Decklink 4K Mini Monitor on MacBook Pro M1 Max

Hi all,

trying to make the Decklink Mini Monitor 4K work on my M1 Max MBP running Sonoma 14.7.6 via an OWC Mercury Helios thunderbolt chassis.

I tried a whole bunch of things, including updating from Monterey to Sonoma, disabling SIP, allowing access to drivers in Security & Privacy settings, trying 14.5, 12.9, 12.5 Desktop Video Setup versions, but the card isn't recognized by the system.

What's curious is that the same chassis/card is working under Sequoia 15.5 on a n older Mac Intel with 12.9, so card and chassis are good.
The chassis is correctly seen in the System Report on the Silicon Mac, and looks like Decklink the driver is installed but can't be loaded (according to Chat GPT). Tried various "sudo" commands, but nothing is working up to now...

Any ideas?

Thank You

I’m assuming you’re talking about the 4K mini monitor with an external chassis and PCIe slot. If so, this wouldn’t work on the Silicon computers. It will work on an Intel Mac only. Been there, done that.

If you need a 4K, then you’ll have to get the UltraStudio 4K mini. If your budget doesn’t afford it and you’re ok monitoring in HD, the UltraStudio 3G mini monitor is your most affordable option. I wish that there will be a 3G 4K mini monitor for less than $200 looming in the horizon.

If what you say it's true I'm out of luck...I know it is not an "off the shelf" solution but BM should've been more transparent about this. It does indeed work on my older Intel Mac...this is really BAD news...even though I seem to remember when doing my homework and research that somebody had it working on Apple Silicon.
I'll look that up again before selling everything.

The DeckLink Mini monitor 4K is working perfectly fine here with driver version 14.2 under Sonoma 14.7.6 in a Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550 out of a MBP M1 Pro.
As is the Recorder with Media Express 3.8.1, which unfortunately doesn't fit at the same time.

Only eGPUs and some older device by BM don't work with Mx Macs.

So, you either have a wrong driver or not given it all the necessary access rights, or your box is incompatible (I consider that a lower probability).

Of course, it's a pretty bulky box for monitoring only, so I was also hoping for something like the Ultra Studio Mini Monitor in 4K, but it did happen after quite some waiting…

My previous setup that worked on Intel with Sonoma was the DeckLink 4K mini monitor and for me I was using the Razor box. I am assuming we’re talking about the same thing.

IMG_1350.jpeg (49.44 KiB) Viewed 299 times

IMG_1351.jpeg (29.78 KiB) Viewed 299 times

If so, it has not worked for me on Mac Mini M2 Pro running Sequoia. I was using Display Video 14.9. It could be MacOS Sequoia, or DV 14.9. But I stopped fooling around with it and used the UltraStudio mini monitor 3G which worked.
Now, back on the Intel Mac, when I installed Sequoia and DV 14.9, I couldn’t get it to work. I swapped the Razor/DeckLink 4K card with an UltraStudio mini monitor HD and that too didn’t work. I researched and f around it trying to get it to work and I found a post recommending to downgrade to DV 12.5. That finally worked (see discussion here): viewtopic.php?f=3&t=221671&p=1157875#p1157875

So you can try going back to Sonoma - that might take care of the issue. Another is to try a version of DV, either 12.5 on Sequoia or 14.9 on Sonoma like what Uli said works for him. If those won’t fix it, I say it’s likely the external PCIe chassis that’s not known or supported by the OS. Good luck.

EDIT: I never tried using the UltraStudio mini monitor HD on the Mac M2 Pro so I couldn’t tell you if that option works. I’m curious if you don’t need 4K monitoring and the OS is Sequoia and DV is version 12.5 will it work? You can buy those UltraStudio mini monitor HDs on eBay for $20 or less last I saw.

Careful, the cheap ones may be the older model with TB 2, which doesn't work with Apple silicon.

The newer 3G works perfectly fine for me under both Intel (Ventura) or M1 Pro (Sonoma) here, sadly in HD only. What goes unnoticed to many while installing are the two system extensions needing access rights when installing.
You can find much more detail here in my three part series:
https://digitalproduction.com/2025/03/0 ... tespart-1/
(excuse the joking title)

The DeckLink Mini monitor 4K is working perfectly fine here with driver version 14.2 under Sonoma 14.7.6 in a Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550 out of a MBP M1 Pro.
As is the Recorder with Media Express 3.8.1, which unfortunately doesn't fit at the same time.

Only eGPUs and some older device by BM don't work with Mx Macs.

So, you either have a wrong driver or not given it all the necessary access rights, or your box is incompatible (I consider that a lower probability).

Of course, it's a pretty bulky box for monitoring only, so I was also hoping for something like the Ultra Studio Mini Monitor in 4K, but it did happen after quite some waiting…

The OWC box is correctly listed in the system report and that same chassis/card is working on an Intel mac...so I'm a bit confused.
I granted all permissions during install, but if I go into the extensions and DV folders there's no files, kind of like they aren't being installed.
Any magic tricks I can try before sending the OWC box back and go to a Sonnet?
Thanks

You should see these two:

Screenshot 2025-07-03 at 22.30.01.png (96.7 KiB) Viewed 213 times

If not, it's a software issue and not your enclosure.

I can see the Blackmagic Design Desktop Video but not the Blackmagic Design Inc.

As an additional info, I do have DaVinci installed

If you’re on Sequoia do a complete uninstall of Display Video that is currently installed on the machine… and I mean a complete uninstall. I had to do it on the terminal command line to remove all associated drivers. Then try installing Display Video 12.5. If that works, then you’re golden. You can, from there do a version by version update until it fails so you know what version really works. For me, I remained on version 12.5 and things are fine.

If everything goes smoothly, Display Video will see the DeckLink card and might prompt you to update the firmware. I said ok to that.

If you’re on Sequoia do a complete uninstall of Display Video that is currently installed on the machine… and I mean a complete uninstall. I had to do it on the terminal command line to remove all associated drivers. Then try installing Display Video 12.5. If that works, then you’re golden. You can, from there do a version by version update until it fails so you know what version really works. For me, I remained on version 12.5 and things are fine.

If everything goes smoothly, Display Video will see the DeckLink card and might prompt you to update the firmware. I said ok to that.

I'm still on Sonoma, have to maintain compatibility with Apogee drivers which aren't yet supported officially on Sequoia.

L.

I'm still on Sonoma, have to maintain compatibility with Apogee drivers which aren't yet supported officially on Sequoia.

L.

On Sonoma I believe it’s fine. With Sequoia, there is issue with new Display Video driver versions and older hardware like the DeckLink 4K mini monitor and the UltraStudio mini monitor HD. If you want to use newer DV software versions on Sequoia and Apple Silicon platforms the best thing, IME, is to invest on the UltraStudio mini monitor 3G or if you need 4K, the UltraStudio 4K.

I don't think so. I installed Desktop Video 14.5 on a brand new Mac mini M4 Pro, which only runs under Sequoia, and carefully watched and confirmed the messages. At first, I had only running the US 3G Monitor successfully.
Recently I acquired a second-hand DeckLink 4K Mini Monitor and planted it into my outdated eGPU case. It ran fine right away. IMHO, if the US 3G works for you, the DeckLink should too. But if it doesn't, you may need to fully clean up from all parts of Desktop Video and start over.
BTW, Media Express should work even on a machine without DR installed once the interface is recognised.

You should see these two:

Screenshot 2025-07-03 at 22.30.01.png

If not, it's a software issue and not your enclosure.

I can see the Blackmagic Design Desktop Video but not the Blackmagic Design Inc.

As an additional info, I do have DaVinci installed