[David Grantham]

Helpful Walter, thankyou. (Most of thos issues have been troubleshot and the surface none of them appear to apply, but they bear investitation.)

What about protecting ones’ interest where upgradability is concerned?

One of the reasons I chose the setup I did is that it was upgradable. It was this upgraded version of the software which caused the problems further into the life of the gear. Initially I thought I had to live with crashes every 45 minutes, and I had to find my own fix to non-pre-multiplied alpha channels on titles, but otherwise out of the box it was okay – espeically compared to the way it developed. The hidden wrinkle was the lack of promised performance on the next upgrade of the NLE software.

[David Grantham]

No worries Ron, when I got the notice that the post was being held up because it might violate policy, I thought you were just doing what was prudent, making sure that a renegade user wouldn’t be making outrageous inflammatory statements without cause. No objections, but thanks for the clarification.

[David Grantham]

Thankyou Paul.

Treating issues of unreliabilty claims must be handled fairly by moderators, so I’d just as soon not ID any brand name here nor link to where they occur. But I’d love your kind input in a tech troubleshooting area. I may be able to check into these items, but in general everything is quadruple checked to mf’r specs.

[David Grantham]

I tried an answer which got witheld for review by forum moderators. I understand that. Treating issues with advertisers must be handled fairly, so I’d just as soon not ID any brand name here nor link to where they occur. But I’d love your kind input in a tech troubleshooting area.

[David Grantham]

Thanks Tim. That information is all up in the part of this site where it fits and I continue to troubleshoot there. It would be kind of you if we could pursue that there.

I don’t want to link to that here in the business post area. I dont want to directly impugn a mfr who is an advertising patron on this helpful site if it can be avoided. We can fly at a higher altitue than that here and I’m thinking we can probably have a freer conversation if we do.

This is about where we go and what we do in the wake of what appears to be irredeemable failure of systems and support. Suffice it to say the system has been recently stripped down and always configured directly to mf’r standards, under direct supervision of the manufacturer to only the (optimal version of the) OS and other software that’s required to make it work. Nothing else. And its perfromance hasn’t substantially improved.

Its interesting to note in the next post that Tim appears to have simply eaten the cost and retired his under-delivering gear. Others appear to accept that mnf’rs do not at moment of purchase recommend specialists be engaged to maintain the gear (as if this is something only for inner circles to know. )

This acceptance doesn’t seem to be right in the long run for any of us. If we can win accoutablity and insist on deliverable quality, certifable advice from manufacturers about how to maintain gear, and absolute accountability for failures, let’s. We’ll have better gear for it. It may be the only good that can come from my current disaster.

When we push back let’s be absolutely certain we have just reason. I don’t want to name a brand while I’m still extending them every oportunity to be accountable for their product.

[David Grantham]

Thanks for your comments.

The system I chose was recommended to me by a friend who edits national television dramas. It isn’t at the bottom of the heap, I think it’s in the middle and it does appear to have both supporters and detractors.

[David Grantham]

All components including RAM were checked when the manufacturer and vendor reinstalled everything in November. New Hard Drives were installed.

[David Grantham]

“Putting together a stable NLE is much more than the correct motherboard and card. It’s OS version, Storage Card, Storage system, Software Version number matching up to everything else that is installed among others.”

Of course. Those were early discoveries for me. I believe these are among the facts a manufacturer is obligated to tell users at the outset and – it certinaly appears – recommend a qualified NLE specialist be attached to the system throughout its life for regular upgrades and maintenance.

This is what I am hearing here and I thank the assembled for it. (I’ve pretty much come to that conclusion on my own anyway) However, that’s not the whole story.

Walter, it sounds like you are conetnet with low expectations of those developing this technology in terms of advising their user base on how to keep it working – or at the very least whom to consult to do so.

I welcome the helpful advice here, but I strongly feel that I should not have to come limping bruised into a forum for that advice after I have been dealing with the manufacturer directly on a weekly and sometimes daily basis for months stretching to years. If they say “plug in the card, install the software thusly, and away you go…” – as they did – I believe it should be that way. If they say “this wil fix the problem” as they repeatedly have, it should do so. If they say it can be made to work under such-and-such circumstances, at some point it shoudl be made to work if those circumstances are met.

What I appear to be hearing here – and its a bit startling – is not to rely on a system manufacturer for support and advice on how to maintain their own gear. If that’s the case, we should decalre that as shortcoming in the indsutry and the unreliability of their advice should be taken to task and I believe they should undertake accountability for it.

