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Flashing white line at the very top of the screen

I have my 8 cameras running in full screen (using the new fab layout feature) running on my Mac mini 2018.

When in full screen there is a white line that constantly pulses atop the 1080p screen. I've tried SS on another monitor (same model, Acer) and it does it on that too.

A search online brings up this Reddit thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/commandline/comments/kish0e/macos_flashing_white_line_at_top_of_screen_when/

Is there a similar top line hack for SS? The white line thing doesn't happen with any other app I've tried.

To be clear: it's not screen flashing or flickering, just that singular line.

Many thanks, Robbie

Comments

  • Hi Robbie, this is not something we've seen before or had reported by any user, so I'm not immediately sure what it could be! Could you please post a screenshot here so that we can see what you are describing. Or, if you don't want to post this publicly, email it to us at support@bensoftware.com and we'll help you with this issue directly. Can you also please describe what exactly you mean by "pulses" - so it's not a constant white line, but it changes colour/shade somehow?

  • Hi Ben

    By pulses I mean a thin white line appears the horizonal width of the very top of the screen. It then vanishes for a second. (My screen's wallpaper is solid black.) Then the white line appears for another second. Then it vanishes. Repeat the entire time the SS window is full screen.

    I'll try to take a screengrab tomorrow, if not a photo. Not worried about privacy since I'll trim the image accordingly.

  • Rather amateur hour, I'm afraid Ben. I couldn't get a full screen snapshot so I took a couple of snaps with my iPhone.

    This is a full screen view of the SS window. No white line.

    And every second this white line blinks on and then off.


  • Actually ... I don't think I captured the white line.... Hang on ....

  • I thought so.

    The blinking white line. It vanishes. Then it's back. Then it vanishes.

  • BenBen
    edited May 2023

    Thanks for the screenshots. This is strange! Can I just clarify exactly how you are entering full-screen mode: is this via the "Full Screen Mode" item in the Window menu (Command-F), or by clicking the green button at the top-left of the window?

    Please try both these methods - it's possible that one will exhibit this issue while the other does not.

    Also, what macOS system version are you running? Some forum chatter indicates this is could be a Big Sur issue specifically.

  • macOS Ventura: 13.3.1 (a) 

    Note:

    o I have two identical Acer 1080p monitors attached.

    o I have the Desktop & Dock setting: "Displays have separate Spaces" turned on.

    o Each display only has one Space.

    I typically go full screen by clicking on the round green window button on the window title bar.

    Using Command-F: one monitor displays FOUR of the EIGHT cameras that I have set up in the SS group window layout. The other monitor displays: "Right-click to add cameras". A white line is not visible (and thus does not blink). I tried Command-F with both the "Displays have separate Spaces" turned OFF. Again, four of the eight cameras on one monitor, with the other monitor displaying:

    However, clicking on the green title bar circle button while "Displays have separate Spaces" turned OFF, results in SS showing four of the eight cameras on one display and a blank screen on the other and no "Right-click to add cameras" message, which I guess is what you expected?

    I did log out and back in each time I changed settings.

    In case it's helpful, my group window layout is as follows:

    Honestly, Ben, this doesn't overly bother me. A blinking white line is hardly that important, but I thought it might be worth sharing if there was a simple fix or something I'd missed. And if there isn't, no biggie.

  • This is interesting. The green-button full-screen mode is handled entirely by macOS, so we don't have a lot of control over this.

    Conversely, the Command-F full-screen mode is created by SecuritySpy. One advantage of this is that you can have different displays on different monitors (compared to the macOS full-screen mode, where the window will expand to just one monitor, with the others being blank).

    So my recommendation here would be to use the Command-F full screen mode, and to set this up to display the cameras you want with the layout you want. As the on-screen note in your screenshot indicates, you can right-click on each screen to add/remove cameras, and also to customise the display to set some cameras larger than others.

    I'd recommend that you turn OFF the option "Displays have separate Spaces".

    I hope this will be a good solution for you.

  • Thanks Ben.

  • Just offering closure on this topic: I noticed one day, while running SecuritySpy version 5 and macOS Sonoma that the pulsing line had stopped flashing. It's now a solid white line in full screen. But that's less distracting. 😀

    And it's the same in SecuritySpy 6. So all is well.

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