MC6 and Blackmagic performance

[Alex Elkins]

[Michael Phillips] “perhaps someone with AJA hardware will chime in with their experiences”

I have a Kona 3 in my system and I have not experienced sluggishness at all, albeit on fairly simple projects. I’d actually go as far as saying that responsiveness is better than I’m used to in FCP.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.postblue.tv
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[Matt Osborne]

Yes – https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/45/884680

[Ray Chung]

I have the same setup…MC6 and a Multibridge Pro. I’ve only dabbled a bit, as I’m still finishing a feature edit in FCP and want it done before starting up a new project in Avid getting my old Avid chops back. But so far, the only apparent issue is the set lag/latency of about 1-2 frames when playing a 1080p sequence….even with various ‘frame delay’ settings. Apparently it’s inherent to the LCD monitor itself, which in my case is a JVC DT-V20L1U via HDMI. But…the monitor does have a stereo RCA audio in/out, so it might internally adjust the audio to the frame delay, and I can route the audio back into another channel on my audio monitor controller.

Any way you look at it though, there will always be an offset between the computer monitor/timeline and the output monitor, unlike in FCP where you can adjust the output offset to match the two. Working with the Multibridge output on in FCP wasn’t exactly super-smooth or responsive either…not like a Nitris/Mojo with Avid or even a Pinnacle and FCP from some years back. But if the Multibridge with Avid is at least like it was with FCP, I’ll be used to the speed. If it’s even slower…I might have to start looking elsewhere.

[Pat Horridge]

I have a loan Decklink HD Extreme 3D card and got it installed last night on my Z800. Annoying that I now have an unknown device lurking in the device manager after all the BM driver installed fine. But everything seems to work so it’s not a problem.
I only had time to check MCV6 could see it and Resolve could see it and initial tests with both seem to look encouraging.
On the Avid side an LG monitor on the HDMI out looks very odd in anything other then full quality mode. Loads of stepping across the picture which the component SD monitor doesn’t show. But in full quality it looks good. Nice that I can have SD PAL commponent out and HDMI and HD_SDI output at the same time.
Seems responsive so far.
Next we start testing on the range of codec support round tripping from Avid to Resolve and then the level of effect support.
When we have a robust workflow we’ll start on some teaching notes and we plan to have a cource available to help editors fast track the pitfalls.

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
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[Joseph Mastantuono]

Joining the Parade of folks with this same issue.

definitely have the bandwith/processing power.

MacPro 09, Decklink Extreme 3d, project is AMA/Pro-res.

Joseph Mastantuono
http://www.goodpost.net
Color Grading & Post Production Consulting

[Eduardo Serrano]

Last time I mesured, it was 14 frames of delay between the audio meters. Picture wise, the trim tool is really sluggish, like if you advance a frame it takes 5 seconds to comply.

So, it’s definitely not the lcd panel buffer, it’s something deeper.

[Joseph Mastantuono]

Strangely (I’m assuming Eduardo is having the same issue), and what makes me believe that this is at the program level, rather than any issue with my config or the driver level, is that scrubbing & source->record edits are instantaneous, it’s only trims & and direct timeline manipulation.

Joseph Mastantuono
http://www.goodpost.net
Color Grading & Post Production Consulting

[Eduardo Serrano]

I’ve just found this post from Marianna (avid) on the PC side of the avid forums.
It seems Avid is aware of the issue but is very far from a fix.

Folks……….

The basic architecture of MC 6 is completely different than that of the 5.5 and earlier code base. Most notable is the 64 bit architecture and the Open I/O. In 5.5 for example, the MXO2 was using the DIO interfaces, similar to what Adrenaline and Mojo SDI used.

But Open I/O uses the same interfaces as Nitris DX.

The problem is that during normal scrub, color correction, and trim modes, we send a single frame to tell the I/O device to stop. Some respond immediately to that stop command and some take a little longer. We do have a long-term architectural fix but it won’t be coming soon which is why Matrox has been tweaking their driver to provided those with the MX02 better performance.

Marianna