Caveat emptor has a ring, but I don’t think it excuses a supplier from rewarding the trust of its client by delivering on promises.

A Rolls Royce can only be serviced at a Rolls Dealership, from what I understand. If this is true for any other vehicle, it should be stated in the promotional material. It should be the same for any other type of equipment.

Besides, the system complies with all that you mentioned and it still doesn’t work. If that points to problems extraneous to the NLE-specific system, that itself should have been possible to identify early on from some route the manufacturer recommended.

I’m not ready to accept that a supplier is not obligated to provide knowledge to the user about how – or at the very least through what source – to maintain the effectiveness of equipment.

[David Grantham]

Thanks, David, but I don’t see that:

The specs for running the versions of this software with this hardware are vetted with the m’fr – not as minimum but as well above required for the initial installation, and recommended for the upgrade. It’s only being asked to do what is was specified to do.

So I believe it’s all matching specs. (But as you point out it’s not current now – I wasn’t going to spend more on the same system when it never worked properly in the first place.)

[David Grantham]

Thanks for your input. Clearly an error was in not dealing with a VAR, but indications from the manufacturer were not that configuration was so onerous. Advice was not to run other programmes at the same time as the NLE. Simple.

I am a tier down (at least) from you men in terms of professional production output – and I believe I was the target market for this product. I hope this doesn’t make this post a waste of your time.

The computer was assembled by a vendor who is not an expert in NLEs to specs they received from the manufacturer, and yes, from what I can tell it was a matter of choosing which card and which mortherboard were advertised as tested for the gear. I installed the editing card and the software. THe installation was not complicated nor special skills recommended – and advice from manufcaturere was use this motherboard with this video card and plug it in here and all will be fine.

It worked for about a year when it was first installed, but it crashed about every 45 minutes. I thought it was just to be expected (I’d heard NLEs crash a lot), but this was in fact due to overheating because the only slot authorized for the dedicated hardware was directly under the video card.

When I began having the cooling system upgraded, and installing software upgrades – for which it was advertised to be upgradable – proved problematic on the system, it became necessary to interact with technical support, and I learned that the recommended slot was now one at the other end of the board. (One wonders about the throughness of the initial testing and recommendation.) It was also then that I learned now many other other programmes should not be installed (let alone concurrently run) on the NLE system. I needed comopositing/animation (2d) ware on it, (and relied on the machine for autocad – there’s another life..) (I know this rings alarm bells, but it’s important to note that removing all of that ware has made little difference to the gear’s basic performance problems – the major problems remain.)

I began noticing subtly anomalous performance in the upgrade and was troubleshooting that. I had not put the upgrade through all paces – capture, effects-heavy rendering and so on. But I was assured by the m’fr that many had success with this gear.

As I embarked on more substantial projects to test the gear and vet it for incresaingly serious projects, troubleshooting got complicated involving deep editing to the system. This is what stretched out over long periods and could not be juggled with other commitments without long delays (including lack of follow-up from the mf’r) , but it continued with repeated encouragement from tech support not to give up on the system as I got into more ambitious projects. Once the current major project was underway within the past 6 months was when tech folks eventually began remotely interacting with my machine over phone lines and it got stripped of everything else and even now still will not properly work. The latest mf’r suggestions once again revolve around cooling, as if this has just come up as a possiblity after we’ve been stripping the computer of other applications with little success.

It’s been like being the frog invited into a pot of slowly heating water and it’s now become boiling.

Clearly a more authroritative vendor was required – easy to see that now. I think there’s an onus on a manufacturer to recommend authorized seller-technicians if they are necessary, and to stand by a direct-to-user support network if they are not – and demonstrate acountability when their recommendations are followed but success is not established. This manufacturer marketted directly to the user with no such recommendation, so it seems to me this is where the requirement for support perfromance lies.

THere are mixed reviews on the performance of this mf’rs ware on some posts in some forums on some sites. I was assured by mf’r that this is the way things are, “people complain” and have remained with the system on the basis of that assruance and cordail realtions with the mf’s, but I am no longer so sure.

This seems to me to be a delicate situation because of course mf’rs support sites like this with advertising, so encouraging accountability in such a forum is s difficult dance. But it’s an important role for the good of all – and to establish and maintain good reputations. I appreciate the opportunity. It seems it must be discussed.