OT – Open Letter to Apple re: Mac Pro & FCP

[Tom Wolsky]

This is complete BS. What a troll!

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 3.5 HD Editing Workshop”

[Tom Daigon]

Im sorry. If this post is offensive, that is not my intention.
Just venting my frustration. If the moderator wants to remove it, I will understand.

[Walter Biscardi]

Entire post is bogus as far as I’m concerned. I we had those issues, my company would not be able to function, much less triple our work the past two years running.

Mac Pro’s work, FC Studio works. If you really want a Boxx system, then go purchase it.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow!

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[Tom Daigon]

Moderator, please remove my post.

[Shane Ross]

[Tom Daigon] “After researching the current models of Mac Pros and the basic functional issues they are having (reboot after sleep, screen artifacts and lockups)”

Can you point out such research? Because none of those issue have popped up here, or at Apple, or at LAFCPUG, or at DVXUser, or at any forum that I hang out in…and I hang out in quite a few! I don’t even recall Barefeats mentioning this.

I just wanted to mention this before it was removed. Never heard of those issues. Lockups, yes, but that is can be attributed to MANY factors, including OS type and applications used.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD now for sale!
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Read my blog!

[Tom Daigon]

Shane, do a search at the Apple Mac Pro site and you will find
what I did….Many posts about screen artifacts and lockups with the new 2600 graphics card ( even the older 1700 which some attribute to heat) as well as many posts regarding the computer rebooting after waking from sleep. Again I dont mean
to upset anyone, I just want to avoid any buyers remorse after spending $8,000, thats all.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Tom Daigon] “as well as many posts regarding the computer rebooting after waking from sleep.”

Sounds like people letting the hard drives go to sleep which is a major no-no.

[Tom Daigon] “Many posts about screen artifacts and lockups with the new 2600 graphics card ( even the older 1700 which some attribute to heat)”

First I’ve heard about this one. There are no heat issues with the machine if you keep it cool like you’re supposed to.

I’m with Shane on this one, review the major Pro User forums. You won’t find these issues mentioned, maybe by a few, but certainly not the vast majority.

Apple forums are full of newbies and as new users, they tend to make a lot of mistakes with their systems. Not because they don’t know what they’re doing, but because many of them are new to the Mac platform.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow!

Read my Blog!

[Tom Daigon]

Thanks Walter. Thats good to know. It helps put things in a different perspective for me.

[Shane Ross]

I recall screen artifacts on the MacBook Pros….just not with the MacPro. Guess I don’t peruse the main MacPro forum enough. that might be an issue with the stock ATI2600 card. That one should be swapped out with the NVidia 8800 anyway. Very low powered card.

And you are looking at a small sample of machines. If there was a LARGE issue with this, like there is with the XBox 360 Red Ring of Death, then more would be made of it. And you are perusing forums for research…that is like going to a hospital to check and see how healthy people are. Not the best place to research. And who KNOWS how people treat their machines. If it was as bad as you make it, none of us would be using MacPros professionally.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD now for sale!
http://www.LFHD.net
Read my blog!

[Tom Daigon]

Shane I am entirely open to any suggestions you might have for alternative reseach sites. I currectly check out all the
Creative Cow forums, Final Cut Pro – L, Your site, Ken Stone, LAFCPUG, Apple, MacFixit, Bare Feats, Ars Technica, Xlr8yourmac and HD for Indies. Where else should I go to get the info I seek about the Mac Pro I want to purchase?
Update…Its posts like this (Xlr8yourmac) that make me a little nervous…

(added 2/11/2008)
“Horrible experience… Mac Pro, Dual CPU (8-core) 3.0GHz, 500GB drive, 2GB RAM, ATI HD2600XT
Freezing and screen artifacting right out of the box within 5 minutes. Nothing extra plugged in — not even a application opened. Figured it was a one-time anomaly but it continued twice randomly over a few days. Figured it was time to call Apple. Attached is a pic of it happening again AFTER I installed apps. (screenshot clip showing display artifacts/vertical dashed lines…)
Have dealt with AppleCare for a few weeks and I seemed to have gotten a tech fresh out of school. Bad customer service. Had to bump it up to the next level which she did not want to do. Once I got serious with her about her repeated mistakes on the phone (and not getting back to me) and wanting to talk to her supervisor, she started working for me. There is so much more but I don’t want to get into it nor do you need to hear the drama.

They are going to replace my machine — at least we are in the process of it happening. It got so bad that it would not even boot up. I wanted to upgrade to a better board (graphics card?) but they were telling me it has to be an even swap. We were still negotiating this point and they came through with the upgrade at my cost which is fine.

I’ve never had these many issues dealing with Apple and am so disappointed. I had to re-set up my old system which is barely cutting it for me. At least I can still do some work.-MMcK.”