Big Sur - Force RGB mode for displays (2024)

Some users might be aware that there has been a great fix using a Ruby script to create a new EDID for your display. This is to fix an issue with some displays and Mac OS whereby it sees the display as a TV screen and is not using RGB mode for it, resulting in a very bad display quality (washed out, fuzzy, pixelated, etc).

The 'old' trick with using the Ruby script and placing the files in .../System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/ doesn't work any longer, even with SIP disabled as the file system is now mounted read-only. You can mount it read-write but that's a very long-winded and potentially lethal solution.

The easy fix:

1. download the ruby script: https://gist.github.com/adaugherity/7435890
2. in terminal, run the script with 'ruby' followed by the script location/name
3. it will create a folder in your home directory (something like 'DisplayVendorID-XXXX...)
4. in /Library/ create following new folders: Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/
5. copy the whole folder from step 3 (located in your home folder) to the Overrides folder you created in step 4
6. reboot

Credits go to: https://www.mathewinkson.com/2013/0...ix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor for the original solution/follow ups, https://gist.github.com/adaugherity for the forked Ruby patch andhttps://www.reddit.com/r/MacOSBeta/comments/ipk1yn for revealing that you have to change the place of the EDID folder to /Library instead of /System/Library

I hope this helps anyone with this problem.

happyhippo1337 said:

Awesome thx. However after using this, I have no option to select more than 60 HZ on my external display. How would I fix this?

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Can’t help you there I’m afraid, sorry!

danlivas said:

Works, but supports a maximum of 1080p screen resolution on a Samsung MU9000 4K TV. Used to work with 4K resolutions in Catalina. Any help?

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Not sure, I've got an Acer B276HUL and running it at native 2560 × 1440px. Check if you can chose different resolutions under System Preferences, Displays; then hold alt/option and click on 'scaled'. Doing this usually shows more available resolutions.

IrmaN said:

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

Click to expand...

Have the same issue. Came a bit further than you. Turns out that the data returned by the ioreg call done in the script differs when executed on our new macs. Can't tell if this is due to a change in Big Sur or caused by the MacMini itself. Anyway, the script can't be used on M1 computers, as far as I can tell. I did however manage to connect the monitor to my old computer, run the script there, move the resulting folder to the new computer and place in the, by me, created directories /Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides.
After a restart the text blurriness is gone.
Try that if you have another computer around.

jelu77 said:

Any update on this? Would really like to have RGB on my Dell U2720Q with Mac Mini M1

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Well, the update would be that either you educate yourself on how to get the right information out of the ioreg data and convert it to a usable EDID, or you run the script on another computer and move the resulting EDID folder/file to the proper location on your new MacMini.
The latter worked for me. But... the computer now sends RGB... still looks crappy. Crappy in a different way though. I caved in and ordered a new monitor yesterday. Hopefully have it before end of week.

c:v said:

Some users might be aware that there has been a great fix using a Ruby script to create a new EDID for your display. This is to fix an issue with some displays and Mac OS whereby it sees the display as a TV screen and is not using RGB mode for it, resulting in a very bad display quality (washed out, fuzzy, pixelated, etc).

The 'old' trick with using the Ruby script and placing the files in .../System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/ doesn't work any longer, even with SIP disabled as the file system is now mounted read-only. You can mount it read-write but that's a very long-winded and potentially lethal solution.

The easy fix:

1. download the ruby script: https://gist.github.com/adaugherity/7435890
2. in terminal, run the script with 'ruby' followed by the script location/name
3. it will create a folder in your home directory (something like 'DisplayVendorID-XXXX...)
4. in /Library/ create following new folders: Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/
5. copy the whole folder from step 3 (located in your home folder) to the Overrides folder you created in step 4
6. reboot

Credits go to: https://www.mathewinkson.com/2013/0...ix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor for the original solution/follow ups, https://gist.github.com/adaugherity for the forked Ruby patch andhttps://www.reddit.com/r/MacOSBeta/comments/ipk1yn for revealing that you have to change the place of the EDID folder to /Library instead of /System/Library

I hope this helps anyone with this problem.

Click to expand...

Hi there - this is unfortunately not working, as the Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/ is read-only. I tried to execute this solution, but it didn't work either: https://spin.atomicobject.com/2018/08/24/macbook-pro-external-monitor-display-problem/ - can you please help?

Hi - please could someone give me a hand with this? I'm a total beginner with Terminal etc. and have got to step 3 but after hours of googling and trying different combinations I can't copy the new file into Overrides from the Home folder. Please could someone copy and paste their script so that I can see where I might be going wrong?

Thanks so much.

sammyproctor said:

Hi - please could someone give me a hand with this? I'm a total beginner with Terminal etc. and have got to step 3 but after hours of googling and trying different combinations I can't copy the new file into Overrides from the Home folder. Please could someone copy and paste their script so that I can see where I might be going wrong?

Thanks so much.

Click to expand...

tell application "Finder"

activate

set position of Finder window 1 to {1471, 125}

set target of Finder window 1 to startup disk

set target of Finder window 1 to folder "Library" of startup disk

set target of Finder window 1 to folder "Displays" of folder "Library" of startup disk

set target of Finder window 1 to folder "Contents" of folder "Displays" of folder "Library" of startup disk

set target of Finder window 1 to folder "Resources" of folder "Contents" of folder "Displays" of folder "Library" of startup disk

set target of Finder window 1 to folder "Overrides" of folder "Resources" of folder "Contents" of folder "Displays" of folder "Library" of startup disk

set target of Finder window 1 to folder "DisplayVendorID-4c2d" of folder "Overrides" of folder "Resources" of folder "Contents" of folder "Displays" of folder "Library" of startup disk

open document file "DisplayProductID-701e.plist" of folder "DisplayVendorID-4c2d" of folder "Overrides" of folder "Resources" of folder "Contents" of folder "Displays" of folder "Library" of startup disk

end tell

Hopefully that helps. I just ran my script from opening finder to the locaiton of the file. What issues are you running into? I might be able to help. I'm a newbie with xcode, terminal and script writer, so there is no telling.

Did anyone find a solution to this for M1 Macs yet?

JolleC said:

Have the same issue. Came a bit further than you. Turns out that the data returned by the ioreg call done in the script differs when executed on our new macs. Can't tell if this is due to a change in Big Sur or caused by the MacMini itself. Anyway, the script can't be used on M1 computers, as far as I can tell. I did however manage to connect the monitor to my old computer, run the script there, move the resulting folder to the new computer and place in the, by me, created directories /Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides.
After a restart the text blurriness is gone.
Try that if you have another computer around.

Click to expand...

I also connected the display to my old MacBook and generated the folder/file. Then I copied it to '/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides' on my M1 MacBook and rebooted but nothing changed really.
Font is still blurry at some points and my monitor is still set to YPbPr.
Any other tips?

sammyproctor said:

Hi - please could someone give me a hand with this? I'm a total beginner with Terminal etc. and have got to step 3 but after hours of googling and trying different combinations I can't copy the new file into Overrides from the Home folder. Please could someone copy and paste their script so that I can see where I might be going wrong?

Thanks so much.

Click to expand...

1. Open Terminal
2. ruby [path-to-script]
3. cd /library
4. mkdir -p Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/ ("-p" = path option: this creates all subfolders at once)
5. Use two finder windows to drag-and-drop the newly created folder from step 2 to the Overrides directory

Thanks to the OP for posting this fix!

I seem to have success with myy M1 MBk Air and Panasonic 4k TV, by creating the EDID in an intel 2016 13″ Mbk Pro and copying over to the M1 Air.

I say “seem” bcos there are a lot of internal (Panasonic Viera 40″ 4k TV) settings that will also affect things and i had to tweak those a bit to get close to something like the Air’s internal screen. BUT this is way way better than the heavily posterized, really hard on the eyes picture i was getting prior. So i’m very happy for now. But this has taken me about 6 weeks of persistent research and experiments to even get to the “force RGB” solutoin and then resolve. AFTER having had to get to grips with the mac > TB3 > DP > HDMI chain required to get 4k/60fps. Given the number of monitors and displays that have this issue, why apple, is there not a “Force RGB checkbox in the displays settings, or at least the calib ration wizardy thing?

Tim Gummer said:

why apple, is there not a “Force RGB checkbox in the displays settings […]?

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THIS!

Apple’s automate-everything approach is nice and all, but when it’s not working as intended, it’d be nice to have an easy way to override the automation routines!

Yurk said:

Is there a guide on how to force RGB mode on MacOS Monterey? I have a Sony PVM Α250 OLED monitor connected via HDMI and an adapter to a 2019 16" Intel MacBook Pro, and I only get 444 YCbCR output which looks horrible.

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Doesn’t the guide work for you?