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Ready to throw out my Decklink SP . . .
Excuse the length of this post, but most of these are answers to questions a trouble shooter would ask anyhow:
I’ve had my G5/FCP/DecklinkSP/UVW1800 for a year now. It has never been a stable system.
Everything (except the decklink card) came directly from Apple, so there’s no third party hardware. I have put the Decklink in different PCI slots, upgraded drivers, upgraded the OS, reinstalled software, trashed preferences and repaired permissions. It’s rare that I can get 4 or 5 hours of editing without a problem. I’m ready to throw this card away and buy an AJA IO, but figured I’d try one last time to get some help:
I’ll be editing. The image on my NTSC display begins to “tear.” After a few minutes, I get an FCP error message telling me I’ve dropped frames. If I try to continue playing from the timeline, the G5 locks up. -OR- sometimes, if I try to continue playing, my NTSC monitor goes a beautiful solid green. The Viewer window in FCP shows whatever the cursor is over in the timeline. However, once I’ve got that solid green screen, it’s just a minute or two before the G5 locks up.
It seemed that moving the Decklink card from slot 4 to slot 3 helped a bit. I edited for two whole days. Then the problem came back.
Current machine specs:
OS 10.3.8
Decklink drivers 4.8
FCP 4.5
Dual CPU 2.5 Ghz
2 GB RAMLet me say, I’ve been told three times to “update your OS and the decklink drivers,” which I have done. This is not a driver issue, the problem won’t go away.
Sometimes, turning off the G5, waiting a few minutes, and turning it back on may buy me an hour of productive editing. The Decklink card definitley likes to be reseated . . . that will usually also buy me a few hours of crash-free editing. Then, sometimes (but rarely), the system will be stable for a day or two.
One thing that definitely provokes the problem is moving the G5 or the cable harness. Just touching the harness and lifting the wire up an inch can make the machine lock up. I think the problem has to do with either the physical mounting of the card or a bad wire in the harness, but I can’t be pulling the G5 apart twice a day for editing.
Several jobs I’ve completed by removing the Decklink card and outputting my project as a DVD, which I then copied to Betacam. Not a great way to do things, but at some point you have to stop pulling your equipment apart and give the client their final tape.
I have two large jobs starting up the end of this month and I really need a stable editing solution, so if anyone out there can help, please speak up.
Thanks in advance . . .
Ryan Video Productions Inc. Rockaway, NJ
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10 Replies
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what storage are you using?
have you contacted blackmagic direct to see about swapping the board out????
G5 dual 2.5, 4.5 gigs ram:
SYSTEM A – Mac OS X.3.8, FCP 4.5HD, QT 6.5.2, Decklink HD Pro, Blackmagic 4.8 driver, Huge U320RX 1.2TB, ATTO UL4D with 3.3.0 driver
SYSTEM B – Mac OS X.4.1, FCP 5, QT 7.0.1, Decklink HD Pro, Blackmagic 5.0 driver, Huge U320 -
Hi,
I have the same basic setup. My system has been rock solid since day one 2 1/2 years running.
My SP card is in Slot 3.In your post you state that all of your hardware came from apple except the decklink card.
What are using for video storage? Do you have an external raid? If you are using the internal drive
for digitizing you are asking for problems from the get go.As far as moving cables and such that would sound like some kind of hardware problem.
The guys from Blackmagic are fantastic on helping resolve problems be it software or hardware problems.
Don’t throw in the towel yet on Decklink. I feel your pain on trying to finish projects for clients and your system
is throwing you under the bus!Good Luck!
Brandon Tyler
Tyler Productions
G5 Dual 2.0, 1.5Gig ram, Atto UL4D, HUGE Dual 320 1.2TB, Decklink HD/SP, Quicktime 6.5, FCP HD -
Hi Dave,
From what I read, it appears you have a problem with your hard drives.
If you are using your internal hard drive, this would explain your problem as these HD are not good for this type of work. If in fact you are using a disc array, which you should for all uncompressed and compressed video editing, well, again I would say it -
Paul,
Thanks for your response.I am using an internal SATA drive. The MAC has two drives in it. One is the system drive, the other is used just for media storage. Here’s the results of the Disk test on both drives:
I’m just reporting on the 8 bit YUV 4:2:2 test, because that’s what I use to edit.
Mac HD (programs)
Disk Read Data Rate: 55.3 MB/s
Disk Write Data Rate: 54.3 MB/sHDTV 1080fps read 13 write 13
HDTV 720fps read 31 write 30
NTSC read 82 write 81
PAL read 69 write 68Media HD (video, audio, renders & stills)
Disk Read Data Rate: 47.7 MB/s
Disk Write Data Rate: 47.5 MB/s
HDTV 1080fps read 12 write 12
HDTV 720fps read 27 write 27
NTSC read 71 write 71
PAL read 60 write 60I might add that I was using an ATTO UL3 controller with a pair of Cheetah 360’s stripped to 500GB. The lock up problem still occurred with great frequency. Since then, I’ve removed the controller card figuring it might be adding to the problem.
I appreciate you taking the time to read about my problem. Thanks!
Ryan Video Productions Inc. Rockaway, NJ
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Hi Dave,
It looks like that’s a high chance it’s a hardware issue. Can you please contact us via our support form and we’ll sort it out?
https://blackmagic-design.com/support/contact/
regards
Kristian
Blackmagic Design -
Can you try to uninstal Decklink drivers and card, and use software codec to see what is wrong in your hardware. If your machine still hangs than you now what to do. (and vice versa)And you can still work…( sortoff )
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Ryan…
My system is almost identical to yours and I haven’t had much trouble in the time I’ve worked with it.
So I can say with certainty that it’s not inherent in the design of the components.
Perhaps, it is as you suspect. A problem in the cables? Have you actually returned the unit and cables for a warranty repair/replacement?
Get in contact directly on the phone with Blackmagic and discuss your options. Sounds like you have a defective unit.
Another option to check: Make sure you send the y video out to the UVW-1800’s video loop. From there send it to the Y-in of Component 2 input. That will ensure you have proper genlock. You don’t need external genlock at all. In fact, adding a second genlock device might foul it up.
Dean Sensui — http://www.HawaiiGoesFishing.com
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Ryan…
My system is almost identical to yours and I haven’t had much trouble in the time I’ve worked with it.
So I can say with certainty that it’s not inherent in the design of the components.
Perhaps, it is as you suspect. A problem in the cables? Have you actually returned the unit and cables for a warranty repair/replacement?
Get in contact directly on the phone with Blackmagic and discuss your options. Sounds like you have a defective unit.
Another option to check: Make sure you send the y video out to the UVW-1800’s video loop. From there send it to the Y-in of Component 2 input. That will ensure you have proper genlock. You don’t need external genlock at all. In fact, adding a second genlock device might foul it up.
Dean Sensui — http://www.HawaiiGoesFishing.com
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One of our systems is just the same as yours and it’s always worked well. I’d have to concur that this sounds like a hardware problem not a config problem.. Good luck. It can work well. Maybe your dealer has a spare card and harness you can try to swap in… easy way to see if that’s the problem.
Hope you get it solved soon.
jason
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Blackmagic tech support talked me through a few ideas and they’re going to cross ship me a new card. I guess I’m so used to getting bad support on my PC’s (did you ever try calling Dell?), that I’ve become accustomed to getting all my help on line. The simplest idea – call the manufacturer – didn’t even occur to me.
Ryan Video Productions Inc. Rockaway, NJ
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