Re: BlackMagic Shuttle not detected

Well.. it appears they are checking the motherboard chipset vs. pcie link speed or device capabilities.

Looking at the block diagrams of the P55 and P45 and finding other people that have confirmed the same, indeed the x1 slots ultimately go through a limited 2GB/s link.

While both chipsets indicate PCIe 2.0 capable speed on these slots/onboard devices, they are still throttled back by design so it can't saturate the 2GB/s link going upstream.

Alright, no problem. So for P55 you have to use a PCIe USB 3.0 card on a second PCIe x16 slot (used as x8 when both are in use) to get your PCIe x1 5GB/s link speed.

For grins testing this on a P45 board I can verify I have a 5GB/s link speed via SiSoftware Sandra with a PCIe x1 USB 3.0 card in the second x16 slot. The blackmagic software still claims it isn't usb 3.0 on boot though.

In the end we have a P55 running a USB 3.0 card at 2.5Gb/s PCIe link speed and the blackmagic software didn't complain, but claims a USB 3.0 5GB/s configuration on an P45 isn't USB 3.0. :/

Regardless, it is Blackmagic's prerogative to pick the configuration they want to support and they state it up front. Albeit In case of the P55 there wasn't mention that it must only be with USB 3.0 card in an available second x16 slot.

I am somewhat confused that the configuration must be so finite and aggressive that it doesn't make sense. You have to have full usb 3.0 and PCIe 5GB/s bandwidth when the supported disk controllers we are using are maxed at 3GB/s. I mean I've been running a Decklink HD Extreme on the same P45 board for a couple of years and capture 10bit YUV 1080p uncompressed without issue, but again, their prerogative.

A "speed" check between the shuttle and USB card to verify compatibility vs. hard coded assumptions would be a better way to go even on P55/X58 though.