[Kevin Greutert]

Thanks, Chris. I tried this, and was brought to my profile. There are three files: MCState, the user settings with the correct .xml suffix, and the user name with .ave suffix. So unfortunately I don’t think this is the answer. Let me know if you have other ideas please.

[Kevin Greutert]

So I’ve purchased and installed the Decklink Mini Monitor card on my system, and I can’t get it to work. Whether I’m trying to export video from my Avid timeline, or Blackmagic Media Express, the monitor gives me an error message, INPUT SIGNAL OUT OF RANGE, CHANGE SETTINGS TO 1920 X 1080 – 60HZ.

I have installed the driver that came with the device; it’s 10.4.2.

My computer specs are the following:
Mid 2010 Mac Pro running Yosemite 10.10.5
2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
14 GB 1066 RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB
Three USB, two FW 800, SATA port card

Avid Media Composer 8.4.2

Apple Cinema Display, 23” (1920×1200)

The monitor into which I have plugged the HDMI cable from the Decklink device is an HP 2511x, native resolution 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz.

The system report sees the Decklink card in the PCI slot, and acknowledges that the driver is installed.

I also have an older 720p monitor, and when I plug into the HDMI port on that one, I get a very garbled image from Avid, with the colors way off, but with sound, and at least I know it’s seeing the card and outputting something, unusable as it is. But with my newer monitor, I have yet to see any signal at all.

The Avid project is 1080p/23.976, 1920×1080, YCbCr 709 color space.

[Kevin Greutert]

As far as USB2 goes, if I get the DeckLink card then it skirts that issue entirely, right, because I’m playing back video out of the card, not the port? This seems to be the only workaround for HD video out with this computer. But that’s a bummer if I have to use the HDMI out for audio too — it won’t let me monitor via my USB Mbox?

[Kevin Greutert]

I’m going to assume that finishing will be done externally, assembly from master materials, color timing, etc. All I’m focused on with my system is offline editing. I’ve been testing it with an existing Avid project, and it’s a bit sluggish, but not unusable. Definitely need to be able to stream video out, just for viewing purposes, and the Black Magic card seems to be the cheapest way to do this, though if AJA is recommended I’ll look into that too. The Mac is USB 2.0 so I have to take that into account. I’ll need to buy at TV or monitor to receive this, something at least 27″ so suggestions regarding that are welcome.

Thank you for your responses.

[Kevin Greutert]

I was planning to edit DNX36 and finishing with the master footage at the end. Trying to find out if our DIT can create the dailies. Not sure about archiving, assistant will probably have to sync dailies on this system.

Would you recommend the Black Magic DeckLink Mini Monitor card for this setup? So that I can send video via HDMI to a larger client TV or monitor? It’s not clear from what I’ve read if it works with Avid — some say yes, some say no. And some say the only audio monitoring will come through this card. I’m used to monitoring through my Mbox Mini and MediaDesk speakers.

[Kevin Greutert]

So as it turns out, the problem isn’t FCPX-related — I was letting my bias against that program influence me. Instead it’s something that’s happening to me fairly randomly no matter what I’m doing, in a range of programs. It’s the same thing: a sudden freeze of the keyboard and trackpad, as well as any keyboard or mouse plugged into USB. Stuff in the finder menu appears to be still alive, like the battery/charger indicator, but I have no control over anything but the power button, so it’s a hard crash-out every time. I’ve reset PRAM and SMC several times, to no avail.

The computer is only about 6 months old, and pretty tricked out. The one shaky thing is that I’m using a somewhat old LCD as a third monitor, plugged with an adapter into one of the thunderbolt ports. I’m going to work for a while without that to see if it helps.

[Kevin Greutert]

Wow, thank you for the very detailed attention to this issue! I don’t think I’m going to have time this afternoon to try all these things but will get to it over the weekend. The footage for this is a range of things, H264, other quicktime formats, etc. Stuff that’s too slow in Avid AMA, my usual home.

[Kevin Greutert]

Correct, I’ll be playing a sequence, and when I try to pause, I’ll see that the computer is no longer responding to any keyboard or mouse commands, including command-option-esc. If I pull the charge cord out I’ll see the battery indicator reflect the change, and the system clock keeps working. But nothing I can do lets me regain control of the computer.

retina mid-2014 macbook pro
2.8 ghz intell core 17
yosemite 10.10.3
fcpx 10.2.1

[Kevin Greutert]

I, too, am having this problem with this despicable program (I’m stuck for one project on Final Cut Pro X). Mid-2014 Retina macbook Pro, 16 gig ram, solid state drive. Just playing back a sequence, suddenly the keyboard and mouse do nothing. The sequence keeps playing, but I can’t stop it, crash out of FCP, or anything else. Only recourse is hard reboot. Never happened on any other software. I wish Cupertino would drop into a sinkhole.