Air M2: Pixelated Background in Videos

[RickFG3]

Hi there everyone,

Having an issue with a lot of videos I play on my Macbook Air M2 (purchased in January of this year). The backgrounds frequently are pixelated, particularly when it's a plain dark background. (For example, the wall in the room of a police interrogation room.) The pixelation is a bit like a spiral effect, with lots of large twisting circles. Usually, the people in the foreground are sharp -- it's the background that's the issue.

I've tried several things thus far. I went into Displays in System Settings and turned off Automatically Adjust Brightness and True Tone, and also turned off Night Shift. I also tried watching several of the videos on Safari (rather than Firefox, my preferred browser).

The issue, however, persists. I have included one example here. (From Bruno Mars music video Versace On The Floor.) Any suggestions on how to approach this issue would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Richard

 

[Saturn007]

Have you tried a different color profile? (Settingsisplay) Or, calibrating the display via a custom profile? (Bottom item in the drop down menu there is Customize.)

Does the Contrast setting (under Accessibilityisplay:Increase:Contrast) help?

Hope someone with an M2 MBA chimes in…

 

[lostless]

All is fine. It’s the video. With compression and 8bit color depth, there’s not enough data rate and colors to give a smooth gradient. You may have just never noticed it and some screens show it off more than others.

 

[RickFG3]

All is fine. It’s the video. With compression and 8bit color depth, there’s not enough data rate and colors to give a smooth gradient. You may have just never noticed it and some screens show it off more than others.

Hi Lostless, thank you so much for your reply. (Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, it has been a very busy few days at work.) Thanks too for your information regarding the compression. The video was informative, I appreciate you sharing it. Have a good week.

 

[RickFG3]

Have you tried a different color profile? (Settingsisplay) Or, calibrating the display via a custom profile? (Bottom item in the drop down menu there is Customize.)

Does the Contrast setting (under Accessibilityisplay:Increase:Contrast) help?

Hope someone with an M2 MBA chimes in…

Hello Saturn007, thank you for taking the time to reply. Sorry for the delay in responding to you, it has been a busy few days at work. I tried some different color profiles, and also tried adjusting the contrast setting, as per your suggestions. The problem still remained, however, it's good to know I have those options for other display-related issues. User Lostless has explained the issue is compression rather than the screen. (See above.)