Decklink Duo

[samsc]

Oli

my sympathies are always with you - and i hope we can figure it out.

when i found out this week how many failures you have had - i have been checking and rechecking with everyone involved

i will do my best

thanks
rr

[Leif]

I built two identical machines from scratch--all parts brand new--in April. Each machine is equipped with two Phoenix cards (4 inputs each box), SSD for content, and Radeon 4870 output card.

The macs as a whole have had zero problems. Playback has been stable, despite operating in very hot and humid conditions.

The Phoenix cards, on the other hand, have been a letdown. Capture has seized/frozen on numerous occasions, often requiring a reboot to reacquire a signal; at one recent show we shut a machine down for an hour before the our set to give it time to cool down but one of the cards never came back, and I had to set Catalyst to copy one of the other inputs.

At first we thought this was a heat issue across the entire system but one card in particular seems to seize a lot more than the others. This is troubling to me because the two servers on this show are built identically. It seems to me that if it was a heat issue, I would be having similar failures on both machines. As it is, I suspect a defective card.

Considering the price of the cards, and being only 3-4 months old, this is a disappointment. To their credit, AS seem keen to help and are sending a new card out this week. But I remain nervous, especially after reading Oli's posts...

[ajmaudio]

I built two identical machines from scratch--all parts brand new--in April. Each machine is equipped with two Phoenix cards (4 inputs each box), SSD for content, and Radeon 4870 output card.

The macs as a whole have had zero problems. Playback has been stable, despite operating in very hot and humid conditions.

The Phoenix cards, on the other hand, have been a letdown. Capture has seized/frozen on numerous occasions, often requiring a reboot to reacquire a signal; at one recent show we shut a machine down for an hour before the our set to give it time to cool down but one of the cards never came back, and I had to set Catalyst to copy one of the other inputs.

At first we thought this was a heat issue across the entire system but one card in particular seems to seize a lot more than the others. This is troubling to me because the two servers on this show are built identically. It seems to me that if it was a heat issue, I would be having similar failures on both machines. As it is, I suspect a defective card.

Considering the price of the cards, and being only 3-4 months old, this is a disappointment. To their credit, AS seem keen to help and are sending a new card out this week. But I remain nervous, especially after reading Oli's posts...

I doubt its heat related... I have been running mine outside in 100+ degree weather all summer with no issues... assuming all your cooling parts are working I'd look elsewhere.... unless perhaps you are leaving them out in direct sun in a black case etc.. mine have been in that situation a couple times and made out ok... I was suprised... my cases are blue though lol

[samsc]

I figured out yesterday - Oli had blown up 11 cards ( out of 5 systems with 2 in each ) - thats a 110% failure rate-
No wonder he is upset- i have every sympathy for him-

But this is completely unprecedented - and means something else must be wrong with the touring system-
it just cannot be the cards with this failure rate - it has to be something electrical or physical or something in the rest of the system-

sdi cards - because they connect to outside systems which can be on a separate power supply -are uniquely vulnerable to power and electrical spiking-
sdi is not isolated by default- and as we all know there are many many power things going on in shows - surges - noise - spikes- ground differences - which can cause problems.
And also lighting video and sound power usually run off different phases - or different generators...

--

AJM- I dont think its heat either - otherwise the failure rate would be high for everyone - and it isnt.
Touring in the USA is a very hot environment - and there are a lot of tours out there.

--

We work in an exceptionally tough environment for electronics.
Constant shipping constant unplugging-
And equipment does fail- every component-
Macs graphics cards etc etc
I dont think AS has any higher failure rate in general than any other part of the electronics
The failure modes are all accelerated due to usage patterns etc.

my own macs are vulnerable to failure because im constantly putting different sets of pci cards inside the machines.