JKL shuttling issue with CS6 on Mac/Decklink

[Kevin Monahan]

It’s likely a Blackmagic issue. Have you contacted their tech support?

Kevin Monahan
Social Support Lead
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Systems, Inc.
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[Mel Matsuoka]

As I mentioned, this problem also occurs on AJA Kona3 hardware.

[Mel Matsuoka]

Also, this JKL lag does not occur in FCP7 or Avid MC6.x, using the same hardware configs.

[Tom Daigon]

Just as a point of comparison, Im running CS6 PrP on both a Mac Pro system and a Z820 system, both through a Kona 3 card feeding HD-SDI to an external engineering monitor. I haven’t experienced the JKL lag issue you mention.

You are running the most up to date Plugins (2) from AJA right?

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
HP Z820 Dual 2687
64GB ram
Dulce DQg2 16TB raid
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com

[Mel Matsuoka]

[Tom Daigon] “You are running the most up to date Plugins (2) from AJA right?”

Yes. Latest Kona CS6 plugins are installed

There is no CS6 specific plugin driver for Decklink hardware, unlike AJA, but I am running the latest Decklink drivers as well.

[John Pale]

You have 3x 570 cards??

This may be a PCI bandwidth issue.

Try running with one card to test if performance improves. Premiere can only make use of one card for CUDA anyway.

[Mel Matsuoka]

[John Pale] “You have 3x 570 cards??

This may be a PCI bandwidth issue.

Try running with one card to test if performance improves. Premiere can only make use of one card for CUDA anyway.”

The other 2 570’s are in an external Cyclone PCIe chassis, both in x16 slots. Though it’s definitely worth testing this without the Cyclone in the equation to see if it changes anything. Although it would seem crazy to me that it would, since I cant imagine simple JKL shuttling requires a lot of CUDA processing power, if at all, considering FCP7 can do this just fine.

In any case, the problem also occurs on our other editor’s machine, which is running the AJA Kona3 board, with a single GTX570 in it (i.e. no PCIe expansion at all), so I seriously doubt that it’s a PCI bandwidth issue. But I’ll still give it a shot, just to eliminate it as a possibility.

[Kevin Monahan]

Mel,
After looking into the problem a little more, it seems that users report that this has been a problem with Blackmagic and Premiere Pro CS6, and earlier.

Other users indicate that AJA does not have this issue with Premiere Pro CS6. The editor using AJA hardware you consulted with might need to call in to AJA tech support to get drivers and OS X versions aligned.

We have a playback offset control coming in Premiere Pro Next. I think that would solve your issue.

Kevin Monahan
Social Support Lead
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Systems, Inc.
Follow Me on Twitter!

[Don Hertz]

I posted about this same issue a few weeks back – and yep – Black Magic tech support even confirmed that they were able to replicate it in house. They pointed the finger back at Adobe. My configuration is different than yours – a late 2012 iMac 27″, 3.4Ghz Core i7, 32Gb ram, 2Gb NVIDIA 680 Card connected via thunderbolt to a Black Magic UltraStudio. However, the issue is exactly the same. The client monitor is unusable as a client monitor at anything other than standard play speeds. Fast forwarding or rewinding lags way behind. I assumed it was a thunderbolt issue.1

At NAB I made a point to specifically stop by the AJA booth and see if the ioXT thunderbolt product had the same issue. If not, I was going to consider a switch. Unfortunately, the guy demoing the ioXT in AJA’s booth couldn’t even get it to run with Adobe Premiere. Every time he hit play it crashed out of the software and he didn’t know how to fix it. He was an FCP X guy. So I never had an opportunity to try it out.

I do have a “demo” ioXT I’m borrowing from a friend that is being shipped to me as I type this. So within a week I should have a better idea whether the AJA product performs better than my UltraStudio.

I do get the feeling it’s a software issue – either on Black Magic or Adobe’s part, so hopefully since Kevin chimed in and mentioned they are aware of the issue someone will get it worked out soon.

Don Hertz

[John Pale]

“The other 2 570’s are in an external Cyclone PCIe chassis, both in x16 slots. Though it’s definitely worth testing this without the Cyclone in the equation to see if it changes anything. Although it would seem crazy to me that it would, since I cant imagine simple JKL shuttling requires a lot of CUDA processing power, if at all, considering FCP7 can do this just fine.”

Did not know you were using an expansion chassis. I know from experience, the Mac might not be able to make that work internally.

I was not speaking about CUDA processing specifically, but actual data throughput overwhelming the PCI bus of the Mac Pro. There may be other issues, though, with your cards and CUDA, as you need a text hack to get it working in PPRO.

The comparison with FCP is not really relevant, as FCP does not use CUDA at all. So CUDA problems would not affect it.

You might also try switching to Mercury Engine software only mode, as a test.

If its at all possible, I would try testing with another graphics card. Would be good to eliminate the possibility. Hopefully, it is not the issue, as you have made a significant investment in them.

For what it’s worth, I have a kona 3 and an unsupported Nvidia gtx 470, and I do not experience this problem at all.
I had a Decklink Studio before the Kona, and had all sorts of issues with both Avid and Adobe.