[Dan Powers]

Try changing to software only, open CL, and Metal as alternate tests for rendering engines.

[Dan Powers]

The problem appears to be when a thunderbolt 3 to HDMI adapter (apple branded) is used there is horrible video playback performance hits. Pull the Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter and then boom, playback is smooth. Makes it pretty hard to connect a second display for interface.

[Dan Powers]

Wanted to go ahead and complete this thread for future readers.

Went through the Calibrations using Resolve, Display Cal, and Spyder 5, setting first the external display as guided and then it ran in Resolve for about 3 hours and completed.
Initially the monitor does look improved but apparently it did nothing to the display output, but just the initial calibration settings it had me do with matching color temps to what the probe sees was a significant improvement.

I then used the calibration profile that DisplayCal created and saved it as a .cube and loaded that into the black magic 6G SDI to HDMI converter via USB and it loaded the new profile, which did indeed match my calibrated display even more closely.

It seems to work. Thanks for your past input on this topic!
Dan

[Dan Powers]

Going to answer my own question here.
Apparently it did nothing to the display output, but just the initial calibration settings it had me do with matching color temps to what the probe sees was a significant improvement and that is what I was seeing.

I then used the calibration profile that DisplayCal created and saved it as a .cube and loaded that into the black magic 6G SDI to HDMI converter via USB and it loaded the new profile, which did indeed match my calibrated display even more closely.

It seems to work. Thanks for your past input on this topic!

[Dan Powers]

I think this is what you are looking for. When your raw clip is in media pool it looks fine. Go into Edit or Color and it is flat. When putting that same clip in Premiere it looks correct. Is this what you are seeing?

IF so, while in Premiere right click on the clip in the project window and choose the option of “Disable Master effects”.
Did it go to flat color?

What is happening is that there is metadata with the imported clip and that meta data tells premiere pro to enable a LUT to make it look correct.

While in Color, you need to manually set the LUT on the clip.

I hope this explains what you are seeing.

Dan

[Dan Powers]

Thank you for the time Tero. Going to work on this more today. I have BMD designs 6G SDI to HDMI converters that supposedly have some LUT support. Looking into how to transfer one into them.

I also have an Eizo 31 that supports the transfer.

Digging in. I will report back on how it works out so as to complete this thread for future researchers.

Thanks again.

[Dan Powers]

Tero that makes sense except setting the monitor itself. I can see how sending the monitor a “LUT” corrected image is one thing, but what if the monitor is all jacked up. So the probe on the monitor makes the LUT offset the jacked up monitor settings? Sounds less than ideal but ok I can see how that could work.

It seems that there is no software that will take a probe, look at the monitor and a signal feed and advise you where to adjust the actual monitor values. Then I could set up each monitor to display correctly wihout sending the signal to a lut box.

So you use Resolve and Calman or Lightspace? So I assume you are on a PC/Windows machine. Neither of those make Mac OS versions…
I have yet to find a color tool (software and probe) that will send an image signal to the SDI video card unless it was a rare card that allows the OS as an extended desktop to the SDI output. BMD used to offer that but killed it. Bastards.

If you have more than one monitor connected to your SDI feed then you are going to need a LUT box for every monitor… right? So instead of adjusting every monitor, you adjust every LUT box for every monitor? What LUT box are you using? I need to correct about 10 large LCD monitors in our facility. Joy. Fun. Not.

[Dan Powers]

Exactly my frustration as well. Looking for the answer to this since Extend Desktop is now gone. How are people calibrating external SDI monitors?

[Dan Powers]

Two things. Why not upgrade to a later version beyond CS6??

Other thing Right click on the audio clip on the timeline and choose audio gain. Boom. Bump it up as many db as you want.

You can also select sequence/Render Audio and get better audio playback. Timeline does not show you if your audio needs rendering.

Good luck.

[Dan Powers]

Update.
Playing my test file (which is not special, just easily shows if frames drop) in quicktime player also makes it appear to drop frames. Tried many different file formats and data rates and they were all dropping frames in both Quicktime 7, 10 and in Premiere.
Found the problem. On the iMac Pro, I had an Apple Thunderbolt 3 to HDMI adapter (the only way to connect an HDMI display) connected to an external display.

Anyone else have this config?
Apple iMac Pro, Thunderbolt3 to HDMI adapter, external HDMI monitor.
Playback a video via QT and it plays with skips and stutters. Same exact loss rate that was happening in premiere.
Disconnect HDMI cable from the adapter and QT now plays smoothly, as does premiere.
Doesn’t matter what the connected resolution is on the external monitor, what the external monitor brand is, or if anything is open on the second screen. It just has to be connected to cause frame drops in playback.

Apple is having me take a monitor and the adapter to the apple store for in-store testing.
Will report back after that test.