MacBook Pro M1 Max - Resolve Freeze During Render/Export

Hey Resolve users,

I'm a DIT working in the commercial film industry of NYC. I'm in the process of integrating the M1 Max into my DIT setup, but I can't find the stability I'd like from a platform that is supposed to stay live during a 12 hour shoot.

So far, here is the problem that I encounter, at least ~3x over a 12 hour day.
When transcoding my footage from a given media card, in this case a 512GB AXS card from a Sony Venice. My transcodes will seemingly freeze out of nowhere when encoding to ProRes LT at 1920x1080 23.98. I haven't tested out any other codecs at this time, but this is an issue that comes up on both the Studio version, and the free version. It'll usually occur somewhere after ~10 minutes of transcoding at a stable ~35FPS.

What the freeze looks like..
The percentage stops moving, the timer stops ticking down, but I can still hit stop, but it won't actually stop anything. I can't browse between different areas of the app, or quit. But I can highlight the stop button. Then I'll CMD+Q it to stop, it'll pop up with a save menu, and then proceed to quit, but never fully quit. It doesn't matter how long I wait at this point, I have to force quit it. And once I force quit it, I can not reopen Resolve until I do a full reboot.

I've checked activity monitor and closed anything Resolve/DaVinci related, but I can not get Resolve to open up again during the same boot. I've even tried reinstalling to free/studios versions before rebooting, and I can not get Resolve to launch again. Hell I can't even get the Mac to turn off unless I force shut it down by holding the power button.

I've been having this problem since I got the computer in early February (now mid-March), and I keep looking it up hoping to find someone who has the same problem or a fix, but it's been pretty quiet in my hunt.

Please let me know if you're having these issues or have any fixes. I'll try and be active on this thread and provide any information where possible.

Specs:
macOS Monterey 12.2.1
MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021)
Chip: Apple M1 Max
Memory 64GB

Media source where files are processed from:
OWC Express 4M2 + 4X SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus 2TB

Resolve Versions Tested:
DaVinci_Resolve_17.4.3 - DaVinci_Resolve_17.4.5 (Including studio versions)

- Alex @atb.media

Apple messed up quite a few things regarding ProRes on M1. The first version of Monterey was a disaster in this respect, and DR is using Apple's media framework for all encoding and decoding.
Over time, they fixed these issues step-by-step, so I'd go for Monterey 12.3. And then, the problems were very specific, so could you try ProRes Proxy or 422 instead of LT? Yes, I know, quality vs. space, but it might be a solution.
Finally, one can't exclude a hardware issue, can you have Apple test it?

Just to follow-up.

I transcoded 7 cards from the RED Komodo from .R3D files in medium compression to ProRes LT with no trouble yet.

I'll be shooting Venice tomorrow and Mini-LF the next day. Will post updates as to how those cameras go.

If the issue occurs regularly after 10 minutes, I'd say heat would be a strong contender, either from the card, card reader and/or cable.
Rather than transcoding from the media card, are you able to clone the media to a spinning drive RAID and then transcode from the RAID? (Transcoding from RAID is my workflow).
How hot are your EVOs getting? I've found that they can throttle themselves down substantially when they get hot and Resolve may be getting upset that the throughput is not there. If you have to force quit Resolve, a reboot is the safest thing to do next anyway. At times, I've put little ice packs under an EVO to cool it down, its remarkable how much better they run when cool.
I'm currently putting through about 1.5TB (a day) of mostly 7.5K R3D files and various amounts of XAVC from a Sony FX6, all to ProRes LT with no issues. A few of weeks ago I was doing ALEXA Mini LF ARX files to DNx36. No problems there either.
Hope you find the cause soon, and let us know how you go.

Another follow up.. Problem still occurs on...

macOS Monterey 12.5 (21G72)
Davinci Resolve 18.1

I've now used all sorts of cameras with this M1 Max MBP, and it really only occurs when the computer is transcoding for a significant amount of time which is a rare thing really since most of the cards I get transcode relatively fast. This last shoot however, we're using the Alexa 65 for interviews... And you can imagine how long it takes to process the footage. Both the top spec intel Mac Pro from 2019 + the M1 Max perform at the same export speed of about 7-11 FPS. But only the M1 has the stall that is only resetable by hard reboot. It does this when transcoding to both ProRes and DNxHD in my tests. So it doesn't seem to be so codec specific for what it's being written to...

Anyhow. A lot of information. Please let me know if you have any insight!

Extra follow-up.

Problem exists still on:
[*]MacBook Pro M1 Max
[*]Mac Studio M1 Max

Running:
[*]macOS Monterey 12.5
[*]DaVinci Resolve 18.0.1

Exporting Codecs tested:
[*]DNxHD OP-Atom 8bit 1080p
[*]ProRes 422
[*]ProRes 422 LT

I get on jobs from time to time when I get larger files, but today especially since we're using the Alexa 65, and the files are MASSIVE. So transcoding at 10FPS for hours guarantees export freezes after about 10-20 minutes on both machines. Intel full spec Mac Pro 2019 runs fine of course.

Interesting side note is that the 2019 Mac Pro exports Alexa 65 footage at the same speed as the M1 Max MBP at around 6-11 FPS. What a size difference in equipment though..

Thanks for any sort of help.

Following, I am having a similar issue.

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021)
Monterey 12.4
Apple M1 Max
64 GB

DaVinci Resolve 18.0.1
DNxHD OP-Atom 8bit 1080p

Noticed it happens more when Silverstack is open in the background.

Going to DNxHR, coming from which codec, James? Any reason why you are not using 18.0.4?
I can give it a try on my hardware when I know exactly what you are trying to do. Just transcode?

Hi,

same issue here with Mac Studio M1 Silicon Monterey 12.5 / Davinci Resolve 17.4.6.

Davinci Resolve freeze during the delivery. My footage is XAVC Intra 4:2:2 from Sony FX9.

I have tried other footage with other codec and I have no freeze.

I have also tried with Davinci Resolve 18.1 and the deliver of my FX9 footage doesn't freeze.

Yes, that has been fixed by 18.1 it seems.

same issue here too, ..

R3d to prores render freeze.
also r3d to quicktime 265 project, .. freeze

M1 ultra, Monterey 12.3.1

Try to update.

I just ran into an issue last night where one of my older card readers was pulling a little more power than it should have been. This caused the port to momentarily "Partially Eject" or Brown Out, ( no safe eject notice came up, but the device disappeared from Disk Manager for a few seconds. ). Resolve locked up and then crashed out to the desktop.

I have a newer reader from a different manufacture and it worked flawlessly all night.

Do you have multiple readers you can try? And different cables ( good quality of course )? I know there is a slim chance this is the issue, but easy to rule out.

This was one of two times I have seen Resolve Crash on any of my systems. The other was getting power from a honey wagon with Air Cons going on and off, lights dimming and coming back up, Ect.

Clean power makes a huge stability difference. I have a Ecoflow Delta Pro I bring to set to run my entire system. I NEVER plug into location power anymore.

I have the original M1 MacbookPro. Converting R3D files to Prores Proxy.

One last thought, is the power settings set to "High Performance" in the battery section? And its the power adapter that came with the MacbookPro?

Other random Thoughts...

On a hub, Hub running out of power?

Loose Thunderbolt cable connection?

Are you using a longer Active Cable? Some longer passives can have higher resistance and cause the controller chips to heat up. Some lower quality Active cables can overheat themselves.