It would appear, at the moment at least, like he simply wanted to rant, as opposed to seeking help.

BLKDOG:

On the other side of this argument...I love how, whenever a situation comes up that isn't in line with how we all THINK it should be, the first thing that comes up is the "New Thinking" line.

Let's try not to apply Avid's marketing blurb to every single nuanced situation that arises over the next year...shall we? I think we can all agree here that there is plenty of evidence of New Thinking to be had with this company but it's really disingenuous to apply that catch phrase to every decision Avid makes from a software release  to what is on the Lunch Table in Tewksbury on any given afternoon.

Fine. Edited.

You should run for president.

BLKDOG:

Let's try not to apply Avid's marketing blurb to every single nuanced situation that arises over the next year...shall we?

...Why BLKDOG ? It's fun !

BLKDOG:

I think we can all agree here that there is plenty of evidence of New Thinking to be had with this company

God! What have I started... 

Firstly thanks to everyone who has posted with the offer of help ! I really need it and really, really appreciate it. I've just started my own facilities and sitting here pointing in the dark is very frustrating...

Paris MkVI:

It would appear, at the moment at least, like he simply wanted to rant, as opposed to seeking help.

To be honest Paris that's a bit un-called for and unfair, why even bother posting that ? My schedule due to having to render everything before it will play, so far my schedule has been... 

Saturday : 9am-5.30am (Sunday morn)

Sunday : 10am - midnight

Drove the viewing copy DVD to the courier's office when I left, that was picked up at 5am and delivered to the client in Aberdeen at 8.30am this morning.

Today : 11am - 9.00pm : Changes from feedback and more assembly with the client.

So I haven't had a chance to post as when I haven't be at the keyboard I've been sleeping.

I've just got home now and haven't been able to get a break to look at things apart from at lunch time I when managed to run the Dell Diagnostic CD which stress tested everything - memory included and it all Passed!?

However I looked at Kingston memory today and can buy 4GB (x4 1Gb) sticks for £165 - should I ? I'm willing to spend to fix this, but really can't afford to just open the wallet for things as I've just started up.

I'm going to get some sleep now and I'll post all my specs and everything tomorrow morning when I get in. As we have a break while the shoot is happening, so I can dig out the details then, Just to check....

You need the spec of what I have ?

The version numbers of software installed ? 

Slots of where things are ? 

Anything else ? 

How do I find out about hotfixes as someone said that may be the problem ?

Thanks! Pints are in the post !

A.

Welcome back glasgoweditor,

Paris was referring to brainburst's rant, not yours.

Glasgow,

Sometimes it's better to just bite the bullet and install the OS clean, and then install your apps again.  I would suggest starting with a clean hard drive, so that you can always go back to your old boot disk.  Drives are rather inexpensive these days.

If you have a system restore CD, start with that and then upgrade to SP2.  Don't install any other updates at this point, just get your system to SP2.  Once that is installed, install MC 3.0 and see how that works.  If it works well for you, I would suggest take a snapshot of your disk at that point using a disk imagine tool like Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image.

At that point you can start installing updates and other apps, checking to make certain MC runs fine along the way.  If so, you might want to keep updating your disk image incrementally as you go along.  That way if you run into an incompatibility, you can quickly move back.

Here would be my task list:

1. Install the OS from a restore CD or XP install disc.
2. Install SP2.
3. Install nVidia drivers (look at the MC 3.0 release notes).
4. Install QuickTime (look at the release notes again to find the compatible version).
5. Install MC 3.0
6. Test MC 3.0 for stability... should be stable at this point.
7. Take a disk image snapshot.
8. If you plan on keeping your PC connected to the internet, install the rest of the XP updates - BUT NOT SP3.  I don't believe we have qualified SP3 yet.
9. Test MC3 again, and if it's stable take a snapshot.  If it's not, then restore the previous snapshot and decide if you want to try to selectively install the updates again, or just stick with SP2 without udpates.
10. Install the rest of your needed apps.
11. Test MC3 and take a snapshot.

It might seem like a lot of time, but having incremental snapshot images of your drive is a great way to keep yourself secure from instabilities and hardware failures.

Hey Brian,

that's about exactly what I was doing last saturday, took about 4 hours all in all (I had planned to do this for a while now, only first wanted to see how mc3 worked out).

I strongly subscribe to your advise of taking snapshots, i've been doing this all along and this is my first re-install from scratch in about five years, and even this is only because i almost completely swapped my hardware since then. I'm using "BootIT NG" to create and keep backups of my system partition, and to boot-switch between my Avid-only installation and my work-installation (and a couple of "scratch" installations for testing software and drivers, BootIT lets you create as many partitions as you need).

Good luck!

 You're kidding right!

Upgrading to Avid is no more difficult than any other windows??

Installing Avid is always a crap shoot....there is always something it is not happy with...always!!

Install and run Adobe premiere or Edius 4.5 or Final Cut Studio 2 and all install beautifully ...run great and NO problems.

I am tired of drinking Avid Kool Aid!  Wonder why there sales are way down and the price has dropped?

I just retired from a major network in Washington DC and they can wait to be rid of Avid.  Both the hardware and software. 

dreaux:

I am tired of drinking Avid Kool Aid! 

So you're posting on an Avid forum? 

Michael.

 Yeah because I just upgraded to MC3 and guess what...it won't run.

A virtual memory problem.  And still no solution found for it.

It's also because you're trying to run an unapproved configuration.  Vista on a Mac Pro isn't supported. Have you tried to boot Media Composer into Leopard?

Michael.

dreaux:

Installing Avid is always a crap shoot....there is always something it is not happy with...always!!

Not my experience. I've been using Avid since Xpress Pro 4.3 and never experienced installation problems. Given the size of the Avid applications there are always some bugs like in EVERY other NLE.

Unlike the OTHERS, Avid actually works hard on fixing the bugs and even publish workarounds for bugs that couldn't been solved yet, in every readme of an update.

I don't know any other software company that does that.

dreaux:

I just retired from a major network in Washington DC and they can wait to be rid of Avid.  Both the hardware and software.

And cut on what? FCP? The BBC wildlife department in Bristol, UK, have done exactly that and guess what ... the editors are not happy with it and avoid it whenever they can. Not because it is a bad NLE as such. It is the bad media management and the instability for bigger projects. Thank god they kept a few Avid machines.

Back to the point. My experience is that if you have a workstation built to Avids specs and you follow the readme files to the letter, chances are slim that you run into difficulties.

It is usually workstations that don't have the right Avid specs, or are badly maintained (i.e. having registry problems or too much c&*pp installed that interferes with Avid).

 I did ask the sales support people if it would run on a Mac pro and I was told yes. as long as I used Vista.  I did tell them I am running Vista Utlimate however and they did say MC3 was only tested on Vista Biz,   I already used my upgrade key so I guess I can not install on the Mac.  But truth be told I much prefer to work on Vista rather than a Mac (Leopard).

I have found Vista to be faster and more stable.

Jim

Be that as it may, Avid is only supported on XP when using bootcamp.

After supporting Avid systems for close to twenty years now, I can honestly say that the folks who have the hardest time are, without fail, the ones who neglect the system specs (unknowingly or not). I've installed and supported hundreds of systems and, while I have had a difficult install on occasion though rarely, Installs and upgrades from Avid have been the  easiest of any Major piece of software. Yes FCP does install extremely easily but, for us, it's not nearly as extensive in its scope or as capable as is Avid.

"I already used my upgrade key so I guess I can not install on the Mac."

Huh?   Am I mising something?  Your dongle, once upgraded, can be used on either Mac or PC, and is also backward compatible to previous versions, including Xpress Pro.