M1 Mac Studio - AVID hangs - Ultra Studio 4k Mini

Hi
Working with an editor who has a new Mac Studio. We are not on shared storage working locally off of external drives. She's been working for 2 weeks without a client monitor since her old Black Magic Ultra Studio was no longer supported on this new system. So she upgraded to new a Ultra Studio 4K mini, installed 12.4 driver, running Mac OS 12.6, Avid 2022.7 and now every time she tries to boot up AVID it hangs. Sometimes you get a far as playing a bit of a sequence before it hangs, sometimes you can't even get it to launch. The only thing that worked to get her going again was to uninstall the Black Magic software. Can anyone tell me why this is happening?

Everyone i've seen posting on the Avid forums is having a hell of a time getting most AJA & Black Magic boxes to work with M1 macs. Even the Avid Artist DNxID doesn't work and every message thread ends with no workable solution. They keep raising support tickets but each new MC release fails to address the issues. (I am also trying to buy an I/O box for my mac studio before a fast approaching start date - v frustrating)

I have heard that the Ultrastudio Monitor 3G works well with the M1s - but that's only 1080p.

I'm sorry to say and you may not wish to hear this but it is not a BMD problem, rather Avid and it's using Rosetta still, with no native coding as of yet for the Arm M1 etc. Mac processors. But in fairness even to Avid, everyone Macside jumped on M1 even before they qualified it in any form and then demanded to know why it didn't work. FWIW and again of little help to you, but the Ultrastudio Mini 4k here works perfectly with 2022.10 on PC. With the current state of Avid development or the lack of it, you may not see any solution soon either, I'm afraid. I know I've been of no help whatsoever, but it's why I have steered clear of the Mac Studio I was seriously contemplating for my next rig.

Do you remember how long it took Avid to support resolutions beyond HD, when most others already had it?
There's not much optimism here.

Maybe if you’re looking at the M1 solution, it’s time to jump out of the Avid MC ship and on board with the Blackmagic Resolve.

Maybe if you’re looking at the M1 solution, it’s time to jump out of the Avid MC ship and on board with the Blackmagic Resolve.

Ellory, if you work as a freelance editor, you can't just jump ship. I've never been offered one single actual editing job on Resolve. Yes I use it in finishing and that's becoming more common (but even there Symphony represents 90% of my work) but most editors would starve if they abandoned Avid. It's not a choice. And that's why Avid can charge and behave so. I'm afraid if you work and earn your living in Avid and use it locally, rather than just as a remote desktop solution like Teradici, it is currently inadvisable to invest in Mac M1 technology, I'm very sorry to say. I'm also sorry to say users had fair warning and invested anyway.

Please understand, I'm not defending Avid. I believe the current management are doing long term damage to the brand by forcing through subscription and concentrating development on cloud infrastructure, that no one really wants and for which there are already better and cheaper solutions. They are doing this because it has demonstrated short to medium term shareholder return and profit stability. I pay over £500 a year, for a licence I already own, in mandatory 'support' that I never need, that will end in 2 years, as they stop perpetual licences. Meanwhile actual development has crawled to a snail pace, with cosmetic tweaks, a disastrous new Titler, over 4 years in development and countless bugs. Most facilities have stayed on earlier versions for this reason. As I say we can't go anywhere else since our bread and butter is dependent on this software. I dream of the day it can be all Resolve, believe me but currently the edit page is the weakest link in Resolve, from where it needs to be to capture the huge pool of professional editors and I have told Blackmagic this - I am willing to help at any time, I have said also.