Blackmagic Playback Offset setting does nothing

[cparkerksu06]

We have had this issue over multiple systems, Blackmagic devices and multiple monitors.

Currently we're on new Mac Pros with Decklink 4K Extreme 12Gs installed. Previously we were on the 2013 Mac Pros with UltraStudio 4Ks.

There is a 3-4 frame delay between the Premiere program monitor and the external monitor that we have connected through the Blackmagic devices. Audio is synced with the program monitor in Premiere which then means it's out of sync on the external client monitor.

So, naturally we head to the Playback preferences in Premiere and offset. When I connect an HDMI cable straight into the Mac to the same monitor that the Blackmagic is connected to, I offset Adobe Monitor 2 120ms and it's perfectly in sync. If I try to offset the Blackmagic device, even 500ms, it does nothing. No matter what I do, I can't get the timing of the Blackmagic device to change. Based on searching, this seems to have been a bug for years.

Do I have any options to get the Blackmagic output in sync? Is this bug being worked on?

[R Neil Haugen]

This would drive you nuts.

I deal with a lot of colorists routinely ... which means of course a ton of people using BM cards/devices and multiple monitors. And a frequent subject is getting BM cards to have everything working correctly, even within Resolve.

I'm hoping we can get someone on here to offer some useful advice ... I'd love to see it myself!

Neil

[Kevin-Monahan]

C Parker,

I've been down this road before. It's very frustrating when you want to your external monitoring to reflect what you are doing with the NLE very precisely, and it's not behaving as expected. 

What kind of "client monitor" do you have? Is it a pro broadcast monitor or a consumer level TV? If the latter, you can try turning off all enhancements for the TV that could cause the latency you are describing. A broadcast monitor will be more optimized for this kind of setup.

See this thread on the BMD forums for more ideas.

One user said:

"for every Samsung Smart TV, you can enable the "Game mode", which is reducing the latency. Enter the menu, "system", "general", "game mode" and then select "on". It's lag free."

Please try this, then report back.

Thanks,
Kevin

[cparkerksu06]

We have two SDI outs of the Blackmagic card. One to a Flanders pro monitor for editor and one to a consumer TV for clients. Both of those monitors are in sync 3-4 frames behind Premiere. Also, like I said, I have an HDMI cable running to the client TV as a second monitor within the OS and when I have Premiere use that as a Playback monitor, I'm able to use the offset function to get it in sync. BUT, the offset function does not work with the Blackmagic.

Shouldn't we expect some delay coming out of the Blackmagic card regardless of what monitor it's feeding video to, anyway? 

Thanks for the quick response!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Seems like there should be a way to control that. It's possible that there's a bug there, however, there is no internal bug filed for this problem that I could find.

I just upvoted this bug report here on User Voice, a place where engineering takes note of such reports. I will also file an internal bug. Can you also upvote and add any comments? 

Hope we can direct the team to this issue and get a fix in as soon as possible.

As an aside, I can understand how annoying this might be as I had the same kind of issue back in the Final Cut days before that app had hardware sync offset. I had an early capture card setup and was used to perfect sync that I had with Avid. It was so awesome once I had that dialed in, and it was so annoying before that time.

I'll go file that bug now.

Regards,
Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan]

Bug is filed. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I'll try and gain some traction for this bug. Sorry again for this issue.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Steve Nelson Editor]

Did you guys fix this yet? I'm still having the problem reported by the OP.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Steve,

Sorry about that. What kind of I/O card are you using? What kind of monitor? How is it connected? Any further info you can give?

Thanks,
Kevin

[Steve Nelson Editor]

Mac UltraStudio M1 Ultra // 128GB Memory
Blackmagic UltraStudio 4k Mini (connected via thunderbolt 3)
LG 55SK9000PUA (55")
HDMI Out from the Blackmagic into the LG TV for video
Analog Out into studio monitors for audio

Like the OP, my audio syncs to the program monitor just fine. But the video sync on the TV is off from the audio (which are both coming from the blackmagic). So, I'm just trying to offset the audio, but it doesn't let me changed the offset (it just resets to 0).

[Steve Nelson Editor]

Mac Studio M1 Ultra*
Analog Out from Blackmagic into studio monitors for audio*

[Steve Nelson Editor]

Any thoughts as to why the offset would not be functioning?

[R Neil Haugen]

Thanks to Kevin for posting that link. I went over and up-voted it ... and suggest everyone else reading this do likewise.

Neil

[Kevin-Monahan]

Thanks, Neil. Also post here other links to this issue so I can attach them to the bug. I'll comb through User Voice and forums archives to see what I can find.

I posted an old link from Creative Cow with the same issue into the bug: https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/3/951908

[Sumeet Kumar Choubey]

Hi cparkerksu06,

Blackmagic Design has recently released Desktop Video 11.5 which addresses multiple issues with Premiere Pro. Please update to the latest version (11.5) and check if it's working properly.

You may refer to this link to know more about it.

Thanks,

Sumeet

[Marcial5FF2]

Hi Sumeet and everyone in this thread. 

Premiere Pro seems to sync with the analog audio coming off the speakers from the analog out of the Ultrastudio 4k Mini.. but its offsync with the SDI signal coming from the same box. The HDMI and SDI output are completely in sync.. I took videos of the desktop monitor and timeline with the HDMI tv on in frame.. and the HDMI tv is delayed by 4 frames. It does not change no matter what video offset you set on the playback settings menu of the Premiere Pro 2020.  No matter how wild..  But I connected an SDI monitor on the BMD US4kmini and took a video of the SDI and HDMI monitor side by side.. its in sync... but does not sync with the audio.. Strange....  Would be great if there are solutions to this.. It creates problems with the well being of our clients, and having to explain the delay is tiring.  BTW on the Avid Media Composer 2020 using a Client monitor delay feature... we set at 116ms and its perfectly fine.  Pray that Premiere fixes this soon.