LFG Input Colour FX problems

When setting a color fx in the video input screen I sometimes manage to "crash" the LFG Digitiser for that input i.e just a blank grey square, however the frame count keeps ticking over. There doesn't seem to be any effect in particular that triggers this problem. Is there something I am missing or doing wrong?

I've also sometimes switched the machine on to find 8 blank squares instead of my video inputs and no frame count ticking over. This mainly seems to happen when setting up a system, once up and running on a show it maybe crops up every 2 weeks.

The main solution to both of these problems seems to be switch mac off, unplug mains, have cup of coffee and plug back in turn on and it usually works, if not I've taken the card out for 5 mins and put it back in again and then it works. I'm guessing this is maybe more Active Scilicon software than yours causing the problem.

I'm using an 2 X 3ghz quad core Intel and LFG 4 card.

the colour fx are the same as the layer ones- some of them dont do anything useful - or will display nothing-

some of them also have transparency.

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The LFG card and the mac sometimes have initialisation issues-
i have used the application 'expansion slot utility' to reset the pci express card bandwidth settings to clear this up in the past.
this is hidden away in System->Library->CoreServices->Expansion slot Utility

this is the program you see when you insert a new pci card.

the expansion slot utility does not appear on the G5's I have on the show, just the Intels. Is this normal?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FinnRoss

the expansion slot utility does not appear on the G5's I have on the show, just the Intels. Is this normal?

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its only for pci express machines.

i think you just have a dual 2.0Ghz G5.

Using LFG4 on non-pci express machines is not recommended.

I did some tests on the 2.0Ghz G5 with the LFG 4 - there is simply not enough horse power to do this. The performance is pathetic. Not recommended at all.

Hugh

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spam Butterfly

I did some tests on the 2.0Ghz G5 with the LFG 4 - there is simply not enough horse power to do this. The performance is pathetic. Not recommended at all.

Hugh

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the LFG drivers do not work well on older machines - i tested them all on all machines last year.
and it is a hardware limit - on bus bandwidth - doing 4 inputs saturates the pci bus bandwidth - and doesnt leave anything left to do anything else-

i do not recommend anyone uses LFG4 on anything less PCI-e machines.

It is too much for older g5's with their limited buses -

there were some later generation dual 2.0 G5's which were also crippled by apple on the pci bus.

but you can put 3 LFG4 cards - for 12 inputs into an intel mac pro - and it does work.