M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro Owners Complain of Crashes Playing HDR YouTube Videos

[AndreGB]

So putting this all together, my estimation is that the there is essentially a problem with the display driver. It seems to be attempting to read something from the framebuffer which isn't there.

Thanks for that explanation!

So this is all speculation from me, of course, but what you said sort of connects with the issues being caused by ProMotion and possibly, really, because of a driver bug.

The videos you guys are watching is what? 24, 30fps? But ProMotion goes all the way to 120Hz(fps). So the driver seems to be requesting the "next frame" of the video to the frame buffer, but the next frame isn't there yet, too fast! So the driver crashes because it doesn't know what to do.

Does watching a video in a higher frame rate, say 50 or 60 fps lowers the chance of triggering the crash?

And... it also makes sense that this is a crash with YouTube's HDR content. Since YouTube HDR is encoded in VP9, the decoding of that video is done by software. As opposed to Apple's native HEVC HDR videos, which are probably decoded by the hardware inside M1 itself. So when the video is HEVC HDR, no problem since M1 knows what to do when ProMotion kicks in. But when the frames are coming from a software decoder (VP9), then M1's internal logic has no control over when the frames are there or not.

Anyway, as I said, just speculation.

 

[TooManyNotes]

Does watching a video in a higher frame rate, say 50 or 60 fps lowers the chance of triggering the crash?

It happens when I am watching videos that are 60 fps actually.

 

[Adam Henry]

just installed beta 2 and I'm not getting a crash now. knock on wood.

 

[pst23]

just installed beta 2 and I'm not getting a crash now. knock on wood.

Hopefully this continues and se get a release soon.

 

[Saturnine]

Thanks for that explanation!

So this is all speculation from me, of course, but what you said sort of connects with the issues being caused by ProMotion and possibly, really, because of a driver bug.

The videos you guys are watching is what? 24, 30fps? But ProMotion goes all the way to 120Hz(fps). So the driver seems to be requesting the "next frame" of the video to the frame buffer, but the next frame isn't there yet, too fast! So the driver crashes because it doesn't know what to do.

Does watching a video in a higher frame rate, say 50 or 60 fps lowers the chance of triggering the crash?

And... it also makes sense that this is a crash with YouTube's HDR content. Since YouTube HDR is encoded in VP9, the decoding of that video is done by software. As opposed to Apple's native HEVC HDR videos, which are probably decoded by the hardware inside M1 itself. So when the video is HEVC HDR, no problem since M1 knows what to do when ProMotion kicks in. But when the frames are coming from a software decoder (VP9), then M1's internal logic has no control over when the frames are there or not.

Anyway, as I said, just speculation.

I honestly don't know if it's related to ProMotion or not.

On the one occasion I saw the crash myself, I did notice that the video (which was windowed at the time) seemed to switch from HDR to SDR a split second before the machine restarted. The bright whites suddenly dimmed and the image just looked flatter.

So again, like the whole of my explanation post, the following is all speculation but I actually wonder whether the graphics driver is requesting 10-bit HDR information from the framebuffer but receiving 8-bit SDR information (or vice versa.) I suspect that's what's causing the axi_rd_err shown in the crash report.

This is why people have reported seeing the error as they scroll towards the comments (or similar.) At some point, even with part of the video still on the screen, the display switches from HDR mode to SDR mode yet the graphics driver is either making invalid calls to the frame buffer, or receiving information in the wrong format.

There could well be Apple engineers reading this post and laughing at how wrong I am however I'm simply throwing all the verifiable information into the pot and trying to make sense of it, with just a little bit of background knowledge to help.

If the above is close to correct, then switching the display preset from Apple XDR Display (P3-1600 nits) to Apple Display (P3-500 nits) should stop the crashing. While that's obviously not a long-term fix, it's certainly a workaround for anybody that's really struggling and it's a useful troubleshooting step. If it doesn't help, it doesn't necessarily mean I'm totally wrong - I may have just put the pieces together slightly wrongly.

 

[pst23]

I’m just stunned that this was first reported by Macrumors 5 days ago and apple has been silent on it.

 

[pst23]

I have had zero crashes on compact tabs after testing for two days. I also like the way compact tabs looks better than separate tabs. I have decided that I will not be exchanging my machine at this point.

 

[AndreGB]

It happens when I am watching videos that are 60 fps actually.

OK, thanks. So I guess we just have to wait for what Apple does then.

 

[pst23]

OK, thanks. So I guess we just have to wait for what Apple does then.

Or exchange / return

 

[TinyMito]

I’m just stunned that this was first reported by Macrumors 5 days ago and apple has been silent on it.

It's because of a lack of data, not everyone is crashing. It doesn't crash for me so there is no data to be sent for them to investigate.

If anyone is crashing on YouTube, please turn on the report analyst crash data - it should show the Report and send it to Apple for investigation. Do it a couple of times and turn it off after you're done if you fear your privacy being exposed.

Like Apple wants to know my boring life browsing on Reddit.

 

[plyle]

Some 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro owners have been experiencing kernel crashes when watching HDR YouTube videos, according to a number of complaints on the MacRumors forums.

As explained by MacRumors reader Cababah, watching an HDR YouTube video in Safari and then scrolling through the comments results in a kernel error on macOS Monterey 12.0.1. Watching YouTube in full screen and then and exiting full screen mode can also cause the error, and it may be primarily affecting 16GB machines, though 32GB/64GB models can also be affected.

