[Decloux]

DeCloux’s Apology

Because my followup was inadequate, I will revise.
I regret that I clouded what I felt was important debate with my selfish stab.
I retract paragraph #4 with an apology to the C.O.W. community and it’s moderators.
(“I am now stuck with this editing system….” etc.)
I think the rest might’ve been useful; but as it was, I just smudged the thread and
reduced its usefulness.
(And no, I haven’t received — as of this writing — any communications from staff
or any lawyers… yet)
Anyway, I earned a few harsh words.

Consider this also a white flag and a Limited Surrender on the subject of the value of FCS2.

It was not whining, it was Screaming. Not a plant of any kind. Software purchase is and
has always been a crapshoot, and sometimes you “read ’em and weep.” End of that story.

Crow is a delicacy, not so bad, but it’s an acquired taste. I really try NOT to prepare it
very often: I’m actually rather mild, and this really was a case of: “Step away from the
keyboard, and let it sink in, flow through ….”

Perhaps it was also that I was a little on edge. We’d also just bought a car (NOT a yugo)
at a higher-than-planned price, and it was Tax Day. And I came off the highway after too
many miles (not usually a good frame-of-mind), and I had just gone to googleNews
looking for the latest deathtoll when I saw the recently rumored news of The Upgrade.
Not wanting to delay a millisecond on my faithful application for The Upgrade, I called
and heard $500 and quickly hung up (before I could scream) and did a silent scream via
email. (Did I forget to mention that The Survey just revealed that our property line
appears to cut through our bathtub — on a house which is 130 years old?!?) I was
probably due for some venting. After the phonecall to Apple, it felt like Triple-Tax Day.
I will try and remember April Sixteen for another reason, with a special insight on
expressions of outrage.

As I said, I’m philosophical about software/hardware purchases. I even held a very small
Buyer’s Remorse party — a month before the MacPro. It didn’t help: especially after all of
the purchases, I began building The Pedestal upon which I could put Apple. The system,
despite 5.13, seems to be working within expectations and within my limited ability to
evaluate it. (It has only crashed once — the vaunted Vault seemed to work — I’m told
that I shouldn’t try to capture more than 10 minutes at SD … maybe if we can solve the
latter I will be actually happy. )
But I really wasn’t yet ready for what seemed like another hit: I still have to decide between
Decklink and Kona … And YES, another $500 I can give to my Fixer in a tough economy in
a devastated country means a LOT to me.

These aren’t excuses … OK they’re excuses.
I also apologize to anyone who felt baited, and who might’ve stabbed back.
I will continue to look here for excellent insight and advice, not for guarantees of success.
And get out and socialize.
-d

PS
Maybe I should try and ride that dramatic urge – maybe there’s a mean willie lohman in there.
Brings to mind the old adage about small theatre: why so vicious? because the stakes are
so low.

Thanks again to those who expressed solidarity with my dilemma. There are some people
who purchased even more recently who probably felt worse than me.

[Decloux]

It looks as if my earlier reply is still embargoed (or the cookies didn’t stick)
If this becomes a duplicate, apologies.
I suppose I was looking for someone else here to say “yes -there should be a recent purchase discount!”
——–
Perhaps I made a mistake in complaining to a “choir” of wealthy enthusiasts.
Perhaps I should have removed myself from the keyboard after
phoning apple. I’d begun to get very frustrated, for sure:
I did express a brief but reasonably polite exasperation to sales staff,
and I posted HERE — not to applesucks.com nor to CNET. I was/am
very unhappy about the whiplash, and I stand by everything I said.

There were some good comments here. Thanks for those.
I will not take the time to sort out all of the comments I feel are bogus.

–Here’s a few points in defense of the point: —

The crossgrade experience gave a false expectation of what woud happen to me.

A software upgrade, with only modest packaging, costs a few dollars.
Since $499 represents about 6% of the total system price (to-date),
perhaps I shouldn’t feel so bad, but it still feels like:
I paid X. Then it was of course instantly worth Y (because it’s unwrapped software).
Now, a few weeks later it is Y minus$499. I still feel gipped:
I wanted a stable late-model FCP, (not necessarily the New Hotness with *$24k COLOR*)
now it feels like Old and Busted, unless I cough up $499. Total of $1800.
[Actually $1700 (B&H).]

UNIVERSAL came out only last year. When I bought in January,
I had barely upgraded to (then current) 5.12 when the buggy 5.13 came out,
and then one week later the more stable 5.14 (maybe better than 5.12 — jury is still out?)
Now FCP *VERSION* jumps from version 5.1x to 6.
Industry Standard is an oxymoron in software,
but there was never a 5.2, not even a 5.15.
I have seen the way bastard-stepchild software can get treated by publishers
(limited support/patches/resources, etc)
and my confidence in this product (v5x) is inevitably reduced by this situation.

My sense from three of months of reading this forum was “wait for MacWorld,”
which I did — not “wait for NAB.” Perhaps I could’ve read closer.
Perhaps I should’ve read every COW post for 6 months instead of only three.

To the comments attacking me personally about money and business,
no comments, except:
This is a very long-term project involving everything from old betaSP,
cruddy Hi8, DV … travel, accomodations … it goes back 14 years.
And there is no Yugo; but I did spend 9 months in the yugo war-zones, on my
own nickel. Long ago I could have had a nice house for the money I’ve spent on this.
Perhaps you were only naturally responding to the anger I expressed. If so, fair enough.
If NOT, perhaps you’re spending too much time in this forum. Get out. Socialize.
Or go back and bilk some hi-dollar clients!
(Go ahead, call me a hobbyist: maybe it will help you “win.”)

OK -I’ll try and tone down my Apple expectations and be happy —
or, at least Think Differently — maybe even learn to love Big Brother.

Congratulations to whomever of you does “win” this thread.

Thanks to those who expressed sympathy and/or genuine advice.

[Decloux]

David –
Thanks for the help.

OK I’ve batched the entire 2-1/2 hours in 10-minute segments, and it seems that this clears up the latency issue.

This is something of a relief, but I have to admit
it’s a bit disappointing that even with “regular” DV I
may not be able to capture larger chunks.

If I come up with a better solution I’ll post results.

– decloux

“Try this, capture it in ten minute increments and then stich it together in the timeline. I still never capture more than ten miutes of media to a single clip, EVER! A sixty minute tape is logged and goes in ten minutes at a time.”

[Decloux]

David
Thanks much for the quick response

OK –
I will give it a shot.
Please stay tuned to this freq, er thread – I will be back with results.
I suppose I will batch it, so it will be a couple of hours at least.

[Decloux]

Sandisk claims that their newest flash drive
(SanDisk SSD UATA 5000 — 32Gb)
is pretty fast*:

o Host transfer rate: 100MB/s
o Internal transfer read rate: 62MB/s
o Internal transfer write rate: 36MB/s
o Average access time: 0.11msec

Also MTBF’s estimated at 2million hours
(roughly double what the best motordrives claim)

I would bet that we’re going to see
serious competition within 2 years
(esp when sandisk’s competitors get serious).

*
https://www.sandisk.com/Assets/File/pdf/oem/SanDisk_SSD_UATA_5000_1.8_DS_Rev.0.3-Preliminary.pdf