Apple Releases Studio Display Firmware Update to Fix Speaker Issue

[constructor]

Update rollout is usually staggered via CDNs (content delivery networks) so you will see it when the CDN branch you're assigned to has the update forwarded to it.

So it is normal that there will be different delays seen by users. Just be patient and check again later!

I see it here right now, but that doesn't mean that you will see it at the same time; Can be a few minutes or even hours apart.

 

[constructor]

The discussion was about whether it was even possible, and as my post proved - yes, it was very possible to have 120hz/5k.

Not at full quality: The bandwidth simply isn't enough yet.

And running a high-grade, 10 bit, 5k display with compression just to increase the frame rate is something gamers might be trying but it would be pointless and self-contradictory when talking about actual display quality.

You even mention there was 2 products already in the Mac line up which could take advantage of it at the time of release.

Incorporating that technology in there, is called future-proofing a product - which Apple chose not to do.
And is the exact reason people are disappointed/not buying it, as Apple did the bare minimum, called it "sensational" and slapped a nice Apple-tax on top.

Utter nonsense.

 

[-BigMac-]

Not at full quality: The bandwidth simply isn't enough yet.

And running a high-grade, 10 bit, 5k display with compression just to increase the frame rate is something gamers might be trying but it would be pointless and self-contradictory when talking about actual display quality.


Utter nonsense.

Firstly, DSC is visually lossless.
The Apple XDR 10-bit display uses DSC (which is what is needed to hit 120hz/5k). The Dell 8k 10-bit display uses DSC also. Please don't confuse people when you have no idea what you are talking about.

You think its "utter nonsense" to "future-proof" a $1599 monitor with technology which is already out?

If Apple slaps their tax on it, the least they could do is cater to technology they already have in their line up.

 

[constructor]

And as to the clamoring for a "dumb" display: That idea is just that.

There is no such thing as a "dumb display" any more and simply cannot be. There are just displays which never get any firmware updates even when they need them and where problems are either impossible or so cumbersome to fix that nobody bothers.

The ASD has not just the usual image control done by its integrated processor but also quite advanced signal processing which deals with the camera image and also provides excellent sound quality to its microphones and to its speakers without the connected Macs needing to spend any computing resources on that.

That is a good thing!

Also a good thing is that this signal processing can be updated, as is happening right now, and that Apple actually provides such updates when needed.

Nobody will claim that the need for such updates due to bugs was a good thing, but given that in the real world bugs can happen, actually getting those fixed is the right next best thing.

Apple does deserve criticism for the bugs, but not for designing the ASD to be updatable and actually providing such updates!

 

[Yebubbleman]

Odd that they're not standardizing the version number to match all other non-watch iOS derivatives (e.g. iOS 15.6, iPadOS 15.6, HomePod Software 15.6, tvOS 15.6, etc.)

 

[calstanford]

That monitor put together out of various old parts is quite the dud

 

[constructor]

Firstly, DSC is visually lossless.

No, it isn't and can't be, not in general.

The Apple XDR 10-bit display uses DSC (which is what is needed to hit 120hz/5k).

No, it doesn't!

It may support it in a pinch in a degraded mode if there is absolutely no other way, but the XDR has exactly that specific 6k/10bit resolution because that is almost exactly the absolute maximum resolution that fits through a Thunderbolt 3/4 connection without compression!

That is also the reason why the XDR only has USB2 ports: The XDR's uncompressed video data stream simply doesn't leave enough bandwidth for USB3!

The ASD with its 5k/10bit resolution uses more than half of the Thunderbolt bandwidth, but there is still enough left for a few USB3 ports even so (though not for all 3 USB3 ports at maximum bandwidth at the same time!).

The Dell 8k 10-bit display uses DSC also.

No, it needs two Display Port connections for enough bandwidth!

It may also support DSC for a degraded, artefact-riddled fallback mode, but that is not what it's designed to do.

Please don't confuse people when you have no idea what you are talking about.

