Apple has rolled out its 10.5.7 OS update. First, the good news: it may enhance video support. Apple’s tech document claims the update “Improves performance of video playback and cursor movements for recent Macs with NVIDIA graphics.”
The (potentially) bad news is that it could cause issues with video output and external monitor resolution. There’s a growing thread on the topic:
Monitor with wrong resolution after 10.5.7 update!!!! PLEASE HELP!!!
(Thanks to DJ SD for pointing this out on Create Digital Music, where we’re tracking issues with Euphonix control surfaces and Ethernet.)
Those will be forum contributor’s exclamation marks, not mine. I’m staying calm; don’t worry.
Now, oddly, a lot of the discussion seems to be related to HDMI-to-DVI connections, something that may be less common among live visualists (and thus less concern to readers of the site.) But it looks to me like DVI may have issues, too.
I think if you haven’t upgraded yet, you may want to hold off as the update is so new – that is, if you’re gigging or presenting in the next few days, for instance. If you do update, the usual advice holds: back up, so you can roll back if you have to. (I wish Mac updates allowed manual roll-backs, as with Windows updates, though even that is no substitute for a real backup.)
Of course, if you do have the update, I’m curious how it’s going – especially if it enhances performance. Stay tuned.
Also, 10.5.7 or not, there’s a hidden gem in that thread:
It’s a utility for explicitly setting external monitor resolution. I expect some of you are hard-core users already?