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I give up… heading to Mac
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I have found a MacPro fully configured on Craigslist and chatted with the guy, agreed to buy it Sunday. But it’s not going to happen today. Today, since I was driving by my local PC store, I stopped in and bought, for $89, an MSI N9400GT Graphics Card (since they allow me to return this stuff occassionally). This card has 1GB DDR2 RAM on it, is built on the NVIDIA chipset, and seems to have cured the problem (!). The driver no longer bluescreens while copying a 5 GB folder structure.
I agree with John and others. The comparison of a Mac Pro to a consumer desktop is that they both are a tower design and have Quad cores. Obviously, if I wanted a real comparison, it’s between a workstation grade machine with 700W Power supply and dedicated video capture card. Funny thing, if I would have priced that to begin with, I would have probably never jumped onto Vegas.
I’ll continue to keep this desktop, if this really does cure today’s problem, but probably won’t buy Sony’s product.
My purpose in all this is/was to send Sony a message. I’m very seriously looking at these products, have the money to spend on either platform to do the business level functionality I need, and if they can’t clearly specific what a person wanting to do pro level work needs to do the job, they ought to expect customers, or prospects, to be upset. Sure the product *ran* on my Quad processor, and it ran pleasantly fast. At least I’ve done my bit to use the trial effectively. Time to try out Aldus’ product while I wait to get to town to meet the Mac guy.
You all have a great New Year’s celebration. Thanks for listening and the feedback.
Alf
Panasonic HMC-150 & Vegas Video 9.0c on Win7/64bit -
JR is correct about Dell, I’ve have known this for years and they have lost a lot of followers because they do this. It really is tantamount to fraud when you look at it or bait and switch. You really are much better off building your own machine for a fraction of the cost. Again we the public are the beta testers on software, hardware and work arounds. Happy New Year
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Has anyone captured from tape HDV with Vegas 9 and Windows 7 with good results? Not me.
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> Has anyone captured from tape HDV with Vegas 9 and Windows 7 with good results? Not me.
Yea, I do it all the time with my Sony HVR-Z1U and HVR-A1U. What kind of problems are you having?
I’m currently also capturing a catalog of old VCR tapes using my Canopus ADVC-300 with no issues and those tapes are 2 hrs long each. Firewire capture has been fine for me on Windows 7.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
The audio starts glitching, says 0 frames dropped still, but the captured video is split into many pieces. Captures fine with OnLocation, which Id rather use anyway. But I didn’t have the problem with XP.
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“I have found a MacPro fully configured on Craigslist and chatted with the guy, agreed to buy it Sunday. But it’s not going to happen today. Today, since I was driving by my local PC store, I stopped in and bought, for $89, an MSI N9400GT Graphics Card (since they allow me to return this stuff occassionally). This card has 1GB DDR2 RAM on it, is built on the NVIDIA chipset, and seems to have cured the problem (!). The driver no longer bluescreens while copying a 5 GB folder structure. ”
=================================================================This is exactly what I meant above.
Macs tend to APPEAR to be more stable because there are less hardware/software configuration possibilities to screw up onYou’re running a PC with a stupidly small power supply and jamming any old card in, to get you through. It’s not a wonder you’re having PC issues.
PC’s are extremely stable machines. No more or less stable than macs. PC’s simply give you a MUCH larger choice in supplied hardware and therefore a much better opportunity to foul up if you’re unsure on what you’re doing.
As for computer manufacturers… HP is not “PC” but rather one who simply manufactures PC’s…. and they do it cheaply. If you want a good machine… then build it yourself.
If you’re unsure of the hardware then there are many computer stores available that will assist in building a PROPER machine for avchd editing.
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This deserves it’s own thread but I haven’t encountered that problem with my cameras.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Rob, I appreciate the thoughts, but the bottom line is, “where is the ‘reference platform’ for Sony Video Vegas on high def or even SD? The fact is that we who use (or want to use) their software have to guess at what works. Check out the ‘system requirements’ for it at https://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro/sysreq . There is no mention of a video card in that list! And that’s exactly the problem I’ve been facing. What works? What doesn’t? I solved the BSOD problem, but now my playback window stutters badly, and my resolution is crap in that window, no matter what setting I choose, and that’s with a state of the art 1GB RAM video card…sheesh! Why? Who knows?
That doesn’t happen to anywhere near the same degree on the Mac, where you have folks clearly stating the boundaries (that’s what I found with Protools). If you use anything else, you are not supported. Period. So that makes the choice clear. If you want to use that product, you set it up in a manner that the vendor can and will support
I don’t want to have to transcode every clip of AVCHD that I use on a Mac, but if that is the only price I pay for getting things to work, I’m willing to do that. Obviously others aren’t, that’s ok.
