Connecting to external monitor via Virtual Screen struggles to solidify connection on newer MacBook Pro (M4 Pro chip)

[reubennn]

First off, I want to say BetterDisplay has changed my life. It is such an amazing product.

Context

I am running a Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 OLED (https://www.samsung.com/au/monitors/gaming/odyssey-oled-g9-g95sc-49-inch-240hz-curved-dual-qhd-ls49cg954sexxy/). I connect it to my Macbook via a Display Port -> Thunderbolt Type C (USB C) with 8K 60Hz, 4k 240Hz (https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B09M38CXZ3/)

I have associated a Virtual Screen to enable HiDPI (at native 5120x1440). This has fixed issues to do with grainy text.

Everything was working fine on my 2021 Macbook Pro (M1 chip). No issues whatsoever.

Issue

I recently upgraded to a new 2024 Macbook Pro (M4 Pro) chip). I have set up an identical configuration. The display looks even more incredible with even smoother movement.

The issue is that when I first turn my computer on from sleep, it seems like it keeps trying to connect to the monitor and fails. I can see the screen change on the built-in display like it normally does just before connecting to an external display. It does not have success connecting initially. The issue is its like it "resets" and reverts back to the built in display. It attempts to reconnect an arbitrary amount of times (generally about 5-10 times). If I have BetterDisplay open, I can see the physical G9 display appear for a second and then disappear as the screen goes into a fit. Sometimes it will eventually connect, other times I will physically disconnect and reconnect (trying different ports) and repeat the process until it can connect to the G9.

[waydabber]

Hmm. Does this only happen when a virtual screen is connected?

[reubennn]

@waydabber I just ran a test and it seems that it is able to connect OK when the Virtual screen is disabled.

[waydabber]

Uhh-ohh, this virtual screen mirroring approach has a lot of issues on your config. The flickering might be due to conflicting color profiles between the virtual screen and the actual screen - there seem to be a bug in macOS when trying to perform a color conversion in this scenario. This is something that was supposedly fixed a while back, but apparently this is not the case.

Did you try using streaming instead of mirroring? That approach has some drawbacks as well but maybe not as annoying as the sleep and flickering issus you experience with mirroring.

[reubennn]

@waydabber

I tested with streaming instead of mirroring, and so far so good. It seems to be connecting immediately and the colour profile seems to be consistent. One thing I am finding - every now and again I'm not able to interact with the screen and get the following (see screenshot). When I do cmd + click, that screen is usable, but then it's like the screen is duplicated and when I move my mouse off the screen, it ends up appearing on the other side. I repeat and eventually I get to my laptop. Any workarounds to avoid this from happening?

[reubennn]

It seems that my MacBook believes there is two external displays, one is the virtual stream, the other is the actual display. This makes sense why moving my mouse ends up on the other side.

[waydabber]

When you stream display 1 to display 2, both displays are in the display layout, it's just that the contents of display 1 is replicated on display 2. But you can move the mouse to display 2 as well. You need to rearrange the displays in a way that the stream target display does not cause issues if you don't want the mouse to move over there by accident.

[reubennn]

Thanks for the tip! For anyone following along, I have gone for a layout like this. It's still possible to move the mouse to the duplicated display, but the chances are pretty low being in the bottom left corner. I figured the top left is a dangerous spot because you often want to open the Apple menu bar icon!