BetterDisplay for Mac
Unlock your displays on your Mac.
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BetterDisplay overview
BetterDisplay (formerly BetterDummy) is a truly wonderful tool! It let's you convert your displays to fully scalable screens, allows brightness control, provides XDR/HDR upscaling (extra brightness beyond 100% on compatible displays), full dimming to black, helps you create and manage virtual displays (dummies) for your Mac, create Picture in Picture windows of your displays and gives you a host of other features to manage your display's settings easily from the menu bar.
Features:
- Convert your internal and natively connected external displays to smoothly-scaled HiDPI displays on Apple Silicon - now even without mirroring a dummy (displays with notch, HDR, HDCP, high refresh rate fully supported)! (Pro)
- Reach the full brightness potential of your XDR or HDR display! (Pro)
- Change the display's brightness, volume and colors via software and hardware (DDC) control via sliders and native or custom keyboard shortcuts!
- Create custom HiDPI resolutions for real displays manually and redefine certain system display parameters!
- Create any number of dummies (virtual screens) with varying aspect ratios.
- Use headless Macs (servers) with any resolution and HiDPI mode for remote access.
- Create Picture in Picture window for any real or dummy displays. (Pro)
- Redirect your display's contents (real or dummy) to an other screen via streaming. (Pro)
- If you are using a big TV up close, use the bottom half of your TV as a wide screen display (off-center streaming). (Pro)
- Scale Sidecar resolutions. (Pro)
- Portrait SideCar support. (Pro)
- Better quality zooming (System Preferences»Accessibility»Zoom) or High Quality screenshots even on 1080p displays
- Easily change the resolution of your real and dummy displays via a slider (or submenu) from the menubar.
- Quickly accessible refresh rate and screen rotation menu.
- Simplify creating mirrored sets. (Pro)
- Easily move around displays relative to each other using the app menu.
- Quickly designate a display to be main display.
- Associate dummies with displays for auto connect/disconnect.
- Keyboard shortcuts for basic operations.
- Advanced keyboard shortcuts support. (Pro)
- Custom dummies (resolution, orientation, naming). (Pro)
- Create a dummy optimized for a real display. (Pro)
What’s new in version 4.0.4
Fixed
- Fixed software brightness upscaling flickers or brief dropouts every 10–15 seconds with fullscreen windows (#4458)
- Resolved feedback sound playing when changing volume with option-shift, even if "Play feedback when volume is changed" is off (#4411)
- Fixed Configuration Protection failing in PBP mode on certain LG monitors (#4403)
- Fixed app menu position issues after using "Set as Main Display" (#4416)
- Stopped some keyboard shortcuts from showing an incorrect "dark mode" icon as OSD (#4442)
- Prevented window focus shifts that caused Stage Manager to flicker when opening Settings from the app menu or switching settings panes programmatically (#4449)
- Fixed some app menu items not clearly indicating the current selection when menu icons are hidden (#4450)
- Restored overlay dimming effectiveness on fullscreen windows in certain cases (#4472)
- Made Paddle product/trial overview sheet buttons responsive again (#4489)
- Fixed the Tools menu header not merging when both "Show button bar at the top" and "Make Tools menu collapsible" are enabled (#4487)
- Fixed Auto Brightness incompatibility with BetterDisplay brightness controls on macOS Tahoe 26 (#4421)
- Fixed Settings window outline sticking around in Mission Control after closing, on macOS Tahoe 26 (#4430)
- Fixed classic (non-expanding) submenu rendering glitches with animated main menu content on macOS Tahoe 26 (#4461)
- Image Adjustments and software brightness upscaling now work correctly when Auto Brightness is enabled—app will auto-disable Auto Brightness when needed (note: this is likely a macOS beta bug) (#4466)
- Displaced nits counter on Apple XDR when using glass-style OSD on Sequoia and earlier (v4.0.0 bug) (#4514)
- Incorrect menu positioning after aspect ratio change (#4516)
- Text wrapping issue in custom scaled resolutions status message (#4517)
- "Switch to native mode" setting incorrectly affected Self-Stream + Video Filter mode (#4519)
- App menu mispositioned when opened via CLI with hidden menu bar (#4541)
- Misaligned app menu item headers on Ventura and Sonoma (v4.0.0 bug) (#4511)
- Broken scrolling in Automatic Settings / display group panes (v4.0.0 bug) (#4518)
- The "Enable hardware brightness control" toggle is off and disabled for no good reason (#4560)
- Fixed app menu bar icon repositioning itself to first item after mode change (#4597)
- Fixed flashing glitch of semi-transparent/glass background in App Settings when window is unfocused (#4605)
- Ensure suspended image adjustments also affect compositor filter effects (#4609)
- Make resetColorAdjustments CLI command reset overlay and compositor layer adjustments (#4610)
Full list of changes available here
BetterDisplay for Mac
Free
In English
Version 4.0.4
What users say about BetterDisplay
Features: 5.0
Makes using a non-apple (Dell) monitor with my Mac Mini Pro a breeze. Allow for super sharp imagery and text and imagery at any resolution setting. So much better that apple defaults for non-integer magnification levels.
Other user ratings:
Value | 5.0
Ease of use | 5.0
Reliability | 5.0
Customer support | 5.0
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(15 Reviews of BetterDisplay)
Comments
User Ratings
Jul 23 2025
Version: 3.5.6
PLEASE HELP!! Dell monitor stopped working/broke permanently after installing Better Display
Hi folks! Is there someone who could help me solve a self-made mess? I'd be so appreciative and grateful!!
I was experimenting with the Better Display app on my MacBook Pro, featuring M2 silicon, and somehow my Dell monitor started working in much better ways than expected. It even allowed me to control the monitor's accessories, such as brightness and volume features, directly from my Mac, which was previously not possible. I was so excited and happy that I got greedy and wanted more, so I continued exploring new settings to further enhance my experience. At some point, I became familiar with adjusting the monitor’s display EDID settings. Then, to prevent the Mac from applying True Tone and Night Shift colour schemes to the external monitor, I started playing with other settings. In the process, I ended up changing the setting to "using the external monitor as a television instead of a computer screen." When I realized that this was not what I wanted, because I was just experimenting with the settings, I tried to revert the changes I had made to the settings. However, at that point, I messed up something in the process. Now, my external display/monitor is no longer working. I've spent hours trying to fix this, but I've given up completely. My external monitor is sitting useless, and I'm stuck on a MacBook screen. I'll be happy to share all the details/steps I've taken so far to fix and address the issues that have failed.
May 3 2024
Version: 2.3.2
I use this to quickly switch my monitor input to another connected Mac or PS5. Saves me navigating the convoluted monitor menus.
Dec 26 2023
Version: 2.1.3
Just installed the app on my mac mini. Brightness controls work great. Sound controls aren't working, although the on-screen sound bars are moving.
Nov 11 2023
Version: 2.0.11
I use a Mac Studio Max, first with Monterey now Sonoma OS, with 2 Dell monitors thru the regular ports and one Asus gaming monitor thru a USB port.
The Asus monitor has been blinkning and flickering since day one a year ago. There has been no way to alter this, changing the resolution or update frequency did not help.
Then, TA-DA, installed this app last week and the problem was gone! Didn’t have to change anytning or do any adjustments.
I’m happy, now my third monitor works as intended.