You think its "utter nonsense" to "future-proof" a $1599 monitor with technology which is already out?

If Apple slaps their tax on it, the least they could do is cater to technology they already have in their line up.

You are just making lots of assumptions which are just plain wrong.

 

[constructor]

That monitor put together out of various old parts is quite the dud

Not at all! I'm running two of those and I could hardly be happier!

In the bad old days when I could only have a single decent 5k display in an iMac as the only choice I was hoping for exactly what the ASD now delivers, and I'm very satisfied now, even more so by using an additional 4k monitor side by side and can very clearly see the difference in quality (it's okay for what I need it for, but only because it was dirt-cheap).

 

[eRondeau]

My audio cut-out a week ago for the first time. Unplugged it and my Mac Mini from power overnight and it was fine in the morning. More importantly, I've now been through THREE Firmware Updates on my Studio Display and each of them have failed. Requiring at least a half-hour of restarts for them to work. This cannot be normal. I follow all the instructions every time but they keep failing and the monitor only shows the support.apple.com/display/restore link -- for numerous retries. Followed those instructions each time too... finally the display fan started blasting like a jet engine and the update "took". Did anybody else have to suffer through this too? Ugh!

 

[Shirasaki]

What do you think will happen when support ends? The firmware will explode and set the screen on fire?

There’s zero reason to assume the screen will not last as long as dumb screens.

This is in fact an upgrade from the iMac where the screen does get obsolete when the computer is outdated. My 2015 iMac is slow as hell but the screen is still great. But I still need to toss out the entire machine.

Ok, tell me, how do you enjoy that beautiful screen that is tied to a computer with outdated system? With Ventura? Monterey? As an external monitor?

If apple can block usb connectivity in iOS and iPadOS software, they can also block display connectivity through their “iOS”. They might not have the incentive to do that just yet, but I have no hope they will never do so. Yes, panel is great, but it won’t accept any connections anymore like a dumb display would do otherwise, should apple desire.

 

[theorist9]

I mean the iPad Pro and iPhone 13 Pro have it so I’m pretty sure it’s bot as expensive as you think it is

Just to clarify, I'm not saying I think it will be expensive, I'm saying I have no idea (as is typical for me ).

You mentioned the iPad, so I looked into this. According to this article from cult of mac:
"The original rumor from China claimed the iPad mini 7 would feature an upgraded 120Hz display. [Display analyst Ross] Young, however, believes it is unlikely to happen. Apple currently uses an “a-Si LCD which isn’t compatible with ProMotion,” he says in response to a tweet. This technology is fairly cheaper than the Oxide LCD tech used for the iPad Pro’s 120Hz panels."

Don’t expect iPad mini 7 to come with 120Hz ProMotion display

Display analyst Ross Young has debunked a rumor claiming the iPad mini 7 could debut with a 120Hz ProMotion display. He says it would be surprising if the

www.cultofmac.com

So it seems plausible that, if the Studio Display already uses oxide LCD tech, 120 Hz should be inexpensively achievable (there is the issue of how to drive it, though). OTOH, if it uses the less expensive Si-LCD tech, and oxide-LCD is expensive to produce for larger displays, then switching could be costly.

Now you could argue that if the oxide-LCD is affordable in the iPad Pro, it should be affordable in the Studio, regardless of what the Studio uses now. I don't know if that's the case. Again using my naive argument: The 12.9" iPad Pro starts at $1100. If you assume half of its cost is the display ($550), then proportionately, based on area, a 27" should cost $2400. So the fact that Apple can sell an iPad Pro with a 12.9" display for $1100 doesn't mean they could put that same type of panel in a stand-alone 27" and sell it for $900.

So, again, I think it comes down to what type of display tech is in the Studio now, which I've not been able to find with a few minutes of Googling—The 32" Pro Display XDR does use oxide-LCD, but I couldn't find anything about the Studio.

