disguise EX 3+ troubleshooting

Common EX 3+ errors & problems

What techs run into most, and what's usually behind it. The step-by-step fix for your exact unit is in Ask Roadie.

• A 4K60 HDMI source is rejected or will not sync on the HDMI 2.0 input

  Likely cause: The limit is the HDMI 2.0 link itself, not the capture card, so reducing chroma subsampling is the only way to fit 4K60 inside the available bandwidth.

  Step-by-step fixGet the fix →

• Actors do not start, or Starter and Full machines cannot see each other in session

  Likely cause: Role assignment is pulled by the Actor from the Director's d3Net Manager list rather than pushed, so a hostname mismatch or a stopped d3Service leaves the machine idle; and the license tiers are deliberately partitioned on the network.

  Step-by-step fixGet the fix →

• Camera or downstream device is a few frames behind the EX 3+ output

  Likely cause: Capture latency is fixed by the capture pipeline mode, so the only levers are the mode itself and per-head frame offsets - there is no way to get below 3 frames on this hardware.

  Step-by-step fixGet the fix →

• Cannot reach the SMC web page / MGMT port has no usable IP

  Likely cause: The SMC always answers on a fixed internal address from the host, which gives a route in even when the management network is misconfigured; the account gate exists so nobody can power a server down mid-show over the network.

  Step-by-step fixGet the fix →

• EX 3+ cannot be used as Director in a mixed session, or RenderStream proxies never appear

  Likely cause: The EX range is built as a pre-rendered video playback platform; the render-node features are gated at the product level, so no amount of reconfiguration will enable them.

  Step-by-step fixGet the fix →

• Front OLED screen is blank, frozen or showing jumbled data

  Likely cause: The SMC is an out-of-band controller with its own firmware and its own reboot path, so it can be recovered independently of the Windows OS and independently of the show running on the server.

  Step-by-step fixGet the fix →

• Genlock will not lock, or Feed View reports "Genlock: Present (unused)"

  Likely cause: Genlock is applied per-GPU and the driver refuses to lock heads with differing timings.

  Step-by-step fixGet the fix →

• HDMI 2.0 capture input is missing or unusable in the Video Input Patch

  Likely cause: HDMI capture was added as a combined hardware/OS/software feature, so the capture driver only exists in the 25Q3 image - updating Designer alone is not enough.

  Step-by-step fixGet the fix →

• Losing one SDI input causes frame drops on the other capture channels of the same card

  Likely cause: The EX 3+ uses Deltacast capture hardware; the fault was in how Designer restarted the channel after signal loss, so it is a software fix rather than a cabling issue.

  Step-by-step fixGet the fix →

• Output head is red in Feed View

  Likely cause: The Feed View colour code is the fastest triage on a disguise server: green = configured, red = refresh rate mismatch, orange = pending apply, blue = the Designer (GUI) machine, grey = nothing connected.

  Step-by-step fixGet the fix →

• Output head shows grey in Feed View / no video on a DisplayPort output

  Likely cause: The EX range outputs are straight GPU DisplayPort ports, so the GPU drops the head entirely if it sees no EDID.

  Step-by-step fixGet the fix →

• Redisguise (OS re-image) sits at 0% forever or fails to start

  Likely cause: The Redisguise installer boots from a specific UEFI partition on the stick, so a stick written with the wrong scheme or file system boots into nothing and the progress bar never advances.

  Step-by-step fixGet the fix →

Not on the list? Describe it your way, or paste the error code off the display. Ask Roadie works the problem with you until it's fixed or you have a clear next move.

More disguise gear

Other playback & media servers gear