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Ittaidv  
#1 Posted : Tuesday, February 14, 2017 3:34:43 PM(UTC)
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We now sent back the 4th broken decklink quad 2 to blackmagic.

On different pc's we always run into the same issue: after a restart, windows 10 updates itself while starting up, once back in windows the pc asks to update a '4k extreme' capture card.

In the device manager the card then only shows 4 inputs, and in the blackmagic control panel the inputs/outputs of the card are invisible.

In vmix 4 inputs are still usable, but the other 4 are gone.

When we place the card into another machine, the same error happens, so we think it's a hardware issue.

We always had them replaced without any questions asked by Blackmagic, but the last time we just asked them to replace all our cards with 2 decklink duo's, because we don't trust the quad 2 anymore in professional productions. We were happy we prepared for this scenario during our last production, by placing an additional 4 mini recorders in the system that got affected.

Blackmagic themselves are aware of an issue, but haven't identified the cause yet. It could be a specific hardware combination. If you run into the same problem, just get back to them, they're really helpful.





Mathijs  
#2 Posted : Tuesday, February 14, 2017 8:35:10 PM(UTC)
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Funny, same thing happened to us in november. Got the card replaced without any problem, but it is annoying having to miss it for 2 weeks during a busy time.
I don't think it is hardware related, because your and our systems are different chipsets, brand of components, etc.

I hoped this was a one time flaw with a desktop video update, but if this is still happening to you it makes me very resistant to update decklink drivers in the future when I have no problems with them.
It happened to me on W7, after updating drivers. So the OS also isn't causing it.

Why don't you disable the windows update service on your systems? That way you can remove the card, enable the update service, update the OS, check the decklink driver didn't update and reinstall the card into the system. I would not want any update service to run while running a show anyway.

I'm on the count of one at the moment, and would very much like to keep it there.

Strange thing is it asks to update the 4K extreme capture card that obviously is not in the system, and even if you choose "NO", it still breaks the card.

Also this doen't happen all the time. I did update my main system to latest drivers, which went fine. Then I did update my backup system, which is exactly the same when it comes to hardware and software, and that broke the card.
Ittaidv  
#3 Posted : Tuesday, February 14, 2017 9:41:10 PM(UTC)
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I think it is a hardware issue: when you place the card into another system, replacing a non-broken one, it still happens. When you place the non-broken one back, this one still works. So at least it's firmware or hardware related I think. We had the issue also with different chipsets/systems, 4 times in a row. That's why we gave up on this card because we think we can't rely on them anymore and indeed downtime costs us effort and eventually money.
Mathijs  
#4 Posted : Wednesday, February 15, 2017 8:24:16 AM(UTC)
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It's always something with BMD, you know for sure this doesn't happen with the duo 2?
Downside of using 2 duo's instead of the quad is the system can change inputs every time it boots up. It depends on which card is detected first.
BMD's comment on this is the cards are meant for oem's and vevelopers that write their own software for them. The inputs should get a name and this will be resolved.
Then I think, why don't they include a simple tool to do this ourselves?
Ittaidv  
#5 Posted : Wednesday, February 15, 2017 2:27:58 PM(UTC)
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Mathijs wrote:
It's always something with BMD, you know for sure this doesn't happen with the duo 2?
Downside of using 2 duo's instead of the quad is the system can change inputs every time it boots up. It depends on which card is detected first.
BMD's comment on this is the cards are meant for oem's and vevelopers that write their own software for them. The inputs should get a name and this will be resolved.
Then I think, why don't they include a simple tool to do this ourselves?



I have zero experience with the duo, but will try if it's any better. Perhaps I will combine them at first with mini recorders and decklink sdi cards, to have the 8 inputs I need, and keep only 1 per system.

If we ever buy gear again (now it's an exchange), I'm sure it will be AJA or Magewell.
dark_ata  
#6 Posted : Friday, February 17, 2017 8:15:44 AM(UTC)
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We have a Quad 2 with only some little problems, the only one is some inputs are less sensible.
pba  
#7 Posted : Friday, February 17, 2017 10:51:11 AM(UTC)
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dark_ata wrote:
We have a Quad 2 with only some little problems, the only one is some inputs are less sensible.


Less sensible? What does it mean? Not works with longer HDSDI cables? Can you describe this, I'm interested to buy some Quad2 cards, so it's good to know...

Thank you!

Peter
Ittaidv  
#8 Posted : Friday, February 17, 2017 11:46:33 AM(UTC)
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Except for this bug which i described in the original post, we never had troubles with less sensitive inputs or something. We used 100+ meters Belden 1694A cables and never had bad connections caused by the card itself. Compared to the decklink mini recorders, or the decklink sdi cards, they worked just as fine.
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pba on 2/18/2017(UTC)
al4video  
#9 Posted : Saturday, February 18, 2017 4:14:03 PM(UTC)
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Ittaidv wrote:
Except for this bug which i described in the original post, we never had troubles with less sensitive inputs or something. We used 100+ meters Belden 1694A cables and never had bad connections caused by the card itself. Compared to the decklink mini recorders, or the decklink sdi cards, they worked just as fine.


