Fullscreen youtube colour artefacting.

antonis111

I am using a Macbook pro 2015 13.3'' (operating system: El Capitan 10.11.6). I was watching fullscreen Netflix (I am using the second streaming plan with two screens and HD) on safari at night (colour temperature 1900K), and many times the screen became momentarily more white, like the flash of a camera. At first, I thought that this was in my imagination or was not an artefact but part of the film, but when I quit the fullscreen mode, this "flash" stopped. This problem wasn't too serious, but it was quite annoying some times and I had to stop watching in fullscreen mode. I checked Chrome and this "flash" was also there, but there were also colour artefacts in bright colours. In Chrome, it was impossible to watch in fullscreen mode. These colour artefacts were not in safari.
I searched google and I found this thread and I just wanted to tell my experience. I hope that an official update (an update from flux or apple) will be released soon. Some user in another post reported that this problem exists in macbook pro 2016 (aka macos sierra), therefore there is no meaning in updating to macos sierra yet.

PS: Maybe this "flashing" is a different issue than the colour artefacts that other people are reporting...

@antonis111 Were the white parts kind of pixelated looking? It sounds like you're talking about the same issue we are all experiencing. It only happens on fullscreen after the mouse goes away. I can put the extension files for the safari fix online for people to install on safari themselves.

antonis111

@mango_ hi not pixelated. The whole screen changed momentarily color. At first, I thought that this was happening when flux was dropping gradually the color temperature but was also happening when the color temperature was steady at 1900K. It was like “flashing” of a camera, but much milder. Or like when the tv is playing in a dark room and the scene changes from a dark to a bright one. In this case, you can see that the room becomes brighter and understand that the scene changed even if you are not looking at the tv screen.
Maybe this was happening because flux disactivated itself for a second, the color temperature rose and then activated itself again?
The pixelated artefacts were only in chrome, not in safari. But chrome had also this flashing issue.

antonis111

Update: In MacOS sierra there are also pixelated artefacts in safari! That's a pity...

antonis111

@antonis111 Well, this flashing (or flickering) I reported in my posts above, it has nothing to do with flux! It is just more obvious when flux is running, but it is still happening without flux. I contacted netflix and they told me that there is a problem in how the video card processes resolution in Netflix in some MacBooks and Apple must update the drivers. Therefore, I suppose that Apple has two things to correct: both the flickering and the colour artefacts.

suaio

Hey all,

A Safari extension, like the Chrome extension, has been requested above... It already exists, it's just not in the "Safari Extension Store" (or whatever it's called) yet.

If you check the github page of the Chrome extension project, it actually links to a signed VideoFixer.safariextz under Releases.
Just download it and drag it onto Safari. It works for me.

From the README: "The Safari extension has been submitted to Apple and hopefully will be available soon."
I'm guessing the review didn't go through..? Maybe a missing icon ;)

Aaaand just for the record, I'm not the creator of, nor do I have any relations to, this/these extensions.
All props goes to C Lundie.

hansdude

@afabian Thanks for the analysis of the extension

For those of you that don't want to deal with a browser extension, you can just make a "bookmarklet" that will work in any browser.

Go to the bookmark manager and create a new bookmark. Name it whatever you want and set the URL to this:
javascript:document.head.appendChild(document.createElement("style")).appendChild(document.createTextNode("video {opacity: .996;}"));

Then you can go to whatever website to stream, and just click the bookmark before going fullscreen.

steltkluut

Hi all!
Just confirming what everyone here is experiencing. I'm having the same issues on Netflix and YouTube in fullscreen mode. Haven't tried other browsers yet, working on Chrome now.
Subscribing for more updates on this subject, because it's really annoying.

OS: macOS Sierra

.C.J.W.

Noticed this on mavericks a while ago, but then it went away! Recently updated to sierra and the problem is back :( my MacBook is a 2013 retina, for a long period of time the computer didnt show the pixelated problem.

Im not 100% sure about this but I believe using "clicktoflash" which is no longer available, which forced youtube to use flash instead of HTML5 player stopped the issue, but I've just tested it now and they've updated it and its still showing the same issue, flash or HTML5. Quicktime player does the same but I believe VLC works fine.

Might try some of your suggestions here, but this is a long thread! Has anyone concluded this is Apple's issue or F.lux's? thanks

.C.J.W.

@aalek137 said in Fullscreen youtube colour artefacting.:

ITU-R BT.2020-1

I just toggled my display colour (in the system preferences list) and it doesn't pixelate anymore! worked! :)

dogduty

I don't understand why Flux can't fix this.

gberberoglu

@dogduty because it's not flux, it is the Apple who needs to fix it. https://forum.justgetflux.com/topic/213/fullscreen-youtube-colour-artefacting/123

Nirvanes

Night Shift is now confirmed in the new mac OS developer version so Apple is clearly screwing with flux

greysonp

Just to re-iterate the solution on Chrome:

Download the Stylebot extension
Open the Stylebot options
Go to Style > Edit Global Style Sheet
Enter the following:

video {
    opacity: 0.996;
}

For some reason, showing the app at a very small transparency fixes this. You will not actually be able to perceive the partial transparency, but it'll fix the problem :)

bldgr

I found something interesting.

3 days ago, on feb 2nd. I ran the update "Security update 2016-007, v 10.10.05" which also updated Safari to v. 10.0.3. (Yes I know i'm late on the updates...)

I DID NOT HAVE THESE GRAPHIC PROBLEMS UNTIL I RAN THOSE UPDATES

I guess I had Safari v. 10.0.2 before I updated.
Perhaps downgrading Safari from 10.0.3 to 10.0.2 or older will fix this? I don't know how to do that, but it might be worth giving it a shot. I hope someone will be able to try it so I will monitor this thread closely.

Fyi: I'm running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 and Safari 10.0.3 on a 15" MBP Retina mid 2015.

.C.J.W.

@bldgr Doubt it pal. I've had this issue on mavericks, With safari 9 I believe. I thought mine fixed after i did something suggested on here but it came back a few days later. Its been on and off for 3 years now.

.C.J.W.

@.C.J.W. just to confirm the problem came back. :(

CalbertAmus

This wasn't a problem on my old MBP (I think it was late 2011), but I'm experiencing problem for a month now since I installed it on MacBook Air (early 2015).

cardcaptor

+1
mac book air early 2014
have had this problem for ages
will keep flux disabled until it's sorted

PersyTheImpersonater

Fun fact/temporary fix :

If you pinch to zoom on the fullscreen video, the artifacts are gone. I now watch all my videos slightly zoomed in. (also works with the cmd+"scroll" zoom if enabled in preferences/accessibility, which is a system-wide zoom)
If you move your mouse to the top of the screen in order for the status bar to show up, the problem disappears as well as long as the status bar is displayed.

Basically, as soon as your mac has something more to do than just displaying a fullscreen video, it all works fine.

I've had this problem since I've started using f.lux a year or two ago and I know that f.lux can't do anything to solve it, this is just some sort of useful hack for when it really isn't bearable. (I'm currently using a 2015 13' macbook pro retina with Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 Mo)