[Les Wilson]

UPDATE: According to Dell, the U3818DW is not compatible with what they refer to as “Non-standard hardware and proprietary software”. They made it clear they only test on Windows. I’m on my own with any problems.

So with a new MPB 15, first thing I notice is that the USB-C connection on the Dell supplies enough power to charge the laptop. Next thing I notice is that the Dell keeps waking the system from Shutdown and during sleep, it wakes itself up every 60 seconds to complain there’s no signal. Unfortunately it wakes up the TB2 RAID which sleeps just before the 60 second monitor wake call so it goes on and off all the time while sleeping and after shutdown.

Apple is looking into it but it appears that the Dell U3818DW is not compatible with the Mac. For all I know it could have been the problem with the Mac Pro. I have now idea about the variants from HP, LG, Viewsonic and ASUS that use the same panel. Buyer beware.

Good news is that a USB HUB lets me charge the MBP and drive the monitor via DP.

[Les Wilson]

Yes, I was shocked to get a refurb unit from Apple exhibiting the D500/D700 card symptoms that were fixed in that recall. Apple Store said date of manufacture was April 2018 so old. When I noticed the recent MBP speed bump model could be configured to 32MB and had i9 processor and would make a nice color correction monitor, it made sense as a desktop CPU. Don’t have to use the most horrible keyboard in the history of the world and garbage track pad. Close the lid and dock the sucker. Now all my components are new and from the same era or in the case of the TB2 dock and RAID, same era minus 1. LOL

Thanks for all the help.

[Les Wilson]

EPILOG: I did much searching and found a plethora of posts complaining of freezes related to the graphics cards. Some correlate it to particular monitors and got stability by changing monitors. Worst are 4K. So forget the nMP. Going the route of top line MacBook Pro as desktop and color correction monitor. Unfortunately I already have TB2 dock and RAID. Will make it work. Using 13″ air to drive the 38″ curved monitor. Solid as a rock. Impressed. YMMV.

[Les Wilson]

Just to follow up. I love the curved 38. Period. Love love love. Made FCP much more fun than on the twins. In fact I like the change it brings to everything.

I switched from a cheese grater to an 8-core nMP plus TB2 Raid from G-Tech. But the nMP kept freezing up. 10-20 times a day. Couldn’t even run to do a time machine backup. But only the UI froze. System kept running.

I returned it today for refund but now I’m stuck with a TB2 Raid and Dock. Display is Display port and USB-C. But it kinda makes no sense to consider an iMac Pro now since I am committed with a $1K monitor. There’s a Mac Mini or MBP or gamble on another nMP. Hmmmmm

Is it common for Mac Pro to be such a piece of junk or is it just the luck of the draw and I got a lemon?

[Les Wilson]

Good to know. Glad to hear about the experience, Thanks. My frustration with FCP is a major thing driving one large screen for me. It’s wasteful of space when on the twin and everything else is cramped. Wish FCP allowed more control over it’s windows. I ordered the Dell 38″ ultrawide curve in spite of the idiotic downward facing ports. FOrtunately there’s two USB on the edge.

[Les Wilson]

Whoa. What model is that? It looks flat and bigger than 38″.

[Les Wilson]

Exactly. I find with my Cinema HD “twins”, I’ve not treated them equal and favored the left one. The second one becomes something I see at a distance and “secondary” or lean/shush over to see. But the keyboard stays in front of the left one. I think that’s the nature of twinsies due to the bezels in the middle.

I felt I’d be losing a lot of productivity space dropping down to a 34″ ultrawide flat. But last year’s crop of displays brought curved Ultra-wide 3880 x 1600 that are 38″ and look like the next best thing to the twins. They all use panels from LG but Dell seems to have focussed on improving color accuracy and brightness while the others on gaming and speakers. This is what I’m seeing right now:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/11653/dells-ultrasharp-u3818dw-available-curved-3840×1600

[Les Wilson]

UPDATE: It’s a bug in Catalyst Browse. As we all know, XDCAM creates the BPAV folder structure for everything. You have to drag/drop the second file into the BPAV folder (unlike Content Browser that’s smart enough to understand the XDCAN folder structure).

The bug is that sometimes, after dragging the first file into a new folder, Catalyst Browse does not let you un-twist the new folder to reveal the BPAV sub folder. I had to quit and reopen CB in order to access the BPAV folder. YMMV

[Les Wilson]

Unless I’m missing the feature someplace (I looked), Catalyst Browse doesn’t allow copying files from multiple cards into a single folder. It throws an error saying there’s already video in the folder. It’s a fundamental capability of Content Browser to wrangle your footage from multiple SxS cards into a folder on your workstation.

[Les Wilson]

I just purchased a Z90 from B&H. It’s completely silent.