m1 Mac Mini hooked up to a Dell U3417W Ultrawide. Everything worked.

[AtikCzaTok]

Hello,

I recently received an m1 Mac mini 16gb with 1 TB. After reading some comments about certain dell monitors having display size and blurry font issues- I wanted to report my findings.

1) I used an HDMI cable initially to hookup to a Dell U3417W, and it worked fine. I then ordered a UNI USB-C to DisplayPort Cable and have been using that cable since.

2) When the monitor is in sleep mode, it wakes right up when I move my mouse or tap my keyboard (I'm using a Logitech wireless mouse with the usb dongle attached to the monitor. My keyboard is a USB keyboard plugged into the monitor also).

3) My display resolution is 3440X1440 @60hz.

4) I'm running Big Sur 11.2.3

5) The fonts looks sharp to me, and not blurry at all.

The only weirdness I've encountered is if I sidecar the display to my iPad Pro, the resolution changes to match the iPad Pro dimensions. When I get out of sidecar, I'm stuck at that resolution. Logging off, and logging back in restores the correct dimension of 3440X1440.

The other weird issue is that I drive sound through the monitor speakers. This works, but I can't adjust the sound volume (I can live with this as I usually use earbuds anyway).

I would have returned this Mac mini if I had the blurry font, or not being able to support the max monitor resolution.

Regards.

 

[puckno]

What ´Input Color Profile´ do your screen have when you check the ´Color´ section of your Dell OSD menu? My U3419W defaults to YPbPr, and I am not able to get it to show RGB color profile in a meaningful way.

 

[AtikCzaTok]

It's showing YPbPr.. If I change it to RGB- the colors take on a pink hue.

 

[for this]

...My U3419W defaults to YPbPr, and I am not able to get it to show RGB color profile in a meaningful way.

If you want to use RGB, you have to force the Mac to send RGB. Search the web for "Force RGB" + "Mac" and you will find plenty of how-to's. It's annoying we have to do this nowadays when it used to be automatic.

It's showing YPbPr.. If I change it to RGB- the colors take on a pink hue.

That looks like because the Mac sends in YPbPR and the monitor responds accordingly by switching its input to YPbPR.

 

[reedog117]

I have the Dell U3818DW ultrawide. There's an app to adjust volume through the monitor speakers. However, the granularity is so weird where going from 0 to 1 (out of 100) already can result in audio that's too loud.

The app I use is MonitorControl. It's free from Github, and you can also install it via Homebrew.

Releases · MonitorControl/MonitorControl

🖥 Control your display's brightness & volume on your Mac as if it was a native Apple Display. Use Apple Keyboard keys or custom shortcuts. Shows the native macOS OSDs. - MonitorControl/Moni...

github.com

 

[puckno]

If you want to use RGB, you have to force the Mac to send RGB. Search the web for "Force RGB" + "Mac" and you will find plenty of how-to's. It's annoying we have to do this nowadays when it used to be automatic.

I guess you are referring to hte the Force RGB methods with the EDID override, though to my knowledge these do not work with the Mac M1 platform. If you have any suggestions on how to force RGB for M1 please share. I am following several threads on the topic, + waiting eagerly for fixes in new Mac OS releases, in order to finally get RGB with my Dell monitor, but probably will have to sell it and go for other monitor if any fix do not arrive in one or another way.

 

[lenartr]

I have the Dell U3818DW ultrawide. There's an app to adjust volume through the monitor speakers. However, the granularity is so weird where going from 0 to 1 (out of 100) already can result in audio that's too loud.

The app I use is MonitorControl. It's free from Github, and you can also install it via Homebrew.

Releases · MonitorControl/MonitorControl

🖥 Control your display's brightness & volume on your Mac as if it was a native Apple Display. Use Apple Keyboard keys or custom shortcuts. Shows the native macOS OSDs. - MonitorControl/Moni...

github.com

I've been looking about the volume issue with Dell U3818DW and it seems to be an issue with drivers for mac. On my monitor it almost makes no difference if I set the volume to 1% or 50%. And the 1% is extremely loud so I'm forced to use in-app volume controls (eg. within Youtube, Spotify,...). From what I've read Dell has no intention on fixing or properly supporting mac. https://www.dell.com/community/Monitors/U3818DW-Apple-OS-speaker-volume-loud-4/m-p/7399838#M122642

I guess I'll be looking for other providers next time.