PRO TOOLS HDX BUG FOUND! HDMI monitor the culprit!

[adrianrobison]

So, I just bought Avid's Pro Tools HDX. I own a late 2013 MacBook Pro with maxed out specs. I am running Mavericks and Pro Tools 11.1.3. My HDX card is plugged into an HD I/O and is fitted inside of a Sonnet Echo Express III-D Thunderbolt 2 PCIe Chassis. The idea was to run HDX on my laptop... but...

Pro Tools wouldn't recognize my HDX card! I would try to change the "Playback Engine" to "HDX" but that option wasn't there! I would try to run DigiTest to see if the card was defective but DigiTest wouldn't open! I used my Avid Support Code and called them. After about 5 hours of deleting files, installing and reinstalling new and old versions of Pro Tools and new and old HD drivers, we ended up still puzzled... Until we came up with the idea to disconnect the HDMI cable that was hooked up to my Dell 2408WFPb monitor.

Boom. Problem solved. As it turns out, Pro Tools would only recognize HDMI as an option in the Playback Engine (HDMI transfers audio and video, hence why Pro Tools defaulted it to HDMI). When DigiTest would crash, it was because it was thinking the HDMI was the HDX. My solution to the problem was to buy a DVI adaptor and plug the monitor daisy chained thru the extra Thunderbolt port in my Sonnet Echo Express III-D PCIe chassis.

Ditch HDMI. Problem solved.

Hope Avid fixes this... it makes my nice and shiny HDMI port on my laptop look lonely.

If anyone out there has this problem, I hope my experience can solve your issues!

Hope this helps someone!!!

-Adrian

[chrisdee]

Thanks for sharing.
I have passed this information on to Avid.

[Hugh-H]

Hello adrianrobinson,

Thanks for the posting, we've used the HDMI on our Mac Minis just fine so it could be a MBP-specific problem. We also get the HDMI option for playback engine but we can select HDX.

No doubt you and the Avid support person went through everything, but I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.
1 - with everything plugged in did you launch ProTools while holding the "n" key to force a playback engine search? This has helped a few folks in the past with playback engine weirdness.
2 - If you launch ProTools with HDX, not plugged into the HDMI port, can you then plug in the HDMI monitor and use it?

Thanks,
Hugh

[Guitarman002]

Yes...I use a Sony 50 inch television as a monitor via HDMI on a new Mac Pro. I have the Pro Tools 11 HD Omni system and have not experienced any problems whatsoever. So...I tend to agree...this may be a Macbook Pro specific problem.

[JCBigler]

I wonder if this will affect the new Mac Pros, since they use their HDMI output is run off of one of the Thunderbolt ports?

[adrianrobison]

Hugh-H, to answer your two questions:

1) Holding "N" doesn't help. I still do not get the HDX option in my playback engine. Only disconnecting the HDMI cable seems to solve the issue.

2) After starting HDX successfully, if you were to plug the HDMI cable in, the monitor will blink a few times (almost as if it is mechanically syncing itself) and then display a blank desktop with a dark-greyed out menu bar and no Pro Tools. There would be no icons on the desktop (assuming you had icons before), and there would be no functionality from the mouse. One would assume at this point that the computer had crashed, but simply disconnecting the HDMI cable restores things to normal. Contrast that with plugging in the HDMI cable when HDX is NOT running and it operates as normal, displaying what is on my screen on my external monitor.

[adrianrobison]

Originally Posted by Hugh-H

Hello adrianrobinson,

Thanks for the posting, we've used the HDMI on our Mac Minis just fine so it could be a MBP-specific problem. We also get the HDMI option for playback engine but we can select HDX.

No doubt you and the Avid support person went through everything, but I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.
1 - with everything plugged in did you launch ProTools while holding the "n" key to force a playback engine search? This has helped a few folks in the past with playback engine weirdness.
2 - If you launch ProTools with HDX, not plugged into the HDMI port, can you then plug in the HDMI monitor and use it?

Thanks,
Hugh

Hugh-H, to answer your two questions:

1) Holding "N" doesn't help. I still do not get the HDX option in my playback engine. Only disconnecting the HDMI cable seems to solve the issue.

2) After starting HDX successfully, if you were to plug the HDMI cable in, the monitor will blink a few times (almost as if it is mechanically syncing itself) and then display a blank desktop with a dark-greyed out menu bar and no Pro Tools. There would be no icons on the desktop (assuming you had icons before), and there would be no functionality from the mouse. One would assume at this point that the computer had crashed, but simply disconnecting the HDMI cable restores things to normal. Contrast that with plugging in the HDMI cable when HDX is NOT running and it operates as normal, displaying what is on my screen on my external monitor.

[Emcha_audio]

Not a mac know-it-all but have you tried to disable the hdmi audio from the mac bios (assume there's one?)

[Hugh-H]

Hello adrianrobinson,

If the menu bar appears on your external display without the desktop icons it means your MBP is operating it's separate displays as separate "spaces". The last time I checked PT does not like this, don't know if that was ever fixed.

Close PT, go into System Preferences/Mission Control and de-select "Displays have separate Spaces". Then log out and back in. This should enable PT to function normally with multiple displays.

Hugh

[adrianrobison]

Originally Posted by Hugh-H

Hello adrianrobinson,

If the menu bar appears on your external display without the desktop icons it means your MBP is operating it's separate displays as separate "spaces". The last time I checked PT does not like this, don't know if that was ever fixed.

Close PT, go into System Preferences/Mission Control and de-select "Displays have separate Spaces". Then log out and back in. This should enable PT to function normally with multiple displays.

Hugh

Good to know... Although this monitor fix doesn't solve the problem of HDX not showing up in the playback engine without first unplugging the HDMI cable. Pro Tools is becoming more and more like a dusty old 8-bit Nintendo cartridge that you have to blow into to make work. I wish I could just turn it on and have it work perfectly every time. *sigh*