[Norman Willis]

I was frustrated out of my mind with my Dell, probably because of what JR said about Dell having substandard parts. I was ready to ditch it, and was seriously pricing Mac, like you, out of sheer frustration.

I got a BFG GTX260 OC edition, and have not had any problems since, except once I got a bad install of Vista SP2. I had to roll back the machine, and re-installed, and then everything was fine. But you cannot really blame that on MS.

My other problem was that I accepted the MS driver for the BFG GTX260. That was a mistake, and I won’t do it again. Now I carefully screen out the MS version of video card drivers. I have not had any more problems.

I am sorry to hear you are having a bad experience. Like some have said, it is probably not because of MS: it is probably because of your consumer-grade parts. I wrote Sony and suggested they post an ‘approved parts’ list (kind of like Avid), but they did not do it (probably because it is just too hard to keep up on it). But when I build a new machine some day, I will probably do as John recommends and build a home-made box with top-notch parts.

I wish it was working for you. If you are seriously considering dropping the money for Mac, you might also seriously consider an HP Z800, or something. It is too rich for my blood, but I guess some people really have great success with them.

I wish you the best, no matter what your platform.

[Norman Willis]

Thanks for posting that.

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org

[Norman Willis]

I guess some other people can use .jpg’s just fine, but I have had issues with them crashing my system, for some unknown reason. I can, however, transcode them to .png’s using Irfanview.exe (free download, intuitive, works great), and Vegas does not seem to crash.

That is probably not ‘expert’ advice, but that is what seems to work for me. I hope it helps.

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org

[Norman Willis]

Try:
https://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/myaccount/default.asp

Log in.

Let us know if that does not work.

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org

[Norman Willis]

Yes, I think that helps a lot.

Thanks.

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org

[Norman Willis]

>>Please let me know if this doesn’t make sense.

Yeah, sorry, I still don’t quite understand.

I can understand why someone would use a VBR: it obviously takes more bits to record a soccer game, or even anything using pan/crop a lot, than it does to record a well-lit talking head. However:

>>Norman, I just realized that my 100 min. VBR values were way off. They should be 8,000,000 / 5,672,000 / 3,400,000.

Why would a VBR that only peaks at 8,000,000 be superior to a CBR that stays pegged at 8,000,000, regardless of subject? I can understand why VBR would be desirable/smaller, but why would it be superior? Thanks.

[Norman Willis]

Hi Carlos.

I am assuming you did a C:\format, and wiped the drive completely clean, so as to be sure to wipe the virus completely out.

This may be a long shot, but have you checked the disk’s integrity?I.e., can you try running Checkdisk?

I hope that helps.

[Norman Willis]

Hi Mike.

>>Most of us don’t recommend using CBR for anything that long as the quality will suffer.

I was looking back over this post, and I guess I am confused. Will a CBR of 8,000,000 really be inferior in quality to a VBR where the bitrate never reaches 8,000,000?

I guess I don’t understand.

Thanks.

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org

[Norman Willis]

Hi Roger.

This is a noob grasp at straws, but I don’t know what else to offer.

Can you try either downloading a free trial of Cineform NeoScene to convert your m2ts files to .avi (at least as a troubleshooting technique)?

And/or can you try a trial download of VPro 9, if only to get you through this particular project?

Just some thoughts. I hope they help.

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org

[Norman Willis]

Which build of VPro are you using? I had 9.0a and 9.0b, and had only a coupld of red events (one each, I think). Now in 9.0c I get lots of them. I have changed nothing else, so I have no idea why.

I contacted Sony Tech Support, https://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/support/technicalsupport.asp, and they wanted me to send them a sample .veg file, and a copy of a short Cineform .avi. They said the .avi file had static, but it plays fine on my end, so I don’t know what they saw; and it was not always the .avi that went red. Some times even .png’s went red.

The red events on the timeline do not seem to stop the video from playing, or even from rendering, and usually a simple close-and-reopen solves the problem (but not always). I don’t know how to advise you about 3dsmax. Can you write Sony?

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org