Windows 7

you skytoast nice avy

huh? what?? ok thanks, I guess. =)

Anyways, I went out and bought the retail version of Win7 Premium Family Pack upgrade to install on 3 computers here at home, personal/wife's laptops + her desktop. Win7 Professional upgrade is on its way in the mail which will be used in my video editing workstation. I did a fresh install migrating from Vista 32 on the laptops to Win7 64 (64bit is the way to go if your CPU can support this and you want to take advantage of extra memory beyond 3.5GB RAM). That was probably the smoothest Windows install I've seen in a long while and it works the way Vista was suppose to. It found all the drivers off the Internet, I didn't have to install anything separately.

So far, it looks pretty slick and has sort've this nostalgic XP feel to it already (but without all the problems), I dont know maybe because of the default logo and blue color scheme remind me of it. I'll have to play around with this a bit more. Hopefully, it'll be this smooth when I make the change on the editing workstation. But if past experiences have shown anything, I'm not going press my luck since a lot of that stuff (specialized drivers, plugins, hardware) is more complicated. But we'll see.
 
Skytoast, let me re-iterate the CineForm problems... CineForm WORKS, but it has problems with video speeds. Anything I record using CineForm Decklink will have issues with the video. The SOUND works fine, sounds correct, no stuttering, but the video has random spots of lag and stuttering.

The good news is that BlackMagic Studios released a new version of their Media Express software last month in anticipation of Windows 7... and this new software is AWESOME, and its even better if you have a 1980x1200 resolution; the software is still beta right now, so you can't change the window size, so its set to 1980x1200.

Of course, as usual, just like the old version of Media Express, there are no TimeCodes with 2.0... It really doesn't affect me, since I only record match videos, but since you do Machinima and other stuff, I don't know how the lack of TimeCodes will affect you.
 
I have yet to test Win7+Cineform on my rig. Since I have a current license (Prospect HD 4) I'm expecting it should work. They have released new betas and updates every other week so with the launch of Win7 I probably suspect they'll have one out soon if it isn't already stable with Win7. But we're all still waiting for the realtime engine (for no rendering timelines and real time effects) in CS4. Works great with CS3 but Prospect HD/4K for CS4 has been in limbo for a year thanks (no thanks) to Adobe. Adobe really screwed third party partners this time around by drastically altering their API support. Even Blackmagic had problems when CS4 first released. It wasn't until 4.1 patch that some of that was fixed and we finally started to see new versions of their software released.

Still CS3 for now is very stable with a working realtime engine. It's either that or work in Sony Vegas.

Adobe announced 4.2 to release in few weeks. So I suspect this what Cineform needs to finally bring it out.

But getting Adobe CS4 and Win 7, now that's entirely different issue. I've already read about how some people cant even get the installer to work properly and have to run it compatibility mode to even get in on their computers. And let's not forget, CS5 (and perhaps a true 64bit editor) is on the horizon. So the drama never ends...

Anyways thanks for the info on Blackmagic software, I'll take a look. I rarely ever deal with raw HD. Right now, it just takes up too much space, maybe in the near future when we start seeing double digit Terabyte storage solutions.

With Cineform v4, they included an app called First Light with all their packages. This is an invaluable tool because it allows on the fly real time color correction without rendering. Just changes active metadata associated with a Cineform clip, so you get non-destructive image processing (White balance, contrasts, color matrices, 3D LUTs, etc). Or in laymen terms, I can alter the color and lighting on the film - on the fly - without damaging the original file - toggle it on or off. This feature alone saves me tons of time. So I cant give up on it just yet... maybe someday. But by then I'm sure we'll be editing 2K/4K (resolutions beyond HD) footage as standard and possibly in 3D which will present more challenges.
 
I've finally got Windows 7 Ultimate on my PC after sending my computer for repairs due to booting problems that's cause by a defective hard drive.

So far I'm impressed with what Windows 7 has to offer I love how you can organize gadgets and pin programs to the task bar. There are other features I have to explore as well as the previous features I haven't encountered yet in Vista.

PS: itz 64 bit OS.
 
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