d8b Forum

Happy New Year to all;

A while ago i purchased a DVI- video graphics card for my D8B (at the recommendation of forum members) thinking it would give me much better resolution on today's modern monitors. I finally had a chance to install it and to my surprise it would not work using the DVI connection. The CPU boots up but as soon as the splash screen disappears and the OS starts to load, the monitor goes to sleep and the system hangs. d8b returns a system error. When i connect up a VGA cable instead of the DIV cable, it works. I suspect that the CPU most likely does not have enough system memory to drive the DVI output or a driver is missing. Can someone help me sort this out? Or is it not possible to use the DVI output on the card with the d8b?

Thanks

RJ

Unfortunately DVI doesn't work
The graphics card work in various "modes". There's a sort of "native text mode" they use when the computer boots, which is why you are able to see something initially - this works like plug&play, no drivers needed.
But to display graphics instead of just simple text, the operating system has to load a driver that can put the graphics card in graphics mode.
When Mackie made the software for the d8b and HDR, they made it as barebone as they could, to optimize speed and workflow. Since DVI wasn't really used a lot at the time, they only built in drivers for the analog part of the graphics card.

Sorry for the long explanation - short answer: DVI doesn't work.

Thanks Much - You just confirmed what i feared. That is what I kind of thought in the first place. I wonder if anyone at Mackie ever really realized the potential of the d8b when they designed it and wrote the software for it. I guess they were just interested in making money at the time and not about forward compatibility! To this day the d8b remains one of the most sought after mixers. It is such a shame. I guess i should be lucky that the using a 24" LED HD display even works at all with it. I guess what is so frustrating about it, is that it is just a computer that runs software. You should be able to load drivers and upgrade like any other computer.

RJ

Oh, it would be awesome if it could - still wish I could find some super programmer that would reverse engineer the OS and let it run on regular windows.
However, I do understand that they programmed it this way - they had to do their best to ensure relative speediness of the system, so everything not needed is cut away.

Yes, i do understand that. I just think they took a lot of short-cuts in the process .

arjepsen wrote:Unfortunately DVI doesn't work
The graphics card work in various "modes". There's a sort of "native text mode" they use when the computer boots, which is why you are able to see something initially - this works like plug&play, no drivers needed.
But to display graphics instead of just simple text, the operating system has to load a driver that can put the graphics card in graphics mode.
When Mackie made the software for the d8b and HDR, they made it as barebone as they could, to optimize speed and workflow. Since DVI wasn't really used a lot at the time, they only built in drivers for the analog part of the graphics card.

Sorry for the long explanation - short answer: DVI doesn't work.

Hello I read a post from arjepsen stating that (IIRC) Dvi works on OS 5.1:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1397&p=10782&hilit=dvi#p10833

Does or does not?

Thanks in advance
Regards
RR

I think it must be an: ITIRI: I Think I Recalled Incorrectly...
I am not sure atm, cause I dont recall whether I tested it extensively, or whether I wrote that before I got 5.1 up and running.
Generally, I dont think DVI works on MackieOS, but feel free to provenme wrong

I wonder if anyone at Mackie ever really realized the potential of the d8b when they designed it and wrote the software for it. I guess they were just interested in making money at the time and not about forward compatibility!

I would consider this statement a bit unfair.

The D8B was originally released in 1997. DVI was not adopted as a standard for video until 1999. Something else to consider. Not long after the release of the D8B, the entire digital department was canned. Development for the 5.1 software was tasked soon after to the software engineers at the Acuma subsidiary in Canada. The mandate was to update the operating system and GUI only and no hardware updates...including any associated hardware drivers. Basically, the hardware was baked in before DVI was a thing.