While it may sound like I am slamming V.V. let me be clear. It seems like a great piece of software. It was easy to pickup and start making movies with, I did extensive testing of different things with it, and *liked* what I saw. I would not be running out spending thousands more if I could *do what I want to do and stop messing around with the hardware*.
Sony, give us the reference platform, tell us which cards work and which don’t. You can clearly state that for SV stuff, you can get by with a simple machine, but that if you want something that works, buy one of these cards, a machine with a power supply at least 600 Watts, and if you use Windows 7, this much RAM, etc. You’ll sell more software.
Alf
Panasonic HMC-150 & Vegas Video 9.0c on Win7/64bit -
> …the bottom line is, “where is the ‘reference platform’ for Sony Video Vegas on high def or even SD? The fact is that we who use (or want to use) their software have to guess at what works.
Maybe Sony doesn’t tell you what hardware to use because Vegas Pro will run on any stable PC within their specs. It does not use your graphics card and so it has no special hardware requirements. All you need is a computer that works with a fast enough processor. What else do you expect Sony to say? Your computer did not work correctly. You couldn’t even copy a video file from a USB drive and somehow this is Sony’s fault for not telling you what computer to buy?
There are almost no PC software vendors that dictate what hardware you must use. There are 3D applications that specify what cards they have been tested with, but they don’t tell you what motherboard or processor, or memory to buy. This is extremely rare. Well designed applications should run on any stable PC. Your problem is that you made your PC unstable by modifying a preconfigured home computer so you were not starting from a stable base.
> …(that’s what I found with Protools). If you use anything else, you are not supported. Period. So that makes the choice clear. If you want to use that product, you set it up in a manner that the vendor can and will support
And that is totally unreasonable for anything other than dedicated hardware. We can’t buy a new computer for every application that we use. What if your wish came true and ALL vendors did this and their specs conflicted? You would need to buy 30 computers to use 30 applications. Totally unreasonable.
The only reason that Pro Tools can get away with this is because they are targeting recording studios where the computer is dedicated to Pro Tools and nothing else. Otherwise, that doesn’t fly in a video production pipeline where multiple applications (e.g., Vegas Pro, After Effects, particleIllusion, Photoshop, etc.) are used to complete a project. What if Adobe only supported Intel processors and Sony only supported AMD? Or Adobe only supported NVIDIA and Sony only supported ATI graphics cards? Where would you be then? How would you use Vegas with After Effects and get support?
If you want a dedicated video editing workstation that is guaranteed to run Vegas Pro flawlessly, buy a BOXX 8500 with Vegas Pro pre-installed. That’s right, they will pre-install Vegas Pro for you and make sure that it works. It doesn’t get any easier (or more stable) than that. We have used BOXX computers at VASST and they are rock-solid.
> I don’t want to have to transcode every clip of AVCHD that I use on a Mac, but if that is the only price I pay for getting things to work, I’m willing to do that.
That is not the price you have to pay. I don’t pay that price. I edit it native formats on my PC. I refuse to be limited by a Mac and only use formats that Apple says I can use.
> I would not be running out spending thousands more if I could *do what I want to do and stop messing around with the hardware*.
Many of us have simply built the computer that I use and have no problems. I wasn’t the first to build it and I certainly wasn’t the last. Many people have taken my specs and built solid computers. They are dated by today’s standards but they prove the point that building a stable system is the first step.
If I had to build a new computer today, I would probably follow the Videoguys’ DIY7.7: Intel Core i7 8-core specs or any of their previous DYI computers. These are designed specifically for video editing. If you don’t want to build, then buy a workstation from Boxx Technologies as stated earlier. They specialize in video editing and 3D rendering workstations. The HP Z800 Workstation is also designed for video editing. HP goes to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention every year and showcases their workstations for video production. There is no “need” to buy a Mac.
I’m sorry… I don’t buy it. Mac is not the answer. It’s just an alternative solution. You are comparing a Mac Pro to a home PC. They are not the same. Home PC’s are more like iMacs and Mac minis. Mac Pro’s are Workstations… that’s one of the reasons why they cost more. You need to compare them to Workstation computers. At the end of the day, there is no advantage to buying a Mac Pro over an HP Z800 Worksation or a BOXX 8500. They are all quality computers that will run video editing applications flawlessly.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
John, in looking at your specs, about the only thing that sticks out to me as a major difference is your power supply.
I don’t understand what you mean by saying it doesn’t use my video card, it’s driving video output in a variety of formats that are clearly labeled just underneath the window.
Alf
Panasonic HMC-150 & Vegas Video 9.0c on Win7/64bit
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