As i’m starting to see errors creeping in from my 7+year old Blackmagic Ultrastudio 4k, I was wondering what everyone else is using as an I/O box connected to a Mac Pro?
I was surprised to see on AJA website that none of the Kona cards seem to work with Mac’s…is that right?
I have a TTap Pro, that i could use in a pinch, but it doesnt have enough sdi outputs or any audio other than embedded sdi/headphones.
Keen to know any recommendations
I’m using a BMD Ultrastudio extreme 4K with my Mac Pro.
It has performed very well for me.
BMD Ultra HD has done just fine although I’ve been trying to get a Birddog Player for NDI.
Can’t get them in the UK for love nor money. 
I’m pretty sure it’s a combo of brexit and high demand but I have been waiting for months.
If anyone has one of these I’d love to hear what they thought.
NDI. It’s free, low power, and good enough.
We’re still using ye olde BlackMagic Ultrastudio4k in our University finishing suite on the 2013 MacPro and am praying that it will still work on the 2022 MacStudioUltra that we have on order. We’ll buy a Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt4 cable and pray when plugging it in as I’ve not found anything on in/compatibilities. We had an issue with compatibility with Adobe Premiere being on the same machine a while back, but with OS updates it seems to be playing nice again and we’re getting consistent output through Flame/Resolve/Premiere. We’re still on 4k output and have no reason to upgrade the box while still working.
Cheers
Tony
PS Had issues with connecting on the Preference but buying a new Thunderbolt cable seems to have solved that
And by the way, the errors you see in the terminal have nothing to do with anything related to hardware failure.
Ok…any ideas what it is referring to?
It seems to be saying that the BMD is dropping frames, and as the Ultrastudio is the only BMD device connected……
Does it always drop frames, or will a restart clear it? I’ve had dropped frame issues with my 2019 Mac Pro, that will disappear after a restart or two. As long as the machine stays on, it will be fine. But it may start dropping frames again if shut-down or restarted.
No, but, if I spent all my time focusing on the crazy errors in the shell…. 
If your experience is good and there are no obvious symptoms of something broken, I doubt something is in fact broken.
I haven’t seen (!) any dropped frames, but i do see Flame slowing down whenever these are happening. Restarts, and reinstalls of drivers and Flame updates have not made any difference.
I’m just thinking that almost 8yrs of being permanently switched on is probably having an effect on the Ultrastudio. I’m probably worrying about nothing….
Even though your post is a year old, your curiosity about I/O boxes for Mac Pro remains relevant. Technology evolves rapidly, and it’s always great to explore better options. Considering your 7+ year old Blackmagic Ultrastudio 4k and the compatibility concerns with AJA Kona cards, it’s wise to seek advice from fellow users.
For anyone looking to enhance their video editing experience, https://www.movavi.com/learning-portal/free-movie-maker.html could be a valuable asset. Their website offers valuable insights and tips for creative projects.
Wishing you the best in finding a suitable I/O box and continuing your creative journey in video production!
i still have the Ultrastudio, and i am still seeing the crazy error messages in the Terminal, but i’ve just learned to ignore them.
The TTap pro is at home ready to be used on my macbook pro if needed, but so far its just gathering dust, sadly.
Best thing i have done recently that had a huge impact on Flames performance is to install in 8tb NVME raid inside the Mac studio, rather than using the Pegasus raid as a framestore.