Since I have a VPN that connects my work and home computers (trust me, it’s much easier than going through my work VPN) I do end up needing Screen Sharing quite a lot. It’s a pretty awesome program for being free and is located in /System/Library/CoreServices if you want to use it yourself as a VNC client. The biggest problem with it is that you cannot control the quality level outside of turning on ‘adaptive quality’ in the View menu. I wanted an even lower quality level as my connection at home is less than stellar.
Turns out that you can! Just run this command in Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing controlObserveQuality [1-5]
Note the 1-5. You can choose quality levels between 1 to 5, one being the worst (black/white) and 5 being the highest (no compression, full color). The options are as follows:
- 1 - Black and White. Personally I find this to be more or less unreadable.
- 2 - Grayscale. I use this for my home computer.
- 3 - 8 bit color
- 4 - 16 bit color
- 5 - 32 bit color
If you want to set it back, just choose ‘Adaptive Quality’ from the View menu. Simple as that!