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Reprinted at Rick Wise’s request
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Wow. I can see I have been messing things up. I tried about a hundred things. Nothing works so far. I hope you will please stick with me.
NeoScene 32 was working early last week. I tried a System Restore, but no joy. I am now doing a Symantec rollback to about a month ago. I will have to reinstall some stuff, but if I can get Cineform 32 back, that would be a blessing.
Dell said one cannot edit the BIOS for RAM on Dell machines (?!?). I asked them what default RAM they suggested, and they said to stick with what I have (?!?) because I had Cineform x32 working before.
I had my paging file set to minimum (16MB) and was using 4GB ReadyBoost RAM (fast thumb drive) instead. I had Cineform x32 working last week. Would you recommend restoring the recommended paging file size (8GB min, 12 GB max); or would you leave it alone?
Along with the conversions, NeoScene has also been creating a few random .SFK files. I looked up .SFK and it is the peak waveform file for Sound Forge and Acid. I have Sound Forge 9 installed, and Acid Music Studio 5. Should I uninstall Acid Music Studio 5? Or leave it? (I would like to use it some day, but it is not likely now.) Also, does your Cineform ever generate .sfk files?
I don’t think I can replace this machine right now, but in the future I will build. I had no idea homebuilts were more stable than Dell.
Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org
servant@nazareneisrael.org -
You asked about Mac simply being a turn-on-and-use setup. Well, have a browse on the FCP et al forums. That should give you a flavour of the experiences by the converted.
FWIW, my experience is that in the world of video production, owning a mac is NO guarantee of stability. At all. Am not trying to launch a MC/PC debate, which is why I recommend browsing their forums for yourself.
YMMV
🙂
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Yeah,
What made the most sense of anything so far is that the Windows/PC combination is basically stable, so long as one sticks to beaten path (standard gear combos).
I did a Symantec Restore to about a month ago, shut Windows Update off, and am now picking up the pieces. I suspect it may have been a bad install of Windows Vista 64 SP2. If I can get Cineform working, I will be a very happy camper….
And I will try to peruse the Mac forums, as you said. I was told that Mac’s have 1/3rd the customer support requests of PC’s, but I would like to see new numbers, comparing Intel-standard-everything PC’s to Mac’s, and see how that stacks up. It might be different….
Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org
servant@nazareneisrael.org -
I think I had a bad install of Vista 64 SP2.
I rolled the machine back a month with Symantec Backup Exec. Then I shut Windows Update off.
I installed NeoScene 1.3.2 (32 bit). I get audio (Hooray!)Now I will take a new Symantec disk image, and then go to install NeoScene 1.3.3 (x64). If that does not work, I will roll it back.
If it does work, I will take another image, and then try to install SP2.Some questions:
NeoScene has been making a few .sfk files (Sound Forge peak audio files) each time I convert MTS (AVCHD) to .avi. Does this make any sense?
Also, is Acronis TrueImage superior to Symantec Backup Exec? Or are the two probably relative equivalents?
I am not using Acid Music Studio right now. Should I uninstall it?
Wow it is a breath of fresh air to understand that the problem is not MS/Intel, but deviation from the MS/Intel standard!
Thank you.
Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org
servant@nazareneisrael.org -
OK, I think it was a bad Vista 64 SP2 download.
I rolled everything back a month with Symantec, ran Cineform NeoScene 32 and 64, and I now have audio in both Vegas Pro 9 x32 and x64!
The only thing is that NeoScene is generating a few .sfk files each time. SFK files are supposed to be Sound Forge peaK files (I think). Why on earth would it do that?
Thank you very much for the professional advice about how to build a stable and reliable PC! It makes a whole lot of sense, and I will try to go that way when it comes time to replace.
Breathing much easier now….
Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org
servant@nazareneisrael.org -
John, just to make sure I have said so, thanks so much for helping me to understand that the problem is not the Windows/Vegas platform, but deviations from the MS/Intel standard. That makes so much more sense than anything else I have heard so far.
I prefer Windows, and did not want to leave it. I just need a stable, steady system that does not have to be fixed all the time. It is so nice to know that the Vegas/PC combination can be stable and reliable, if one just sticks to the recommended hardware.
Now I also finally understand why Avid specifies certain set parameters for its turnkey PC’s.
May the Father in heaven bless you for your help.
Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org
servant@nazareneisrael.org -
Norman,
This thread is a classic example of why it’s important to post on the Cow, and not try to contact one of us directly. You received all kinds of expert advice I could never have given you. And most likely this thread helped untold others with similar problems.
Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
That’s a really good point.
And well made.
Thank you.
Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org
servant@nazareneisrael.org -
One more question, though.
John, when you do your daily backups, do you do dailies of C:?
And that would seem to imply that your project files are stored on C:? (And not on D:)?
Thank you.
Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org
servant@nazareneisrael.org -
Norman, you are very welcome. I’m sure the other moderators feel the same way as I do but I enjoy helping people out because I never forget that I once had the same questions when I was starting out. It’s important to give back to the community… after all…that’s what makes a community thrive (the giving back).
As for your questions: Acronis is working great for me, other backup software may work great for you… the bottom line is that you are backing up! Since your restore was successful and you now have Neo Scene working… you have proved to yourself that regular backups are required to maintain stability. I’m glad you got that working.
As for your swap file, I would definitely set it back to what Windows recommends. That’s why they recommend it. 😉 It is recommended that a swap file be between 1 – 1.5x the size of real memory. So if you had 1GB of memory, you should have a 1.5GB swap file. If you have 4Gb of memory you might want to have at least a 4 to 6GB swap file. As you add greater amounts of memory it becomes less necessary for the swap file to be extremely large. My Vista 64 system has 8 GB of RAM and a 6 GB swap file. It is very easy to eat up memory and having swap space allows the OS to move less important tasks to secondary storage.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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