text editor and all good now. After rebooting, the input colour format on the dell colour settings is now RGB. finally!. However, i notice no improvement. the quality and colours are very very good as before. Did I have to do this?
agron's gravatar

agron

I have a Dell S2415H connected to a 13" Retina Macbook Pro (Early 2016) running El Capitan 10.11.4. I did the following steps to fix the blurry text which was driving me crazy:

  1. Put the macbook in Clamshell mode
  2. Run the ‘Force RGB’ patch
  3. Set Display Profile to ‘Color LCD’
  4. Reset the monitor’s settings to default.
  5. run this command on terminal ‘defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 3’ and reboot the macbook.
Vijay's gravatar

Vijay

in reply to agron

Thanks for the font smoothing trick. The font smoothing trick looked promising until I noticed that the apple menu, finder etc (apple related) were fine but other applications like firefox, intellij idea were all too bold. Is there a way to keep the apple related with font smotthing 3 and other applications to a lesser value like 2 or something?

At the rate my 1080p Lenovo displays, I think I am going to go blind in few days

Hola Balart

Y LOVE YOU!!!

Heiko

This didn’t work for me, when i run the script i get this message:

patch-edid.rb:9:in scan': invalid byte sequence in UTF-8 (ArgumentError) from patch-edid.rb:9:in '

How can i fix this?

Nichlas

Is these the right settings? http://abload.de/img/screenshot2016-04-23ac2sfy.png

Thank you very much :-)

Best regards Nichlas

Jason Taylor

Hi,

I applied the fix to my monitor (AOC) - It didn’t seem to work (all steps completed and understood). I tried the remove/reconnect suggestion, that didn’t help. However, I then went into the monitor settings and performed a reset - bingo!

Jason.

Jason Taylor

in reply to Jason Taylor

To be completely clear - the menu on the monitor itself - and performed a reset - not any setting on MAC OS X.

SFo

Tried it on my 4K Benq BE2420 and after the reboot I could get access to the “HDMI RGB PC Range” in the monitor OSD (it was greyed out before) and I could switch to full RGB. So much better! Thanks.
Chad Garber's gravatar

Chad Garber

I can’t find “displays” directory in my library directory?
Bryan Maniotakis (@bryanmanio)'s gravatar

Bryan Maniotakis (@bryanmanio)

in reply to Chad Garber

I’m having the same problem, anyone know the solution?
Dean Ward's gravatar

Dean Ward

Thank you so much for this. Just got my first mac and was really upset when the screen looked so terrible. Problem solved and easy too!

Yung Chun Pang

I have an ASUS VN247 monitor and above solution not works for me.

Yung Chun Pang

in reply to Yung Chun Pang

Seems better after reset the monitor. But still, Mac has many problem not solved, ui, shortcut, etc, I buy mac for developing ios, dunno why many people like apple stuff, I prefer linux or windows. :(

admin

in reply to Yung Chun Pang

I have an Asus VN279QLB and also having the exact same problem as described above.

Tried the patch and it appears to have worked, but no change in the display.

I’ve used HDMI with many other monitors fine, so very confused.

Alok Kuchlous's gravatar

Alok Kuchlous

I am trying to connect a rMBP running Yosemite to a Dell U2414H monitor. I have tried everything mentioned here, created the new profile etc. I can see the new profile being used in Displays setting but the fonts are still fuzzy. I have tried with HDMI-HDMI and mini DisplayPort-DisplayPort connections. That does not help either. Does anyone have any more ideas?

visvadw

Thank you very much! Indeed it worked and a monitor reset was needed in my case too.

Enie

This problem still exists under macOS Sierra. Also the patch still works.

Thanks for your patch!

Teryl

in reply to Enie

Yes it does, thankfully. I did have to turn root off to copy the folder to the correct directory, then turn it back on.

hugh

I had to use this along with ScreenResX to get things sorted, but my two LG 29UC97C-B displays are working beautifully now. Thank you very much!!

sportsnapper

in reply to hugh

Why did you have to use switchResX and what did you do? I’ve tried this fix on my iMAc Retina, and the Dell 2407 connected to it via thunderbolt and DVI is resolutely fuzzy

Scott

Adding my thanks for this post. I have a 29" AOC (standard res) monitor to which I’ve employed this fix over several system updates, and it has worked every time, including the most recent El Capitan version. I can confirm the poor display quality issue is not due to resolution settings, font smoothing, calibration, or drivers (AFAIK none is available in my case – not sure if any of AOC’s monitors is designed to work with Mac systems). I used the disable/enable SIPS process but skipped the second-to-last reboot.

bradmacpro

Single Link DVI and old school HDMI 1.0-1.2 connections are limited to 1920 x 1200, so you folks with higher resolution DVI connected monitors need a dual-link DVI connection. DisplayPort connections can be much higher, but be aware there are version 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2a, 1.3, 1.4.

taka sokos

in reply to bradmacpro

Very helpful post. I bought a mini-display adaptor for my MacPro 4.1 (nvidia GT 120) and the poor quality problems were solved (previously I was using single HDMI to DVI cable). Still I had to ‘overscan’. The EDID file fixed the rest issues.

Jennifer

Wow thank you, this has been incredibly helpful! I am using a 13" macbook air 2015 and had been getting black borders around my desktop image on two different LG widescreen monitors. Now, they are gone.

Thea

I also have a Dell U2410, and a late 2013 MacBook Pro running El Capitan. Both the script and the resulting file and folder appear readable, yet, I see no changes. Any ideas why it’s not working for me?

hugh

in reply to Thea

In System Report under Graphics/Displays, does it still say “Television: Yes” under the Display section? If yes, then your patch didn’t get applied correctly. If no, you may need SwitchResX as I did (see my other post).
Adam Schoales's gravatar

Adam Schoales

in reply to Thea

I’m having the same problem… It used to work just fine but since updating to the latest version of OS X (Still El Cap not Sierra beta) it doesn’t seem to be working anymore.

Raoni

Thanks Guys. NOTE: for me it only worked after I did the “sudo ruby ….”. Without the super user the script was giving an error in El Capitain.

coffee

Thank You! It’s very useful!
Adam Schoales's gravatar

Adam Schoales

So this used to work PERFECTLY for me, but now since updating to the latest version of OS X (10.11.6) it seems to not be working fully. System information doesn’t show it as being a TV anymore: http://schoal.es/1lh6R

But in the display preference pane it’s still only giving me TV resolution: http://schoal.es/101KN

I even recently bought a Mini Display Port to Mini Display Port cable to try and fix the problem.

This is so absurdly frustrating, and I don’t know who’s to blame - Apple or Dell - but I am ready to pull my hair out (and sell this monitor for one that works reliably).

Chase

This worked on a MacBook Air 13 ince Early 2014 that was having strange text issues on a Dell P2815Q. Thanks a bunch! Saved me some moolah

benjamin

I got a CX271 EIZO monitor, and when using it in windows bootcamp displays pures blacks and pure whites (Full dynamic range 0-255 enabled in nvidia driver) while in macosX blacks and white are faded. Is there a solution to fix that ? I tried to force recognition of my screen and nothing append (just a profile created in my display panel in macosx preferences). Blacks and white are always dead.
Thomas G. Peters's gravatar

Thomas G. Peters

Worked twice now… thanks
Francisco's gravatar

Francisco

I have a DELL S2415H and this didn’t solve the problem. Any idea why?
Paul Elliott's gravatar

Paul Elliott

Anyone know how to modify this procedure for macOS Sierra. The Overrides folder is not there anymore and creating it does not work.

Bryan Dutton

I’ve followed the steps to step 5. When I type the “ruby patch-edid.rb” in terminal it says command can’t be found or something like that. I’m not a programmer or anything of the sort. Is there something I’m doing wrong?
erlendsp's gravatar

erlendsp

in reply to Bryan Dutton

Remember to extract the script from the .zip file before you put it in your home folder!

Jaime

The resolution seems to work fine, but it the monitor (ASUS PA279Q) still shows up as Television in my Display Systems Report (Apple Menu). Would this be considered a full use of the Adobe aRGB on my monitor?
snoogly's gravatar

snoogly

I am trying this with a BenQ GW2765, connected to a 2012 Mac mini via HDMI. The script seems to run OK, and I get the new display profile, bit it makes no difference. Text is still fuzzy, and I can’t get the max resolution.

Spade

in reply to snoogly

Ditto. The best you get is 1440p and anything like retina MBP will need to use an external 4K monitor.
Emmanuel “Manny” Reynoso's gravatar

Emmanuel “Manny” Reynoso

I just attempted this on a MacBook Pro Retina on MacOS Sierra, this works on that.

Freddy

MBP Mid-2012 non-retina, hooked up with Dell U2414H. GeForce 650M. Closed lid, therefore running on the 650M and not the built in graphics.

Im not sure if my screen shows weird colours. Would it be easy to notice? Should text look weird too, you say. My screen is found as a TV by OS X, and when I had El Capitanthius “trick” removed the shown as aTV-problem, but I cant say if the colours, graphics etc looks different.

Now using Sierra (not preview), it seems like the settings have been restored and my screen is found as A TV again. Did or did it not work to do this trick in Sierra, and what is the benefit if the screen shows, from what I cat tell, the right colours?

How to tell if things are OK or not, and could it be fixed even in Sierra?

Jon Kurz's gravatar

Jon Kurz

This resolved my monitor issue as well. Also, I just upgraded to macOS Sierra, and it still works. I have an Acer K272HUL, which is a good monitor, but I could not get rid of the jaggy text. This solution worked and the difference is like night and day. The text looks absolutely great. I also noticed in my System Preferences -> Displays - Refresh Rate is not 60 Hz as before. It is now 59.88 Hz. Thanks again to everyone who contributed to finding and posting the solution!
Daniel Keith Minick II's gravatar

Daniel Keith Minick II

This method worked fine for me until I updated to macOS Sierra. I redid the whole process and it doesn’t seem to work anymore smh
erlendsp's gravatar

erlendsp

This worked for me with El Capitan but not with Sierra. “ruby patch-edid.rb” doesn’t create the profile folder (but doesn’t give me an error either).
erlendsp's gravatar

erlendsp

in reply to erlendsp

Never mind, my bad. Forgot to connect the external display when using ruby patch-edid.rb!

Vicky

Thank you this worked a treat on my Mac OS X El Capitan MacBook air :)

Clint

This workaround has been working for me on El Capitan as well as macOS Sierra.
Pavel Firsov's gravatar

Pavel Firsov

What I got. Maybe help somebody . Mac mini 2012,Osx 10.10.5 // display PIONEER KURO PRO 110FD. I can options on TV ,control input signal . you can see from manual \Pioneer KURO .

Problem not in MAC or TV ( monitor) problem in cable. HDMI send YCbCr colour space . Check different HDMI cable like 1.2 1.4 2.0 My all HDMI pick from Mac YCbCr colour space . and now DP (thanderbolt) to HDMI : My old chip from Ebay DP to HDMI send RGB signal. I got brand new DP to HDMI from eBay and this cable send on the same system YCbCr colour space . I have control option on my Pioneer KURO and can see what signal arrived in my tv. From KURO manual : • If you select “Auto”, an attempt will be made to identify the type of digital video signals when digital video signals are received. This is option for input signal: 

Auto (default) Automatically identifies input digital video signals/////////////////////////////any cable you never know Color-1 Digital Component Video signals (4:2:2) locked/////////////////////////////////////HDMI-HDMI, new DP-HDMI Color-2 Digital Component Video signals (4:4:4)locked///////////////////////////////////////HDMI-HDMI, new DP-HDMI Color-3 Digital RGB signals (16 to 235) locked////////////////////////////////////////Old DP to HDMI Color-4 Digital RGB signals (0 to 255) locked///////////////////////////////////// Old DP to HDMI cable 4K*2K HD TV To HDMI Adapter Cable 6ft 1.8m Mini DisplayPort DP Thunderbolt Cord This is DP -HDMI cable new one send YCbCr colour space:



Pavel Firsov's gravatar

Pavel Firsov

Just got on eBay i1display pro . I need collared my Mac mini with Pioneer KURO for good gamma and color./. Problem any color space RGB orYCbCr from Mac to TV has bed gamma , I check on this web site : http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gamma_calibration.php My gamma show on this web site : 10%-1.8 25%-1.6 48%-1.1

I hope i1display pro is going to fix this . I just wait my package .

Karthik

Works for me.. awesome! I had my monitor connected with serial port initially. Switched to HDMI but the text looked all blurry. This solution works for me on Mac OS Sierra. Thanks
Kurt Salman's gravatar

Kurt Salman

Same fix for macOS sierra ;)

Mike

Hi - I sent these instructions to someone and they had a little trouble. For step 6, I’d suggest clarifying that they may have to create the Resources and Overrides folders. There is an Overrides directory under a slightly different path that seems to be confusing. Path has to be exact and I think is overlooked sometimes due to the presence of a similar path.

Also, for being able to close your laptop without it turning off, (as suggested in step 4), there is a free package called SetResX by Paul Griffin (thanks!) that can help accomplish this. Sometimes hosted on some spammy websites though, so be careful.

These steps work though.

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Mike

Thanks Mike, I’ve made that change.

Piter

Thank You!

Jordan

I’m running Sierra (MacBookPro) and trying to use this solution for my Asus monitor. I’ve downloaded and unzipped the .rb file and placed it in my home directory, but when I run the ruby patch-edid.rb in Terminal, nothing appears to happen. A new Terminal line appears, and no new folder is created in my home directory. Does anyone know what I might be doing incorrectly? Thanks!

Zach

in reply to Jordan

Jordan - I have the same problem with Terminal. Would appreciate if others could help us out!
Scott McIntyre's gravatar

Scott McIntyre

I upgraded to Sierra before remembering I had to do this hack to get my old Mac mini to work well with an external display. So glad this page still exists!

Here are the steps I had to follow, since I don’t have a Recovery Partition on this computer, and Internet Recovery uses a very old version of OS X that doesn’t have the csrutil utility.

  1. Download Sierra installer again.
  2. Follow the steps on Apple’s site to make a bootable USB drive.
  3. Reboot and hold down Option and then select the USB drive.
  4. Wait forever for it to boot.
  5. Use the Terminal to run csrutil disable.
  6. Follow the steps above.
  7. Rejoice in my white windows actually being white instead of gray!!!!
  8. Try to remember to re-enable SIP.

David

in reply to Scott McIntyre

Thanks Scott, I tried to do the same steps in Sierra but I have a issue with ruby

davids-MacBook-Pro:~ disiei$ ruby patch-edid.rb ruby: No such file or directory – patch-edid.rb (LoadError)

My ruby version davids-MacBook-Pro:~ disiei$ ruby -v ruby 2.0.0p648 (2015-12-16 revision 53162) [universal.x86_64-darwin16]

Thnaks in advance !!

David

Andrzej

I run the script mentioned on this website following the instructions above and it worked without problems on Sierra 10.12.1. I copied the RAW script (RAW button in the upper right corner of the frame with script text, pasted it to nano, saved, and run. No need to worry about the built in display, it is omitted by the script).

I can easily confirm the effect with my Dell U2515H, which actually displays the input mode.

I did the hack to improve font rendering, which is very nice on retina, but not on the external display. Unfortunately, I cannot really see a difference - I guess I would need to have a side by side comparison. That said, the screen look fine to me now.

Mark

in reply to Andrzej

Andrzej , Im completely non technical. Can you walk me through the steps to accomplish this is Sierra. I have the new late. 2016 MacBook Pro connected to a DELL U2913WM with a USB C to HDMI cable. It looks terrible. I’ve been using my 2012 MacBook Pro with this monitor using mini display port with no issues.

I don’t understand any of the terminal and script/ruby instructions. e.g. I copied the RAW script (RAW button in the upper right corner of the frame with script text, pasted it to nano, saved, and run

Fredrik

Hello. I dont really get this. I have the U2414H display connected to my MBP 15" mid-2012 (Display port - Display port) and I see absolutely no problems on my screen exept for the info given that it is found as a TV. It also shows TV when using Airplay. But the colors and the screen looks fine. is it just me?

Scott Denowh

I have an Acer K272HUL. I just wanted to add that for this display (and apparently other Acer displays based on my research) you’ll need to change the monitor to use DP 1.1 via the monitor’s on screen configuration. When running with the display in DP 1.2 mode, you’ll get RGB color (no more jaggy text), but you wont be able to run it at the full 2560x1440. Changing back to DP 1.1 will then give you full resolution and a great picture!

Erik Thomas

Thanks so much for your article. I am running Sierra on a mid-2015 Macbook Pro 15" Retina (OSX 10.12.1), with a brand new (2016 model) Samsung 4K UHDTV to work as a monitor. It’s a curved 49" TV so yeah, it’s huge, but I’m replacing two old monitors with the one for simplicity.

I am a ruby developer and had no trouble following your directions and they worked perfectly, though I still had to play with the TV advanced picture settings before the fonts looked like they should. For some reason the “Movie” preset made the fonts look best by a significantly visible margin.

But it’s awesome! Your script saved me from returning the TV!

Thanks again!

SAMSUNG - forced RGB mode (EDID override): Resolution: 3840 x 2160 @ 30 Hz Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888) Main Display: Yes Mirror: Off Online: Yes Rotation: Supported Automatically Adjust Brightness: No

Marcus

Thanks a bunch for the guide! Saved me from needlessly returning my MacBook, the HDMI Adapter, or my TV.

I have a few recommendations to speed up the process, which saves one boot to recovery and you never have to actually disable the System Integrity Protection (SIP), thus never really leaving the system potentially vulnerable.

1.) Start by running the .rb script.

It only generates a couple of files in your user’s directory and does not require any special rights to read the current monitor / tv configuration. (TV must be connected).

2.) Boot to into the recovery system (Cmd+R during boot).

All your files are accessible here and you have write permissions to the “Overrides” folder. Your system disk is just not mounted to / but to /Volumes/ (e.g. “/Volumes/Macintosh HD/”)

3.) Open a terminal and copy the DisplayVendor-directory. Remember that every path is now prefixed by “/Volumes/Macintosh HD/”.

E.g. I had the Ruby script in a folder “EDID-Fix” on my desktop. -bash-3.2# cp -r /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/marcus/Desktop/EDID-Fix/DisplayVendorID-* /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/

4.) Reboot to your system

Hope you find that useful.

Cheers, Marcus

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Marcus

Thanks Marcus, I’ve linked to this as an update.

Simon Jeffries

in reply to Marcus

Hi Marcus,

Could you break this down into even simpler steps if possible. I have a Mac Pro (2013) running Yosemite that I am trying to connect up to an external Full HD monitor but the colours and contrast are terrible.

