Fuzzy text with LG 38WN95C-W + Base 14" MBP M1 Pro

[irontom]

So, I have the same issue with my 16" M1. The fonts were blurry/fuzzy (especially red on dark background - the letters actually had a bright red halo and washed out middle). Same issue did not happen on my Intel 15"

For me switching from DisplayPort 1.4 to 1.2 solved the jaggines issue, but of course it's 75hz now. So I went back to 1.4 and for me it's 100% dependant on the refresh rate. Super Resolution+ is off.

 

[glyph.]

This type of blurriness is typically caused by chroma subsampling. Switching to DisplayPort 1.2 helps because it decreases your bandwidth, but I've found that dropping from 144Hz to 120Hz accomplishes the same thing without giving up nearly so much. Unfortunately you have to use chroma test patterns to figure out if this is happening, since Apple doesn't seem to provide any software tools to tell you about it:

How can I get macOS to tell me what chroma sampling or subsampling is being used on an external display on an M1 mac?

After receiving my MacBookPro18,4 (i.e. MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021)) with an M1 Max chip and seeing the ProMotion display, I was hooked on high (>60Hz) refresh rates, and treated myself to a LG

apple.stackexchange.com

 

[secretk]

Do you guys still have problems with this?

I recently started new job and on question what laptop I want, I chose MacBook Pro 14. Not sure if it is relevant but for completeness, those are the specs - 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, M1 MAX (32 GPU cores).

I do own 38WN95C monitor and have not read anything in Internet before choosing the MacBook. I read that some people have issues with external displays and decided to check if there are comments around this monitor. And I found this thread.

Interestingly I do not have issues. I have not had to tweak anything, I use the default settings. I also connect via Thunderbolt.

Here you can see. I do have installed LG OnScreen software though because this is what I use for windows management on the ultra wide. I split the screen in halves and then first half is split in half (horizontally) as well. Can't say if this is a factor and helps but I have no issues with blurred texts.

 

[IvoriesTinkler]

Do you guys still have problems with this?

I recently started new job and on question what laptop I want, I chose MacBook Pro 14. Not sure if it is relevant but for completeness, those are the specs - 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, M1 MAX (32 GPU cores).

I do own 38WN95C monitor and have not read anything in Internet before choosing the MacBook. I read that some people have issues with external displays and decided to check if there are comments around this monitor. And I found this thread.

Interestingly I do not have issues. I have not had to tweak anything, I use the default settings. I also connect via Thunderbolt.

View attachment 2139848
Here you can see. I do have installed LG OnScreen software though because this is what I use for windows management on the ultra wide. I split the screen in halves and then first half is split in half (horizontally) as well. Can't say if this is a factor and helps but I have no issues with blurred texts.

It looks as though you did this screenshot on your MacBook 14", as the image size is 1654 x 1698 pixels and the LG 38WN95-C only has a vertical resolution of 1600 pixels. I wonder if you'd be kind enough to redo it on the actual LG monitor.... Ahhh...., I've just realised I might be talking rubbish here, perhaps macOS just uses the original resolution of the host MacBook for the screenshot. If so, could you take a photo of a section of the LG screen, to show how the resolution looks up close?

This is probably a lot to ask here, so please don't worry if it is inconvenient, but as I'm about to lash out on one of these LG 38" monitors, it would be nice to know in advance what sort of picture quality I can expect.

 

[secretk]

It looks as though you did this screenshot on your MacBook 14", as the image size is 1654 x 1698 pixels and the LG 38WN95-C only has a vertical resolution of 1600 pixels. I wonder if you'd be kind enough to redo it on the actual LG monitor.... Ahhh...., I've just realised I might be talking rubbish here, perhaps macOS just uses the original resolution of the host MacBook for the screenshot. If so, could you take a photo of a section of the LG screen, to show how the resolution looks up close?

No, you are right. This screenshot was to show the settings applied for the monitor. The screenshot was on the Macbook Pro display indeed. I will see how to take a screenshot of something on the monitor.

