Blackmagic Forum

Hi all,
I have 2 Atem studio 4k 2Me and I found them very well, now I bought a Constellation HD 4Me and I have problems with the supersource1.
It happens that in Box1 drop frames or shows the previous frame and then catches up (e.g. 1-2-3-4-5-4-7-8-9...)
I use Atem at 1080i50 with 1080i50 input signals
is this a known problem?

With the new Constellation (all modells) interlaced is always "visible ugly".

I know, it dont helps you.

But this is since the Constellation came out.....

We are also having this problem. We just recently received our 4M/E Constellation HD switcher. We were using the BMD ATEM 2M/E Production Studio 4K switch and never experienced this issue. The video gets very choppy. It happens intermittently and is unusable. We are running everything progressive (1080p 29.97) so it isn't an interlacing problem. I am wondering if it is a processor problem. Planning on contacting BMD support tomorrow.

jim.chase wrote:We are running everything progressive (1080p 29.97) so it isn't an interlacing problem. I am wondering if it is a processor problem. Planning on contacting BMD support tomorrow.

Progressive for your Incoming Signals is good.
The problem is, when it is interlaced for Multiview.

Processor problem or whatever, only BMD could fix it.

Please contact the support, because if more and more of the customer are talk the problem to the Support, there is the chance that BMD reacts and fix it.

The multiviewers on all Constellations in interlaced are really awefull!!

Even the 8K is really bad. I am not sure and maybe somebody can confirm this for me.

It looks like the Odd and Even images are inverted. Like they send out the wrong field order.. Or 1 of the fields is 1 line off.. As it seems to jump up and down all the time with odd and even fields..

Will try to check this on my 4 M/E Constellation HD the following days. I mainly work with 50p and 59.94p.

We have also had this issue on our 4 M/E Constellation HD. We run at 1080p59.94, and intermittently our SuperSource will get choppy and start dropping frames; it could happen for 30 minutes during 4-5 hours of operation, and then randomly fix itself, but it occurs with no warning.

We had our first unit replaced due to other hardware problems, but both units exhibited this issue.

I've created a test setup and can confirm the bug. ATEM is set to 1080p50, input 1 and input 2 both get 1080p50 video. Input 1 goes to SuperSource 1 box 1, input 2 goes to SuperSource 1 box 2. The choppy / glitchy video is visible on the mutliviewer and also on the output. There is also SuperSource 2 running on the M/E1 preview. I've not tested whether SuperSource 2 has the same problem. But it's not happening simultaneously.

Multiview with sources, you can see the source on "Camera 1" is clean. In the SuperSource box it is glitchy:

M/E1 output (not the exact same as the other video, I made separate recordings)


I've opened another support ticket and referenced this thread as well.

Yes, that's the problem.
Now I know it's not a fault of my Constellation HD but this is cold consolation.
Hopefully Blackmagic will fix this in an update

Also got the confirmation here

Similar to the other behaviours I have been able to reproduce this behaviour in our Lab and have passed a report to our developers who I belive are working on a solution.

Let’s wait for the huge firmware update

I recently purchased the 4 m/e constellation after having owned the 2 m/e production version for many years. I use the supersource often and having a second one available was a huge upgrade. My live event last week the exact problem all are describing showed up. It looked to me like a field issue as it would jump between fields and appear shaky as it did. It may have included dropped frames it was hard to tell. It came and went after about 1-2 minutes. Showed up maybe 4-5 times throughout a 8 hour period. I thought it might be a multi view issue. It was not. It appeared in the broadcast. I was broadcasting at 1080p 29.97 with all signals coming in that way. So no scaling required from the constellation. I also noticed it was happening on both super sources as I had different layouts of the same sources. The sources appeared fine in the individual sends. The only problem was in the Supersource.

I am going to try and record and replicate the problem in my shop today. If I do, I'll post the video recording of it here. I'm reaching out to blackmagic today about this. this is a deal breaker for me. Unless resolved shortly, I'll be returning this unit and going back to me 2 m/e.

