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Level 1

19 points

Black levels / contrast change with subtitles

Hello everybody,

since the last updates of iTunes (11.1.5) + OS X (10.9.2), watching a movie with subtitles is no more comfortable. I see that other people on the forum also encountered the problem.

I'll try to be clear and detailed:

Each time a subtitle is displayed, the black level (or the contrast if you prefer) on the full screen slightly becomes brighter. The result is a flashing movie each time someone is speaking (subtitles). This was not present before the very last updates. This is especially very annoying when watching a movie with top/down black bars (cinema 2:1 image ratio), as there is a big area of black pixels. Or watching a story in space (try Gravity...). I would say: it is not watchable...

This happens (in my case) when using full screen mode, HD movie, and HDTV connected via HDMI. Maybe in other situation also, I don't know.

But for instance, wathching the HD version using a window (not clicking on fullscreen double arrow) on the TV, or SD version in full screen on an external monitor (which is not HDCP compatible), or SD version of the movie in full screen to the TV via HDMI, the issue is not visible. In fact the problem is not present in these situations because the contrast levels on the full screen remains brighter always, even when there is no subtitle. So there is no flashing behaviour. But the black is "not black" anymore. It is dark grey.

Do you know whether this is already reported to Apple dev team? Is it a known issue?

Should I report?

Thanks.

Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Mar 24, 2014 2:24 AM

Best reply

gagarski

Level 1

13 points

Posted on Mar 11, 2018 4:33 PM

Okay, I'am suffering from this problem for about two or three weeks on my MacBook Air Late 2014 (MD761RU/B). But for me it happens only in Chrome. It does not happen in Firefox, Safari or even other Chromium-based browsers (like Yandex). I even ended up reinstalling macOS but it didn't help.

I could not get consistent brightness changes on Netflix but today I found a video on Amazon Prime Video where I can clearly and often see this flickering that causing me eye-cancer. By evening I nearly memorised these 2 minutes of video by heart.

After reading halo_bone's post I've tried to play with some settings (contrast especially) in System Preferences / Accessibility / Display section.

First of all, increasing contrast here makes these bursts more noticeable and now you can definitely see them (TBH, I initially thought that it was some kind of optical illusion).

Then I enabled inverted colors and now I could clearly see what @halo_bone says: macOS treats screen differently when there is full screen video without subtitles and when there are subtitles. Here is how I could see it. Most movies have wider aspect-ratio than MacBook display so I had black stripes on the top and on the bottom of the screen. The thing is they were black when there is no subtitles (so these parts of screen are not inverted) and white where there are subtitles. Now I can clearly see that it DOES happen in Chrome and DOES NOT happen in Safari or Firefox (they always have white stripes).

The last part is most mysterious. Previous steps helped me to see the problem more clearly but did not fix it. Then I accidentally (or just for fun) increased the cursor size (WHAAAT?) with slider and then turned it back to its normal size. You won't believe it but after that this annoying flickering just disappeared! I can clearly see in inverted colors mode that flickering is no longer happening. After rebooting the computer it starts to happen again, but it works fine after closing and opening the laptop lit. Turns out that changing cursor size somehow disables special treatment for full-screen video (top and bottom stripes becomes always white).

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55 replies

PauloROP

Level 1

35 points

Oct 5, 2015 5:20 PM in response to Olivier VM

I am having the same issue here, I am watching some videos (.mov files) that I made with my Canon 6D and when it is full screen it has lots of black and more contrast, when I move the cursor and the controls show up, the video gets brighter, less blacks and less contrast.

I am using my macbook pro 15" retina display mid 2014, watching in its own screen, running El Capitan, I have notice this since I bought the notebook.

Nov 15, 2015 2:39 PM in response to Olivier VM

I'm having the same problem on my macbook pro retina 13" early 2015, el capitan.
But that contrast/gamma change occurs only when watching video streams in safari, itunes and in quicktime. when watching streams in chrome or video on vlc it doesn't occur. that makes me think it could be some kind of apple power saving function thats implemented in their apps.

Eckerr

Level 1

9 points

Dec 16, 2015 2:08 PM in response to ritzelratzel

Still no solution? Does formatting help?

Please fix this, the problem only exists with Retina MacBooks

furfoots

Level 1

4 points

Dec 18, 2015 1:40 PM in response to Olivier VM

Same problem 1 month old el capitan macbook pro 13" retina. Open netflix fullscreen in safari and it judders and changes gamma slightly with the pacing of the subtitles. Switch to chrome and it works perfectly.

Kanimies

Level 1

4 points

Mar 5, 2016 9:11 PM in response to Olivier VM

Seems that years pass and Apple still won't do anything to fix this issue (among with many others) - MacMini with latest OS X here, and I'm experiencing the lighter blacks with subtitles and purple cursor appearing in the middle of the screen (Cursor doesn't disappear during movie in iTunes ) -problems.

It is rather sad that this has been the level of Apple's support for years now - this along with the multiple defects along the product line really undermine their credibility as a company making quality products or respecting their customers.

earik

Level 1

4 points

Dec 20, 2016 2:53 PM in response to Olivier VM

I have this problem as well. I have a brandnew Macbook Pro Retina early 2015 - macOS Sierra. Its quite annoying that I have this problem with this quality of leptop. And i dont want to install chrome or firefox just for this problem.

So please Apple! Solve this problem asap.