 

[constructor]

I've just run the update and it went through in about 5 minutes without a hitch, updating both ASDs from my Mac Studio M1 Max in parallel.


The updating status was displayed on the non-ASD 4k display some of the time while the ASDs went through their "• • •" low-level updates.

I can't say what my difference is to the user who had some issues with the update (other than having another monitor connected at the same time), but it just went through.

After the Mac rebooted the ASDs do indeed show up with the new firmware revision and sound works as it should, although I'm normally using separate speakers via the headphone jack on the Mac Studio.

But the sound is indeed impressive for built-in speakers, especially compared to the speakers in the 4k LG next to them.

Unless you have really good separate speakers (which I happen to have) the ASD is fully usable even for music listening with good quality and at decent volume, contrary to any other monitor I'm aware of!

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

I am starting a club.

It's called the "we just want "dumb" apple displays, no camera, no iPhone guts".

$1199 = 27"
$899 = 24"

Who is in?

And "...no speakers. Just a screen, nothing else."

 

[constructor]

My audio cut-out a week ago for the first time. Unplugged it and my Mac Mini from power overnight and it was fine in the morning. More importantly, I've now been through THREE Firmware Updates on my Studio Display and each of them have failed. Requiring at least a half-hour of restarts for them to work. This cannot be normal. I follow all the instructions every time but they keep failing and the monitor only shows the support.apple.com/display/restore link -- for numerous retries. Followed those instructions each time too... finally the display fan started blasting like a jet engine and the update "took". Did anybody else have to suffer through this too? Ugh!

As I said, the update went through without an issue for me (same with the previous update about the camera).

What might be related:

1. Which Mac mini model are you using, exactly?

2. Is your macOS version the latest one (12.5) or an older one?

3. How much space is left on your system drive?

4. What other peripherals are connected to the Mac and which ones are plugged into the ASD?

5. Is the ASD connected directly to the Mac or daisy-chained through other Thunderbolt devices?

Maybe some of those factors are in common among people who had experienced some issues.

 

[constructor]

So it seems plausible that, if the Studio Display already uses oxide LCD tech, 120 Hz should be inexpensively achievable (there is the issue of how to drive it, though). OTOH, if it uses the less expensive Si-LCD tech, and oxide-LCD is expensive to produce for larger displays, then switching could be costly.

The manufacturing technology of the panel is indeed one of the issues, but it's quite a bit more complicated than just that; After all, you need to run everything at double the speed beyond the already challenging one for a 5k 10bit display.

And that gets really difficult when you still want to preserve good linearity and uniformity and decent production yields.

So no, it is neither simple nor cheap and it's actually not even possible to run 5k/10bit/120Hz through a single Thunderbolt 3/4 port at this time, even if you'd accept spending double the memory bandwidth on driving the display and rendering its content which isn't quite trivial at those resolutions either.

The only alternatives would either be dual cable connections or lossy compression. There is no third option.

 

[-BigMac-]

No, it isn't and can't be, not in general.


No, it doesn't!

It may support it in a pinch in a degraded mode if there is absolutely no other way, but the XDR has exactly that specific 6k/10bit resolution because that is almost exactly the absolute maximum resolution that fits through a Thunderbolt 3/4 connection without compression!

That is also the reason why the XDR only has USB2 ports: The XDR's uncompressed video data stream simply doesn't leave enough bandwidth for USB3!

The ASD with its 5k/10bit resolution uses more than half of the Thunderbolt bandwidth, but there is still enough left for a few USB3 ports even so (though not for all 3 USB3 ports at maximum bandwidth at the same time!).


No, it needs two Display Port connections for enough bandwidth!

It may also support DSC for a degraded, artefact-riddled fallback mode, but that is not what it's designed to do.


You are just making lots of assumptions which are just plain wrong.

