A script to fix EDID problems on external monitors in macOS

patch-edid.md

patch-edid.rb

A script to fix EDID problems on external monitors in macOS.

Instructions

1. Connect only the problem display.

2. Create this directory structure (if it doesn't already exist):

   sudo mkdir -p /Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides

3. Download this ruby script in that directory:

   cd /Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides
   sudo curl -O https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ejdyksen/8302862/raw/patch-edid.rb

   Note: You may want to use adaugherity's version of the script instead.

4. Run the script we just downloaded (as root again). This creates a new display override plist file.

   cd /Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides
   sudo ruby patch-edid.rb

5. Unplug and replug in the problem display.

Additional reading/acknowledgements

• The original forum thread
• An improved version of the script by adaugherity
• An explaination of the problem from Atomic Object's blog
• Thanks so much to @stackrainbow for pointing out that this can be done without disabling SIP.
• This version appears to work in Catalina and Big Sur. See earlier revisions for what worked (with disabling SIP) in earlier versions of macOS, which require the override plist to be in a different directory.

patch-edid.rb

#!/usr/bin/ruby
# Create display override file to force Mac OS X to use RGB mode for Display
# see http://embdev.net/topic/284710
# 
# Update 2013-06-24: added -w0 option to prevent truncated lines

require 'base64'

data=`ioreg -l -w0 -d0 -r -c AppleDisplay`

edid_hex=data.match(/IODisplayEDID.*?<([a-z0-9]+)>/i)[1]
vendorid=data.match(/DisplayVendorID.*?([0-9]+)/i)[1].to_i
productid=data.match(/DisplayProductID.*?([0-9]+)/i)[1].to_i

puts "found display: vendorid #{vendorid}, productid #{productid}, EDID:\n#{edid_hex}"

bytes=edid_hex.scan(/../).map{|x|Integer("0x#{x}")}.flatten

puts "Setting color support to RGB 4:4:4 only"
bytes[24] &= ~(0b11000)

puts "Number of extension blocks: #{bytes[126]}"
puts "removing extension block"
bytes = bytes[0..127]
bytes[126] = 0

bytes[127] = (0x100-(bytes[0..126].reduce(:+) % 256)) % 256
puts 
puts "Recalculated checksum: 0x%x" % bytes[127]
puts "new EDID:\n#{bytes.map{|b|"%02X"%b}.join}"

Dir.mkdir("DisplayVendorID-%x" % vendorid) rescue nil
f = File.open("DisplayVendorID-%x/DisplayProductID-%x" % [vendorid, productid], 'w')
f.write '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">'
f.write "
<dict>
  <key>DisplayProductName</key>
  <string>Display with forced RGB mode (EDID override)</string>
  <key>IODisplayEDID</key>
  <data>#{Base64.encode64(bytes.pack('C*'))}</data>
  <key>DisplayVendorID</key>
  <integer>#{vendorid}</integer>
  <key>DisplayProductID</key>
  <integer>#{productid}</integer>
</dict>
</plist>"
f.close

Here is my issue, I am sending signal from Mac to a monitor via HDbaseT adapter, and I get a display like this: https://i.imgur.com/yO1ArVp.png

Whats strange is if I rotate the picture 90 or 180 degrees it looks completely perfect. But setting it back to Standard it goes back looking like the picture. I tried running this script, but it didnt improve it.

@apassiou What Mac, GPU, resolution, adapter, monitor? Do you mean 90° and 270° rotation? If it were 180°, then you could just turn the display upside down. 90° or 270° means the height becomes the width which is lower than the original width. So maybe the adapter doesn't like the original width. This seems like a limitation of the adapter, gpu, or the display. Did you try without the adapter?

Hello! i'm currently using a samsung qn90b connected to a macbook m1 2020" via a dell docking station. When connected to the docking, it's running at 8bit depth while if i plug the display straight into my mac, it runs at 10bit color depth. Any workaround for this issue? thanks!!

@johntitor2049 the dock might not have the port or the bandwidth to support 10bit color depth, or the Mac simply doesn't recognize it properly.

If possible, it would be best to connect the monitor directly when 10bit color depth is required

How can I activate HDR support with this patch?

@Fedosov83 I'm not sure if you can use both HDR and RGB Color Output over a typical HDMI connection. You might need USB-C to DisplayPort for that, but it might again revert to YCbCr when using that combination

Hi Vladimir, thank you for this and I appreciate the effort you put into helping the community. The steps was clear and it seemed like it worked.

Could I get your help to confirm if my Safari is now in HiDPI? Here is an attached screenshot. It seems like there are less sections than the image you have attached, but text is crisp now.

Setup:

• Macbook Pro M3
• Monitor #1: Dell S2722DC
• Moniter #2: Dell S2421HS
• Dock Dell D6000

@xavierchen0 thank you so much for your comment.

Yes, you're right, the HiDPI version of the icon should have a lot more notches with varying sizes. Here is an example of how it should look like:

You can also check in System Information if the resolution is HiDPI:

• Click on the Apple  Logo on the Top Menu Bar
• Hold option/alt on the Keyboard and click on System Information
• Choose Graphics

It should show something like resolution is 3840 x 2160, and UI looks like 1920 x 1080

Oh I am not using a 4K monitor 😅. I am actually using a 27 inch 2K monitor.

This is a screenshot of my system information:

From what I can see, it seems to be working. Thank you for your prompt response!

Edit: I am aware this doesn't fit the description of HiDPI, but something was causing my display to have very blurry text, hence I was looking up the internet for a solution and stumbled to your page.

@xavierchen0 yes, you were trying to get (pseudo) HiDPI on standard monitors in order for the macOS interface to look a bit better. They don't seem to optimize the UI for the 1080p monitors anymore. Even the cursor line when typing can cover come characters since it's too thick/bold.

Anyway, the resolution should still show double in the system information and the scale should be set to 2x.

Here is a detailed guide how to enable HiDPI mode on standard monitors: https://gist.github.com/GetVladimir/c89a26df1806001543bef4c8d90cc2f8?permalink_comment_id=4207112#gistcomment-4207112

Please note that it won't look nearly as good as it would look on a real 4K display with 2x scaling