Same exact problem happened to me yesterday. I was on a live stream and when I used the SuperSource, Camera 1 in Box 1 was glitchy and skipping frames. If I pulled up Camera 1 clean, it was fine, but if I used it in a supersource it would randomly glitch out. Seems like I'm not the only one having this issue. Hopefully BlackMagic is working on a fix.

So I connected with BlackMagic support through email support and they stated they are aware of the problem and are working on a fix. Reassuring at least that they know about it. Hopefully a fix
Is coming soon.

Oh no! We saw this today on a live production. Many questions to the community... Has anyone done a side-by-side with SuperSources 1 and 2? Does it also happen on SS2? Is it the same on both SuperSources? Is it affected by motion in the box? Does it happen on all four boxes in SS1? And lastly... friends at BMD: Any time frame on a fix? Thank you all!

I noticed the problem with both SSC1 & SSC2. I used the same camera in both SuperSources but created slightly different layouts. Both had the problem even though I could see the individual input of the camera was fine. The problem would come and go without making any changes.

Hopefully BM will come up with a solution soon.

Any update on this issue?

There have been no updates from Blackmagic even though I have reached out several times. Here is the copied email from Blackmagic Tech Support.

"Unfortunately we are still awaiting a software update to correct this issue. As you can see on our site no new update has been released and the Dev Team has not current ETA on when a release will be available.

Sorry for the inconvenience."

This was sent to me March 9th.

Also no news by the EMEA support

Thank you for getting back in contact. I do not have any update at this time but I have been chasing the Development team so hopefully there should be an update coming.

Not explicitly mentioned in todays 9.0.1 firmware update. Maybe it's part of the "
General performance and stability updates"... Haven't time to test it today, maybe on the weekend.

Can confirm that under 9.0.1 the UVC output of the Constellation HD 4ME is working. I've got my bouncing box bar generator in a SS as box 1 and am not seeing any missing frames or any other anomalies. Seems smooth.
I don't know how bad the glitchiness or dropped frames were before -- so I am not sure what exactly I'm looking for.

I'll have some time this weekend to check out with multiple sources of moving video, but so far, this is encouraging.

rogersuski wrote:Can confirm that under 9.0.1 the UVC output of the Constellation HD 4ME is working. I've got my bouncing box bar generator in a SS as box 1 and am not seeing any missing frames or any other anomalies. Seems smooth.
I don't know how bad the glitchiness or dropped frames were before -- so I am not sure what exactly I'm looking for.

I'll have some time this weekend to check out with multiple sources of moving video, but so far, this is encouraging.

I’ve provided some recordings in my post further up. These glitches come up after some time.


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Those are very short clips, I'll assume that the jumpiness of the video in box one persists. I am not seeing such behavior with my test setup. My eyes are playing tricks on me where I think I see a jump, but it is an isolated incident, not continuously dropping frames as in your short clip

It's hard to tell whether the issue is solved. The glitches come and go and are not persistent.

Good news. I have received confirmation that the latest ATEM software 9.0.1 has fixed the problem. Here was the email response I received when I asked if this software update was related the the SuperSource issue.

I have confirmation from 2 of my colleagues who have tested this that the Super Source issue is corrected with the latest update.

Hopefully this information has been helpful. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask.

I will be doing my own testing to be sure. I will post my findings when I have time to test. I would ask others do the same please. I do not want to experience another issue during a live broadcast.

It's fixed. Yesterday I update to 9.0.1 version and now there is no problem with supersource box 1.

Even the problem with multiview in 1080i50 is fixed.

Now I asked to have the border colour in supersource with 4ME Constellation and they answer this:

" Currently you are correct that the border in Supersource is not available in the ATEM 4 M/E Constellation. I can put in a feature request to the development team but I can not comment on if or when an update may come "

So if everybody ask it maybe they activate to 4ME Constellation version.

CanalReus wrote:So if everybody ask it maybe they activate to 4ME Constellation version.

Got exactly the same answer...