The M1 Architecture is a GOD send to broadcasters or video professionals who don’t want to or can’t invest in a hugely complicated display or edit system.
The ram being on the same silicon as the processor has led to fast performance.
However - I’ve noticed some strange driver issues.
We used to use iMac Pro’s (fully specced out) and we have moved to M1 minis with great success. We feed a huge LED wall, lower thirds, and complicated playback graphics - and the speed and performance of the software we use are unparalleled on these machines. The Macs performed better than any PC ($10k PC specialized build) and the M1s outperformed the Macs in a 10:1 second response time (on firing complicated graphics).
However, we have been using a thunderbolt to PCI express enclosure to output broadcast SDI and it crashes spectacularly- randomly. Over the past few months, it has crashed twice live (while firing graphics) and randomly throughout the week as graphics are being loaded or designed into the machines.
Further investigation - it seems like this is the same third-party crash behavior any M1 is experiencing (or at least similar). M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max seem to be prone to crashing - and booting back up (very fast) but crashing at the most inconvenient time.
A sysdia dump has told me that the third party drivers (or the M1 chips) reach a certain point where information (sent or received) gets lost and the almighty protector of the Mac “keep the interface going” (pure assumption) philosophy -> “WatchDog” detects this and it crashes. Causes a core dump and it reboots.
After a few updates in the MacOS, we have started to get the errors above plus an additional error - the interface freezes while shutting down causing the good ol’ fashion solution of pulling the plug to be used.
I’m wondering if anyone else’s has gotten this error and dug deeper into please let me know anything you’ve found.
Now, this watchdog error isn’t visible to the user… usually it’s a lot of very specific computer jargon that may useful to an OS engineer but the Logs say this is what likely is the cause. Although with the amount of complaining Chrome does in the logs (and its helper assistant restarting over and over) - I’m not opposed to blanking it. However with it completely uninstalled, the problem keeps going.
Please - please understand, this is a lot of reasonable guessing going on and assumptions based on a system log analysis. The guys at Apple have reported they don’t know what it is doing and without being able to replicate it (because it’s random and inconsistent), they can’t pin it down.
They gave me a command or w to help dig through logs but nothing has yet happened.
We reboot before a show (like 15/30 minutes before) and don’t encounter this error, however with a HUGE nearly 7-6 hour shows back to back coming up… I’m greatly concerned. Like greatly.
I haven’t posted here because I’ve been working with the software and hardware manufacturers of the third party but I’m kinda at whits end.
Any thoughts would be extremely helpful!
Thank you,
The ram being on the same silicon as the processor has led to fast performance.
However - I’ve noticed some strange driver issues.
We used to use iMac Pro’s (fully specced out) and we have moved to M1 minis with great success. We feed a huge LED wall, lower thirds, and complicated playback graphics - and the speed and performance of the software we use are unparalleled on these machines. The Macs performed better than any PC ($10k PC specialized build) and the M1s outperformed the Macs in a 10:1 second response time (on firing complicated graphics).
However, we have been using a thunderbolt to PCI express enclosure to output broadcast SDI and it crashes spectacularly- randomly. Over the past few months, it has crashed twice live (while firing graphics) and randomly throughout the week as graphics are being loaded or designed into the machines.
Further investigation - it seems like this is the same third-party crash behavior any M1 is experiencing (or at least similar). M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max seem to be prone to crashing - and booting back up (very fast) but crashing at the most inconvenient time.
A sysdia dump has told me that the third party drivers (or the M1 chips) reach a certain point where information (sent or received) gets lost and the almighty protector of the Mac “keep the interface going” (pure assumption) philosophy -> “WatchDog” detects this and it crashes. Causes a core dump and it reboots.
After a few updates in the MacOS, we have started to get the errors above plus an additional error - the interface freezes while shutting down causing the good ol’ fashion solution of pulling the plug to be used.
I’m wondering if anyone else’s has gotten this error and dug deeper into please let me know anything you’ve found.
Now, this watchdog error isn’t visible to the user… usually it’s a lot of very specific computer jargon that may useful to an OS engineer but the Logs say this is what likely is the cause. Although with the amount of complaining Chrome does in the logs (and its helper assistant restarting over and over) - I’m not opposed to blanking it. However with it completely uninstalled, the problem keeps going.
Please - please understand, this is a lot of reasonable guessing going on and assumptions based on a system log analysis. The guys at Apple have reported they don’t know what it is doing and without being able to replicate it (because it’s random and inconsistent), they can’t pin it down.
They gave me a command or w to help dig through logs but nothing has yet happened.
We reboot before a show (like 15/30 minutes before) and don’t encounter this error, however with a HUGE nearly 7-6 hour shows back to back coming up… I’m greatly concerned. Like greatly.
I haven’t posted here because I’ve been working with the software and hardware manufacturers of the third party but I’m kinda at whits end.
Any thoughts would be extremely helpful!
Thank you,