Unfortunately, the extensive stability issues between Media Composer, Blackmagic devices, and M1 macs seem to persist with the release of 2022.12.4. 

I did a completely fresh, ground-up install of Ventura 13.4 on a Mac Studio M1 Max on a freshly erased drive, installed Media Composer 2022.12.4, and edited with it this morning with no issues for a few hours.

I installed Blackmagic Desktop Video Setup 12.4.2 and attached an UltraStudio 4K Mini, and after activating it in Media Composer, I was unable to play one sequence without lots of stuttering and dropped frames. I loaded a second sequence, hit play, and Media Composer beach-balled and froze completely...

Kevin....

Are you sure it was 2022.12.4 as it didnt launch until after noon today.   If you did try 2022.12.4 and Ventura 13.4 then I need to know that.

Advise?

Marianna

Yes, 2022.12.4. I downloaded it this morning (I'm in LA). And Ventura 13.4.

For more context... I just completely removed the Blackmagic drivers and sofware and pulled the plug on the unit. Media Composer seems happy again. My monitoring workaround is converting the HDMI output of the Mac Studio to SDI and using full-screen playback. Not ideal, but workable.

The takeaway being that BMD's current drivers are still nerfing Media Composer. Even the new 2022.12.4 release. No improvements over what I was encountering with 2023.3 and 2022.12.3.

The BMD drivers work fine with both of those MC releases on my Intel Mac mini running Ventura. So, it's some combination of the M1 chip and the BMD drivers.

I agree with you, Kevin. In fact, I thought things were going much better and then it went downhill quick. I was happily editing with no crashes for about an hour and then I hit the wall. Not the fix we were all hoping for...

Any updates on this one? We're having the same probleem and it's driving me crazy... Tnx.

Hey all....... Good news....  it appears that BMD has a fix for the hang issue underway :) which causes the beachballs.  The product team tells me they expect to finish the fix and start testing this week. Then it will go through their SQA process and be scheduled into a BMD release. We have offered to provide whatever help we can testing the fix.

The root cause is related to the stop of play and the display of the last frame. They’ve been able to reproduce the problem using their own test app, but have also seen the problem in their Media Express application  (but no knowledge of similar issues with Resolve). When play is stopped, there are frames queued up that have been DMA’d to the hardware that must be flushed before displaying the last frame, and sometimes they are not getting acknowledgement of the frames being processed post-flush and hang. They still need to test on Intel Mac’s to see if the issue is reproducible.

I am hopeful this can get out soon and will keep you all posted.  Between 2022.12.4 / 2023.3.1 which has the fix for the memory scribblers and then the BMD fix when ready, it shouod be much much more stable.

We will continue to keep looking to see if ithere are any additional issues on our side but it looks like with 2023.3.1 and the fix they have - we will be good.

I will keep you posted.

Marianna

I have been struggling with this too. I just finally broke down and looked on the forum. I'm running the latest Media composer 2023.3.1 and the very latest BM desktop video 12.5 with an ultrastudio 4k mini. I am still on Monterrey with an M1Max. It seems like it beachballs when I try to move quickly. scrubbing or even adjusting an audio levcel on the mixer will cause it to hang until I force quit. I'm hesitant to upgrade to Ventura if its not goinig to solve the problem. Do you have any specific advice. Of course I'm in the middle of a job.

A

So, any updates on this one...? 

Mac Studio, running Ventura 13.5, downgrading to Media Composer 2021.12.9, upgrading to Blackmagic Desktop Video 12.5 seems very, very stable. Been running it a few weeks and it seems anecdotally very solid. I'm really hesitant to go back to ANY later Media Composer release at this point.

I'm with you, Kevin. I have the same setup. I tried the new 2023.8 version, but the crashiing problem has returned. Again, if I deselect the BM card for output, I am running like a champ. As soon as I turn it back on it's crash city. Rolling back to 21.12.9 for now.

Hello,

Just wanted to report that I am on a M1 Pro Macbook pro laptop (Ventura 13.5) with a black magic ultrastudio mini breakout box. I get the beachballs after a few minutes of activating the BDM video output. I've tried Media composer 2023.8 as well and the result is the same. 2023.1, 2022.12 versions have the same bad result for me. I reverted to 2022.10 and 12.4.2 BDM drivers and this is the latest setup that works for me. I would really like to use a 2023 Media Composer versions if possible. I guess we're still waiting for the new BDM drivers? Thank you!

Just updated to Desktop Video 12.7 and MC Ultimate 2023.8 running on Monterrey 12.7. Same issues. Beachball causing application to hang needing a force quit. This is with latest drivers as of this morning.

Frustrating.

As an editor myself I completely understand this urgency and concern.

The issue stems from Blackmagic's desktop video setup application... the root cause is related to the stop of play and the display of the last frame. You can reproduce the issue on Blackmagic's own Media Express application with a Mac Studio and Blackmagic I/O device, so it's not only Media Composer affected.

This ball isn't in avid's court

Perhaps Blackmagic doesn't want to fix it? I've never had a problem with Resove Studio or After Effects using the output from the Ultra Studio Mini.