Strange colors/blue-fringed mouse pointer on full-screen YouTube when f.lux is active

Howins

Same problem with my MacBook Pro Retina mid-2014 Intel Iris

Christopher Catton

I have the same problem with my MacBook Pro 13" Retina 2015 (running OS X 10.11.3).

Antony Stubbs

Me too.
OSX 10.11.3 (15D21)
Model Name: MacBook Air
Model Identifier: MacBookAir6,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 1.7 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Boot ROM Version: MBA61.0099.B21
SMC Version (system): 2.12f143

Harrison Gulliver

I've got a Mid-2015 13" Retina running 10.11.3, Flux 36.6 with the Intel Iris 6100 doing this exact issue.

I can reliably reproduce this when running in the default "looks like 1280x800" Retina mode. When I change to the "more space" 1680x1050 mode, the issue goes away (and vice versa) - I guess that's why I haven't noticed it until recently as I usually use the more space mode.

llamafilm

Same problem here on a 2015 MBPr with Intel Iris Pro. The problem goes away when I disable automatic graphics switching and use the Nvidia card.

alexey99994444

Same issue.

Flux 36.6
MBA 2014 (hd5000) -- OS X 10.11.5

llamafilm

The f.lux team hasn't replied on this topic in 9 months. Is anybody working on fixing this problem?

herf

There is a bug in to Apple, but this is way below us in the system.

All we can do is recommend you disable f.lux while playing a movie.

saileshrp

This happens on a Retina MacBook too (2015) with H5300 graphics, and OS X 10.11.6.

Has anyone seen this issue in MacOS Sierra too?

I'm guessing this won't be resolved without Apple's input, and/or if Apple introduce Night Shift on MacOS..

Plasma_000

Just thought I'd say that this bug is still active with HD graphics 4000 on my mid 2012 macbook pro.

When I use gfxcardswitcher to force discreet card while using youtube the issue does not appear.

shinz4u

Same issue as mentioned by users.

This issue is while I play fullscreen videos on Youtube, Udacity. Whites are blown out, blue hues here and there, if you move the cursor the problem goes away for a while and then comes back.

Also this is not just in Safari, it does the same in Chrome too.

I am running
f.lux version 37.7
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013)
Intel Iris 1536 MB
OSX version 10.11.6 El Capitan

This annoying bug has been reported a year ago and it is sad to see that there is no fix yet. I have used F.lux on windows for long and this bug on Mac is kinda making me look for alternatives to F.lux which I really don't want to do.

Please try to fix this.

cadamen

@shinz4u Agreed, it's a very disappointing lack of action.

It makes the program completely useless in my opinion. If I have to keep turning it off, it is doing me no good in terms of helping with my body's sleep cycle confusion.

Flux replies so far have indicated there will be no fix. I'm still following the thread and hoping they sort it out, but it doesn't seem like anybody cares or is working on it. Can anybody recommend a different program? I give up with this.

shariffy

I've gotten around the issue thanks to this little app: Shady for Mac.

What's a little strange but very good for this specific purpose is that just running the app with the "shade" setting off still fixes the problem. I'm guessing it's doing something similar to gfxcardswitcher in the background, as soon as it's running, so it's probably affecting battery life too (although I haven't paid attention to that myself).

And of course, turning the thing actually on and reducing the brightness to a minimum ain't bad for your eyes either.

yanzitommy

This post is deleted!

chris-l

I worked around this by creating a file named safari.css, a text file with these contents:

.ytp-fullscreen video {
  opacity: 0.996 !important;
}

Then in Safari preferences > Advanced, you select that file for the Style sheet setting.

If you want to experiment, every time you edit & save that file, you have to reset the Safari preference back to None Selected and then back to your file.

chris-l

My solution might reduce battery life a bit, hopefully it's not noticeable.

chris-l

You could add Netflix to it if you want:

.ytp-fullscreen video, #netflix-player.player-cinema-mode video {
  opacity: 0.996 !important;
}

shinz4u

@chris-l

Hi, is there such a preference in chrome for mac that I can change to get a similar solution?

Thanks a lot

chris-l

@shinz4u Sorry, not sure about Chrome. There are probably extensions available that let you add your own CSS rules, but I haven't looked into it. I might publish my own extensions to make it easier for everyone.

I actually am not using f.lux at the moment, but I calibrated my laptop display with a lower color temperature than normal, and it has the same bug that you get with f.lux -- videos have artifacts in the brightest parts, but only when they are full screen with nothing else composited on top of them. Maybe the video driver uses an optimization for this case that doesn't quite work.

erikfrisk

@shinz4u I just figured it out in Chrome. Thanks @chris-l for the fix! This thing was driving me nuts.

Quick guide for web devs: Just add opacity: 0.996 !important; to the HTML5 video element in Chrome's developer tools.

Detailed steps for non web devs:

Open a tab with the Netflix video you want to watch (haven't tried with YouTube, but same principle should apply).
Open Developer Tools by going to View > Developer > Developer Tools (or by hitting alt+cmd+i).
Click the button with the "arrow pointing into a box" at the very top left of the Developer Tools window to "inspect an element" (or hit cmd+shift+c).
Click the Netflix video element to inspect it. This should bring up the Elements tab in the Developer Tools window with the "video" element selected.
At the top right of the Developer Tools window, you should see a little section that says "element.style" with a few list items underneath. Click the bottom of that section and add opacity: 0.996 !important; as a new list item.
Go full screen and watch a beautifully artifact-free video.

You'll have to do this every time you open a new video in Chrome, but it only takes a few seconds. I'm sure it can be done more permanently with an extension, as @chris-l said though.

PS: Thanks to the f.lux team for a great piece of software! It's a lifesaver. I know this bug isn't your fault.