raspago:

When XP first came out, there was exactly the same ranting and complaining. 

Now everybody loves it.

History repeats itself.

Not a good example.  When ME first came out, there was exactly the same ranting and complaining. 

Still everybody hates it.

History sometimes repeats itself.

Comparing Vista to ME is really stretching it.

IMHO, if you have XP, then by all means keep it. If you're getting a new machine, then go with Vista. All the latest drivers, equipment will be made with Vista in mind.

An Avid running on Windows 7 is realistically three years away.

I'm looking to leapfrog Vista, but only b/c I'm running XP. I leapfrogged 98, 2000 and ME by going from NT to XP. I knew 2000 was legit but I also didn't feel like it gave any more needed funcitonality.

So maybe history does repeat.

BobbyMurcerFan:

I'm looking to leapfrog Vista, but only b/c I'm running XP.

 ...Good decision. We've decided to do the same. Everything's working perfectly with XP, so why fix it if it's not broken ? We went straight from NT 4.0 with service pack 6 a to XP Pro with service pack 2 on our pre-fab laptop. Several of our clients ran 2000, which never seemed stable to me until service pack 4 was released.  Windows ME was an abortion. You're right about history, and I don't think MS is learning yet.

....Windows 7 looks promising, and now that they've moved up beta to Q 2 next year, we're closer to the release of Windows 7 than we are to Vista's original release, so it makes sense to wait, unless, of course, you have purchased a new PC with Vista biz 64 pre-installed. (HP xw 8600). I don't know wether or not to believe what I've been reading on the net, but MS has actually been working on Windows 7 all through their ramp up to Vista's release and fully functioning versions have now been shown publicly at several trade shows. There's a video now as well.

BobbyMurcerFan:

Comparing Vista to ME is really stretching it.

I wasn't.  I was trying to say that arguing by analogy wasn't really useful.

But like both you and Laptopeditor, at the moment I'm planning to leapfrog Vista.  I have stable installs of XP that seem to meet my needs for HD, so why change just now anyway?

[EDIT] Mind you, I understand that within Microsoft ME and Vista are often mentioned in the same breath...

I wasn't.  I was trying to say that arguing by analogy wasn't really useful.

 

.- Was your analogy correct?

Every single DOS based Windows (95, 95+, 98, 98 SE, ME, etc)  sucked donkey from the day they were born till the day they get a well deserved death.

They never get to a stable status.

The best of the pack, 98 SE, simply was a bit less crappy.

 

Well, my Vista 64 system is running perfectly fine.

Stable, fast, like a charm.

And, NO, I'm not in the Microsoft payroll.

 

Another case was OSX.

Remember??

When it first came out,  It was a totally useless dud with absolutely no software support (zero support) . 

Remember the "classic interface" built in (OS9)?

It was the only way to run something on it.

We replaced our aging hp xw8000 with an xw8600 with Vista 64bit.  Avid and CS3 applications are 32 bit, but the 64bit Vista will run them and allow up to 4GBram dedicated to each app, as opposed to the 32bit limitation of 2GBram for ALL applications.  This is the primary reason we chose Vista 64bit.  I found XP to really struggle with ram when running After Effects and Media Composer.  Now that's not an issue.  I have 8GB ram installed and it's actually being utilized.  When I've chatted with Avid tech support on different occasions, they've said they really haven't had many calls with Vista issues with MC3.0, but have seen several with XP.  For me, so far, Vista has been very stable.

That being said, Vista can be a pain in the neck with all it's overdone security stuff.  Also, I still haven't been able to get my Sapphire plug-ins to work, although they are not the latest version (that's a $900 upgrade).

Hope this helps.

bryanparris:

Vista can be a pain in the neck with all it's overdone security stuff.  Also, I still haven't been able to get my Sapphire plug-ins to work

And that plus the notorious driver issues encapsulates why I have decided that

jwrl:

at the moment I'm planning to leapfrog Vista.  I have stable installs of XP that seem to meet my needs for HD, so why change just now anyway?

And the boldface summarises why I'm currently only using Vista on my internet machine.  And yes, I know that the Vista driver issues are being ironed out.

I've been running Vista Business 64 with MC 3.0 since Aug. 1 without any major problems.  I loaded up my xw8400 up with 16 GB RAM and the HD projects have been a pleasure to work with - much faster.  I honestly thought I would hate Vista, but the opposite is true.

 I can't speak for the entire CS3 suite of products, but After Effects CS3 and Photoshop CS3 both perform far better in Vista than in XP due to the addition RAM.  I use After Effects on nearly ever edit and with XP, it was practically impossible to have both programs open at the same time - both suffered greatly.  I now keep both programs running all day, every day without an issue.

 I also have not had any problems with my third party plug-ins - in either Media Composer or After Effects.  The AE plug-ins I use are: Boris Continuum Complete, Digital Film Tools 55mm, Trapcode 3D Stroke/Lux/Form/Particular/Shine/Starglow, Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator & Werks, Boris Final Effects Complete and Panopticum Fire. In Media Composer, the only 3rd party plug-ins I use, besides what's included with the full version of MC, are Digital Film Tools 55mm and Composite Suite - both of which perform perfectly with Vista Business 64.

When I did the Vista install, I added a new SATA hard drive for Vista only and kept Win XP on the original drive.  Vista adds a bootup preference that allows you to choose between Vista or Win XP at startup.  I fully expected to "just experiment" with the Vista operating system and that I would continue to do any real editing with Win XP.  But, since I did the install, I haven't booted up in Win XP even once.  I have read that some users have had problems with other versions of Vista 64, but as clearly stated in all of Avid's documentation, Vista Business is the only qualified 64 bit OS.

Bottom line... Vista 64 Business is a huge leap forward for me.  It may not be right for everyone, but to my surprise, so far it's been great.  I have owned nearly every version of Media Composer since 1993, including an Avid Symphony-Meridien and this is by far the most stable and fast system from Avid that I've worked with.

Regards, Jack

Just my 2 cents Stefan. One of our systems runs a HP XW8600 MC 3.0 XP service pack 2.

We edit HD programs weekly, and with only 4Gig ram have had no problems. I guess what we do have with XP is piece of mind that it does work reliably.

It is inspiring to read of Jack

Editmvp:

by far the most stable and fast system from Avid

and if we have problems down the line, and "16 Gig ram" we might consider Vista 64.

 

Cheers

Braam

FWIW, I'm running MC3 just fine on both an HP/Vista laptop and a self-built XP/dual Xeon system.  The only problem I did encounter occured with the 169 Nvidia drivers on the Vista laptop: software wouldn't load at all.  Upgrading to the 174 drivers fixed the issue.

We have 6 edit suites, 4 Vista 64 and 2 XP. The vista is rock solid and handling 8 gigs of ram. The next versions of Photoshop and Afterfx will be 64. We have turned off all the vista crap and it's just like xp!