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Ultrascope anomaly?
I am using an Ultrascope in the HD/SD edit suite used by our promotional department. It is installed in a Dell Vostro 220 mini. I have upgraded the video card to a Radeon HD 4650 and the processor is an E4700 2.6GHz Core2Duo. When I checked on the room, the AVID software was closed and the Ultrascope was still running. I could not get an apparent reaction to the mouse on screen. The menu bar did not drop down and changing some to the settings buttons showed no response. However, Task Manager reported the Ultrascope was in a running state. I End Tasked it anyway and rebooted the computer. When Ultrascope restarted, the buttons I had clicked previously were active. It seems like it was accepting user input, but not refreshing the display.
Has anyone else experienced anything like this?
~edit~
I just checked the computer. I had closed the Ultrascope and left the computer on. When I opened Ultrascope, same symptoms. Had to restart the computer. I may have to eat some crow and ask for more money to get a xw4600…. Damn Dell.
I wonder if it’s some of the preloaded software crap?
Ben Wilson
Engineering Project Manager
SCETV -
11 Replies
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are you running an AVID and have the Ultrascope in the same computer ? that is pretty unusual. I am unfamiliar with your Dell, but I tried the first Ultrascope install in a Dell Precision 690 workstation, and had no success. the xw4600 is only $700 – I don’t consider this a lot of money to get things working, but exactly what are you doing with your AVID ? Is it just the software, or are you running an AVID PCIe card in the same machine ?
I am running an ATI 4650 with an HP xw8400 without issue. (But no AVID on this machine).
Bob Zelin
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HI Bob
I see a phrasing error on my part. My Avid is on a xw8600 with a NitrisDX. The Ultrascope is on the Dell. Separate PCs. I would never dream of trying to add the Ultrascope (or anything else that AVID has not blessed) onto the same workstation as my AVID. I only mentioned the AVID as a remote possibility of a change in signals as the AVID shuts down causing the issue. From what I have seen, I know that is not the case.
If you had no success with a Dell workstation class PC, I probably don’t stand a chance at getting a Dell desktop PC to work. I suspect I may be battling a Motherboard/chipset incompatibility.
Although,….Did you use the ATI driver on the CD that came with your 4650 or download the latest driver from AMD’s website?
Ben Wilson
Engineering Project Manager
SCETV -
I used the CD that came with the 4650. I want to stress that I was told by Blackmagic that only the 4670 and better would work, but my client went to Compu USA, and bought what they had in stock – a 4650, so I figured “what the heck”. And it worked.
It took about 20 minutes for the damn driver to load. I have been doing this for a LONG time, and I never saw a computer chug away for so long as was the ATO 4650. The computer I used was from an older AVID – it was a HP xw8400 that had an NVidia card in it (and yes, we tried this NVidia card, before we bought the 4650, and it didn’t work). We never uninstalled the driver for the Nvidia (as was suggested by the ATI installation dialog), but it worked.
Bob Zelin
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hmmm, If they told you and have printed in the manual 4670 and above, why do they have posted on their website 4650 and above? (This is possibly a rhetorical question) The Minimum specs posting on the support page lists the 4650 as acceptable. I suppose it’s time for me to contact them directly before I start nickel and diming myself to death on this one.
Thanks for your input.
Ben Wilson
Engineering Project Manager
SCETV -
they put the 4650 card in because of my installation. They warned me that the minimum was the 4670, but I tried the 4650 and it worked 100%. This system is not a test demo system – it’s in use at a post house in Orlando right now. When BMD gets confirmation that other cards work, they will add it to the approved site.
Bob Zelin
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Hi Ben,
Did you get in touch with our support guys about this issue?
What is the format of video you’re sending to Ultrascope? 1080? 720?
What frame rate is it?regards
Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Kristian,
I submitted a support request via the website shortly after 1pm Eastern time. I haven’t gotten a response as of yet. In the meantime, I ordered a Radeon HD 4670 to see if that will make a difference. I should have it in Wednesday.
The signal being fed to the card is 1080i/59.94 from an AVID NitrisDX.
Cheers,
Ben Wilson
Engineering Project Manager
SCETV -
My system is being fed by an AVID Mojo DX, also 1080i.
Bob Zelin
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Hi Ben,
You should already be talking to our support guys and they have sent you a debug tool to find out what’s going on.
regards
Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design -
Yep. I’m running the debug logger now. I should have a 4670 video card in hand tomorrow to try.
Ben Wilson
Engineering Project Manager
SCETV
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