I am trying to follow your instructions but even “Start by running the .rb script” is not easily understood by someone with no programing knowledge at all. Do you just double click on it or something more? The same goes for the other steps.

It would be really great to be able to give this a go so I don’t have to return the monitor but struggling to understand the steps right now.

Many thanks,

Simon

ianphey

in reply to Marcus

I can not find the named “Displays” folder in the “library ‘folder
Sarangan Thuraisingham's gravatar

Sarangan Thuraisingham

in reply to Marcus

Marcus’ instructions do work. But in Step (2), after you boot into Recovery mode, you have to use the “Disk Utility” to mount the MacintoshHD volume.

I was confused why I only had “OS\ X\ Base\ System” under “/Volumes” but reading http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/236206/backup-files-from-terminal-in-recovery-mode clarified that I need to mount the additional disk.

Calvin Deboer's gravatar

Calvin Deboer

in reply to Marcus

Marcus, thanks for laying this out. Just got a brand new (3 days old) MBP 13 with Sierra. Have some fuzziness on the external monitors. Tried your script out, got all the files generated. However, even in the Recovery System I get a “read-only” error on the “/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/” folder. Furthermore, the “/Volumes/” folder doesn’t contain “/Macintosh HD/” it contains something that sounds similar (like, OS HD Mac…). That folder is empty (or un-traversable). Does one need to manually mount that section of the Hard Disk ?

I copied the DisplayVendorID directories onto a USB and loaded that USB up in recovery mode and tried to copy over to the Overrides folder but that gave me a permission denied as well.

I’ve combed through all the posts on here and can’t seem to find the answer. Any ideas? Sounds like I may need to disable SIP after all perhaps ?

nefedx's gravatar

nefedx

in reply to Marcus

Thank you!
Shane Bell's gravatar

Shane Bell

in reply to Marcus

Is it weird to say I love you! This worked perfectly and has been a thorn in my side for a while now. Thanks a TON!

Ines

in reply to Marcus

Thank you so much Mathew and Marcus! I have an iMac 2017 with an additional external BenQ Monitor attached (via HDMI and Thunderbolt 3-adapter). After updating to macOS Mojave today my BenQ Monitor suddenly displayed in awful pink colors. Thanks to your guide now everything is back to normal and working fine! I am beyond happy! :-)

Chris Churchill

in reply to Marcus

How do you run the script??

rayzormusic

in reply to Marcus

Is there an updated set of steps for someone non-technical and for Catalina OS (v10.15)? Furthermore, does any of this require a system backup before hand or void warranty?

Phan

in reply to Marcus

Its 4 June 2020 here You guys are awesome, I had this problem 15 min ago and tried Marcus follow-up solution and it worked perfectly for my display: Ultrawide Philips 298X4 (2560 x 1080)

Dave

in reply to Marcus

Thank you Marcus! This is the solution, and we just experienced the purple screen on our new (out of the box) MAC Mini - but only once it upgraded from Catalina 10.15.4 to 10.15.5

You are a life saver!

Mrityunjoy

in reply to Marcus

Hi Marcus! I also have the same issue with a MacBook Air 2020 while connecting to a Dell monitor using USB C to DP adapter cable. When I am running the rb script, it says that M1 systems do not support this method yet. Any solution? Thanks a lot.

THAI LAM

Hi, I found this article and yes it is very painful now. I have a Thunderbolt display connected to a Retina Macbook pro and the text is very blurry, before that I connected thunderbolt display to a normal macbook pro and everything is perfect. But now it looks crappy on Thunderbolt display. Do you have any idea of this because it is a thunderbolt display and why Macbook still think it is a TV ?

Mike Tovino

I was able to copy the necessary files without disabling System Integrity Protection, or booting into Recovery mode, by simply using “sudo cp…” from Terminal, as an Admin user. Alas, it hasn’t helped me get my HP 27vx monitors working acceptably on a Late 2016 MBP w/ Sierra.

inspiral

Hi!

I’ve executed everything written in this guide, except closing the lid of my MBP, and text is still blurry on the external monitor. Is this lid closing that important during the process?

Thanks!

kdrydn

Hi all,

i have macbook pro 13 early 2015 and lg 24mp88hv-s display. i wanna use my macbook with external display but text und pictures is blurry when I connect via hdmi port it to an external monitor. I tried patch edid and switchrex but still same problem. Can anyone help me ?

Thanks.

Mukesh Dangi's gravatar

Mukesh Dangi

in reply to kdrydn

Hi, Did you find a solution. I have the same screen.
Sudhir Damerla's gravatar

Sudhir Damerla

in reply to kdrydn

Using the same display and a MBP 13, it has worked for me! Thanks to Mr.Wikson!!
Dustin D. Miller's gravatar

Dustin D. Miller

My Retina, 13" Early 2015 MacBook Pro seems to have lost the highest “retina” resolution on it’s built-in-display. The original EDID file seems to be intact, but I’m just having trouble finding the resolution. (Even tried option+clicking the “Scaled” radio button and found nothing. Is there a script in existence to bring it back? Thank you!

John Crighton

I was having major problems with a 2016 13" MBP and a Dell U2410 monitor, and this guide fixed it for me. I didn’t have to enable rootless mode, I was able to copy the folder created by the script to the location specified, and enter my password to authenticate the change
Flávio Wolff's gravatar

Flávio Wolff

Hello!

Will this procedure override the color space for any external display? I have an external LG monitor to which I intend to apply this fix so it forces full RGB… But I also occasionally connect my macbook to my living room TV, which do not require full RGB.

Will this fix be applied specifically to the display connected during the procedure, or it will override the color space for all external displays?

Thanks in advance for your work!

diman87

in reply to Flávio Wolff

I didn’t look into the files but seems it’s at least vendor-based.

ianphey

I can not find the named “Displays” folder in the library folder

michelle

Just had the same issues with a new macbook 12’ retina, bur having read that an HDMI to DVI cable could sort out the problem, thought I’d try that first, so we could use the machine with tv’s as well.

£4.99 later, and armed with a gold plated HDMI to DVI cable from amazon, worked like a charm..Perfect image, rgb ouput, no problems.

MM

in reply to michelle

Not really the answer but I did discover if you use mini display port adapter vs. HDMI everything look normal. I bought a USB-C to mini display port adapter. So if you’re monitor has a mini display port thats the connection I would recommend.

diman87

Had to re-do this procedure after upgrading from El Capitan to Sierra. Seems like macOS is removing the custom files on upgrade. Now saved to favs, for next update. THANKS! :)
Ernesto Graterol's gravatar

Ernesto Graterol

Hey I have a hackintosh with macOS Sierra 10.12.2 (I fixed the problem with my macbook) but now I use my hackintosh when I need to work in desktop (house) with a Ultrawide Dell U2913WM connected via DisplayPort to Mini-Dp that comes with the monitor. But is detected as Television, I can use the same process to fix the problem?

Here the system information: http://i.imgur.com/1YcpH5S.png

You can see that said:

Television: Yes

Ernesto Graterol's gravatar

Ernesto Graterol

in reply to Ernesto Graterol

Update: Work without problem in macOS Sierra 10.12.2

Julie

I have a Macbook Pro 2016 retina display that wouldn’t display clearly and was purple when I connected via HD to my Sony Bravia,Did this today and happy to say my display is great on the TV! Thank you!

Ben

Hi i somehow read this article wrong And while i doing this process i didn’t close my macbook pro 2015 So i think i just forced my own mac to run RGB mode Now my macbook it’s low resolution and laggy How do i redo this??? I tried reinstalling MacOS but it didn’t work HELP! Pls

Allan

Sierra users - to run this ruby script please make sure that your ruby is actually working. Coming from behind 4 osx upgrades my ruby did not, so this script did not work, nor give out any meaningful errors withing 5 minutes of looping. Just type in terminal “ruby -v” to see if it respons. If not, reinstall/fix ruby and it will work.

SWood

I used the simplified instructions from Marcus (http://www.mathewinkson.com/2013/03/force-rgb-mode-in-mac-os-x-to-fix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor/#comment-15886) on a brand new MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) with macOS Sierra (10.12.2). It worked great.

Scott Vrooman

The script and instructions ran fine for me and I see the new profile in my display settings. However, my fonts look about the same :(

I’m on OS X 10.12.2, did I miss something? :)

Arwid

Worked great! Thank you so much!

Arwid

in reply to Arwid

Just bought a new Dell U2515H and a Macbook Pro with OS X 10.12.2 and it looked terrible together. But this made it work!

Yaro

Thank you for this article, however it didn’t work for me. It only forced my monitor to use RGB profile but the font isn’t smooth at all. The monitor I use is Dell P2416D, it’s connected via HDMI.

maledramaqueen

in reply to Yaro

same here.

maledramaqueen

It doesn’t work here. Run the script, went to Recovery mode, copied the files, selected the new color from Displays… Font => blurry.
€dgar Quintero (@edarioq)'s gravatar

€dgar Quintero (@edarioq)

Hi, followed your instructions, but didn’t work - On Sierra 10.12.13 late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina and using two external Asus monitors (1920X1080).
€dgar Quintero (@edarioq)'s gravatar

€dgar Quintero (@edarioq)

in reply to €dgar Quintero (@edarioq)

Regardless tyvm for post, also just wondering, you say you are no longer using a Mac, what are using now?

flummoxer

Thanks, worked perfectly with 2016 macbook pro and hdmi cable from the apple adapter to dell u2410. only difference, the destination folder already existed ( same name as that created in my home directory ), so I added the generated file to that folder.

for the person wondering how to undo this, just remove the file you added and reboot.

