This is my targeted review on BetterDisplay, a freemium app for Apple Silicon Macs (i.e. M1, M2, M3, M4). Although BetterDipslay’s primary promotion emphasizes many other features which I don’t personally need, this article is about how it can unlock non-integer rates for video editors & graders who do at least some of their projects at NTSC-derived rates like 59.94 · 29.97 · 23.976 (aka 23.98) and use a monitor which only offers the closest integers to those via EDID, i.e. 60 · 30 · 24. For those many video editors & graders who deal with projects at these non-integer rates, BetterDisplay can eliminate the need for a professional interface from AJA or Blackmagic while retaining the proper cadence for the project. For those video editors & graders, BetterDisplay can also open the spectrum of possible monitors which are available on the market, since by eliminating the professional interface from AJA or Blackmagic, calibration profiles can finally reside on the host computer (the Apple Silicon Mac, i.e. M1, M2, M3, M4 in this case) and no longer have to store them inside the monitor display itself. Ahead, I’ll cover the summarized historical situation, the two guilty parties, how BetterDisplay resolves the issue and more.

Historical summary of the situation

Before color television went digital, we had three main competing standards for analog video and television: NTSC, PAL and SECAM.

Before color television, we had grayscale video and television, often called «black and white», a term popularized by Paul Simon’s 1973 song «Kodachrome». In the time of grayscale television, all rates were integers like 25 & 30 frames per second or 50 & 60 fields per second (without any decimal points). However, when the United States (and other countries which also adopted the NTSC colorized system) starting in 1953, the framerate was forcibly changed to ≈29.97 and the field rate was changed to ≈59.94. The film production rate of 24 frames per second was adjusted to ≈23.976 (aka 23.98) to fit mathematically with a pulldown over ≈59.94, as covered in detail in prior articles.

Even though analog NTSC was surpassed by digital television (DTV), later high-definition television (HDTV) and to a certain degree to 4K UHD, most production and distribution in ex-NTSC regions still remains at the non-integer rates of ≈59.94, ≈29.97 or ≈23.976 (aka 23.98).

Before DTV and HDTV, nearly all television production was interlaced, where each frame was divided into two intertwined fields, as covered in detail in prior articles. With HDTV, there has been a much greater tendency to use progressive video instead of interlaced video, even though it is sometimes distributed as PSF (progressive segmented frame, a progressive signal disguised as if it were interlaced) for compatibility with 1080i TV stations and for certain videotape formats. In 4K UHD, there is no more interlaced video at all, but non-integer rates persist.

Interlaced video used to be one of the main reasons why video editors & graders needed a professional interface, to deliver a correct interlaced signal to a monitor display that accepted it. That need for monitoring interlaced video has virtually disappeared in most cases nowadays, while the framerate issue for non-integer NTSC-derived formats persists in order to visualize the signal with the same cadence as the project, even in HD and 4K UHD.

EDID: a quick description

Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) and Enhanced EDID (E-EDID) are metadata formats for display devices to describe their capabilities to a video source (i.e. graphics card or set-top box). The data format is defined by a standard published by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). All modern display should offer all of its compatible spatial resolutions in pixels and its temporal resolutions (refresh rates/framerates) through its connection to the source, in order to negotiate or offer available options in a menu.

Guilty party 1: the display manufacturers

With very few exceptions, most display manufacturers so far (including ASUS and Dell) only offer the integer versions via EDID, not the non-integer rates that they also support with decimal points. In other words, in many cases, they support some or all of the non-integer rates like 59.94 • 29.97 • 23.976 (aka 23.98) but only offer 60 • 50 • 30 • 25 • 24 via EDID. That demonstrates irresponsibility by the monitor manufacturers, either due to ignorance, apathy or worse (see Conspiracy Theory ahead).

Fortunately, despite the irresponsibility of the monitor display manufacturers which neglect to include non-integer rates via EDID, platforms like AppleTV and Windows allow users to select non-integer rates either manually or (in the case of AppleTV boxes) semiautomatically with the Match Frame Rate setting, with corresponding fallback provisions in case the monitor is incompatible. (I don’t know why the macOS programming team doesn’t learn about that wonderful technique from the AppleTV programming team.)

Guilty party 2: macOS’s ultraconservatism

Unlike Windows and AppleTV (which allow use of non-integer rates even when not offered via EDID), the macOS has been designed to be ultraconservative in this respect. Despite years of complaints by pro video users, there is still no override available: no advanced mode, not even if we click the Option key. If the display monitor doesn’t offer non-integer rates via EDID, macOS gives us no option to select a non-integer rate.

How BetterDisplay saves the day

Even though we have had to suffer with the monitor manufacturers’ irresponsibility with their incomplete EDID and macOS’s ultraconservatism, BetterDisplay fortunately saves the day by allowing us to achieve the non-integer rates (if the monitor is capable) like 59.94 • 29.97 • 23.976 (aka 23.98). However, BetterDisplay’s documentation could be improved since it is not immediately obvious where or how to invoke the NTSC-derived rates or how to verify that they are actually active after requesting them. I’ll cover how to do that ahead.

Limitations with 60 Hertz panels only

As covered in Apple Studio Display: limited to a single framerate? in March 2022, is sadly limited to 60 Hertz only. Even so, I was hoping that the Studio Display would be able to do 59.94 Hertz (aka 59.94p or 59.94 progressive frames per second) since the 0.1% difference could have been within the Apple Studio’s Display tolerance. However, Brian Russell of Red Shoe Film downloaded and tested BetterDisplay with his Apple Studio Display. Sadly, the Refresh Rate menu was completely missing in action with the Apple Studio Display. Apple indeed supports non-integer and lower rates with the XDR displays, but not with the current Studio Display as of May 2025.

