Can anyone suggest a monitor brand that plays well with Macs? | Hacker News Reader

Can anyone suggest a monitor brand that plays well with Macs?

8 pointsmjsweet18 comments

Each monitor I have (a Dell and a Samsung) require a carefully choreographed dance involving a procession of plugging and unplugging, switching things off and on and various experimental sequences to get everything up and running each morning. I have resorted to using a power board with individual switches to turn monitors off and then on again. This seems to be the only thing that works effectively.

It's suboptimal.

I would rather some monitors that simply woke up from sleep when my 2020 MBP wakes up. This can happen multiple times per day and I have resorted to using Caffeinated during the day to keep everything switched on. During the day it's not always as bad as first thing (deep sleep?), but it's slow and clunky.

Look, I would love a Mac Studio Display but I have no idea if it works this way... I've been so badly burned!

I'm not willing to part with $2500 AUD to make it happen too.

Any ideas? What experiences has the HN crowd had with monitors on the Mac of late?

I recently got (and recommend) the Gigabyte M32U, a 32" 4K 144Hz monitor w/ adaptive refresh. With the 2021 Mac Pro it's plug-and-play, super smooth @144Hz. You connect your Mac via a single USB-C cable, and the monitor has a built-in KVM/hub for peripherals (sent via the same USB-C). The USB-C port also charges your Mac at 18W while the monitor is on, and charges faster when the monitor is sleeping. It's somewhat pricy but is apparently considered budget for a 32" 4K, recently on sale for $600.

The monitor wakes from sleep exactly as suggested. Even when the Mac is closed, you can move the mouse/keyboard connected to the KVM to awaken it. (However if the KVM is switched away from the Mac, as expected it won't auto-switch back when the Mac is awakened.)

IMO the monitor looks fantastic, but it's IPS so doesn't have as-good-as-possible blacks/contrast/HDR. There is also some backlight bleed visible in a dark room (apparently typical on large IPS monitors).

Is it an M1? The dock situation you have is probably to blame.

I have one LG 27GL850 and an HP 24 nothing fancy. I used to use an HP thunderbolt dock to power both monitors, one output via HDMI and one via DP. Surprisingly, the HDMI output worked better. Still I had weird issues like flickering at random, limited refresh rate, etc and I had to de power the dock often.

Now I have a TB4 hub, 1 TB to the laptop, 3 TB out. Not only it’s cheaper but it’s smaller, more modular and more stable. I use two TB to whatever video port you need and one TB to Ethernet. It works great.

Also the M1 macs had issues outputting RGB color but I think it’s been solved in in Monterey, but if you tried any fixes before you might have to clear your settings file.

I just plug in the laptop, touch the keyboard and I’m up and running.

A trick to get cleartype-smooth fonts is to use betterdummy and mirror your monitors to it. It renders at 4K and the mirroring looks much better. The only problems are how complicated the setup gets with multiple monitors and that it’s limited to 60hz

The LG monitors that were designed in partnership with Apple, and used to be sold in the physical Apple stores -- those will probably be the closest thing you can get to a decent Apple-compatible monitor without buying a real-deal Apple monitor.

My next step down from there would be Dell, but you've got to do your homework on the different models of Dell monitors.

One thing I will say is that you really want to be using the DisplayPort inputs on your monitors. HDMI is way too heavily encumbered by special interests that want to DRM everything and that almost always has lots of other negative side effects. If you have a more recent machine, then a USB-C to DisplayPort cable would likely be your best bet, but again you've got to do your homework.

The other thing I'd say is that it's probably better to use only monitors from a certain specific manufacturer, and not mix-and-match manufacturers. Things you do to get one monitor from one manufacturer working may interfere with a monitor from a different manufacturer.

Also keep in mind that certain docks or port expanders can also cause problems.

If you have a(n) (Intel) Mac mini running macOS Monterey, make sure you're fully up-to-date; a recent update FINALLY fixed a long-standing USB-C issue I was having with my Philips 329P9H/27 32in 4K UHD display (https://www.usa.philips.com/c-p/329P9H_27/brilliance-lcd-mon...).

I would not be surprised if this also affects the 2020 (Intel) MacBook Pro as well

The 329P9H/27 is, for all intents and purposes, an AOC-manufactured monitor.

I made a mistake, mine is a 2021 M1 Pro MBP. But waking from sleep does seems to affect my M1 Mac on Monterey, and I am up-to-date with 12.3.1 as well.

I use a 45" 4K Samsung QLED TV with my Macbook Air M1. It's great having a single big display on the wall above my desk, the only downsides being that I have to turn on the TV manually, but this could be fixed by using an adapter with CEC support. Also only running at 60Hz, but that's not something I care about.

Have used an AOC monitor on an older Mac Mini for years, both at home and at work.

I think your problem is not monitors. Your problem is the laptop. Get any other laptop and I guarantee your monitors will work plug and play.

I have two 4k Dell monitors. Works well with no issues. Are you using DP? That's important.

Yeah, I'm using a USB-C to DisplayPort cable with the Samsung. What I didn't say was that I've disconnected my Dell for now (it was in portrait mode) and I'm just using the Samsun 4K 27" until I can figure out something that works better.

Maybe there's something up with the cable. Have you tried another one? Also try another port. The electrical characteristics sometime seem to be very sensitive for DP.

I will definitely give it a try.

My MBP works fine with my four monitors but I needed to have good cables/adapters.

Never had a problem with Dell monitors and any of my macs over the years.

My LG is fine.

I have a newer LG 38" that's kind of janky around sleep/wake. I'm still on Mojave though.

Apple

I can suggest you to use Lg - they have collaboration with Apple so there must not be problems

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