Calvin Deboer's gravatar

Calvin Deboer

in reply to flummoxer

@flummoxer, seems like you have nearly an identical set-up, did you have to disable SIP to accomplish ?

Gordy

Steps worked perfectly - Sierra 10.12.3 and HP 2311x. Thanks !
Brendan's gravatar

Brendan

I just wanted to say thanks for this post. It worked for me and I was surprised at how good it felt to have a decent image on my external monitor, instead of the degraded, blocky mess I was starting to become used to.

FWIW - I initially couldn’t run csrutil in recovery mode as it wasn’t found. This was because I was running the OS (Yosemite) my Macbook had originally been supplied with. I upgraded to Sierra and after that I was able to run csrutil in recovery mode. From that point on everything went extremely smoothly.

Mattoo's gravatar

Mattoo

Just ran it with success on a Mid 2013 MBA 11" running OS X Sierra note that I first made sure that Ruby was up and running (just type ruby -v in the terminal and check you get an answer) and that I used the shorter version proposed by marcus : http://www.mathewinkson.com/2013/03/force-rgb-mode-in-mac-os-x-to-fix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor/#comment-15886

thanks to all for your advices, please keep this post alive for a long time (even though you’ve turned to the dark windows side) cause we use it at each OS X major update…

Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to Mattoo

Good to get confirmation, thanks. Post won’t be going anywhere, I’m glad it’s helping some people.

Ha, dark side :) The last time I was brand loyal was Sega vs Nintendo! Tools for the job IMO. iOS is a great phone OS, Linux is a great server OS, but everything apart from Windows frustrates me on the desktop these days.

bisk89's gravatar

bisk89

I’ve done all steps like in this tutorial but my LG 24MP88HV-S is still recognized by my Mac as a TV, please help me. What can I do get this work, and force RGB mode
AJit Gevariyat's gravatar

AJit Gevariyat

in reply to bisk89

Does anyone have solution for LG24MP88HV-S monitor with sierra 10.12.5?
Lee's gravatar

Lee

You are a god. Thank you for fixing my monitor!

AOC q2963pm for mac

Lee's gravatar

Lee

in reply to Lee

At first I thought it didnt work a few times. The final straw that fixed everything was closing my monitor lid and making it overwrite.

That was what did the trick!

Thank you!

Matt Brennan

I tried Marcus’ method, but needed a few extra steps because my hard drive is encrypted. In terminal, I had to run > diskutil coreStorage list

To get the list of drives. Then picking the final encrypted one in the list, I found the UUID and ran

> diskutil coreStorage unlockVolume

That told me it was mounted as /dev/disk17. Finally, I had to run

> mount -uw /dev/disk17

to make the volume writable.

ale

sorry guys but I can really understand Markus steps, can someone give me the easy instructions?

EOL

Tried on macbook pro retina with macOS Sierra 10.12.4: copied generated override file to /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides, didn’t notice any changes.

Fonts are still blurry. Color scheme also not the best, I can see where shade under window ends (which is not noticeable on retina) Display Philips 234E5, connected via HDMI.

EOL

in reply to EOL

System information reports that override works: PHL 234E5 - forced RGB mode (EDID override)

Vito

THX THIS WORK!! My mac mini 2016 with Sierra can’t display image to fullscreen on LG 29UM68 . He say that resolution is 2560x1080, but draw black border by both side. I’m doing step by step from instruction by Marcus and that WORKED! Thank you. P.S. this problem views on MAC, other OS LG 29um68 work right from unboxing ))
rgumennyi's gravatar

rgumennyi

Bravo! Worked for me with MB pro mid-2015 and Sierra + Dell U2414H.
Lee Hung Nguyen's gravatar

Lee Hung Nguyen

Your post saved me lots of cash.

Thank you mattewinkson.

Since you’ve helped so many people as I can see in the comments, Maybe next go for president?

Brad

Had to disable SIP (csrutil disable) due to encrypted drive, but otherwise worked like a charm. Thanks!

Dmitry

in reply to Brad

You can mount your encrypted drive in recovery mode using Disk Utility.

Ulf

Would it possible to use a EDID programmer to help with this issue? We have this issue with a projector in one of our conference rooms. The MacBooks or the Projector does not correlate the EDID RGB Information and even if we have Auto/Forced RGB or YCbCr it think its the opposite signals sent, which makes the picture totally wrecked.
Alex B's gravatar

Alex B

You’re amazing! It worked perfectly for my Dell U2413. It had been randomly crashing using a displayport -> displayport connection, so I switched to HDMI, found this and so far at least things seem to be working…

TheKj

Help! This looked like a great fix - the EDID process worked but still reports “Television - Yes” in the System Report. MBP 2015, BenQ 3200U 4K monitor. Tried both DisplayPort and HDMI. Same result - the Mac still thinks the monitor is a TV. Any ideas???

Hans

in reply to TheKj

Your Macbook pro and HDMI do not support 4K so therein lies your problem, not in te fix.

Ben

Doesn’t seem to work for me. Sierra 10.12.4 with a Dell U2413. Copied the patched EDID file to the folder and overwrote the existing file. Rebooted but the monitor still defaults to YPbPr mode. System Preferences -> Display shows the “forced RGB mode” in the display name. Forcibly setting the monitor to RGB results in a purple screen, rebooting the system or restarting the monitor turns it back to YPbPr.
AJit Gevariya's gravatar

AJit Gevariya

Macbook 13’ Retina Late 2013 with MacOS Sierra 10.12.5 This solution is not helping me with LG 24MP88HV-S. If anyone can please help here! FYI i am not able to see Preferences -> Display -> Color profile(LG)
or's gravatar

or

Thanks!

Robert

I did this on my LG 38UC99-W with no luck. The display still shows up as ‘TV’ under system report. Because my monitor appears as ‘TV’ Nightshift doesn’t work Is there any way I can make the monitor appear as a display?
walterezequielm's gravatar

walterezequielm

I have a monitor (LG flatron W2353S 24 inches), a Macbook Pro (Late 2011) Model A1278, and a VGA displayport adapter.

The issue is that when I connect my MacBook to my monitor it detects the monitor as a 47" TV.

The cable works and I can use my 1920x1080 native resolution, but it displays wrong. There’s a black large line on the left (like 2 centimeters) and on the right you can see that it’s missing a part of the screen.

I got and very old VGA cable that works well, but i don’t know what’s the difference between that cabel and the other ones the i’ve got, I’ve checked them and got the same amount of pins, the same voltaje and everyt data in the cable is almost the same (except one number that i guess is the serial number)

Please, if anybody got an idea, i will be glad.

Thanks.

Nick

Thank you! Was very sad I couldn’t get nice quality on a LG 29uc88-b. This helped get it sharper than any of the settings. It’s sad this is still happening in 2017.

Liudas

Tried out the 2 workarounds - a) Forcing RGB by adding an additional folder to /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides. b) running “defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing 2” command

That did not help with my macbook pro 10.11.6 and external hp lp2475w connected via Hmdi to Hdmi cabling.

HOWEVER after i ran “auto scan” setting on the external monitor , the monitor restarted, and afterdwards the fonts were tottaly smooth . Fantastic!

mrpijey

I did on Sierra but unfortunately it broke the settings, now OSX can’t switch to 24Hz for movies which Plex relies on for proper playback… So I had to roll back.

Aleksi

Hey, the steps worked nicely for macOS Sierra and Dell U3014. I think using the boot menu and root terminal for copying the files is better than disabling SIP :)
aki009's gravatar

aki009

And another win for this script from a 2017 Macbook Pro with the touch bar, connected to a Samsung U28E590. It would get into the YCC mode every now and then when two displays were connected, but after the script that seems to now be gone. Awesome!

Ricardo

Problem is back in High Sierra 10.13. Went through all the steps (just as with each of the before updates) and still no go. Anyone else succeed forcing RGB with High Sierra?

Joe R

Just wanted to report I had a similar experience with High Sierra. It made me think– what was the last macOS I installed that had to apply the fix to? I’m not positive but it may have not been required for all since this problem was first identified. I have not tried the fix yet. I went here first instead. :) I will try it though and chime in.

Joe R

Okay, I was able to fix it again using the exact same steps as described. It still works with High Sierra. Now if only Apple will fix seeing BootCamp drives.

Martin

WOW Thank you so much !

For the case you are using a encrypted FileVault Drive:

do the steps of Marcus until the terminal. There you are not able to find your main drive.

with the command: “diskutil coreStorage list” you can list all drives. Search for the one where (Revertible : YES most time its the last entry). Then copy the name of it with this pattern XXXXXXXX-XXXX-… etc. to the clipboard (cmd+v).

With the command “diskutil coreStorage unlockVolume XXXXXX-XXXX …” you can then mount the Volume with your user password. After this step continue with the manual of Marcus.

Best regards, Martin

jreezee

I have an Acer Predator XB271HU. Whenever I do this fix, it forces me to 1024x768 resolution. I try and switch it to 1920x1080 and it just goes blank and back to 1024x768. Any suggestions on what to do next? I have a 2012 Mac Mini (2.6GHZ i7 Quadcore model). It’s a shame this Mac mini is powerful but the display is awful. I’m using HDMI to HDMI on this setup. I do not have a miniDP to DP. Also, my gaming PC is hooked up to the DP on this monitor. If it’s not possible to get this to work, I’m selling this Mac mini. It’s just taking up space at this point.
Roger C. Rocha (@rogercrocha)'s gravatar

Roger C. Rocha (@rogercrocha)

in reply to jreezee

I have a XB241YU and I’m getting the same issue.

