Trouble shooting HDLink devices

IMPORTANT WARNING

Do not upgrade your system to the latest OS X 10.11 El Capitan when working with HDLink devices. Blackmagic Design hasn’t updated the drivers to sustain compatibility with OS X 10.11 yet.

Livegrade is made to control multiple HDLink devices. With Livegrade you can

  • switch between attached devices,
  • manage them in the device manager, and
  • control the selected one with the color controls independently.

The attached HDLink devices should appear in one of the grading Slots. If they don’t show up there or in the device manager, please press the «Reload button»:

 

figure 1: reload devices button

figure 1: reload devices button

 

  • Press the Reload button besides the  “Manage Devices…” button to search for devices.

If you still have problems with controlling HDLink devices, please check the following things:

  • Restart (power-cycle) all devices
  • Make sure the latest firmware is installed on the HDLink devices.You can download and install firmware on the HDLink devices through the HDLink Utility provided by Blackmagic Design: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/
  • Can you control each of the devices alone (without the others attached via USB)?
    You can check this either with Livegrade or the HDLink utility from Blackmagic. Do this to  rule out the possibility of a broken USB cable etc.
  • Can you blink each of the devices from Livegrade?
    Open the device manager and press the “Blink” button for each of the attached devices. The monitor should display a sequence of red, green, and blue. If yes, Livegrade detected and  properly controls the device.
  • Is each of the devices connected to a slotin the device manager?
    Make sure each device is attached to a different slot.

NOTE: If the LUT isn’t applied to SDI-out at all, you might have an old firmware installed on the HDLink device. Some older firmware versions don’t allow LUTs on all outputs. Please make sure your HDLink device is running the latest firmware.

For more information about the operation of HDLink devices please see the HDLink Manual at blackmagic-design.com

There are rare occasions where the HDLink comes into a state where it’s recognized by Livegrade as well as by the HDLink Utility, but color changes in Livegrade as well HDLink Utility have no effect on the image. In this case it may help if you

  • create a random grade,
  • send that to the HDLink’s NVRAM by choosing “Store Grades in HDLink’s NVRAM…” from the file menu, and
  • power-cycle the HDLink (remove power and all other cables for more than 10 seconds).