I've got a new system and now I can't get Blackmagic UltraStudio to work with Avid at all. 

M1 Max

Ventura 13.2.1

I have tried various different combinations of Avid and Blackmagic Desktop Video software versions and nothing seems to work. At first I tried latest Avid (2023.3) with latest Blackmagic (12.4.2). Now Avid (2022.12.0) and earlier Blackmagic software (12.4.0) and it didn't work either.

Avid has the Ultrastudio 4K Mini listed under "available hardware" but it doesn't send any video or audio there for playback.

Can I please get some help.

Best,

Adam

I had to go all the way back to Avid version 2021.12.7. to get it to work with the Blackmagic device.

Has anyone got any useful info or perhaps others threads on this subject? It seems very sub optimal to have to use a year and a half old version of the software just to get my Blackmagic working.

This sounds like a similar issue to the pc drivers a while back.

I don't know where the mac drivers install. But check where this old driver has installed, then put the new driver on and see if it's there or not. If not, then check blackmagic folder to see if there, and copy it over.

Hey Adam,

Any movement on this on your end? I've been struggling with this very issue for several shows now. Keep updating to check and having to revert back.

No issues with my MacStudio BMD UltraStudio 4K Mini with Resolve, FCP, or Premiere in my tests. MC is the only culprit freaking out. I can send audio from Avid thru the box and monitor it out of the SDI and HDMI but no picture. It has to be a bug on Avid's end. I just can't find anyone else talking about it but you!! We can't be the only ones. 

Let me know if you ever find or plot a fix.

Many thanks in advance.

....same issue here with the Blackmagic mini-monitor on a PC.

....it does not work with MC unless you roll the MC back and BMD drivers back.  It works with other software.

.....a support ticket with BMD has gone completely unanswered, with BMD saying and doing nothing....

Hey Robert,

Yes there is actually some progress. 

I had an open support case with Avid. I was advised to;

Open the console (Command + 6) and enter " Tbb 1"

From the message that appears after this is entered, it looks like this command tells Avid to bypass something to do with Intel processors. I assume you are having your issues on a Mac with Apple Silicon like me? Otherwise this fix probably isn't relevant for you.

This worked for me and I got some really solid performance. Sometimes I would get the audio dropping out during playback. But given how bad it was before, I can certainly live with that for the time being until another software update comes.

My setup info is listed below for your reference

Mac Studio (M1 Max with 64GB)

Ventura 13.3.1

Avid Media Composer 2023.3 (Although I did also have 2022.12.3 previously and it worked on that version too)

Blackmagic UltraStudio 4K Mini running on Desktop Video 12.4.2.

Let me know how you get on, hope it helps. 

I am on a PC...but i tried to do this anyway and was unable to type anything into the console....is there a trick to that?

I think the widely reported problems with BMD devices [e.g. see thread aboe this] are only affecting M processor Macs.So your issue is probably caused by something else.

gosh...wouldn't it be nice if BMD answered the support request?  Then we can possibly figure out the "something else".

Robert et al...  We are workign on some tweaks to MC that will help with some of these oddities.  

Can each one of you with this issue email me directly and include your speicifcations and what BM device you have and the issue experienced.   

[email protected]

I can work on it Monday and get you some answers.

Marianna

Happy to report success...thank you Marianna and Philip!

here is the avid suggestion:

Let's try to get the Blackmagic output working in 2023.3... 

Could we try the following:

1. Uninstall Media Composer and the I/O driver

2. Install MC 2023.3 first, then the I/O drivers on top as before.

3. Reset your Avid user profile, and site settings: https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Troubleshooting/How-could-I-delete-Site-settings-files-on-Windows

4. Go to Help> About Media Composer> Configuration tab and scroll down to available hardware. Ensure the I/O device is showing there. 

5. Right-click the I/O devices settings and select your I/O device.

Let me know.

Kindest Regards, Philip, Avid Global Technical Support | Video

Robert!   Awesome and yes Philip rocks!!!!!!!!

Not going to fix it all as you are on PC but a good set of steps for PC users having issues.

Marianna

...from another post about these issues:

4.  HW devices such as BMD, AJA etc. are NOT selected/enabled by default starting with MC 2022.10.x.  Customers have to right click the Open IO icon, select the HW device and then left click to Enable/Activate.  This information is located in the Knowledge base but can be overlooked.

Bingo....get the word out on the AVID side and the BMD side please.....so many complaints will go away....

Hey there

I was curious about your post herere: BMD 4k mini and Avid (and at times, FCPX, Adobe, Davinci) 

I have a few systems in my facility which are the same set up as you pretty much:

Mac Studio (M1 Max with 64GB)

Ventura 13.3.1 (actually 13.4.1 and in some places as a workaround attempt 12.6.7)

Avid Media Composer 2023.3 (Although I did also have 2022.12.3 previously and it worked on that version too)

Blackmagic UltraStudio 4K Mini running on Desktop Video 12.4.2.

We have an issue as you do also, Avid hanging and beachballing on pretty basic actions. I've been convinced with was an Avid issue until last week when i saw eratic behaviour in FCPX as well on BMD 12.4.2. Choppy playback. Sluggish reponse. 

Would you mind elaborating on the chat you had with Avid tech (console and tbb1), curious to know more. 

Thanks,

Chris. 

Hi Chris,

Not entirely sure if it's my post you were replying to or not but as the set up you listed is same as mine - here goes!

After now a couple months or so with a M1 Mac Studio and editing everyday, there is only one configuration I have found that actually works reliably. That is to use either versions 2021.12.9 or 2021.12.8 of Media Composer. After a lot of attempts I completely gave up with any 2022 or 2023 versions - they are supposed to be compatible but I could never get any of them to work at all. If they weren't beachballing every 5 minutes they were presenting the Segmentation Error message (thread here for others reporting same - https://community.avid.com/forums/t/209000.aspx)

The good news is 2021.12.8 gives relatively stable performance. Some crashes occur but I was able to work with it pretty much as normal. Like you I had the Blackmagic device installed (same driver) and as my other post said I had to use the Console command TBB trick to prevent lots of crashes. With that command enabled playback through BM device wasn't too problematic although occasionally it would cause crashes. Sometimes when these crashes started happening it was necassery to restart the Mac to get Avid to behave itself again.

I have now been running 2021.12.9 for a couple weeks or so. It seems to offer some improved stability compared with 2021.12.8 and so far I have experienced minimal crashes that don't seem to be more frequent than what I used to see on an Intel-based machine. It looks like the previously mentioned Command console trick is already pre activated on this version because I haven't entered it and my Blackmagic device (with same driver) works just fine. The only thing to report there is that sometimes the audio drops out during playback - a pause/play resolves. It's annoying but it's infrequent enough to be manageable. 
 
The last thing to mention is that 2021 versions of MC are not officially certified for OSX Ventura, which is why I tried getting 2022/2023 versions working initially. But Ventura appears to have no compatability issues with MC 2021.12.8 or 2021.12.9 that I have observed. I am running Ventura 13.4 on my machine and I have turned off all automatic OSX updates to avoid any conflicts in future - at least until we have more recent versions of MC that function correctly with M1 Macs.