Barrett

hugs and kisses to you sweet, sweet people. Holy cow! thank you thank you!
mike santiago's gravatar

mike santiago

using a 2016 15" macbook pro on High Sierra and just wanted to say the ruby script still works! i thought i noticed a degrade in quality when i hooked directly into my HP monitor vs. going through my Elgato (I frequently switch HDMI on the monitor between my MacBook and console such as PS3 or Switch). thanks for this! i’m not crazy afterall!

Graham Hurst

Is there a way someone could give a step by step guide who isnt a computer programmer, just some guy who knows a bit here and there. Im good at following instructions, but some of the bits here “assume” I know my way around the root files etc.
Kat Cory's gravatar

Kat Cory

Thank you thank you thank you! You just helped save our film festival! FYI it works for projectors having the same issue.

Freddie

Hm. Not sure if my Dell U2414H is performing worse, but I have some weird settings going on in the system preferences for the screen; There 60hz (NTSC) is selected, but the screen is 60hz from what I know. But I live in northern europé, and I think we use 50hz!

I have used the script earlier, and then I think 50hz was set to standard. (on earlier mac os version).

But…I suddenly cant find the info in the system telling me it seen as a TV, where is that located? Also, the airplay did show me some info about “Tv” before, but now its gone. What has changed in High Sierra and what to make things work?

Thanks. =)

Dusted

Confirming this worked a treat for me - 2017 Mac book with AOC241QG. Used the faster method suggested by Marcus. Connected via USB-C to DisplayPort

BMugs

Hi All, the ruby patch worked great with my macbook pro 15 inch 2016 and sierra. I have a dell monitor. However, I upgraded to “high sierra” and have been unsuccessful at getting it to work. Anyone have directions or a patch to make it work?

Thanks!

Jaime Austria

Has anybody gotten this to work with their macbook at 4:4:4 4k60? I have a 2017 MBP using the Anker USBC to HDMI adapter and I am able to get 4k60 @ 442 but not 444

Dan

Hi there! This fix has worked for me for years. I just upgrade to High Sierra, and guess what? There’s no longer an ‘Overrides’ directory. Unfortunately, this fix may be defunct. Damn!

Dan

in reply to Dan

Just kidding, I found it again. Let’s see if this works again.

Dan

in reply to Dan

I want to confirm that I was able to reuse an override created in Sierra in High Sierra.

paul w

Thank you!
Eran Goldin's gravatar

Eran Goldin

On High Sierra, the folder is instead: /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides

Hans

in reply to Eran Goldin

Cheers a bunch! just connected up a Philips 24’ tv as monitor for my mac mini. Had used the EDID before but didn’t seem to work anymore since High Sierra. Accidentally found the Overrides folder in the resources folder within Displays. Placed the file in there and wehey!!! we have lift off!

Thanks for this fix and thanks to everyone who is keeping this site alive with all the recent input, brilliant!

taser_this

Hi, this might be a helpful suggestion. This worked for me with a MacBook Pro Retina 13" 2014 with OSX Sierra 10.12.6. My monitor is an LG 27EA83R. It was washed out but otherwise had proper resolution with a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable.

I disabled SIP, downloaded the Andrew Daugherity’s improved patch-edid.rb script.

Used external keyboard and mouse on my closed MacBook Pro.

Ran the script. It created a folder with a single file. Rather than move the entire folder and replace the one that existed (one existed on my MacBook Pro with many override files,) I simply copied the single file into the existing folder. This retained all other overrides.

If I want to reverse, I can remove the single file. I copied the file to the folder instead of moving it, so I’d have a copy and know the name of the file to remove.

I reenabled SIP.

Hope this helps.

jtnix's gravatar

jtnix

I tried the recommended linked github patch-edid.rb script from TFA, but it emphatically does not work whatsoever for my ViewSonic VX 2770 on Mac OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan on both my iMac 27" Retina Desktop using Thunderbolt 2 to HDMI cable nor my 2010 Mac Mini using a pure HDMI cable.

However, I finally found this modified script here https://embdev.net/topic/284710#3027030 that works perfectly and preserves the expected resolutions, yay!

Before buying a new cable, please try the modified script from the link above (or use one of the subsequent patched scripts in that forum topic for various other monitors.)

Good luck!

kxae's gravatar

kxae

Thanks, it worked for me in MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013).

Chris H

Great guide, worked for my MBP (Mid-2012 Retina) and a Acer R1 monitor! Thanks so much!

Dimitri

THANK YOU ALL! Unbelievable baloney that we have to jump through these hoops. Been Mac since late 1980’s and this is the kind of annoying, are they being elitist or just clueless, thing that make a Mac unfun.

omarojo

OMG !!.. it worked in my Macbook Pro Mid-2014 (Nvidia 750M) in macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 (just the location of the system folder is: “/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides”

Using the LG 27UD88 4k monitor Which I was about to throw down the stairs. Thank you.. !! I did the steps from the tutorial.. didnt bother in looking into “Marcus” method.

Jamie Morrison's gravatar

Jamie Morrison

This RGB mode can really help them accomplish the best in terms picture quality

Karthik

2018 and this still works. This procedure fixed the font aliasing and color configuration issues I was having with Dell U2410 monitor and 2017 Macbook Pro. Thank you !

Vipin Mohan

in reply to Karthik

Hi Karthik, which macOS are you using? Is it high sierra? I have a Dell FHD monitor and all the texts looks blurry.

Mark N

Works. Ridiculous that on 10.13.3 we still have to go to the effort of employing this fix so a monitor can look its best.

Andres Borda

Thank youuuuu!!! Saved our lives! (kind of)

Cody Jones

Thanks for the writeup. After doing this twice (after getting a new laptop) I realized that the updated script wouldn’t work for my Dell U2713H and was forced to run the original ruby script to create a custom profile for my monitor. Your instructions worked perfectly!
harry19911's gravatar

harry19911

It stopped working for me, on monitor that I rarely use. Now I have macOS 10.13.4, when I last time used this monitor I had 10.13.3. I checked that this file in /System/Library/… and it is still there, md5 has not changed. I generated this file again. but still doesn’t work.
Marcos's gravatar

Marcos

Just wanted to post that I had a pending RMA for my new 4k monitor because it looked great through HDMI but DP was horrible. Thanks to this everything looks amazing now! Thanks a billion! Now excuse me as I cancel said RMA…

bstelljes

For the ones, that have upgraded to APFS with file vault and can’t mount in recovery mode. The steps are bit different than before.

  1. diskutil apfs list (It should be the drive with role ’no specific role’ )
  2. diskutil apfs unlockVolume ‘VolumeUUID’
  3. Enter passphrase of your user account
  4. Your drive will be mounted at /Volumes/

Unfortunately, the fix didn’t work for me this time on high sierra. Patch worked fine for previous version of mac os.

bstelljes

in reply to bstelljes

My DisplayVendorId-* folder for my external screen got messed up with multiple DisplayProductID-* files in it. I deleted the whole folder within single user mode (cmd+s at startup), copied the generated files to /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides and now it works again. Seems to happen after upgrading to high sierra, before that, it just worked fine.

Kevin Killion

Bummer, went through all the steps with no success. I’m using a MacBook Air running High Sierra, driving an HP LP2475w monitor.

Matt

I seemed to have gotten it to work after a few restarts. It shows “forced RGB mode (EDID override)” but in the sys info it still says “Television: yes” … anyone know if that means it worked?
Abhinav Parihar's gravatar

Abhinav Parihar

in reply to Matt

Hi Matt. I have the same issue. Shows the new profile, but still says “Television: yes” and no change in the quality. In fact, now I cannot even use the full resolution. Did you figure something out? I am using DELL U3415W. Anyone else have any ideas?

JT

I’ve tried it all - nothing works with a FHD monitor, regardless of running the patch or using every cable under the sun. Looks fine when connected to a PC, but Mac? Hell no. After endless research, turns out there’s a known issue with getting any sort of text quality and accurate colours on an extended monitor if you (like me) are running High Sierra v10.13.4 on a Macbook Pro (retina, 15 inch, late 2013).

I give up. At least until Apple addresses and fixes the problem. Whenever that will be.

Marko Pavic's gravatar

Marko Pavic

I have a late 2014 Macbook Pro and a LG M227WD monitor. This didn’t work for me. I still see blurry fonts on the external monitor. Any suggestions? Thanks
joshjacobson785667708's gravatar

joshjacobson785667708

The ruby script does not seem to create a new folder in my home directory.
joshjacobson785667708's gravatar

joshjacobson785667708

in reply to joshjacobson785667708

Fixed by prepending sudo
joshjacobson785667708's gravatar

joshjacobson785667708

This may have successfully forced rgb mode (my display settings say it is in forced RGB mode (EDID override), but there’s no visual difference. Using Sceptre monitors on High Sierra 10.13.3.

theanorak

This is still useful info in 2018 – thank you!

Viktor Kyuzov

in reply to theanorak

Hi, did you fix this? What monitor and macbook are you using? What OS? Thanks!
Hugo's gravatar

Hugo

Hi guys, I’ve tried everything on this, nothing is working.

