Level 1

40 points

Bright HDR Colors after 10.15.4 Catalina Update

Hey. I've got a 2019 16" Macbook Pro and a LG 27UK650 4K 10-bit HDR monitor connected. Last night, I updated my Mac to 10.15.4. Before that, I was unable to view anything in HDR. My monitor looked good, so I never complained. Then, this morning I woke up and went to log in, when my monitor turned on, I saw a HDR logo appear at the top right of my screen (the on-screen overlay from my LG monitor). Now, in settings of the monitor OSD itself, the ONLY control I have is Brightness. Everything else is greyed out. The screen is now very blue and all the colors are extremely vivid. It almost appears as if the monitor is 'broke'.

If I look in System Preferences > Display, it shows a new High Dynamic Range check box. It is checked. If I uncheck it, the display goes back to how it was before. I've tried color calibration to see if I could tone down the colors, but it only seems to allow me to change the white point of the monitor itself.

I've went to the LG website to see if there's a particular calibration file for this monitor and can only find Windows based calibration settings.

Can anyone please help point me in the right direction of how to properly get HDR to appear on this monitor? I much prefer the color of HDR disabled, but after seeing how well HDR brightens up shadows, I'd really like to get HDR working properly. I've attached two photos I took, one with HDR off showing normal colors but dark shadows and one with HDR on showing the bright neon colors with the blue tint. I hope this helps?

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Mar 27, 2020 7:21 AM

Top-ranking reply

BruceQian

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Apr 8, 2020 11:46 PM

I am using LG UL850-W. After upgrading to 10.15.4 and then met the same challenge. The color become very weird. The fix is also very simple:

Close the monitor
Unplugged the monitor
Reconnect the monitor to MacBook
Open the monitor again

Problem fixed.

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86 replies

Dartgh

Level 1

8 points

Apr 8, 2020 5:33 PM in response to jo3see

I was quite shocked when I finally updated to catalina. Why would they ruin something that was working in the first place?

Using LG 27UK850w and colors are crazy awful with the default hdr mode. I feel I have to recalibrate the whole thing even after I disabled the HDR option.

jo3see Author

Level 1

40 points

Apr 9, 2020 11:35 AM in response to BruceQian

Can you please explain to me what you’re referring to by “closing” your monitor?

Power cycling the monitor during macOS running and then plugging it back in did not work for me.

The whole purpose of me starting this thread wasn’t to figure out how to get back to how it was before the update, but to figure out how to properly view my desktop with correct colors when HDR mode is enabled.

I think what it comes down to is having macOS give people the ability to have it disabled for your desktop and only enable it for a window playing video, or if it’s full screen. Until then, I don’t think we’re going to get more of a “just disable it” set of instructions here.

agressiv

Level 1

4 points

Apr 14, 2020 1:12 PM in response to jo3see

I use "Display Menu" in order to run this monitor at the native 5120x2160 resolution without any scaling. With the 10.15.4 update, I can no longer run at 5120x2160 over Thunderbolt 3 - I have to use a USB-C to Mini DisplayPort adapter, and then it works.

Hoping they fix that, the HDR modes in the monitor have terrible color and I can't seem to calibrate around that.

macmojo

Level 1

9 points

Apr 28, 2020 11:56 PM in response to jo3see

Hi All,

Im connecting to an LG UK-850W from my 2018 15' Macbook Pro and I'm running into these issues. By the same token, my new 2020 iPad Pro has the same issue. I don't need to explain that iPad OS/iOS has significantly less settings and configurations than Mac OS, but it looks like both platforms are running into the issue. Apple any update on patch or fix would be appreciated! We know how nuts things are right now.

May 4, 2020 5:38 AM in response to jo3see

I have the same problem with my LG 27UK850. Un-clicking the HDR box helped a lot (thank you for that). I'd also like to know how to use HDR. When checked, the colors are neon with too much blue and most of the settings on the monitor are grayed out (contrast is also set to 100).

Restarting and unplugging and replugging monitor, etc. does not make a difference. Problem started happening once I updated to 10.15.4. Perhaps LG will issue a new driver update?

May 7, 2020 1:18 AM in response to jo3see

Same problem w LG27UK850, Mac Mini 2018, only I also run an external GPU Vega64, with the added complication that I have to restart 2-3 times to get any image on the screen. That also happened after Catalina.

Knute5

Level 1

8 points

Jun 3, 2020 11:56 AM in response to dannylaughin

Same Issue Here.

Machine: iMac Retina 5K i9

Mac OS Version: 10.15.4

Display: LG HDR 4k 27 inch monitor

Display Connection: Displayport from CalDigit TS3+

Turning off HDR is a temp fix, but obviously not ideal.

RWBMac

Level 1

4 points

Jun 5, 2020 9:39 AM in response to jo3see

The same issue just happened to me when upgrading to10.15.5. My LG 34WN80C worked flawlessly out of the box prior to the upgrade. Now I have to mess around with the calibration. Apple why did you believe you needed to fix something that wasn't broke.

Jun 9, 2020 6:33 AM in response to jo3see

Same issue with LG 27UL850W on MBP 16" in usb-c. Thanks for the HDR box solution, it's working for me, with the loss of HDR. I tried to make LG calibration software True Color Pro working, but it's not, and it doesn't even recognize the LG Monitor...

No problem in HDMI mode though.

rl1234

Level 1

8 points

Sep 2, 2020 3:11 PM in response to jo3see

Same problem in August. Clearly not a priority. APPLE PLEASE FIX. You've just destroyed millions of dollars of investment in LG monitors (which you sell at Apple stores). Also odd, my husband and I are both on the most recent version of Catalina and he doesn't have the HDR checkbox when plugged into my monitor. But I do. His colors look great. Mine are terrible. Go figure that one out.

arpst0rm

Level 1

48 points

Sep 16, 2020 8:57 AM in response to jo3see

I also have this problem. I am using 2 lg monitors model 27UL850. I am connecting to them through an Elgato thunderbolt doc. Monitors are connected using display ports on the monitors.

One thing I notice is that its not just the color settings, it also sometimes sets the desktop wall paper to a different image. This did not happen until some software update.

I tried the on screen control app. That has not fixed it for me. Hopefully Apple will come up with something.

fjulian

Level 1

8 points

Oct 10, 2020 1:11 PM in response to jo3see

HOW MUTCH TIME IS NEEDED TO GET THIS FIXED???? This is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO annoying, every day I have to toggle this checkbox several times .. right no 5 toggles have been needed!! I have been patient since the first day but now this comes to an end! This crapy story makes me thinking about the "good old days" where I have used Windows. Windows has a ton of other issues, but the Microsoft guys are able to get a screen working. Shame on you Apple!

My setup: 27UK650, MBP 15" 2018 with 10.15.7

robinvw1

Level 1

4 points

Oct 23, 2020 1:15 AM in response to jo3see

I have the same issue here. My LG 27UK850 has a grey wash all over the screen with HDR enabled on macOS. After reading this thread, I've disabled HDR. But that's not really a solution, that's just a temporary fix.

Jan 26, 2021 8:56 AM in response to JjBigThoughts

I will eventually upgrade to Big Sur, but I cannot do it yet until software I depend on fully supports Big Sur. I would have hoped Apple would have a procedure or patch to correct this issue on Catalina.

OHAD_GRI

Level 1

4 points

Mar 28, 2020 10:09 AM in response to alex_cowan

I have the same problem with LG32UD99-w MacBook Pro 2018 15”

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Bright HDR Colors after 10.15.4 Catalina Update