1. DSC IS visually lossless. Here are 5 websites which state it is. The fact you are arguing pure fact is ridiculous:

Exploring Visually Lossless UHD Compression | Synopsys IP

Learn about the VESA Display Stream Compression standard and how it enables visually lossless compression for UHD displays.

www.synopsys.com

https://www.quantumdata.com/assets/displayport_dsc_protocols_webinar.pdf

What is Display Stream Compression (DSC)? | Cable Matters Blog

If you’ve been following DisplayPort and USB-C technology, you may ask, What is Display Stream Compression? Read on to find out how 8K video over USB-C and DisplayPort is possible.

www.cablematters.com

Interface IP

Interface IP Powering accelerated computing with high-performance interface IP Contact Us High-speed interconnects between chips, and between processors

www.hardent.com

What Is Display Stream Compression, and Why Does It Matter?

Display Stream Compression, or DSC for short, allows you to reach resolutions and framerates that exceed the capabilities of your monitor's connection.

www.howtogeek.com

2. Apple XDR display REQUIRES DSC for 6k resolution.

Here is Apple's own Pro Display XDR technology overview document. Page 20.
"Pro Display XDR requires a GPU capable of supporting DisplayPort 1.4 with Display Stream Compression (DSC) ... for native 6K resolution."

https://www.apple.com/pro-display-xdr/pdf/Pro_Display_White_Paper_Feb_2020.pdf

You are blatantly lying and presenting your wrong assumptions as fact. Are you going to argue again, even with Apples own documents?

 

[citysnaps]

Yea but can you really consider apple’s current implementation as smart tho? Having an iPhone chip in this thing has given it no new features but instead a ton of software bugs while inflating the price and creating unnecessary heat production. This thing is anything but smart

Apple has never claimed or called it a "smart" display.

"has given it no new features but instead a ton of software bugs"

A ton? That sound like the sky is falling. Yet I've yet to discover a single "bug" with mine.

Tell me about the bugs you've personally experienced with your Studio Display.

 

[Rafagon]

Does anyone know where I can get the wallpaper shown in this article?

 

[constructor]

1. DSC IS visually lossless. Here are 5 websites which state it is. The fact you are arguing pure fact is ridiculous:

It is "visually lossless" the same way as MP3 is "virtually indistinguishable" from the real thing, meaning it does exhibit artefacts when it is forced to reduce the data rate below native but they hope that you normally(!) won't notice(!) them.

2. Apple XDR display REQUIRES DSC for 6k resolution.

Here is Apple's own Pro Display XDR technology overview document. Page 20.
"Pro Display XDR requires a GPU capable of supporting DisplayPort 1.4 with Display Stream Compression (DSC) ... for native 6K resolution."

https://www.apple.com/pro-display-xdr/pdf/Pro_Display_White_Paper_Feb_2020.pdf

Actually:

Pro Display XDR requires a GPU capable of supporting DisplayPort 1.4 with Display Stream Compression (DSC) and Forward Error Correction (FEC), or 

a GPU supporting DisplayPort 1.4 with HBR3 link rate and Thunderbolt Titan Ridge for native 6K resolution.

6016 * 3384 * 10bit * 3colors * 60Hz = 36.644.659.200bits/s

Which does indeed fit into one Thunderbolt 3/4 port, but just so with the small rest left to the USB2 ports and chaff.

As per Apple's specification, this can be achieved either by DSC (if the GPU does not support HBR3 link rate) if you can live with the compression artefacts in a pinch or uncompressed with HBR3 link rate natively without artefacts.

This is the reason why the XDR has that "odd" 6k resolution, because it is the maximum resolution you can drive uncompressed through a Thunderbolt port. If Thunderbolt was already faster than that, they would be able to offer an even larger 8k model and they will be able to with future Thunderbolt speeds, but they are not doing that at the cost of lossy compression now.

That is only a lower-quality fallback mode if you only have a graphics card which can't drive the display in its native uncompressed mode.

You are blatantly lying and presenting your wrong assumptions as fact. Are you going to argue again, even with Apples own documents?

