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bentzmi  
#1 Posted : Thursday, December 14, 2017 10:35:08 PM(UTC)
bentzmi

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Hi,

I'm trying to configure Vmix on a brand new machine, and am having problems getting the External Output to work.

Here is my device configuration:
Win10 Pro
Intel i7-7700K @ 4.2GHz
16GB RAM
nVidia GeForce GTX 1070
BlackMagic DeckLink Mini Monitor 4K
BlackMagic DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K

I have three identical BenQ GW2270 monitors. Two are connected to the HDMI output of the Graphics card. One is connected to the HDMI output of the Mini Monitor 4k.

When I try to enable the external output, I get the following error message:
External Renderer Not Found
StartStopExternal.StartStopExternal

There is a short moment where the output flashes on the external monitor, but then it immediately goes away. Sometimes there is a vertical yellow bar on the right (maybe 10 pixels wide).

The weird thing is that I had this working in my office with the exact same configuration. It was only after moving everything to the final location that this started happening.



Anyone seen this before? I'm quite perplexed and I need to get this working before the end of the week.

Thanks!
NHT  
#2 Posted : Friday, December 15, 2017 7:19:53 AM(UTC)
NHT

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Will it work with either just the 2 HDMI, or just the Mini Monitor?

Do they all appear in the basic Windows monitor properties?
bentzmi  
#3 Posted : Friday, December 15, 2017 9:36:39 PM(UTC)
bentzmi

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Hi NHT - thanks for the response.


The two monitors connected to the graphics card show up on the monitors in device manager. The two Blackmagic cards show up in the video devices category (I think it's called sound, video, multimedia or something like that.) All the latest drivers are installed and everything looks good from that end. I even tried rolling back drivers and reinstalling to the latest, etc.... still no luck.


One thing to note, all of the monitors are using an HDMI to DVI cable. Should that matter? I might have tested this with an HDMI monitor when it was in the office, but I'm pretty sure I had it going through the HDMI to DVI cable. I wasn't paying attention because it was working at the time.


And that's what is so confusing to me...everything worked in my office before installing in our sound booth (fullscreen, external, and streaming outputs).


After several hours, I was able to get the Blackmagic software to send an output out of the Mini Monitor on both the HDMI and SDI ports. I got a perfect image on the HDMI output, but the SDI feed going to the projector looks dim and the colors are all off. I have the correctly spec'd cable for the run, so I"m not convinced it's a cable issue, but I don't have any other SDI gear or cables to troubleshoot with.


I'm an electrical engineer and this feels to me like a hardware issue, but I'm brand new to the world of video and I'm not confident that I have all the software configured properly.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard a response through the support channels from either company yet (it's only been a day), so I'm a bit at a loss as to what to do. The error messages I'm getting are incredibly vague and don't help me troubleshoot on my own, and then there's no documentation anywhere to offer any insight. That'd be cool and all if the support was a same day type of response, but now I'm in a waiting game hoping to stumble upon a solution before our event this weekend. I thought I was in the clear configuring everything 2 weeks ahead of schedule, but somehow moving the equipment has resulted in problems. I was totally enamored with this type of solution at NAB, but I'm starting to second guess the reliability of all this. We tried to follow all the recommended configurations and compatible hardware exactly as advertised. It scares me that it can go from smooth to totally broke overnight.


I should add that if I modify the Blackmagic card to pause on the last frame instead of displaying a black image when the video is stopped, then I get one frame of the VMIX output correctly sent out of the monitor. The HDMI is clear on the monitor, but the SDI to projector is dim and colors are off just like when using the Blackmagic software. So technically I can get a single frame sent out, but not more.



Anyways, any help would be greatly appreciated...total newb here, so don't hesitate to call me out on my stupidity. Thanks!
bentzmi  
#4 Posted : Thursday, December 28, 2017 10:28:13 PM(UTC)
bentzmi

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Turns out the problem was related to having two external outputs enabled, but only one configured.

Selecting "none" in the external renderer doesn't disable the unused output as one might think. You have to uncheck all of the boxes at the top.
thanks 1 user thanked bentzmi for this useful post.
CoastalBird on 8/24/2020(UTC)
CoastalBird  
#5 Posted : Monday, August 24, 2020 9:43:31 AM(UTC)
CoastalBird

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This was the fix for me, too. BMD Decklink Duo 2, trying to output on SDI 4, with SDI 1, SDI 2 and SDI 3 all being inputs. It was driving me nuts trying to figure out why I couldn't get it to go. Thanks, bentzmi!
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