Rocket on 1gen MacPro no DVI out

[Bastiaan Houtkooper]

Just got my RedRocket card and placed it in my MacPro
It a first generation running 2.66ghz. I am on Snow Leopard 10.6.2 (latest)

The card runs fine, transcoding is fast and I can see a picture on my SDI monitor.

The problem is that I can't get any signal out of the DVI ports.
I have attached the two splitters, the top ones don't give a signal, the lower set seems to give a black frame.
Setting the output to RGB8 @1920 and nothing happening. I remember somewhere reading that the first gen MacPro is incompatible but could not find anything else.

Question:
What would be the best DVI connector for testing and did anyone got it working with the first gen MacPro's?

Advice appreciated.

 

[jimhare]

Hi Bastiaan,

I have a first gen Mac Pro and one of the first Red Rocket cards and it works great. The only compatibility issue is that you may get a null frame in transcodes once in a while, but retranscoding fixes it.

The main issue with DVI is that many DVI monitors will not run at the proper scan rate for 1920. Try other settings and see if you have any luck, but ultimately you should be able to get something working.

All the best,

Jim Hare

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I'm going to say this is most likely an issue with the monitor, as Jim suggests. What monitor is it and what modes have you tried?

 

[Rainer Fritz]

and you need to activate the 1920x1200 mode at rocketcine or redcine-x

 

[Bastiaan Houtkooper]

Thanks everybody, got it working @ 1920x1200 @60hz
Using Apple Cinema and Samsung monitors. next step might be the new LaCie screen or a Dreamcolor.

@JimHare: Deanan wrote somewhere that the issue you mentioned was fixed in the newer firmware. I didn't have any issues, it all runs smooth.

 

[Rainer Fritz]

one bet is to go out of the HD-SDI ports and you use the AJA Hi5 3G converter to get a HDMI or DVI signal.....

 

[Bastiaan Houtkooper]

@Rainer: I see no reason why you would go that route if you end up with DVI again (8bit)
If you got a decent 10 bit screen it might be worth going HDMI or displayport @10bit.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

To get 10bit out of the Rocket you have to use HD-SDI or use the HDMI out from the Breakout Box. The Breakout box doesn't have the HDMI enabled in the current firmware, but it's supposedly in testing and ready real soon now.

The AJA HI5 3G looks like a good solution too.

As for monitors, I wouldn't use an LCD like the LaCie or DreamColor for serious grading. And considering I can buy a brand new 2010 model Panny 50" plasma for less than a DreamColor, its appeal level is like uh, zero. DreamColor is seriously over-rated, IMO. And so is anything with the LaCie brand stamped on it.

 

[Bastiaan Houtkooper]

Jeff, I suggest you take a look at the latest 10bit/16bit Lacie screen. I was skeptical until we did a 40 monitor shoot-out ( http://www.redtalk.nl/en/nieuws/38-de-monitor-dagen) with the top class gradeone monitors and a lot of people liked the LaCie (with an converter AJA or BlackMagic) better than most monitors.

Complete list of tested monitors:
http://www.redtalk.nl/en/nieuws/35-grote-monitor-test (dutch)

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Which LaCie monitor is that? The 724 and 730 still only accept 8bit DVI inputs and use 8bit LG panels.

 

[Bastiaan Houtkooper]

LACIE 130766 LCD monitor 526

http://www.lacie.com/download/datasheet/526_lcdmonitor_en.pdf

The big trouble remains the DVI connector. The Dreamcolor has a displayport as far as I know.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Bleh... The 526 is nothing to write home about. The 724 and 730 are both superior with wider gamut support and superior backlighting. All of them are still 8bit displays though. Not sure what you were talking about 10bit/16bit; the only 10 and 16 related to this monitor is the 16:10 aspect ratio. The 526 is an 8bit panel with 14bit internal processing (nothing special these days) and 12bit precision for gamma curve. For the money, I'd prefer a wide gamut Eizo or NEC over the LaCie. And I can have a Panasonic 42PF11xx with HD-SDI option (42" 1080p plasma) for about the same money as a LaCie 724 with stupid plastic hood and that cheap colorimeter.

DreamColor does have displayport and it will accept 10bit input over displayport and hdmi.

 

[jimhare]

@JimHare: Deanan wrote somewhere that the issue you mentioned was fixed in the newer firmware. I didn't have any issues, it all runs smooth.

Thanks Bastiaan, hadn't ready that! It felt like it had been a while since getting slugs in transcodes. I just thought I was on a lucky streak!

All the best,

Jim