This is probably a lot to ask here, so please don't worry if it is inconvenient, but as I'm about to lash out on one of these LG 38" monitors, it would be nice to know in advance what sort of picture quality I can expect.

No worries. I will try to find something appropriate the next few days and will share.

 

[IvoriesTinkler]

No, you are right. This screenshot was to show the settings applied for the monitor. The screenshot was on the Macbook Pro display indeed. I will see how to take a screenshot of something on the monitor.

No worries. I will try to find something appropriate the next few days and will share.

Cheers, thanks for your willingness to help!

 

[secretk]

Cheers, thanks for your willingness to help!

As promised here are few screenshots from apps that were open on the monitor:

This is the whole monitor layout, I have the two apps open. Settings cannot fill in the full slot.

This is just the settings app.

And just the Freeform app.

 

[IvoriesTinkler]

Thanks so much for this!

I must admit, I had a bit of a heart murmur when I saw your first whole monitor image. No way can I read that! But the image seems to have been shrunk somewhat, as it is only 883 pixels in height, and the monitor has 1600 pixels vertically.

The other two images, however, are perfectly legible and would appear to be at the correct size. I actually compared your image of the appearance settings with my appearance settings window on my old monitor and they were exactly the same size. One final check: you are running the monitor at its native 3840 x 1600 resolution, aren't you?

Thanks for all this help and in the next few days I'll be ordering one myself. I shall, however, go for the cheaper LG 38WP85C version (WP instead of WN), as I'm pretty sure I can live with the limitation of just having a 60Hz refresh rate, smaller colour space and somewhat less brightness.

 

[secretk]

Thanks so much for this!

I must admit, I had a bit of a heart murmur when I saw your first whole monitor image. No way can I read that! But the image seems to have been shrunk somewhat, as it is only 883 pixels in height, and the monitor has 1600 pixels vertically.

I am new MacOS user so I might have done something wrong. However what I did is I used the Capture app and took the screenshot. I had to edit it a bit because in the Settings you could see my full name so I had to remove that.

The other two images, however, are perfectly legible and would appear to be at the correct size. I actually compared your image of the appearance settings with my appearance settings window on my old monitor and they were exactly the same size. One final check: you are running the monitor at its native 3840 x 1600 resolution, aren't you?

As again new to MacOS how can I check this? I honestly did not do any additional setup. I plugged in the monitor and installed the LG app.

Thanks for all this help and in the next few days I'll be ordering one myself. I shall, however, go for the cheaper LG 38WP85C version (WP instead of WN), as I'm pretty sure I can live with the limitation of just having a 60Hz refresh rate, smaller color space and somewhat less brightness.

The WN monitor is indeed not cheap. I confirm. Hopefully you do not have issues.

 

[IvoriesTinkler]

I am new MacOS user so I might have done something wrong. However what I did is I used the Capture app and took the screenshot. I had to edit it a bit because in the Settings you could see my full name so I had to remove that.

An easy way to take a screenshot is to press Shift-Command-4. A cross-hairs appears at the cursor position and you can drag down from top left to bottom right to capture the part of the screen that ends up in the resulting box. When you let go, a small image of the screenshot appears on the bottom right corner of your desktop for about 5 seconds. During this time you can click on it to edit it. It is a png file and once you press done (or do not edit it at all), it is saved to your desktop. Going back to the Shift-Command-4 shortcut, if, when you have got the cross-hairs, you then press the spacebar, the crosshairs turn into a camera symbol and it preselects any window it may be hovering over. You can move it around to select a complete window and then click your pointing device. You then get a screenshot of the complete window in question.

As again new to MacOS how can I check this? I honestly did not do any additional setup. I plugged in the monitor and installed the LG app.

You can see what display resolution your monitor is currently working at by going into settings and selecting "Displays". Here is my current monitor and its settings:

The WN monitor is indeed not cheap. I confirm. Hopefully you do not have issues.

Thanks!

 

[joevt]

You can see what display resolution your monitor is currently working at by going into settings and selecting "Displays".

