Joshua Helling
Forum Replies Created
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I am not sure why they have not yet be certified for Windows 7 and added to the list of supported OS’s, but it is something you can be sure I’ll ask about.
To elaborate on this. I confirmed with the PM’s today. This IS an approved OS and is in the release notes in the driver download. It has not yet been updated on the technotes page (which is something i’m actually working on now).
But I hope that helps clarify.
Sincerely,
Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc. -
I think you are missing the point of my posts. I’ll try to be more clear. It can in fact be used on a 1x, 4x, 8x and 16x slot. But that doesn’t mean it will work in EVERY PCI-express slot on every motherboard.
I’m just saying it is an avenue you should investigate, at the very least. Changing the slot order could be just the thing.
I’ve run them on z400’s (not my ideal setup due to the power issue), z600 and z800s. I’ve also built several custom built rigs. And like I mentioned in this thread (maybe it was another), on the micro ATX system that I build I had to play with the slot order to get it to work right. In that case it wasn’t the card causing the issue, but was the motherboard. What it comes down to is that every motherboard is slightly different.
Sincerely,
Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc. -
Well, it’s not so simple as that. Not all slots will work unilaterally. On my luggable systems that I build I had to play with the slot configuration quite a bit. The bottom line is some slots are sharing resources and some may not be. Some may be expecting a graphics card (like an SLI or Crossfire motherboard) and not like the Ultrascope card in there. It’s all part of the integration aspect. Just because we say a motherboard works doesn’t mean that the card will work in every slot.
This really illustrates Bob’s points.
If you test on another machine and the same issue happens you may have a bad card. If you test on another machine and it works properly then there is most likely a problem with the setup, it’s either incompatible or needs tweaking.
I’m not making excuses. But the Ultrascope in my lab runs 24/7, it always works. Now there is always a potential for a problem with a driver/hardware combo, but I don’t have too many reports of it. So we’d need to see specifics and we’d need to see it in several cases and be able to reproduce it before I could log it as a bug.
Sincerely,
Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc. -
First off, who have you been calling that you’ve been on hold for hours? Our phone wait times for Sales/Info and Support rarely have you waiting more than 5-10 max (exceptions do happen).
About the Lite and Pro versions…are you talking about Revival? Or Resolve? Resolve doesn’t have any lite/pro variants, unless you are meaning Mac/Linux. Just curious.
Sincerely,
Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc. -
Well, that’s actually interesting. I doubt you would be able to buy those consistently. nVidia pretty tightly controls who can buy those from them. They can be quite difficult.
But I guess that’s really not the point. Let me say this. I understand what you guys are saying. I’ve done integration, I am also very familiar with what goes into building one of these machines (meaning I also know the pitfalls which can be tricky). I like doing it, and you’re right. If you are knowledgeable it isn’t that hard to do it right.
However, Peter’s point is still well made. We are testing one set of configurations. And we are testing the hell out of it. We are not testing other configurations so we can get you the most out of the build without spending a lot of time on what is potentially thousands of configurations.
Also keep this in the back of your mind. Blackmagic does not offer any sort of integration support for the Linux version of the Resolve software. We provide our builders with a guide, and they bear all the burden. Which is different than our support for our traditional line. You buy a decklink, have a problem with getting the card installed, or getting the drive throughput you need. You can call us and we’d help you with as much as we could. We are simply NOT doing that for the Linux version of Resolve. That changes the story significantly.
Sure, if you have a problem with the GUI, or a bug occurs then we’ll support that of course. But that’s not what we are talking about here.
Bottom line is there are MANY reasons we’ve decided to sell this product as we have. I assure you it has been well thought out and is ultimately what we view is best for our customers. We know that not all customers are the same, so for some it will seem restrictive, but for most it will ensure that they get the best quality product. And that’s what we are after.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate your inputs. And I appreciate the discussion, we love to hear the thoughts on the product and the way it’s sold. This kind of feedback really does gives us what we need to make things better for the future. I just wouldn’t expect this particular decision to be changed.
Sincerely,
Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc. -
Not anymore on either platform.
So back in the day, it worked on XP and OSX, but never Vista/7. Furthermore this feature was ONLY available on our 4x Lane PCI-express cards.
Sincerely,
Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc. -
Well, you’re using a raid5 so your write speed is going to be slower than your read speed due to the controller having to write and distribute parity. But it should not be by 60%. I would expect if your read speed is ~270 then your write speed should be ~220. 100 is low for that raid, but it’s not too low to capture motion JPEG. It’s also not too low to capture uncompressed SD.
Most likely the reason for the difference has to do with some read or write caching being done by the Host Bus controller.
So as a test, try the capture as uncompressed. Does it work then? The reason I ask is because MJPEG is a fairly tightly compressed format and does require more CPU than hard drive power. If you find that you can capture SD uncompressed without issue then it is possible that the CPU is choking on that capture (though I wouldn’t suspect that to be the case with your processor).
Sincerely,
Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc. -
I was going to offer the same suggestion. The Decklink Studio board is a 1x lane PCI-express board. As such the motherboard riser connection is short. If the chassis gets jostled well enough it is possible that board could reposition enough to not work.
As a general rule of thumb. When I setup the booth at NAB or any other tradeshow obviously a lot of equipment gets moved around. Part of my standard practice is to open every machine and check that all components didn’t shift around. Graphics, Peripherals, memory, hard drives, everything. Basically if it can come out of the chassis I make sure it hasn’t. Always serves me well.
If you continue to have problems and everything was working before, then it’s probably just something silly that is being done differently. You can give us a call and we can do some troubleshooting, I’m sure it will be a simple issue.
Sincerely,
Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc. -
I agree with what you are saying to a point. Obviously we want to test what works. But contrary to your belief that we get systems early and for free, that is simply not the case. Nor is it feasible for us at this time to test in the scenario that you’d like. So we offer what we can. No excuses, just an explanation.
Obviously we want to give people as many options as possible. Be it preconfigured systems or a list of motherboards and Graphics cards for people to use, bottom line we want the customers to have options. And it’s also worth mentioning that our list is by no means an exhaustive list.
As for the Windows 7 thing. I think I was very clear when I said, I had run them in my labs without issue. I am not sure why they have not yet be certified for Windows 7 and added to the list of supported OS’s, but it is something you can be sure I’ll ask about.
Sincerely,
Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc. -
Hey there,
Typically speaking if you go over the minimums on the graphics cards you will be alright. As for the OS, Vista and Win7 are so close (win 7 is more like Vista SP3) it shouldn’t a difference and as state before i’ve been using it just fine for a while.
But I will say this. Having the right components is only part of the recipe. It’s like having the right ingredients to make cookies but not having the oven set right to cook them. The results will vary.
Integration is just as important. I’ve played with several motherboard some didn’t work, most did, but a lot of them had to have the UltraScope board installed in a specific slot in order to work right. Some of these motherboards have shared resources and don’t play so nice (this is especially important on smaller form factor motherboards).
BIOS, Chipset, and Peripheral updates are all critical. If they are not done, you can expect that you might have problems. I’m not saying this is what’s happening in your case, but it does happen often enough. As Bob said, B&H makes one that is priced quite nicely and they’ve gone through the work of making sure it works already. But if you’re like me you wanna build it yourself. So just be prepared to tweak it a little bit.
But more specifics as to what your issue in particular is would be a bit more helpful in getting to the bottom of what’s going on in your rig.
Sincerely,
Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc.