Blackmagic Forum

Okay, so this HAS TO fall into the category of "stupid user error," but I can't figure out how.

Brand-new, out-of-the-box SmartScope Duo 4K. The left monitor works; the right does not. Ask the monitors to identify themselves and the right monitor displays the expected white box, just as the left one does. But give it an SDI signal and nothing happens (in ANY mode). That is: pull the SDI cable from the left monitor while it is happily displaying an image and plug that same cable into the right monitor and it stays dark. Also, apply an SDI signal to the right monitor and jumper over to the left and neither one works. Tried multiple SDI cables and multiple sources. Makes no difference.

Called Blackmagic tech support and they said it sounds like a bad SDI input, happens sometimes, send it back to the dealer and have them ship you a new one.

Did that. The new one has EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM. Left monitor works. Right monitor ignores SDI input. Looking at the serial numbers, they are far apart, so this doesn't seem like they're likely to be from the same manufacturing run.

I need a working unit for a project that is drawing near so this is making me very nervous (plus how many times should I expect the dealer to make an exchange?). What am I missing? It's too strange a coincidence. How could I get TWO of these units with the same specific issue - the left monitor working and the right one having a dead SDI input.

Any thoughts welcome before I get back on the phone.

Hey Pete,

That's definitely odd. I'll have one of my techs reach out to you today. We'll replace it and do a pre-test on the unit we're sending out to make sure that both inputs are working properly before we send it out. We certainly don't see this problem often and it's really odd that you'd have two with the the same issue like this.

This way we can make sure the unit is working properly before you get it.

Standby, someone will be reaching out soon.


[EDIT]
Looks like you got a hold of us yesterday and we set you up with an advanced replacement with a pretest. I'm having one of my guys reach out to make sure all is in order.

Hello Pete,

We did some some additional digging into this on our end and it looks like you've had some additional communication regarding this with our support team and it's being sorted out. I've also reached out to you via that same email thread but if you have additional questions, you can feel free to reach out to the tech you spoke with via that same email or call in and refer to your ticket ID for a follow-up.

I just wanted to close the loop on this issue. The folks at BMD really did step up on this and got us a known-good replacement. This was going into a flypack with an ATEM Television Studio HD, nine (yes, NINE) Hyperdeck Minis (our client wants ISOs of everything), POE+ network switch and various other goodies, and this replacement (which absolutely does work perfectly) arrived well in time for our needs.

Many thanks to Tony, Byron, Joshua and the rest of the support team for helping us out!