Two options

1/ I’m expecting too much from a 1080p screen (it’s the Dell U2414H)

2/ nothing is fixing the problem The script worked in the sense that the screen is now in forced RGB mode (EDID override) but the text doesn’t look any better.

I’ve taken some screenshots, the difference seems huge (I expected only a small difference) and it’s only text that seems to be off.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated

https://ibb.co/cyoFg8

https://ibb.co/cg4cuT

Conixr

in reply to Hugo

Same here.. MBP 2018 13" via USB-C-Hub & HDMI-Cable to an BenQ XL2411Z. The process changed something to RGB Mode, but the Display still looks like $*!%.
Steve's gravatar

Steve

I was struggling with this on High Sierra and that the new Macbooks are formatted APFS. However with the method below I got it to work on a 2018 15" Macbook Pro running High Sierra 10.13.6.

If you have 2 Macs this is easily solved booting the Mac you want to fix into Target Disk Mode and using the another Mac to move the files.

Mac 1 = The machine I want to fix Mac 2 = The machine I used to move files

This is what I did.

  • On Mac 1, I downloaded the script and popped it in a folder on my desktop.
  • Ran the script (with the monitor connected) and that created a file in that folder.
  • You should now have a folder called DisplayVendorID-* (* will be different for different monitors e.g. mine was DisplayVendorID-1e6d) with a text file in it, mine was called DisplayProductID-76db.
  • Navigate to /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides and see if you have a folder with the same DisplayVendorID-* as you just created. If you don’t that’s fine, go to the next step. If you do, like I did, take a look inside the folder and backup the DisplayProductID-* file that you’re going to replace.
  • Shut down Mac 1
  • I booted Mac 1 up in Target Disk Mode (holding T when starting up)
  • Connected it to Mac 2
  • Moved the file created on the desktop of Mac 1 to the /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-* folder on Mac 1 (I replaced the DisplayProductID-76db already there)
  • Disconnect the Macs
  • Reboot Mac 1 and connect monitor if disconnected. It should be fixed

I hope that helps someone!

caroelf

in reply to Steve

Hey i saw this and was wondering if you can explain this in an easier way! I have an HP monitor and when I plug my macbook pro 2018 all i get is flickering. Thanks so much

Wenyu

in reply to Steve

I followed your steps and managed to fix the issue. Thanks!

Anders

Hi all!

I think this is my problem with my Mac Air Mid 2013. I have disabled csrutil I’m logged in as root I’ve tried a lot of different guides and patch-did.rb files and none of them spitting out anything… different errors like this one: patch-edid.rb:11:in match': invalid byte sequence in UTF-8 (ArgumentError) from patch-edid.rb:11:in match' from patch-edid.rb:11:in `'

I’ve not edited any patch files… As I understand it should work when downloaded and no editing needed.. or am I wrong?

I’m running High Sierra 10.13.6

I’m trying to connect it to my Philips 46" Flat-TV.

Is there anyone here that can point me in a right direction…?

Thanks!!

nimoatwoodway's gravatar

nimoatwoodway

Thank you so much!

Had the same problem with a new MacBook Pro 2018 15’’ and an LG 34UC97-S Followed Steves introduction: http://www.mathewinkson.com/2013/03/force-rgb-mode-in-mac-os-x-to-fix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor#comment-16073 Everything works now as expected.

The funny thing: I did not need this override for my lg monitor until now with this new MacBook from 2018. I tried fresh macOS installations on all my 3 MacBooks. One from Late 2013 and one from 2017 MacBook Pro 13’’. On the older ones everything works fine without override. Very strange… Its a shame to Apple that they do not have a fix for this. It took be probably 5 hours to find a solution but every other “normal” person without hacking experience hasn’t a chance to fix this.

Elegante Uni

Can anyone get this to work on 10.13.6? I have an HP 1080p (think it’s the 25er) series. From what I can tell this script or the modified one does NOT work on 10.13.6.

If anyone can point to a solution I’d be grateful. Thanks

Marco Cestra

It works like a charm on a MacBook Pro 13 (MPXU2T/A) connected to a Dell U2913WM monitor via hdmi.

run the script and generate the file -> rootless mode disabled -> file copied into Overrides folder -> macbook restarted and OK!

Thanks to everyone ;)

elfcake's gravatar

elfcake

in reply to Marco Cestra

Any way to undo this script?
nailisumeja's gravatar

nailisumeja

After Mojave messed it up again, this saved me once again. (Marcus’ shortcut cost me a lot more time then just doing the original rootless way though)

Thanks a bunch!

The Real Nirv's gravatar

The Real Nirv

in reply to nailisumeja

I found the rootless method also quicker.
The Real Nirv's gravatar

The Real Nirv

I was a bit disappointed but I did one thing on my sharp TV (1920x1080) res. I changed the aspect ration from 16:9 to “dot by dot” … holy crap. The difference is stunning. It looked good before but now it looks unbelievably good.
The Real Nirv's gravatar

The Real Nirv

Further to my first comment. I need to point out that at first this did not work at all. For some oddball reason, the moment I chose “dot by dot” for the aspect ration I noticed that adjustments to sharpness and color have no effect. This tells me that the computer is driving the display with a pure RGB signal as it should behave this way. A little surprised about sharpness failing to adjust but I think this is due to the “dot by dot” aspect ratio setting.

With respect to color calibration I am still able to drive the TV’s RGB values independently.

By the way, all these controls that I am referencing above are from the TV’s menu itself.

I am still investigating this interesting RGB option but one thing is for sure …

Please check your aspect ratio settings if it’s a TV that you are testing this on.

tibs

Thanks a lot man! This still works even on my 2017 MacBook Pro with the Mojave update. I am really not sure what Apple’s strategy is here. My external display did work with no issues before the update and now the fix was necessary…

Marek

Hello I have UE40MU6172 SAMSUNG 4K TV, I had pink screen until I forcet RGB by following your manual, but my maximal resolution is 1920 x 1080. Do anybody know how to set it on 4K? (It worked before MOJAVE update.. ) I have MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)

Kevin Killion

This worked fine until I updated my MacBook Air to Mojave 10.14.1, and we’re back to crappy display again. I followed the procedure again, but this time it did NOT work. Aaaarrrrgggh! Meanwhile, Apple is long AWOL with a real fix. So frustrating!
xtrap225's gravatar

xtrap225

i wanted to say that i think it was an hdmi switch i put in between and not the update to Mojave that knocked one monitor back to YUV, since the other (same model) was still RGB. To fix the issue i booted to Mojave USB that i created and copied the files over after remounting the internal hd as RW mode.

so i had run the ruby script in regular mode first, just to be clear.

just in case that helps anyone else.

Hamish

This is my happy place on the internet right now, this worked wonders. Already returned one monitor without knowing this was the issue - THANKS A BUNCH

Brian

This doesn’t seem to help w/ my Asus PA32UC in Mojave on a 2018 MacBook Pro. Any ideas? Text still looks terrible and System Report says “Television: Yes”. Tried w/ Thunderbolt 3 and DisplayPort cables. Thanks!

Tronic

in reply to Brian

Dear Brian,

The following instructions may be helpful for you.

  1. Press Cmd + R, then, restart your MacBook Pro.

  2. After that, go to Utility -> Terminal, type: csrutil disable reboot. Then, your macbook will be restarted again.

  3. Download “patch-edid.rb” from https://gist.github.com/adaugherity/7435890.

  4. Move “patch-edid.rb” to Downloads folder.

  5. Use Terminal App and type the following commands cd Downloads ruby patch-edid.rb

  6. Now, you may find a folder named “DisplayVendorID-1xxx”

  7. Move that folder to /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides replacing the old display vendor id.

  8. Unplug your displayport cable and plug again.

  9. Job Done! Enjoy it!

sickbwoi

Hey Guys,

I am also struggling with these issues. Mojave 10.14.2 + Samsung LCD Monitor.

Main problem is that there is no “Displays” folder in “Library” anymore, so I cant override old prefs to fix it.

Anyone found a solution to this?

Rudlo

in reply to sickbwoi

The Library is not the one you normally open. Open Finder, go to Computer, there you will find Library, Programs, User, System. Under System you will find the Library Folder that you want to use. good luck.

jack mehoff

what kind of laptop/computer do you use now? just curious.
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

in reply to jack mehoff

Lenovo x1 carbon, probably my favourite computer since the commodore 64.
Joshua Young's gravatar

Joshua Young

Joshua Young's gravatar

Joshua Young

Rudlo

Mojave: The Library is not the one you normally open. Open Finder, go to Computer, there you will find Library, Programs, User, System. Under System you will find the Library Folder that you want to use. good luck.

Charles Kelser

Thanks for your article.

I just upgraded from 10.13.5 to 10.13.6 and got the issue.

Andreas on embdev is the man !

THANK YOU !!!

Troy

Attempted this with a Late 2012 iMac (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048 MB) running High Sierra (10.13.6) connected to Samsung CHG90 (49" Super Ultra-Wide 3840x1080).

Not only did I get “acid” screen, but it stretched my screen something terrible, and disabled “3840x1080” in both Mac’s native display settings and in SwitchResX settings.

I understand its a lower resolution monitor, but seriously…my eyes hurt typing this ughhh

Davide

I solved the problem by using a VGA cable instead of HDMI cable, avoiding taking what for me would be more complicated and risky steps.