That only shows the framebuffer size (or a quarter of the framebuffer size if it's a HiDPI mode).
To show output resolution size, you need to use a third party app that can view the timing info, such as SwitchResX. In SwitchResX, double click the selected resolution in the Current Resolutions list. It will show active pixels, scaled pixels, pixel clock, horizontal/vertical refresh, etc.

 

[secretk]

An easy way to take a screenshot is to press Shift-Command-4. A cross-hairs appears at the cursor position and you can drag down from top left to bottom right to capture the part of the screen that ends up in the resulting box. When you let go, a small image of the screenshot appears on the bottom right corner of your desktop for about 5 seconds. During this time you can click on it to edit it. It is a png file and once you press done (or do not edit it at all), it is saved to your desktop. Going back to the Shift-Command-4 shortcut, if, when you have got the cross-hairs, you then press the spacebar, the crosshairs turn into a camera symbol and it preselects any window it may be hovering over. You can move it around to select a complete window and then click your pointing device. You then get a screenshot of the complete window in question.

Thanks! To be fair for now I added the Capture app in the Dock to use it. I am used to Windows type of screenshots and it still takes me a while to learn to use Command instead of Ctrl . So I have not learnt all MacOS specific screenshots. I guess I need to build practice.

You can see what display resolution your monitor is currently working at by going into settings and selecting "Displays". Here is my current monitor and its settings:

View attachment 2167139


Thanks!

Thanks! My Settings layout is a bit different:

That being said if I hover with the mouse on the More Space option I see 3840x1600 as resolution.

 

[suisse]

Thanks! To be fair for now I added the Capture app in the Dock to use it. I am used to Windows type of screenshots and it still takes me a while to learn to use Command instead of Ctrl . So I have not learnt all MacOS specific screenshots. I guess I need to build practice.

Thanks! My Settings layout is a bit different:

View attachment 2168942

That being said if I hover with the mouse on the More Space option I see 3840x1600 as resolution.

Bought the same monitor but no chance to get the LG software up and running under MacOS Ventura:

the monitor is not recognized, tried DP and TB3.

Which version did you install?

 

[secretk]

Bought the same monitor but no chance to get the LG software up and running under MacOS Ventura:

the monitor is not recognized, tried DP and TB3.

Which version did you install?

I used this version - https://macdownload.informer.com/onscreen-control/. Hopefully it works for you too!

In terms of cable I used the TB3 cable that came with the monitor.

Without the app do you have issues with fuzzy text?

 

[suisse]

thx, do you still have that version installed or did you updated it?

Fuzzy text: luckily not

 

[secretk]

thx, do you still have that version installed or did you updated it?

Fuzzy text: luckily not

It is the same. I have not updated . There might be new versions, I just did not update it.

Good that you do not have fuzzy text!

 

[suisse]

I guess that updating will break the function.
Did you ever get a firmware udpate?

 

[secretk]

I guess that updating will break the function.
Did you ever get a firmware udpate?

Nope. So you have issues with the newer version of the app?

 

[suisse]

Yes, doesn't recognize the monitor. I only wanted to check for new firmwares

 

[suisse]

Have another question (sorry it's a bit OT):
do you have on yours also some kind of corner "peeling" on the top left and right corners?

 

[secretk]

Have another question (sorry it's a bit OT):
do you have on yours also some kind of corner "peeling" on the top left and right corners?

Now that you are asking I checked the monitor and I can see some slight “peeling“.

 

[suisse]

sorry ;-)
But seems to be the standard for this monitor, i've done some research meanwhile

 

[secretk]

sorry ;-)
But seems to be the standard for this monitor, i've done some research meanwhile

Ah . Luckily it does not impact the visible area, it is on the bezels. Still not perfect.

 

[fsck]

Is this still an issue with the LG 38WN95C-W. ? I too have a MBP M1MAX 14" and thinking about getting this monitor. Have any LG or Apple updates since resolve the issues for those of you with this model?

thanks

 

[suisse]

Hi all
anyone already installed MacOS Sonoma?
Wondering if text is getting better or not