kkordisch:

How is this issue not owned by Avid alone? Resolve and Premiere work perfectly fine on the same exact iO's and mac studios. 

Thanks for asking.

When camera companies make new codecs for their video cameras, the engineers working on Premiere, Media Composer, Final Cut, Edius, Resolve, Vegas, and all of the other NLEs start working on ways in the codewriting to incorporate those codecs. The camera companies don't wait for the NLE companies, they simply release the new codecs. The speed they can get the codecs working is determined by the number of staff assigned, and by how easy the codewriting work is to do. Same goes for I/O devices, control surfaces, etc. Everything takes its own time, separately in each NLE, because every NLE is made and coded different. Same goes for new macOS versions. When any new macOS comes out, all of the NLE companies do the same process of testing their NLEs against it. Each one logs the number of bugs they've found, and the amount of work it might take to complete them. Then they begin the work. The number of bugs and the time to complete varies wildly, and by lots of criteria. Same goes for the firmware needed to run 3rd party devices (like in this case).

Avid, like all the other NLEs, has a terrific partnership with camera companies, with Apple, with companies making I/O devices, and so on. Avid actualy has regular meetings with the engineers at these other companies. We have solid relations with these teams.

If something that one of those companies makes ends up breaking something in Media Composer, even accidentally, we do the best we can to identify those things prior to our own launching of Media Composer. We log the number of bugs we may find, and then begin fixing them. Then, once the fixes are done on our end, there's more work to be done -- we don't just deploy the fix. That's not how it works. We then send our changes to AJA, Blackmagic, etc, so that the engineers at those companies can test our changes with their I/O devices, and their own firmware, and make any changes to their own firmware that essentially makes our changes permanent into their firmware's codewriting. 

The reason why I said the issue is not owned by Avid alone is because for this particular issue, all three of us -- Apple, Avid, and Blackmagic -- have been working on the fix. With meeting after meeting, we found that the specific issues were not just rooted in Avid's code. So, the good news is that we have found and implemented fixes on our end, and we have sent those fixes into Blackmagic, who are now testing and validating them. Once they've done so, we will see whether they need to implelment changes on their end, and then whether we need to alter our changes to match their new code.

As you can see, it is a massive process to deploy the fixes. We're working as fast as we can to not only deploy but to work with BM and Apple to be able to officially say which version(s) of the Blackmagic firmware and macOS are qualified with those fixes.

Hi Marianna, 

I opened a case too (number 04638330):

Macbook Pro 16, M2 Max, 64gb.

Ventura 13.4

Mc 2023.3.1

Desktop Video Setup 12.4.2

Although it seems more stable than previous version, I still have audio dropping issue: When I playback a sequence audio randomly "drops". It's impossible to have a screening without hiccups.

Hope this helps.

g.

Trep:

Hi Marianna, 

I opened a case too (number 04638330):

Macbook Pro 16, M2 Max, 64gb.

Ventura 13.4

Mc 2023.3.1

Desktop Video Setup 12.4.2

Although it seems more stable than previous version, I still have audio dropping issue: When I playback a sequence audio randomly "drops". It's impossible to have a screening without hiccups.

Hope this helps.

g.

Trep

Thanks tons.... I intercepted it and added your specifications to it and asigned it to a video editor.  also adding the case to the list of others.

Thank you

Marianna

Upgraded to OS 12.6.6 two weeks ago. Experienced less audio drops after some time of playback. But around every 20ies time when I hit play it played without audio at all. Stop, play fixed it. I Installed 2023.3.1 last Friday and started working today. 6 beachball crashes in 2 hours. Mostly after quick working in the timeline or executing "Apple+Z". Going back to 2022.7 now.

I also Installed 2023.3.1 last Friday and started working today. I had no beachballs, but 3 hard crashes:

"Segmentation fault" in thread "MainThread"

Downgraded to 2023.3 again...

Has this problem been solved yet?  Or is it ongoing?

The audio on 12-minute video I've been working on nearly always cuts out once or twice during playback.  Out of curiosity I exported it and linked it via UME.  It played flawlessly.  Could this observation be helpful to the engineers working on the problem?

I updated my M1 Max MBP to MC 2023.8 last week and today worked with my Director. There was not a single frame dropped on my client monitor!

I think we may be good now with Silicon Macs and BM IO boxes...

PS. My Sapphire Plug-in caused crash reports on exit but didn't stop MC from saving...

my system:

16" 2021 M1 Max MBP 64gb

OS 12.6.8

Desktop Video Setup 12.5 (monitor 3G)

That would be great, will update over the weekend and share my experience.

Keep us in the loop. The engineers are working tirelessly on this one, and were indeed able to get a lot of work injected into 2023.8. There's a little more to be done, but that'll be in partnership with the 3rd parties themselves.

Hi Chris,

I'm sorry to report that on my macbook pro 16 M2 Max 64gb the randomly stuttering audio problem when outputting video on Black Magic Ultrastudio Monitor 3G is still present.

Apparently, nothing changed. 

Macbook Pro 16 M2 Max 64Gb 

Ventura 13.4

Blackmagic Desktop Video 12.5

MC 2023.8

:(

Any news from Black Magic on this topic? 

Tnx,

trep

The Media Composer team has certainly done everything they can. At this stage it's in BlackMagic's court. We've reached out to them regarding what needs to be done next.

Yes, it's always possible that they need to hear the urgency of this issue - not only from us but from their customer base as well. If Avid customers who are using BMD products reached out to BMD to show their concern for this, and to convey the urgency of this matter, I'd certainly imagine this process would get done faster. 

Good idea.  I'll contact Blackmagic.

If that's the case then why do these devices have no issue with Premiere? And why do we see the same behavior on Avid with AJA? Is the application no longer using Rossetta? If it is, then saying the Media Composer team has done everything they can is inaccurate.

I've run and supported Avid systems since 1994 and have always promoted Avid over other products because of their stability and performance, but now it's no wonder we're seeing more jobs run Premiere than Avid.

I am sure that the development team is trying to solve the problem and doing their best and no one should blame them in any way. Avid is great!!!

But it doesn't change the fact that there is still a serious problem. The Mac Studio is officially Avid approved hardware and since 2022 there is no software that works with it.
As a feature editor, I haven't been able to play a timeline longer than 90 seconds smoothly for 1.5 years. I have to export the sequence first. That's insane.
The non-functioning title tool is also bad, but that an elementary feature, the playback of a sequence is no longer possible, is existential.

I still don't understand why the entire developer power isn't focused on this one problem? What could be worse than the way it is now?