Lee

Troy, did you ever find a solution? The edid patch isn’t working for me on my 2013 mac pro. all text etc is still pixelated like the computer is thinking it’s a tv. Wonder if there’s a new patch or something that works with High Sierra (10.13.6) and this Samsung CHG90 monitor. I’ll have to send this awesome monitor back if there’s nothing we can do about it.

Pop Skyee

in reply to Lee

I just did this using the files avobe, and it worked for me on High Sierra. Didn’t need to disable SIP either.

Dani

How can I verify that the monitor is running in RGB

Graeme Reed

I can’t get this to work on a LG 38UC99. The override takes but the monitor is still registering as a TV. Any suggestions?
The-RockeR's gravatar

The-RockeR

Display: ACER B276HUL OS: Mojave Computer: Macbook Pro 2017 (DP to USB-C adapter)

Marcus’ shortcut works like charm and the image quality was highly improved. Really easy method and amazing results. Unbelievable that we still need to do this nowadays.

Thank you very much guys!

MM_Techie

All Hail King Mathew, All Hail King Marcus

Thank you so much for providing this info! If anyone lands on this page with hopes of getting their Mac Pro Cheesegrater (5,1) up and running on Mojave with Radeon RX 560 or RX 580 Metal Compatible graphics cards, I had to alter Marcus’ script a little to get it to work. “cp -r” command gave me an “Illegal action” error, while “cp -a” worked immediately.

-bash-3.2# cp -a /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/username/Desktop/EDID-Fix/DisplayVendorID-* /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/

Please note the “" in front of every spacebar Marcus puts into his script. You’ll need to do it to for every spacebar you might have in your finder path.

For High Sierra, it works just as advertised.

yome

Thanks a lot Mathew. This solution worked with my monitor LG 27uk650-W.
Anže Rehar's gravatar

Anže Rehar

On macOS Catalina it’s not possible to copy generated DisplayVendorID-* folder to /System since it’s read only.

I managed to copy it using recovery mode:

  1. Mount drive via DiskUtil
  2. Copy with Terminal

davidboschet

in reply to Anže Rehar

Sorry, can give more details for the procedure plz ?

tero

in reply to Anže Rehar

I noticed that I can’t paste it to ../override file in my new macboook air. Tips how to perform this in recovery mode?

Grace Yu

I have the same problem as I updated the system to Catalina then my Asus monitor became purple again. And even though I disabled SIP and it’s no longer available to copy the DisplayVendor file to the overrides file… so I tried your method here, but it doesn’t work as well… it seems that we are not able to revise any codes or file that have been installed in the system.

Andreas Li

Same problem here. Updated the macbook to Catalina and still don’t have the access to paste the DisplayVendor file to the overrides folder after disabled SIP.

Uros

1.) Run ruby edid-fix.rb while only the monitor you wanna configure is connected 2.) Copy resulting DisplayVendors* folder to some easy to type path 3.) Restart in recovery mode - CMD+R during boot 4.) Mount your HD via DiskUtil 5.) Open terminal 6.) csrutil disable 7.) sudo mount -uw / 8.) go to folder where you copied DisplayVendors* 9.) cp -rf DisplayVendors* /Volumes/YourHDName/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides 10.) csrutil enable
By the WWW...'s gravatar

By the WWW...

in reply to Uros

Thanks Uros, nothing else worked but this worked for me in Catalina!

Timo

in reply to Uros

Thanks for your help, but I am a total noob, when it comes to this. I tried it but by step 7 terminal says that there isn’t any command “sudo”. Can you please help me? That would be awesome!

Chris R

Here are the convoluted steps I used to get this working on Catalina, may be useful for anyone who needs more concise instructions.

Disable System Integrity Protection

  1. Restart computer.
  2. Hold ‘Cmd + R’ until you see the progress bar beneath the Apple logo.
  3. Select and enter the password for your user account when prompted to access Utilities.
  4. Open Terminal from the Utilities tab.
  5. Type: csrutil disable (Use ‘csrutil enable’ to reenable following completion of all steps).
  6. Restart your computer.

Using The Patch File

  1. Download and extract the patch file.
  2. Open Terminal.
  3. Type: ruby (patch file directory) Note: You can drag the patch file into Terminal instead of typing out the file directory.
  4. Press Enter.

A new folder will be created in your home directory by the name of ‘DisplayVendorID-#’. I’m not sure whether the ID number is variable, ‘#’ should be replaced by the actual digits that follow.

Mounting Read-Only Partition And Deleting System Files

  1. Open Finder and select ‘Go > Go to Folder… > /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/‘
  2. Drag the ‘DisplayVendorID-#’ folder that coincides with the folder generated in your home directory to the Desktop, to create a backup.
  3. Open Terminal.
  4. Type: sudo mount -uw /
  5. Enter Password.
  6. Type: rm -rf /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-#

Confirm that the specified ‘DisplayVendorID-#’ folder has been deleted from /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/

Copying Folder Generated In Home Directory

  1. Open Terminal.
  2. Type: cp -R /Users/YOUR_USER/DisplayVendorID-# /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/

Confirm that the folder was successfully copied under /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/

Restart your computer.

Arda TUNApckolog's gravatar

Arda TUNApckolog

in reply to Chris R

/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-469: Permission denied

Gi Sene

in reply to Chris R

Worked for me on Catalina. Thanks!

tero

in reply to Chris R

Same things here, rm: /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-4c2d: Permission denied
d's gravatar

d

This seriously solved my issue I was having with an AOC 29 inch Ultrawide on my Macbook Pro Retina 2014. Before I had the issue of fuzzy text. Thanks!

Ruben Schulze-Fröhlich

Hey Everyone,

thanks for this post, i hoped to fix my problems with the LG 38WK95C-W, but it did not change anything. The monitor is still listed as a tv and the text is still very blurry.

https://imgur.com/a/Eii7Kti

Is there anything else i can try?

Thank you very much

Greetings Ruben

Travis Griggs

This worked 5 years ago on my MBP with my Dell U3104. Still works with a brand new MBP running Catalina. Sad that this is still an issue.

JT

in reply to Travis Griggs

This is absolutely pathetic. I and many others had a fiasco with my MacBook Pro graphic board failing and Apple denying there was a problem for a disgusting amount of time even though there were massive Apple discussion threads (with very rude, dismissive moderators) filled with customers all having the same problem until there was a class action lawsuit and Apple finally was forced to issue a recall program after wasting countless days and even weeks of their customer’s time who were attempting to troubleshoot a problem because Apple was gaslighting them.

I had my logic board (with the faulty graphic chip) finally replaced by their very late recall program after losing a lot of my uncompensated time and money. Then it failed again and they replaced it again after once again having me lose uncompensated time and money. Then it failed again and I told the Apple support guy they needed to give me a newer MacBook Pro that didn’t have the flaw. Apple support assured me it was “most definitely” fixed and promised if it failed again they’d then replace my MacBook Pro with a different model. I saw in the discussion threads that it wouldn’t work because they never really fixed the flaw and were replacing it with the same problem and just hoping their customers would give up and buy a new model. I told support this and they lied that the issue was truly fixed. It wasn’t. They lied.

That time it worked for a few years and failed with the exact, same flaw at just about the time it surfaced after I initially bought it. I didn’t even want a new Mac at that point and didn’t want to deal with countless hours or days on the phone begging them to do the right thing by me.

I was disgusted by Apple’e hostile behavior towards their paying customers and left the platform for Windows. Now after all these years stupid me decided to give Apple one last shot with the 16 inch MacBook Pro. I try to get Applecare plus for it and their sites says my brand new machine isn’t eligible. After two days of phone calls with Apple support I find out it’s a problem on their end and I should try again next week. Not off to a great start.

Next I plug in the same 4K display that works perfectly with great, sharp text with my almost 6 year old Windows 10 laptop (it just works). On this much newer, expensive MacBook Pro I struggle to get the same resolution without having to buy a third party hack and the text is still blurry. And now I’m spending my time digging through threads like these to see how I can “hack” my Mac to do something that my old Windows laptop does by simply plugging in the display and choosing the resolution I want.

Then I look on Apple threads and Apple users are condescendingly acting like this is somehow the fault of the users and the displays even thought they work flawlessly with Windows 10.

I’ve yet to actually get anything productive done and still messing around just to get basics going to use a 4k display properly without blurry text. Of course, in Apple’s infinite loop wisdom they saw fit to not include an industry standard HDMI port on this MacBook Pro so I had to not only spend more money on an adapter, I also had to shop around to find a compatible one with 4K and then one that worked with 4K at 60hz.

I’m very much regretting going back to Mac. I used to love Macs compared to Windows because they were much less hassle. The only reason I went back to trying Apple again is I prefer the operating system over Windows 10 in certain respects.

I’m really hoping this “hack” works but more than that I’m hoping that Mac users get back to their roots of being DEMANDING of better quality like they used to be a long time ago. Why are Mac users putting up with this time wasting nonsense?

I’m already on the edge of returning this MacBook Pro and getting a Windows machine and I’ve only had it for a few days now.

Kevin Lien

I went through all these steps, and was able to successfully replace the Override folder with the new one from the rb script. However, after restarting my computer it seems it didn’t fix my resolution.

I’m running Catalina 10.15.4, to a Samsung JG56 WQHD monitor.

Any suggestions?

gpee

I am hooking Dell S2719DC with MacBook Pro Retina 2019. I have followed the above instructions. Successfully placed the right DisplayVendorID in the Overrides folder and it is not working for me. the text is still very blurry.

Izabel

This worked for me a few months ago for my MacBook Pro and Dell U2713H

I think there was an update a few weeks ago and it broke again, the fixed option is still there in the monitor settings, it just doesn’t do anything anymore.

I’ve gone through the process again, however now I am unable to copy the fixed file to the Overrides folder, I’ve disabled SIP but I keep getting a permissions error when I try copy or when I try using sudo to copy it in terminal.

Has anyone else had this happen? It’s quite frustrating that it was working and it’s broke again :/

elli

in reply to Izabel

Hello! I am also encountering the same issue.

After performing these steps: 4. Type: sudo mount -uw / 5. Enter Password. 6. Type: rm -rf /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-#

I only get:

/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-#: Permission denied (I do replace the # with the actual numbers).

Please help!

fpaula

I just cannot believe Apple really left everybody out on just making a simple monitor to not work with their system. Unfair Walled Garden strategy - 32" HP HD Monitor just do not work well and is all pixel-led. Unbelievable need all this system additional steps to make it work well

Scott S.

I have a Dell U2720Q monitor connected to a 13" MacBook from 2018 via USB-C and noticed my black levels are crushed. I tried this fix to force RGB mode and the fix is applied (I can see the EDID) however I’m still stuck in “limited range” RGB mode where as I need “full range” RGB mode in order to see all the black levels. Is there a way to tweak this script to create a version which not only forced RGB but also forced “full range” RGB mode?

Joe K

This worked…

For macOS Sierra, Version 10.12.6 with External Monitor Lenovo Q24i-10

One note: When I used the cp -r method (that Marcus laid out), it didn’t work for me for some reason.

Instead, I had to use the cp -R method (for me: cp-R r /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/____/Desktop/DisplayVendorID-* /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/

Not sure if it was the same for others.

Joseph

Follow the original instructions for running the script:

"

  1. Download the patch-edid.rb script from the forums thread above, or download Andrew Daugherity’s improved patch-edid.rb script from his github page. Put the script in your home directory.

  2. Connect only the external monitor(s) in question, if you can (I closed my MacBook lid, for example). The script will make override files for any connected monitor.

  3. Open Terminal, Type “ruby patch-edid.rb” in Terminal (By default, you will be in your home directory when opening up Terminal). " That’s how you run the script to get the folders that you need.

Johnny

Anyone tried the procedure on Big Sur?

Federico E Carpi

in reply to Johnny

Hey Johnny, yes … early today, and I was not able to write on the folder due to the new os filesystem protections :( still trying.

Jader

Hi all,

After update to Big Sur, there are some extra steps on “Marcus proposed method” that need to be done. So here is my upgraded version of his steps.

1.) Start by running the .rb script.

It only generates a couple of files in your user’s directory and does not require any special rights to read the current monitor / tv configuration. (TV must be connected).

2.) Be sure that FileVault is disabled. You find it in Preferences->Security and Privacy.

3.) Boot to into the recovery system (Cmd+R during boot).

All your files are accessible here and you have write permissions to the “Overrides” folder. Your system disk is just not mounted to / but to /Volumes/ (e.g. “/Volumes/Macintosh HD/”)

If you cannot see some of this mounted folders, open the Disk Utility app and mount them, then close Disk Utility and open the terminal again.

4.) Remount the Machintosh HD volume in read-wirte mode -bash-3.2# mount -u -w /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD

5.) Open a terminal and copy the DisplayVendor-directory. Remember that every path is now prefixed by “/Volumes/Macintosh HD/”.

E.g. I had the Ruby script in a folder “EDID-Fix” on my desktop. -bash-3.2# cp -r /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/marcus/Desktop/EDID-Fix/DisplayVendorID-* /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/

6.) Create a new blessed snapshot of the Machintosh HD volume -bash-3.2# bless –folder /Volumes/Machintosh\ HD/System/Library/CoreServices –bootefi –create-snapshot

7.) Disable authenticated-root on crsutil -bash-3.2# csrutil authenticated-root disable

8.) Reboot to your system

Cheers, Jader

John

in reply to Jader

I have done the same but now it really takes 5 minutes to boot my macbook. It just hangs for 4-5 minutes and continues booting.

Federico E Carpi

Ahhh! it works!!!

From here: https://gist.github.com/ejdyksen/8302862#gistcomment-3526456

For Big Sur, the process is a bit different, since step 2 doesn’t work. The solution is creating the folder /Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides and using that instead of /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides

drknickel

Actually, for me the process with Big Sur is super easy now.

  1. Download the patch-edid.rb script from the forums thread above, or download Andrew Daugherity’s improved patch-edid.rb script from his github page. Put the script in your home directory.

  2. Connect only the external monitor(s) in question, if you can (I closed my MacBook lid, for example). The script will make override files for any connected monitor.

  3. Type “ruby patch-edid.rb” in Terminal.

  4. Copy the new folder to /Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides <- You have to create these folders, Display and all the rest did not exist.

  5. Reboot and you are done.

  6. Check if the Display is listed as EDID override in the system information section.

Whole process takes only 5 minutes now :)

danlivas's gravatar

danlivas

in reply to drknickel

Didn’t work as expected… downgrades my 4K TV to a 1080p display with no option to set correct 4K resolution. HiDPI options also went missing. Any help?

dragoncartoon

in reply to drknickel

I confirm this step work for Big Sur.

mountainmanjoe

2019 16" MBP user here with a Dell U2711. I gave up on trying to hack things. I just bought a USB-C to DisplayPort Adapter for 20 bucks and the monitor works perfectly at 2560x1440 RGB with digital sound.

And I don’t have to worry about future OS updates breaking things.

Izabel Van Der Ploeg

in reply to mountainmanjoe

I took your advice and got myself an ALogic USB-C to Display Port adaptor after BigSur broke my Dell U2713H again!

And happy to report works straight away, checked the colour profile and it is now set to RGB, had to swap back and forth juuuust to check it was fixed, which it is :)

Fingers crossed this hardware fix is a long term fix, I was starting to get very sick of having to fix it every update!

Running: MacBook Pro 13" 2018 with Dell u2713H and the Alogic USB-C to Display Port adaptor

techiegaldk

Hi, I have the same problem with a monitor. Just got the new MacMini M1 and connected it to my Samsung LC34J791 Wide monitor. And almost fell of the chair as to how bad the picture looks. So I wanna try this. BUT when I run the script in terminal it says: “No display data found! Are any external displays connected?” If I write yes or y then a lots of “y”’s are shown in terminal and nothing happens. Any idea as to what I can do? PS. The MacMini is connected to the monitor with a thunderbolt cable

Comzee

Just tested this myself with a Macbook Air m1. Same result. I have been using this script for years on my intel MACs, and worked fine.

It appears the script needs to be updated for M1 macs. Who knows if the original author ever will tho. At this point, can just put up a big middle finger to Apple for excluding such a simple option from their display settings, “display full range” vs “limited range” UGH, so dumb.

Peter Chabot

in reply to Comzee

Same, trying to get my external LG display to work via my Thinkpad Thunderbolt 3 Gen 2 dock, everything else on the dock works including Ethernet, just not the HDMI/DisplayPorts (or just not my external monitor? Not sure which is at fault). I have a brand new M1 MacBook Air, monitor is LG-34WK650-W - I know it recognizes the devices, it appears in system info and triggers the screen to turn on, however it’s just a black screen and then shuts off again :(

Ben

Wow, glad I found this. There’s some good guides in the comments if you dig for them. At first I thought this didn’t work, but going back to the display settings showed different values, which was a good sign! I had played with the settings on the actual monitor which I also reset. Thanks very much!

Gino Pilotino

I do confirm that It worked on my Imac 27 mid 2010 wit High Sierra 10.13.6. used the advanced script and now finally the annoying colour glitches are gone for good.

Gino Pilotino

in reply to Gino Pilotino

to be more detailed, I have an external AOC Q27P1B 27" monitor.

I’ve right now tried the patch on a Mac Mini with High SIERRA 10.13.6 too, which uses an ASUS monitor connected via HDMI which suffers here and then of this color box issue on finder windows and it seems better looking right now.

So two positives report.

Gino Pilotino

damn, few minutes of use and the issue is back on the imac :(
Diego Camacho's gravatar

Diego Camacho

In my case (Macbook Pro 13’ Mid 2015 and Samsung 24’ LF24T400FHLXZL) the steps to force to use RGB worked (which in my case I didn’t see any improvement so I assume my settings were already as RGB) but I hate Apple for forcing me to lower my screen resolution from 1920x1080 to 1600x900 so I could read the text clearer and it wouldn’t look so pixelated.

David

https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/649832 Here it states that for Big Sur you can simply copy it into the equivalent /Library folder (/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides) and it should work even without going “rootless”

okfunk

For Big Sur this worked for me:

  1. sudo cp -R /System/Library/Displays /Library/
  2. sudo cp -r ~/DisplayVendorID-4c2d /Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-4c2d

I was almost desperate when I found this and it worked

MikeM

Just used the first script to generate the override file for my 2nd Dell Monitor. Found I couldn’t mount the MacHD in rescue mode. Tried using a SuperDuper bootable back up for the job, but same issue. Eventually sussed that I needed to disconnect my CalDigit hub, then boot using back up disc, and the rest is history. Many thanks. (MacBook Pro 13" retina 2013 model)

MikeM

BTW if you have a bootable back up, then you don’t need to use terminal to install the revised override file….just boot from BU, and drag file into MacHD system. You will be asked to authenticate… ie enter admin password.