How to select an unscaled non-native resolution in BetterDisplay?

[hwillson]

Hi all - I'm running into a bit of an interesting issue that I'm hoping BetterDisplay can help me resolve.

I'm using an M2 based Mac with an external HP Omen 27i (27") 1440p display. My external monitor has a feature built into it where I can set its "Image Scaling" to "Pixel-for-Pixel" (through the on-screen monitor menu), and the monitor will always enforce that the resolution shown matches the exact resolution detected from the video input. In other words, if the monitor detects a 1920 x 1080 resolution being used by the incoming video stream, it will show the video in 1920 x 1080 exactly (without scaling), then make all of the additional pixels that make up the 2560 x 1440 space black. This puts a black border around the 1920 x 1080 video, and shrinks the 27" viewing space down to about 21 inches, but it shows the 1080 based video exactly pixel for pixel, which means no scaling and most importantly no blurring. This feature is incredibly handy when wanting to play cloud based games and wanting to push less bits over the wire; I switch the resolution to 1080 and things look wonderful, albeit in a smaller play area.

For some interesting reason though, using an M2 with Ventura, if I change the resolution of my external monitor either through Apple's Settings > Displays or using BetterDisplay, the incoming video is now always recognized by my monitor as being the max 2560 x 1440 resolution. So if I update my resolution using BetterDisplay to be 1920 x 1080, my monitor still sees the video as 2560 x 1440, which means it displays it as 1080 scaled to fit on 1440. I have a feeling this is happening because of the wizardry Apple uses to scale images up then reduce them, to handle scaling lower resolutions on macOS and attempting to make them look better. I'm guessing that because of this the outgoing video stream is never really changed from being 2560 x 1440, which is why my monitor always sees it this way (just speculating though!).

Is there any way with BetterDisplay that when I switch to a 1920 x 1080 resolution, I can switch to that exact resolution, pixel for pixel, without scaling? Or is this a limitation imposed by macOS where scaling always happens?

Thanks for your time (and the great app)!

[waydabber]

Sure, just go to the Set Resolution menu, More Resolutions and select the 1920x1080 resolution marked as Unsafe - this should be an unscaled version with actual 1920x1080 timing sent to the display. You can save this resolution as a favorite for easier recall.

Let met now if this does not help or you can't find it!

[hwillson]

Yes it is unfortunately. I've tried all of them (including 60Hz and other resolutions) and they don't seem to change anything.

[waydabber]

Interestingly it doesn't seem to work for me either anymore... 😖 Did work in the past. I am running Sonoma, not sure when this stopped working. Will need some more investigation into this. You can definetly force this to work by (temporarily, when needed) overriding the EDID with a version that has only the desired timing available but that feels a bit overkill for a solution. If you don't know how to do this let me know!

[waydabber]

Ok, it seems like the actual working resolution might not be marked as Unsafe... For example I have here this mode (462) which is a correct 1920x1080 timing and seems to work as such, but does not have the flag that marks it as unsafe.

So the right mode might be there, or it might not. If not, then the only way seems to be the EDID override.

[waydabber]

(btw you seem to have a similar mode line with 48-120Hz VRR, just above the Unsafe 1920x1080, you might want to try that).

[hwillson]

Woohoo! 🎉 Selecting the 48-120Hz VRR option just above like you mentioned fixed it - amazing!! Thank you very much for your help and awesome work on this project. I'm signing up for Pro now - thanks again! 🙇

[pszufe]

Dear @waydabber,
How to do that in the 2025 version On Mac Air M4? It seems that the app design has changed. I have a 4K monitor but want to output a 2K signal onto it. It seems that there is an option marked with the exclamation mark (and described as Unsafe) but just nothing happens when I click on it (not even screen blinking).

It seems that one workaround that works is to manually edit native pixel panel resolution:

Is there a way to add it to the list or do via commandline?

[waydabber]

Yes, some of the newer Macs don't like switching to a non-native timing. An effective way would be to apply an EDID that contains an FHD timing. This can be invoked from the app menu or via CLI as well.