Other MacRumors readers were able to replicate the error, which appears to happen after watching a few YouTube videos. From MacRumors reader spiritedaway:
From MacRumors reader Sam.b1:Some MacBook Pro owners speculate that it's an issue with AV1 decoding, but it is not yet clear what the specific problem is or if it's something that can be fixed in a software update. Not all MacBook Pro owners are seeing this issue, but we were able to replicate it in our own testing.

The macOS Monterey 12.1 beta may fix the problem as some users are reporting improved performance after updating. If you're experiencing the same issue with YouTube, let us know in the comments.

Article Link: M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro Owners Complain of Crashes Playing HDR YouTube Videos

I have a new MBP 2021 16-inch w/M1 Pro 16Gb and it regularly crashes while asleep overnight. It appears to be more likely to crash if I've left a program running such as Scrivener. About 1/3rd of the time when I open the lid first thing in the morning, I find that it has crashed overnight. I'm running the latest version of the OS.

 

[pst23]

I don't know if YouTube has had an update - but I switched to separate tabs today and I tried several HDR videos that crashed before and I had no crashing. FYI

*This is because the HDR option is not on YouTube today.

 

[masterclimby]

I don't know if YouTube has had an update - but I switched to separate tabs today and I tried several HDR videos that crashed before and I had no crashing. FYI

*This is because the HDR option is not on YouTube today.

You need to set your browser's user agent to Chrome - Windows in order to get HDR working again. It appears to be disabled on ALL Mac user agents for now.

 

[jbarronsd]

I upgraded to 12.1 beta 2 a few days ago and this seems to have resolved the issue of the kernel panics when playing HDR content on YouTube, but now I see the identical HDR videos on YouTube are only playing in 4K, not HDR anymore.
Anyone know what's going on?

 

[TooManyNotes]

*This is because the HDR option is not on YouTube today.

Wow, nice catch.

You need to set your browser's user agent to Chrome - Windows in order to get HDR working again. It appears to be disabled on ALL Mac user agents for now.

This is extremely interesting and makes me wonder if Apple is working with YouTube on this crashing issue. I know the world doesn't revolve around me lol, but it seems possible that they've identified an issue with the codec causing these crashes.

 

[pst23]

I feel bad for everyone who is out of their return window and this issue still has not been resolved. That is really unfortunate.

 

[petvas]

I feel bad for everyone who is out of their return window and this issue still has not been resolved. That is really unfortunate.

Which sane person would return the MacBook Pro because of such an issue? You must be kidding.

 

[pst23]

Which sane person would return the MacBook Pro because of such an issue? You must be kidding.

Because some people don't know if its a software issue or hardware. Anything until we hear from apple is speculation.

 

[pst23]

Update: I have HDR 4k on chrome - my first time trying chrome and no crashing.

 

[datacenter]

I got my M1/Pro the first day it came out and upgraded to 12.01. Initially, I had crashes about every 4-5 days. I thought it was related to the USB-C docking issues people were having, I have Caldigit TS3 Plus but the laptop is 24x7 in clamshell mode. With my previous Macbook (mid-2014), I would listen to Youtube music in the background for 4-6 hours a day and never thought anything of it. I stumbled this forum and exported all the music to MP3's to listen with the music app. I haven't had a crash since (uptime 10 days). Hopefully, it will be addressed with the 12.1 update (every .0 release of any OS has issues) ..

Otherwise, everything has been solid.

 

[Mumiitroli]

Have the same problem, got it once again while watching the video posted on this site

 

[TooManyNotes]

Have the same problem, got it once again while watching the video posted on this site

Are you able to recreate this problem for yourself now? I am no longer able to select "HDR" as a video quality option for any of the YouTube videos posted here. Since I cannot select HDR, I cannot get my system to crash anymore. This changed for me a couple of days ago. Previously I could select the HDR quality option and initiate a crash.

 

[UncleGuido]

I am no longer able to select "HDR" as a video quality option for any of the YouTube videos posted here. Since I cannot select HDR, I cannot get my system to crash anymore. This changed for me a couple of days ago. Previously I could select the HDR quality option and initiate a crash.

YouTube (and, I think, Vimeo) have disabled HDR for Mac clients, perhaps at Apple's request. The websites can detect that you are connecting with a Mac. But if you enable Safari's Develop menu, you can select User Agent > Google Chrome - Windows. This spoofs the website into thinking that you are on a Windows box. Then it will serve up an HDR video.

But this is clearly not a good permanent workaround. I advise against forcing your M1 Macs to panic on HDR content, in the hopes of figuring out a solution. MacOS is designed to protect your data and file integrity in a crash, but it's probably not a perfect system. Let's give the Apple devs some time to work out a real fix. My guess is that a software update will address this, and fairly soon. Apple made a big deal out of the HDR capabilities of these new screens. They've got egg on their face, and they certainly don't want this situation to last.

 

[TooManyNotes]

YouTube (and, I think, Vimeo) have disabled HDR for Mac clients, perhaps at Apple's request. The websites can detect that you are connecting with a Mac.

Thanks, that's what I figured. I thought to doublecheck that it's not just my machine since there are a few people still reporting crashes or claiming they can now watch HDR on YT, which doesn't make sense.

 

[BarryDuffman]

The websites can detect that you are connecting with a Mac.

Not entirely correct.
It can detect if you are using Safari. In Chrome on the Mac HDR plays fine. It doesn’t even crash for me.