Multibridge Pro drivers causing slow redraws on second monitor

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Will,

I’m not sure why you’re experiencing that problem as your graphics card is a high-end card. I’ve heard of reports in the past where a 30″ and a 24″ monitor would work fine when connected to a low-end graphics card but that screen redraws could become sluggish when a DeckLink card was added with it’s extended desktop enabled. This did not seem to be a problem with more powerful graphics cards.

In your case, it would be worth trying the latest updates to Mac OS X 10.5.4 and QuickTime 7.5 and see if the problem goes away. If not, open the DeckLink PrefPane in System Preferences and configure it as follows: When not playing video, send Black to all the video outputs. Then restart your Mac and I believe the problem will no longer occur. The same should also go away if you leave the DeckLink extended desktop enabled but disconnect either of your monitors. That’s probably not what you want to do so setting the DeckLink desktop to black is probably the best option. While the Mac desktop will no longer display on the DeckLink output, you will still be able to output video from software including Final Cut Pro and After Effects with the extended desktop disabled.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Will Salley]

Thanks Luke,
I had already done the OS and QT updates -just forgot to update my profile info.

I also had the video output set to black, so that doesn’t help. The second monitor also shows some serious graphics corruption when dragging windows across to that side. It stays up for about half a second until the screen refreshes, which is about every half-second.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Will Salley

Primary System Info
Mac Pro 2×3.2 Quadcore – 10.5.4 – QT 7.5 – 6MBram – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro (v6.7)- Open GL 1.5.6 – Wacom Intous2 tablet

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Will,

Thanks for your additional information.

Would you please shut down your Mac, disconnect your primary monitor and then restart your Mac. Does the sluggish response and graphics corruption still occur on your second display when Multibridge is connected, or does it go away?

Please shut down your Mac again and this time swap the connection ports for the primary and secondary monitors. Now start up the Mac and see if the problems still occur or not.

Finally, what is the make and model of the two displays you are using?

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Will Salley]

Luke, with the primary (23″ Cinema Display) monitor disconnected, the second monitor (20″ Apple dipslay) displays correctly. When the two connections are reversed, the primary monitor is corrupted. So the problem stays on same physical output of the video card.

I also switched the main desktop in System Preferences to make the second monitor become the main desktop. It was still corrupted.

I’ve run the hardware test on the Mac to check the video card. It did not report any issues.

Primary System Info
Mac Pro 2×3.2 Quadcore – 10.5.4 – QT 7.5 – 6MBram – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro (v6.7)- Open GL 1.5.6 – Wacom Intous2 tablet

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Will,

Thank you for running these tests. Your high end graphics card should have no problems supporting the two Apple monitors you have attached plus the Multibridge Pro. In fact, I would expect you should be able to do this with a much cheaper base model graphics card. My suspicion is that the graphics card is playing up. If it is a card supplied by Apple, please ensure you have run Software Update to make sure its drivers are up to date. If it is a third-party purchase, please visit the vendor’s website and ensure you have downloaded and installed the latest software and firmware for the card.

Do you happen to have another graphics card, eg from a similar Mac, which you could temporarily borrow and use in the current Mac? If so, please replace the nVIDIA card with the substitute graphics card and then see if you can run both Apple displays and the Multibridge Pro without problems.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Will Salley]

Luke, Sorry for the long delay in response – I guess I got busy. Anyhow, I don’t have another compatible card since all the other machines are Powermacs. And, of course, I can’t put the BM card in an older G5 due to the PCI-E difference.

The odd thing now is that, in addition to the slow screen re-draw, I’m starting to get screen corruption (old windows “sticking” to the second monitor) – but only when the BM card is installed.
I’ll be glad to give you some screen captures and a log file if that would help.

Thanks

Will

Primary System Info
Mac Pro 2×3.2 Quadcore – 10.5.4 – QT 7.5 – 6MBram – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro (v6.7)- Open GL 1.5.6 – Wacom Intous2 tablet

[Will Salley]

…well now the fan is going bad. It’s squealing and vibrating the whole rack!

Primary System Info
Mac Pro 2×3.2 Quadcore – 10.5.4 – QT 7.5 – 6MBram – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro (v6.7)- Open GL 1.5.6 – Wacom Intous2 tablet

[Matt Holt]

Hi Will

I have exactly the same problem on a brand new mac and multibridge with the latest blackmagic software.I also use SATA.

I’m away from my Mac at the moment but when I get back to work I’m going to try changing the slot the card sits in.

Did you resolve the issue? I’ve just upgraded from an old G5 2.3 Dual processor and had three blissful years using Blackmagic and 2 mac monitors..I can’t believe I’m having this issue on a newer faster machine.

any advice would be a help, I’ll let you know if a slot change works

Matt

[Matt Holt]

Will

I heard back from Decklink today and they said:

This is a bug that we have already logged with Apple and should be fixed
within the next few Apple updates. In the meantime, you can just disable
extended desktop from the Multibridge and use your current displays. Simply
go to apple\system preferences\decklink and the box at the bottom for
extended desktop, toggle that to ‘black.’

This works if you do a restart, you won’t see an immediate change unless you shut down and boot up again, although the monitor will switch to black before restart.

lets hope the Apple updates aren’t slow in coming, I’ve got edits to do

all the best

Matt