How to request non-integer rates with BetterDisplay

After you download and install the app from BetterDisplay.pro (at publication time of this article, the link redirects to a page at GiftHub), there will be a new menu bar option with a monitor display symbol. (It should be noted that installing BetterDisplay requires the prior installation of Homebrew. I had it installed previously, so I didn’t have to install it again.)

If you have your macOS in English, the desired menu for our purposes is called Refresh Rate. Select it and you’ll see something similar to what you’ll see below. (Si lo tienes en castellano, será Frecuencia de refresco.) Within the Refresh Rate section, you will see the available rates, according to your connected and selected monitor. The integer ones (without any decimal points) will be in the upper section, while the non-integer ones will be in the lower section.

In the case of the particular monitor I used in my testing (which I will review separately soon), the non-integer rates that appear include 119.88 • 59.94 • 29.97 and 23.98 (which is an abbreviated version of 23.976). The reason for 119.88 is because the monitor I used has a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hertz.

Below the list of the non-integer rates, you’ll see two comments:

NTSC (or other unexposed) refresh rates may not persist after mode-changes unless forced by Configuration Protection. (The Configuration Protection requires the optional Pro license-details ahead).

and:

Hold Option when opening this menu to measure refresh rate!

To clarify: This refers to holding the Option key on the keyboard when opening the Refresh Rate menu, not when opening the initial BetterDisplay menu. With this, you can confirm whether your monitor is actually working with the desired non-integer rate.

With the monitor I used during my testing, I was fortunately able to select and confirm the proper implementation of all of the listed non-integer framerates indicated above.

Caveats that can throw you off

Even though you might assume that BetterDisplay will add the non-integer rates to the standard Display panel within macOS’s System Settings (formerly known as System Preferences), that is not the case (at least at publication time of this article with version 3.5.4 build 40449). We must select and confirm the desired non-integer rates within the BetterDisplay menu and submenu indicated above and (while using BetterDisplay), ignore whatever is shown in the standard Display panel within macOS’s System Settings. This is fine as long was we know it.

Understanding the differences between the free and Pro version

All of the features demonstrated above are included in the free version, except for the mentioned Configuration Protection mode. However, we do get the Pro options free for the first 14 days of use.

The continuous use of the Pro version costs either US$19.99 or €19.99 (one-time fee). I am still using the free trial as I publish this.

Color Mode

Although it is outside of the scope of this article (which is focused on non-integer rates with an Apple Silicon Mac), I want to show you the options listed in BetterDisplay’s Color Mode menu, which includes 10-bit, 8-bit and two which are RGB. These Color Mode options will not only be of interest in general, but also for owners of the original LP2480zx DreamColor monitor, which demands RGB to use its DreamColor Engine. This has been traditionally a challenge for the macOS (without an external interface box), not because of hardware limitations in the Mac, but OS limitations which BetterDisplay now solves.

Why PAL/SECAM-derived rates are exempt

As indicated early, PAL/SECAM and its derived formats in HD and 4K UHD have always been integers. It is fine if the monitor accepts 25 or 50. The cadence will be fine.

Conspiracy theory

Is it possible that renowned display monitors (including ASUS and Dell) are really so ignorant about the importance of including the non-integer rates when compiling their EDID? It would only take them about 88 seconds to add them to the list of modes when creating the EDID. Or is it possible that leading manufacturers of professional video interfaces like AJA, Blackmagic and (in the past) Matrox have been secretly paying these monitor manufacturers to exclude the non-integer rates in their EDID just to force professional video editors and graders to purchase an external device to allow non-integer rates onto the monitors?

Of course, Apple XDR displays (US$5000 and up for the Pro Display XDR, and also built-into the MacBook Pro 14″ and 16″ models) include the non-integer rates in their EDID. They include 59.94 and 47.95 (an abbreviated version of 47.952) which are fine to accommodate 29.97 and 23.976 respectively.

How I made my tests and screenshots for this article

I used a MacBook Pro M4 14″ matte nanotexture with 16GB RAM, 1TB internal storage and Spanish ISO keyboard, connected to a relatively inexpensive matte 4K UHD monitor display which offers the rates indicated earlier.

Conclusions

Although I would prefer to have the two mentioned guilty parties named in this article behave more appropriately so this situation wouldn’t even exist, I am very grateful that the creators of BetterDisplay have resolved the issue for video editors & graders who use Apple Silicon Macs and need to work with non-integer rates. This is because it’s essential to be able to monitor at the project rate or an even multiple of it. For those video editors & graders, BetterDisplay can also open the spectrum of possible monitors on the market, since by eliminating the professional interface from AJA or Blackmagic, calibration profiles can finally reside on the host computer (the Apple Silicon Mac, i.e. M1, M2, M3, M4 in this case) and no longer have to store them inside the monitor display itself. For more information, visit BetterDisplay.pro.

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FTC disclosure

The creators of BetterDisplay has not paid for this article, nor has AJA, Apple, ASUS, Blackmagic, DELL, HP,  Matrox or Paul Simon. Some of the manufacturers listed above have contracted Tépper and/or TecnoTur.LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcreations. So far, none of the manufacturers listed above is/are sponsors of the TecnoTur, BeyondPodcasting, CapicúaFM or TuSaludSecreta programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are, may be (or may have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine. Some links to third parties listed in this article and/or on this web page may indirectly benefit TecnoTur.LLC via affiliate programs. Allan Tépper’s opinions are his own. Allan Tépper is not liable for misuse or misunderstanding of information he shares.