[Jimmy Brunger]

Thanks, Joe/Grin.

Grin – yes, i think FCP downstairs (only one room free down there – the FCP/Avid idea was to put both in the same room for choice/flexibility) and Smoke upstairs is going to be the winner. Our current freelancers will just have to go do some training! A couple would need to train on a new Avid anyway, so might aswell go the whole hog. Either that or find some new blood aswell..

Smoke to me provides the better, more rounded solution – plus it could probably handle all/most GFX when I’m away if there is a PSCS2 loaded PC nearby aswell for archived comps. The Smoke may take a little away from the gfx team in terms of capability on it’s own, but it would free up GFX to concentrate on more complex work and push the boundaries for us a bit more…Healthy I think!

I guess all to do now is send our editor on a few demos of Nitris/Smoke/eQ just to make sure he’s comfortable.

eQ is a step up price wise, but is it really a cut above productively over the other two?
We had a huge outlay when we bought the

[Jimmy Brunger]

I have a feeling the 7.0.1 update might fix this problem in AE? Not sure, I don’t get the prob, but I know there has been some UI improvements made in theupdate. Try it..d/load from Adobe site.

*Production Studio Premium / *Combustion 3
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Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation / 110GB boot/80GB media/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Ha ha ha! 🙂

I was actually after using some analogue monitors to monitor through XLR, but once I factored in the cost of all the conversion that would be needed I started looking at SPDIF monitors and whilst the Edirols look useable, for a little more Behringer make some good ones (by the look of them..) MS40’s I think…and Roland do the DS5’s for about

[Jimmy Brunger]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your reply. Yes it seems to be a problem with all sizes, though more noticable when smaller. Tis bizarre, as all the other fonts I’ve tried seem fine…the other thing is we tried the same font on PSCS2 on another machine and the same problem occurred.

Suppose I could try buying the font again, but I didn’t want to have to if poss. Besides, as it works in all other apps it can’t be the font that’s a problem surely? I just assumed it was a glitch in CS2, but since it works in yours I am now even more puzzled!

Would you mind telling me all the details for your version of the font to see if they correspond to mine?

Thanks,
Jim.

*Production Studio Premium / *Combustion 3
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Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation / 110GB boot/80GB media/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Hi Grin,Joe. Thanks for advice chaps.

Yeah Joe, the suite in question will only be used by our senior editor and all grading, etc will be done on there. Audio for more complex projects will go out to an audio house to final mixing, but more basic stuff would be done in our suite. It’s looking like the Smoke at the mo, just purely on reputation, client requests and it’s toolset. Still open to the Nitris option though, but looks lie eQ is a little too much for what it is and perhaps a little behind the times and a bit short on plugins/3rd party support.

We mostly get freelancers in for our secondary suite downstairs (currently a v7 Media Composer on an old PPC 9600! Sloooooow..) so down there we’d want something powerful, but also something our editor roster could handle fairly quickly. FCP looks like the ideal route if we went Smoke/XSAN upstairs and a Symphony or similar downstairs if we went the Nitris route. Possibly an FCP AND Xpress or something downstairs through the same desk could be a good solution? Could that work/is there any point? One of our freelenacers suggested it, but is it worth the hassle I wonder? Hmmm…

Any more ideas graciously appreciated. Thanks again.

Jim.

*Production Studio Premium / *Combustion 3
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Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation / 110GB boot/80GB media/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Good points there, cheers Sean. OpenGL wise – my old Nvidia card supports everything except a/a and 2d moblur. Might look into the Quadro 3000…

Hopefully getting a massive central XSERVE RAID for our facility, so I could hopefully feed off/to that with a fibre channel or something.

*Production Studio Premium / *Combustion 3
————————————-
Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation / 110GB boot/80GB media/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Thanks Derrick, but unfortunately that didn’t work. I deleted the folders you suggested (keeping backups on my desktop) and then tried to launch ahc.exe, but it said it could not run (just like it does when opened form any of the apps.)

I’ve tried repairing/reinstalling from add/remove programs but the only thing on there is Adobe Production Studio – no sub heading for the help center. Also no joy trying to reinstall from the 1st install disc. IT gives the options to either re-install everything (no ta!) or any of the indivd apps (minus AE and Audition weirdly – greyed out) but again, no sign of Help Center.

That link from the Adobe site talks about editing the registry…something I’m not comfortable doing, nor am allowed to do I think!

So….10hr on-hold phonecall to Adobe on premium rate line it seems…

Yay.

*Production Studio Premium / *Combustion 3
————————————-
Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation / 110GB boot/80GB media/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

What gains will I see in AE using an nVidia Quadro over say an ATI Radeon X1900 XT?

I ask becuase on the apple site for the Mac Pro it only suggests the Quadro for scientific use. What are the Quadro’s benefits in realspeak to your average AE user? Cheers.

I’m not using mac, but I’m currently looking at elements needed to build a robust and fast PC workstation to run uncompressed HD and get the most out of AE possible (without spending ‘BOXX’ type of money!) Will be using Blackmagic HD Extreme or Pro for I/O.

I’d be using Production Studio/Combustion & possibly Zaxwerks ProAnimator plugin. Any ideas for a good config would be most appreciated.

[Jimmy Brunger]

Do you mean graphics card? If so then a decent one with full OpenGL support will help a bit in AE.

If you mean video I/O card like a Decklink or AJA then that won’t speed up AE, but it will enable you to monitor your comp window live on a TV or broadcast monitor. You will also be able to capture/output uncompressed video through the card aswell if your processor/drives are fast enough.

[Jimmy Brunger]

Not sure on specific models, but apart from Apple Cinema Displays I’ve not yet seen an LCD that matches a decent CRT screen! Even our Sony LMD-170W HD Broadcast LCD doesn’t look all that great unless using the HD SDI input..even then it’s well..not great.