Are you saying you had problems with the Decklink mini recorders?
Ittaidv  
#10 Posted : Saturday, February 18, 2017 4:50:08 PM(UTC)
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No, not at all, we use mini recorders for a long time already, and they're super reliable!
pba  
#11 Posted : Saturday, February 18, 2017 8:57:14 PM(UTC)
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Ittaidv wrote:
We now sent back the 4th broken decklink quad 2 to blackmagic.

On different pc's we always run into the same issue: after a restart, windows 10 updates itself while starting up, once back in windows the pc asks to update a '4k extreme' capture card.



Can be a workaround solution if I use win8.1 and set off the automatic driver update? If think WIN10 do a wrong driver/firmware update, and this cause the problem... of course only Blackmagic can give us a correct information regarding this...
dark_ata  
#12 Posted : Monday, February 20, 2017 3:59:04 PM(UTC)
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pba wrote:
dark_ata wrote:
We have a Quad 2 with only some little problems, the only one is some inputs are less sensible.


Less sensible? What does it mean? Not works with longer HDSDI cables? Can you describe this, I'm interested to buy some Quad2 cards, so it's good to know...

Thank you!

Peter


yes with some large cable+camera, in one input the signal have some blacks and if you change to other port work perfect, whit the same adapter, only changing the port.


We have win10 with auto update and not have problems with firmware, only some crazy moments when you start vmix and open a port and said that is not available some minutes before start a stream, before we check in video desktop setup that software was updated and change the settings of card.
Ittaidv  
#13 Posted : Monday, February 20, 2017 4:19:24 PM(UTC)
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To clarify: it's not a windows update which causes this problem. You will just see before windows starts, briefly some update (i think driver), very short, and when you arrive in windows, you will see your pc asks to update your 4k extreme card which you don't have. I think something happens between 2 reboots, which breaks the card. When you place the card in another pc which has a perfectly working quad 2, the same thing happens. When you place the working card back, or place it in the system where the broken card came from, it still works perfectly. So it's defenitly a hardware or firmware issue.
thanks 1 user thanked Ittaidv for this useful post.
pba on 3/1/2017(UTC)
al4video  
#14 Posted : Monday, February 20, 2017 7:57:59 PM(UTC)
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Ittaidv wrote:
No, not at all, we use mini recorders for a long time already, and they're super reliable!



That's good to hear as I have 3 Decklink mini recorders and was thinking of keeping one of them and getting a Decklink Duo2 so I can have 5 cameras and less cards..
Ittaidv  
#15 Posted : Monday, February 20, 2017 8:30:32 PM(UTC)
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I would say: keep all of them. We still have some old intensity pro's and many others laying around. They come in handy once in a while, and on the second hand market their value is very low anyway.
usmedia  
#16 Posted : Tuesday, February 21, 2017 5:26:05 PM(UTC)
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Same problem here.. A customer called me few minutes ago with the same indications.
- start pc - 4k driver update from Blackmagic - they press no - card not available. The card still doesn't exist. Nothing helps, also not a replacement in a other X-Slot and re-install of the actual drivers.
We try now a install of a older built or take a older clone on the system.
Ittaidv  
#17 Posted : Wednesday, March 1, 2017 10:03:33 AM(UTC)
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That really won't help, save yourself the time and just return the card. We also tried everything, and could never fix a broken card.
Ittaidv  
#18 Posted : Wednesday, March 1, 2017 10:42:37 AM(UTC)
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Blackmagic now asks us to solve the issue with our reseller. They will only take back the cards when we can indicate they are broken. Since we have multiple cards, we don't want to wait untill they are broken, but rather swap out all our cards with more reliable products.

We also don't want to have the reseller take back the working cards and sell them as B stock as they proposed, since we think that it's clear there is an issue with these cards and don't want a small business to take the financial consequences for this.
Mathijs  
#19 Posted : Sunday, March 5, 2017 10:03:36 AM(UTC)
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I just lost another one the same way. What a piece of crap this is.
By the way, this was not triggered by a firmware upgrade this time. Just shut the system down, booted back up and there it was with the decklink extreme 4 update question.
So it is very simple, with these cards you never know if they are going to crap over your production by changing into a 4 channel card in between a simple reboot.
Exchanging them for 2 Decklink duo's might be a solution. Only downside is throwing away 4 pci-express lanes which can be used fine with a 8 channel card otherwise.

It would suit BMD to give a statement why this is happening. Is it hardware or firmware related? If it is firmware related, why can't they just supply us with a tool to reflash the firmware? If it is hardware related, why is this not resolved and is my card replaced with one that has the same issue after short time of use?
DWAM  
#20 Posted : Sunday, March 5, 2017 10:11:16 AM(UTC)
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I think last version of Desktop Utility is a piece of "s...".
All settings are lost after each reboot even for single input cards like Mini Recorder or UltraStudio Express Thunderbolt. Trying to execute it being an Administrator doesn't change anything. We have to re-set everything each time we use it.
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