Content flickering on сursor movement w/ external monitor

Hello! I’ve encountered a problem: during playback, almost any movement of the cursor in the player window causes the content to flicker.

I can’t record this behavior—for example, using QuickTime—because it doesn’t occur during recording. That’s why I recorded it on my phone and have attached it.

Video File HEVC (4K DV) Dolby Atmos 5.1
macOS 15.3 (24D60)
Infuse Version 8.0.9 (8.0.5066)

What mac model number and if a separate monitor, what model also?

MacBook Pro 16 M4 Max
DELL U2720Q

Do you see the same issue when viewed on the MacBook screen only and disconnected from the external monitor?

Also, it seems that particular monitor has a bit of a track record with flickering with Mac silicon MacBooks with some solutions others have found.

1 Like

Playback on the Mac itself is not susceptible to the problem.

That’s true, but playing the same file in other players does not cause such an issue.

How are you connecting the monitor to the MacBook? Have you tried different cables, different types of connection? (USB3, HDMI, etc)

HDMI cable only. UGREEN HDMI 2.1 Cable 48Gbps, Certified Ultra High Speed

Did you try a different HDMI cable?

Turning off GPU Dithering in BetterDisplay did not yield any results.

It seems you’re playing DV content (10 or 12 bit, with maximum brightness typically>1000m2) to an SDR monitor that has a maximum brightness of 250 cd/m2, transferring it in 8 bit.

You can expect a not so good picture quality. Playing SDR content on this monitor would probably produce a better quality picture.

What happens when you play the video in Infuse in a window as opposed to full screen? Does it flicker? Only the Infuse window or the whole screen?

It is likely that other video players do not try to render the video in Dolby Vision.
Maybe Infuse tries to render it in Dolby Vision (because your MacBook Pro is very capable of displaying it) and that causes issues on this non-HDR capable screen.

I download HDR content for viewing on my AppleTV, but sometimes I watch it on my Mac and the quality is satisfactory, even though the monitor displays it in SDR.

I have attached a link to a video file recorded with my phone to illustrate this issue. It flickers only inside the player window and only when I move the cursor within that window.

And yes, you’re right—playing SDR content does not cause any issues.

Thx. I hadn’t seen that Infuse was playing in a window, in the video.
That seems like an Infuse bug (but I might be completely wrong).
I have a 4K LG display, that is theoretically HDR capable, connected to a 16" MBP M1 Pro via USB C hub then HDMI, and have no issue playing Dolby Video content on it with Infuse (I just checked).
Have you tried selecting the 10-bit color mode in BetterDIsplay? (For info I do not use BetterDIsplay, but MonitorControl, and still have a SwitchRes X license)

Same issue