Glans:

The reason to go unsupported was that this system is superpower compared to what's on Avid's list.

Uh oh......

I can't tell you how many times I've heard that on this list. "I went unsupported because I can build a better computer that what Avid certifies". Then we spend days troubleshooting what doesn't work.

It's not a game console folks, it's an editor. Supposedly one that is there to make you money. Word of advice, stick to the specs.

 The specs are too low for my kind of work, period. I need more power because I work with transcoding Red One material and so on...  Avid's recommended systems are xxxx and they even have errors like "no fullscreen playback". I don't know how many times I hear what you say... if you don't want to help me, then don't, right now I need to solve this... The thing is that you can't buy a laptop with specs you desire. So the 8800 was something I wanted changed but I couldn't and now I need to fix it...  

So, back to the problem... solutions?

Hi,

Glans:

I have a SWE keyboard so I don't think that the command is the same... 

You can also find the command under one of the menus.  I think it's the Window menu, but I'm not in front of a machine to check.

If that doesn't work, I'd search the forums for "8800" because there are a number of posts from users who've tried to get a system running using that card.  Hopefully one of them holds the answer for you.

good luck,
Carl

Hi,

Glans:

I don't know how many times I hear what you say... if you don't want to help me, then don't, right now I need to solve this...

I realize you're frustrated, but don't take it out on us.  You got a lot of good advice in this thread about the potential pitfalls of the system you were looking at, and your response was:

Glans:

I think the real issue here is that people think either black or white. It's either a perfect working system or it's a no go. If people can't say more then "it might work", that is fine for me; then I can pay, test and send it back if it indeed didn't work.

You've paid, you're testing it, and hopefully you kept the receipt.

good luck,
Carl

BLKDOG:

It's not a game console folks, it's an editor. Supposedly one that is there to make you money. Word of advice, stick to the specs.

 Glans, I know this is not what you want to hear, but BLKDOG is right on target. When you set up a computer for Avid, you leave the world of the personal computer and enter the world of the dedicated workstation. And in PC land, that means NO internet, NO email, NO automatic updates, NO anti-virus running in the background and NO gaming. Avid is a resource and memory hog. It pushes your computer right the edge of it's performance limits and beyond. Load only the applications you need to support the Avid process, like Adobe Photoshop and After Effects, Sorenson Squeeze, Sonic DVDit, Blaze media pro converter, and the like. Lean and mean is the best way to go for long term performance and stability. And deviation from the system requirements gives you a 50/50 chance. Some users have gotten lucky, others have not. And even if the system works initially, there are no guarantees for performance in the long run. So look at it as a gamble, because that's just what it is. Best of luck to you.

 I'm not using it for other stuff then heavy graphic programs like avid, photoshop etc.
Why do people assume that whenever you buy a computer that isn't on Avids list, it's for gaming and that ***. I bought it because it's the best laptop on the market and because it had a pricetag about $1700 cheaper then the overpriced Dell's.

There's nothing worng with avid otherwise, it doesn't crash at startup or whatever. The capture playback is flawless but the offline playback isn't... that's what bugs me.
I assume that this is due to the graphics card. Now, I need help with the things at hand, wanna bug someone about their non-certified computer, then do that with someone else... I'm FULLY aware that I bought an unsupported computer.

But the fact is, I have NEVER used Avid on any supported computers and it has always worked for me... except when I needed to change a realtek card into a soundblaster. As for the 8800 card that was one thing I knew there could be a problem with and I think it is what happened now.

So, I'm asking for a solution, if you can't help me then leave the spot for someone who can...
If the only help you get on these forum is "buy something else" then what's the point?
Also, isn't it better to help me out and then know a solution for the problem that can be used to help others or yourself if the situation comes up.

I'm just saying... what's the harm in helping me with this?

Hey there CR8VDO

Maybe I am blind or not looking in the eight place but where exactly does it state " Guadro 560 or higher".   I checked and double checked the PC requirement PDF and I didnt see that. 

Let me know so I can run it to ground and get the scoop from the hardware testers.

marianna

 It's not that we don't want to help but, somethimes, the cards just don't work. There may be some out there but I have yet to see someone with an 8800 get this card running at its full firepower.

So, you may have to, if no one else can come up with a solution, face the facts that a supported card may be the only way to go. IF it were me, and I needed to generated income with this system, I would spend less time experimenting and go with is know to work.

Hi,

Have you seen this post?  It lists 3 ways to get a GeForce 8800 working with Media Composer 3.0.  It's the only post I've found with solutions.

good luck,
Carl

Glans:

I have a notebook with a 8800m GTX card with the latest drivers

This may be one problem. The latest NVIDEA drivers do not work with the Avid software. Check the PC system requirements page and run the drivers that are listed there. Maybe that will help.

 How can I get info about what drivers that are working if the drivers section is all about quadro?

Hi,

Glans:

How can I get info about what drivers that are working if the drivers section is all about quadro?

You search the forums for "geforce 8800".

good luck,
Carl

 Glans, here is the version matrix for Media Composer. It tells you excactly what version of QT movie and NVIDIA card drivers you should be using.

