How to tackle EDID override issues + reset the app if needed

[kman1898]

So I’ve noticed this most often when connecting with Novastar and PixelHue processors but it’s not exclusive to them. Betterdisplay seems to keep a record of displays it’s connected to. The problem with this, especially Novastar units is that it’s not reading the display information and just defaulting to a random EDID that was set to a device I connected to once. So if I connect to a 3840x2160 or even a 7680x1080 processor it sees 3840x1724. It also says the display is named E2-02. Any Novastar or pixelhue switcher will do this. My only options to override are to close Betterdisplay, which will fix it, or to force my own EDID. But the latter option only works 5/10 times. Depending on the resolution sometimes it will work and other times not.

I have made a video showcasing this while I was demoing the new 8k30 card from Novastar on their H series processing. First I show 7680x4320@30 from display settings with display ID hdmi 2.1 with BD closed. Then open BD and it changes the display ID to E2-02 and sets resolution to 3840x1724. Then I later force an EDID and it sets it to 7680x4320@30. I then can reset it and quit BD and it reverts back to hdmi 2.1 and 8k30.

This is a major issue for me and basically makes better display unusable. Not sure what is going on nor what the fix could be. But wanted to bring to your attention so can get this fixed. Please

Here is the video showcasing the issue.

https://cloud.meshtech.systems/s/XtiTSwbWCPDtdRR

[waydabber]

Hi there - it looks to me BetterDisplay was once configured to load a custom EDID with the E2-02 for a display with this UUID so on startup it does load this EDID - however the option to track the original identity of the display in case of an EDID change induced identity change was not enabled so the display with the updated EDID simply shows as a different display.

To make sure things are reset to default, I'd simply click on this and let the app proceed by wiping all display data and reset all macOS display subsystem data as well:

Alternatively you can also make the app to forget all displays (see the option next to the indicated one).

If you want the app to forget some display data, you can should enable "Show currently offline displays in Settings" (under Settings/Displays/Overview, right at the top), and then go to the display you want the app to forget open "Additional settings...", scroll to the bottom of that section and click "Forget Display...". If you want the app to reset all data related to a currently connected display, click on "Reset All Display Settings" at the same location. However with this specific issue (if the issue is what I think and explained at top), forgetting all data related to the "E2-02" display won't solve the issue, you need the app to forget the original display which gets an EDID applied automatically on app startup.

If you have the issue of the app mixing up displays because multiple displays have the same UUID by some reason, you can change the display identification method for a display (and also the default method), this is also under Additional settings (the default is the System UUID match - in this case the app follows macOS in identifying or telling displays apart from each other).

Hope this info helps.

[waydabber]

(note: please let me know if this answer helps fixing the issue!)

[kman1898]

This solved my issue perfectly! If I have a problem like this in the future I’ll look into the additional settings for the alternate identification methods.

[waydabber]

If you have an EDID applied that has a different vendor, model id or serial number (which makes the system to recognize as a different display), make sure this is enabled:

In this case the app should recognize that the new display is in fact the previous one with a different EDID, so you can unapply the EDID. If the app was able to follow/track the display during the EDID change, the Display Information... should show both the original and alternate identities for the display.

[kman1898]

Awesome thank you so much. Really appreciate it