CS6/Decklink Lag on Mac

[Andre Calitz]

Here is an example of how much out of sync the Decklink Card and CS6 is on our machine!

https://vimeo.com/42696913

I hope they fix this!!!

[Kyle Gentz]

Matt, I’m Using the Decklink for Video and Audio Playback. Also I have it set in premiere as “Blackmagic Audio”. Im using the XLR outs. Also Im monitoring with HDMI and HDSDI. I have had the same issue on Cannon DSLR H.264 Footage, RED Scarlet R3D Footage, XD CAM Footage, and ProRes 422 (all flavors). Most everything has been on a 1080p 23.976 timeline. We shoot everything in 23.976.

I think that answers your all your questions.

-Kyle

Live, Life and the pursuit of Pixels

[Ray Tragesser]

@ Matt,

Glad to see you poke your head in here once and a while. BM needs to be much more active here on this forum. I realize that this is a user to user forum, but participating here once and while really makes us end users feel like your looking out for us and working with your user base. Lets see more of that from BM.

@ Group

The screen lag may not be a problem but rather the difference between panel types and processing. I never expect my desktop program monitor to be exactly in sync with my broadcast monitors. LCD and Plasma have different millisecond delay variables not to mention adding in any processing time the I/O card introduces.

The audio needs to be offset to match the panel type. This all starts off with using the audio output of the i/o card. If you dont, the audio and video will be wildly out of sync. At the same time if you are using the i/o card audio and watching the Premiere Pro program monitor, it will now appear out of sync. I use a Yamaha digital mixer and save presets for different scenariors. The digital mixer has the ability to enter delay values specific for each monitor. Expensive but needed in my setup with a roomful of clients.

@ Andre

Output to tape really needs improved from Adobe and the card I/O makers. I find myself using Blackmagic Media Express to capture and layoff to tape. I typically make master files of all projects and then load them into BM Media Express for layoff.

Have you tried that for frame accuracy?

Ray

[Matt Dowling]

Hi Guys,

@Ray

Nice to hear from you! Hope all is well. I try to get on here when I can but thats getting harder these days.

@ group

We have been investigating the lag issue you guys reported and here is what we have found so far:

There is a definite lag between the desktop and SDI output when you use the arrow keys to step through frames and then hit play quickly. BUT if you do the same thing with the mouse…. its all good. Is this what you guys are seeing? We even saw if you step through frames quickly with keyboard and then wait for a second to hit play…. its all good.

We are working with Adobe on this one as it seems very odd that mouse and keyboard have totally different delays. Having said that, the Transmit plugin architecture is brand new for CS6 so there maybe some unforeseen things crop up that all 3rd parties will be in the same boat on and have to work through.

I’ll keep you posted on progress with that issue.

@ Chris

We have fixed those issues with Desktop Video 9.5.2 which will be on the BMD website tomorrow.

@ Andre

Just hold tight – your issue with ETT will be resolved probably tomorrow too. Might be worth running “Check for updates” tomorrow

Regards,

Matt
Blackmagic Design

[Chris Cea]

HI Matt, Thanks for the reply. The new driver does in fact fix my SD playback issue. Many thanks to BM for that new driver !!!

From what I can tell though, 720 sequences still do not play out to the external monitor. 1080 sequences play out fine though. Very strange. 🙂

Again, Thanks for chiming in Matt
Chris

[John Fromstein]

Yes! I’ve been working in a 720p sequence in PP CS6 and for the life of me couldn’t figure out why it isn’t displayed on my external monitor.

BMD folks: any idea when that will get addressed?

[Carl Schuurbiers]

…and the external monitor still lags behind 5-6 frames compared to the program monitor 🙁

Everything happens constantly 5-6 frames later compared to the program monitor, not only during playback, but also when scrubbing, or advancing frames, the external monitor always lags behind.

Carl.

Mac Pro 5,1
8-core, 24GB RAM
OS 10.7.4
NVidia Quadro 4000
BMD Decklink SDI
BMD driver 9.5.2
Pr 6.0.1

[Carl Schuurbiers]

we need two things done:

1. there should be less latency between the program monitor and the external signal. I realize that some latency can’t be avoided, but it must be minimized.

2. we need some kind of compensation control in Premiere to delay the program monitor by x frames so at least when playing, both the monitors are sync. (in Final Cut 7 this was done under system settings -> play back control -> frame offset.)

[Nigel Davey]

I spent nearly a week trouble shooting this issue and was about to get a refund on my Decklink card when I discovered a solution (for me at least).

This is what resolved the issue for me. Go to Premiere’s ‘Preferences’ and then the ‘Playback’ section. In the ‘Audio Device’ pull down menu make sure you have ‘Blackmagic Playback’ selected (mine was set to Adobe Playback).

Note on that same page you need to have the ‘Blackmagic Playback box ticked further down under ‘Video Device’.

Hope that helps.

[Carl Schuurbiers]

My settings are already as you say, all black magic 😉

At some point, the lag was optimized, it’s better now, so my request #1 has been solved, now we only need point #2 fixed.

The external monitor is inevitably going to have some delay, we need a setting so the program monitor window on the desktop can be delayed to compensate so during playback it is in sync with the external monitor.

At the moment it is very distracting to watch edits happen first on the desktop, and a bit later on the external monitor (Flanders LM-2140W)

When just watching the external monitor, and listening to the output of the LM-2140, sync is ok. (LM-2140 audio output automatically compensates for video delay when using SDI input)

If one needs to have a different audio path, the audio is usually faster so one can put a delay plugin in the master audio channel in Premiere and fiddle with it until it is sync.

The ultimate thing would of course be to have adjustable delay for each of the card’s outputs. (In the BMD control panel) Then one can trim until all display systems are sync and be done with it.

This doesn’t however eliminate the need to delay the program monitor in the Premiere window on the desktop.

Ok, let’s go a bit further: Let’s also have a button to switch on/off the external monitoring. (like there is in Avid)

I think I’ll put in another feature request at BMD and Adobe….

Cheers,

Carl.