And I know you're frustrated with this situation, but keep in mind that participants here are users just like you, not Avid employees, with very few exceptions. They volunteer their time to help other users, they don't get paid for it and are under no obligation to help you. Sometimes the tone of your posts may discourage people from helping you further.

 After reading up on the 8800 problems I can say that...

A) It's not a crash...  of any kind

B) Video plays fine in full screen

C) Video monitors flashes WITHOUT anything infront of it, there's a still image from when you start playing and then goes to the one you stop at

D) The video is pixelated in low quality (not anti-alised like in fullscreen and on "regular" working systems)

My conclusion is that it seems more to be some issue with Vista or something like that.
I mean, HOW can it play full screen fine?

I cannot find good enough reasons for giving this computer back, it's the best computer on the market and this freakin thing is the only thing that makes it useless at the moment.

Glans,

I've been using an Nvidia Geforce 8800GT with MC3 and I've not had the same problems you've had.  The "fixes" listed in various places are to allow MC3 to load without a crash.  If you're getting it to load, then you may very well not need to use any of those specific fixes.  I think you had tried them and nothing changed.  That would make sense.

The QT/driver matrix lists driver versions for Quadro cards, not Geforce cards.  The driver versions are not the same for those two Nvidia card series.  So, if someone with a Geforce card tries to find a driver version which matches the Quadro version listed, it will be a difficult task if not an impossible one. There are Quadro drivers and there are Geforce drivers and they do not support the same sets of cards.  I am currently using Geforce 175.19 with my 8800GT and have had great results.  Those are the latest released drivers for my card.

What is odd is that your symptoms are like those which have been seen with ATI cards.  I saw the same problem with a similar Avid editor called Free DV when I had an ATI card.  The source and record monitors in that program would not play video.  There would be a "freeze frame" of the starting frame until playback stopped when the monitor would then show the current frame.  Changing to an Nvidia card was the solution, not the problem.  Your situation is one that may not have been seen before.

Since you're talking about a laptop, your choices for video card drivers are probably very limited.  Typically they are only supplied by the laptop manufacturer because each manufacturer might wire it up the graphics chip differently or enable or disable some features differently than other manufacturers.  Nvidia doesn't supply many "mobile" drivers (the ones for cards with M at the end of the model) but you can check to see if yours has drivers on the Nvidia site.  Try looking your model graphics card up at Nvidia in the drivers list to see if you can get another version.  If you can't there, look at the laptop manufacturer's site for a different driver version.

If you can't try another video driver version, then I would suggest next looking at any programs which are loaded in the background with Windows.  Pre-built systems such as laptops or name-brand desktops almost always have excess software loaded which runs when you either don't need it or really shouldn't have it running in the first place.  Something like that may be interfering and causing your trouble.  I think someone else mentioned this possibilty a little earlier in the thread.

Based on my experience with my 8800GT card on my desktop system, there's a good chance of yours working but since yours is on a laptop, that changes the possibilities quite a bit.  There are only so many things you can do in that situation.  Also, yours is a GTX which may be throwing a lot of differences into things.

As I'm thinking over various things to check, I wonder if yours uses shared memory.  That has caused problems with other NLEs.  My cheap laptop has an Nvidia 7000M with shared memory and MC 2.8 and 3.0 have worked great on it, considering it isn't a whiz-bang system.  When I bought it, I didn't expect it to work with either of my NLEs but I thought it had a good chance (it wasn't bought for video editing).  I can even work with HDV up to 2 or 3 streams on it.  See if your laptop is using shared memory with the system memory.  If it is shared memory and if that is what's causing your trouble, there's not much to do except add more memory if you can to see if that helps.  I have 4GB in my laptop which is the limit it can accept.  You said you have 4GB, so adding more may not help or you might not be able to add any more.  And since your full-screen play works, that seems to say that the memory amount is sufficient.  That makes your situation harder to figure out.

Another thing to check is what motherboard chipset is used on your laptop.  It might be involved in some way or you might need different drivers for it.  I'm trying to think of as many things as I can for you to look at just in case one or more of them help.

Do you have any peripheral buses enabled which you could disable, such as USB, FireWire, serial ports, etc?  Or are there extra hardware devices you could disable in the device manager?  Something like those might be interfering with the overlay, I suppose.

I guess the last thing that comes to mind now is trying some different settings in the Nvidia control panel to see if you get any better results.

As others have said, we take a chance when not using the certified systems.  That doesn't mean they won't work because enough of us are using uncertified systems to know that some do work.  (Uncertified really means that Avid hasn't tested it and doesn't certify that it works, otherwise we could say it's "certified not to work.")  There are so many variables between systems that just one small thing somewhere that's different can mean nothing works right - or just one thing doesn't work right.  Even two identical systems (hardware-wise) might not work the same just because one setting somewhere or some piece of software or some driver is different.

Good luck.  I don't know if any of this will help but I hope it will.

-------a little later------

Is Vista SP1 installed?