Blocky and Pixelated Dark Scenes when watching videos (Netflix/Youtube/Movies)

So, I was screwing around with settings and found that if you go to system preferences>Displays>Display>Toggle off Automatically adjust brightness, and toggle off True Tone, Then click Night Shift and try turning that off. This seemed to significantly clear that horrible pixelated blotchyness.

I was having the same issue when streaming on Netflix but i think this fixed it. Settings > Displays > Color > Display Profile, and toggle through which setting works best. I've found that Apple RBG fixes it the most (better contrast). The default "Color LCD" setting brightens up the dark scenes too much, making it blurry. Hope this helps everyone!

(I have a 2019 MBP 13", using Chrome)

Switching off night shift seemed to work. Looks fine now.

I think I found a solution. Have the same problem when using Chrome on brand new 2019 13inch macbook pro. When using Safari all works well.

was having the same issue (blocky dark video playback on my 2018 MacBook Pro) but switching from Chrome to Safari totally fixed this- thanks!

safari works much better. Saw this exact problem watching Netflix in Chrome occur even after changing display settings and nothing seemed to work. Once I switched to Safari it looked amazingly better

System Preferences-->Displays-->Color-->Color LCD.

That fixed the problem on my MacBook Pro. Try opening a video that you're having the problem with and cycle through different color display profiles.

You are completely correct. Streaming Netflix or Amazon with dark scenes the image is poor and pixelated in Chrome but not in Safari. Apple is really not playing nicely with the others in the sandbox. It's kinda shameful. Just bought this 2019 MBP and it's crappy quality compared to my MBP 2015. I've been a mac user since 1992 and also a certified tech ACMT working for a service provider until 2015 - now just work as an independent helping OOW mac users to have the best experience possible.

I’ve done a bit more testing and it looks to be an issue with streaming content. The following photo has a downloaded version of the film on the left and a streamed version of it on the right (both from iTunes). You can clearly see that the downloaded version is far better (and I have a good internet connection).

I’ve also encountered similar issues when viewing video fromYouTube in both Safari and Chrome.

Hi,

I have the exactly the same thing on both of my Macs (2014 Mac mini running Catalina and a 2019 MacBook Air running Mojave). Video playback in iTunes/Apple TV is blocky and pixelated in any dark areas of the screen. The same is true watching YouTube videos on both Safari and Chrome. In comparison, both my iPhone and iPad display the content fine.

As an example, I've attached screenshots of a scene from the film Dunkirk. Image 1 is from my iPad and looks like it should do. Image 2 is from the MacBook Air and the footage is a mess.

1)

2)

It’s really annoying and I suspect if it was the other way round, with the iOS version displaying video poorly, it would get a fix much more quickly (seeing as this looks to have been going on for many months now based on the dates of other commenters).

Hello

Welcome to Apple Support Communities!

I understand from your post that while watching videos on your MacBook dark scenes are pixelated. I am happy to help.

Take a look at the article below for help watching videos on your MacBook.

If you can't stream or watch video content from the iTunes Store or third-party apps

Let me know if you have any questions.

Have a great day!

I am having the same problem. I bought a new MacBook Pro about a month ago to replace my old one (from 2015), and I am also having issues with pixelated dark scenes. This never happened to me on my old laptop, nor does it on my iPad. To be perfectly honest I am rather annoyed about this, and the link in this answer is completely unhelpful.

I've got this, too. I just bought this thing last summer, and it's infuriating that the picture is so terrible, since watching vids is about half of what I use it for.

I've tried all of the options listed below,

• System Preferences-->Displays-->Color-->Color LCD.
• System Preferences>Displays>Display>Toggle off Automatically adjust brightness, and toggle off True Tone, Then click Night Shift and try turning that off.

I've done all of these things, and none of it helps.

I'm betting it's a processing or rendering problem, because when I do a screen cap, it comes out just as clean as you please.

I also notice this issue doesn't show up on a movie I just watched on iTunes. Hmm.....

I've also noticed that it cleans up a little bit when I jiggle my mouse, or otherwise interact with the computer while the vid is playing. It's almost like it waits until it thinks you're not paying attention, and then starts truncating the image quality.

The article linked below by chris_g1 Community Specialist is completely useless. As far as I can tell, I'm the only one on my network, and I'm running ethernet, not wifi, which is supposed to be faster anyway.

I've tried everything listed above plus everything linked in the article. I also contacted Apple support over the phone. I turned in my MacBook Air and got another one to see if the issue was with the device but still had the same problem. I turned in my 2nd laptop for a MacBook Pro and the issue was worse on the Pro. It seems that this issue is standard across all new MacBooks. I'm incredibly frustrated with the poor design and the lack of support from Apple.

Yes!! I just searched this issue now. I find that if I move the mouse on my laptop (2014 Macbook) then the full quality of the dark colours will return for a short time, then revert to being pixelated. So frustrating!