Or you just don't understand nearly as well what you're talking about as you think you do.

 

[-BigMac-]

It is "visually lossless" the same way as MP3 is "virtually indistinguishable" from the real thing, meaning it does exhibit artefacts when it is forced to reduce the data rate below native but they hope that you normally(!) won't notice(!) them.



Actually:

6016 * 3384 * 10bit * 3colors * 60Hz = 36.644.659.200bits/s

Which does indeed fit into one Thunderbolt 3/4 port, but just so with the small rest left to the USB2 ports and chaff.

As per Apple's specification, this can be achieved either by DSC (if the GPU does not support HBR3 link rate) if you can live with the compression artefacts in a pinch or uncompressed with HBR3 link rate natively without artefacts.

This is the reason why the XDR has that "odd" 6k resolution, because it is the maximum resolution you can drive uncompressed through a Thunderbolt port. If Thunderbolt was already faster than that, they would be able to offer an even larger 8k model and they will be able to with future Thunderbolt speeds, but they are not doing that at the cost of lossy compression now.

That is only a lower-quality fallback mode if you only have a graphics card which can't drive the display in its native uncompressed mode.


Or you just don't understand nearly as well what you're talking about as you think you do.

Yep, you are actually arguing with factual sources, and even Apples own documents.

I’m no longer responding to you, please learn to be courteous and respectful and not mislead other users. Bye

 

[constructor]

Yep, you are actually arguing with factual sources, and even Apples own documents.

I’m no longer responding to you, please learn to be courteous and respectful and not mislead other users. Bye

I'm arguing by using facts, and looking closer at those facts than just at a first superficial glance. That is the difference.

 

[theorist9]

The manufacturing technology of the panel is indeed one of the issues, but it's quite a bit more complicated than just that; After all, you need to run everything at double the speed beyond the already challenging one for a 5k 10bit display.

And that gets really difficult when you still want to preserve good linearity and uniformity and decent production yields.

So no, it is neither simple nor cheap and it's actually not even possible to run 5k/10bit/120Hz through a single Thunderbolt 3/4 port at this time, even if you'd accept spending double the memory bandwidth on driving the display and rendering its content which isn't quite trivial at those resolutions either.

The only alternatives would either be dual cable connections or lossy compression. There is no third option.

VESA claims DSC is visually lossless and has done a study to support this: https://sid.onlinelibrary.wiley.com...0N87ePxNPSrNVlD1ITkYv3jl-OH3T4CuC5Ao2xMtOAIJQ

I've looked at it, but the problem is I haven't been able to find multiple independent studies of DSC. I've only been able to find unearth this one, which finds DSC is visually lossless in 2D applications, but not in some stereoscopic applications:

Request Rejected

But this study focused on steroscopic rather than 2D applications, and it's just one study.

So I'd say we don't really know if it's visually lossless or not for use in monitors (2D). I.e., you're asserting you know DSC is not visually lossless for use in monitors. If you have something to support that, please share. I'm saying we don't yet know either way because no independent studies have been done.

Yes, as I acknowledged, driving it could be a problem. I imagine when Apple does evenually introduce large ProMotion displays, they'll do it alongside DP Alt Mode 2.0 in both the display and the new generation of Macs (the first source and sinks for this standard were certified by VESA a couple of months ago). Then I'd expect that older Macs could drive these newer displays either without the ProMotion, or with heavy DSC.

 

[BF1M]

All I know is given how far they knocked it out of the park with a monitor, I can’t wait until their printer arrives.

 

[iJaximus]

I returned my Neo G8 for the studio display. I don't face any issues with speakers and loving this product so far.

I just wanted something plug&play (plug&pray for some other user it seems). The speakers on this monitor is outstanding, crisp and clear.

And a new update is a bonus i guess!

 

[gmanjeff]

Just updated mine. Flawless process that took less than 3 minutes.

View attachment 2039132View attachment 2039135View attachment 2039133

I had the same flawless experience.