Its another Vegas 8 bug -> Rendering

[Ian Stark]

Originally Posted by Robert Wheeler

So keep an eye out for odd questions to that effect!

He he he . . . I 'm always curious when I read posts with 'my friend has this copy of . . . ' or when people say that they have Magic Bullet and Boris and Photoshop and After Effects and Vegas and SoundForge and Pixelan, Zenote, NewBlue and VASST plugins but then ask a question like "how do I put a title over my video?". That's a lot of cash for a beginner to spend!

[Seth Bloombaum]

Of course cracks are illegal for distribution and use, and most would say immoral as well.

Cracked software is also sometimes:
Incomplete, as Robert noted.
Inoperable.
Flakey.
A bait for embedded keystroke recording or zombie programs.

Likewise keygen software/sites are sometimes used as bait - I've rescued at least one computer that was zombiefied by a keygen program for some video game. In that case, nuking the hard drive and reloading the system was neccessary to restore it, what a pain.

Keystroke recording - trolling for credit card numbers typed in on a computer. Such a program recognizes likely credit card number sequences and stores them for later transmission.

Zombie - a computer that has been turned into a node on a spam network. This will sometimes result in your ISP cutting you off, and/or, an inability to access some networks that have identified your ip address as a known spam source. Your computer will be sluggish at times, your network and internet connection will be saturated with traffic.

[Ian Stark]

And long may that continue, Seth. While I may not always agree with the way or the amount companies charge for software (Sony is an exception - excellent value) I am not in the slightest bit impressed with people who steal what I have paid for. Long may their computers be riddled with nasty stuff.

[Jeff Harper]

While this discussion regarding cracked software is fine, I highly doubt cracked software has anything to do with the problems being experienced by the users of this forum. Interesting digression, but digression nonetheless, IMO.

I must say that experienced users (like me) have had issues, and while it is easiest for those who have not had issues to say "They must have inadequate hardware, etc., " that is not the case. We are talking about people who have used Vegas with no problems in the past who now suddenly have a multitude of different issues. And do not even try to explain away the issue with the Titler, that is the sorriest buggiest junk I have ever seen, and while it might work for you, it causes crashes for plenty of people. It causes Vegas to freeze for me.

I have detected in some posts a smug "I have no problems, so why should you?"

I have stated so many times that to repeat my system configuration will sound like bragging, so I will not. But this version is troublesome for me, and I have NEVER had an issue with Vegas before. This sucks, I hate it, and I can't go back because all the projects I've saved or created in 8 will not open in 7. And I've already done many.

A few people have had bad hard drives, but again, those incidents do mean the rest automatically have hardware issues. If you are not having problems, consider yourself lucky, and if you have not upgraded yet, think hard before you do.

[Ian Stark]

Hi Jeff,

You're right, total digression.

So let's return to the theme of general problems with Vegas (not actually the specific subject of this thread but hey ho).

I have followed the multiple posts about Vegas's instability with interest. It will be clear to anyone that has read what I have written that my problems lie specifically - and exclusively - with the Titler. Everything else is fine. For me.

Couple of points:

1. Inadequate hardware. For 'inadequate' maybe read 'not comfortable with this release of Vegas'? It can and does happen. I upgraded to quadcore blah de blah in the spring and certain things just aren't happy with it.

2. Really not sure I've seen any smugness in any threads!

3. Are we doing anything to identify commonalities among those who are having problems - processor, O/S, graphics, memory, Vegas config, HD/SD etc etc. Doesn't look like it.

4. Last point - I have looked back at the problem threads both here and in the 'official' Vegas forum to try and quantify the problem. There are a handful of recurring issues that are being reported by a handful of people. Those issues are serious issues for people and are causing them pain, therefore they need to be addressed. But in the scheme of things, what percentage of Vegas users does this handful of users represent? I have counted fourteen individuals, including myself, who report crashing problems with the Titler. Of course not every Vegas user will participate in these forums, but I reckon any Vegas user who is having problems will. My point here is that there does not seem to be any quantifying of the problem for us to be stating that Vegas 8 is junk and should not have been released.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Thanks Ian, and I agree 100%.

The right to b***tch is inalienable, in my opinion. That most of V8 is working for most users is not enough. As paying customers we should expect more from Sony.

The way most likely to get the bug fixes we need in V8 is through reporting every big and little thing on a tech support ticket at Sony, and encouraging everyone we know who is experiencing problems to do the same. We're not going to solve these problems, but Sony might.

[Robert Wheeler]

As I have been saying from the beginning, bugs that appear on some machines and not others, and in particular GUI bugs, point to a seriously rushed beta stage. The software has clearly not been adequately tested on a range of machines. For instance, my set up is almost identical to the Apple Development Platform. Ironically that is one of the few firm PC standards you can refer to at the moment. They should have tested on a setup similar to mine and picked up on these problems.

EDIT: Just to further batter home the reliability of my system, at present my Prescott p4 3.0gig is idling at 26 degrees, with case temperatures of about 29 degrees. My drives are running at 31 degrees, 25 degrees and 24 degrees respectively.

And I'll also say, no matter what you think of them, crackers are the best coders around. They have the ability to look at raw computer instructions and process them in their head as if they were a computer. The best software engineering feats are often achieved with little herald by those with extensive experience of cracking.

[Jeff Harper]

I had the rarest, at least in my world, of things today...a Sunday shoot. But I am back. Ian, you are correct when you state that we should be looking at commonalities...and am I mistaken in thinking that you attempted to start a thread along that line? Someone did, and I did respond with my system specs, but I believe I was the last or one of the last to post.

Also, while the smugness I mentioned might have been imaginary, I simply remember a post that mentioned that "hardened users" of Vegas aren't experiencing problems, followed by a statement wondering skeptically why anyone else would, and I guess I found that irritating.

Forget the post etc, but it sticks out for me.

Anyway, I recall that the two of us that posted our system specs were running Video Cards with nVidea chips.

[Ian Stark]

Hi Jeff - Sunday shoot huh? Hope it was pain free and cash rich!

Yes, I did start a thread suggesting we post specs - specifically re the Titler crash issue. Fairly limited response! (Again, that leads me to think that people suffering problems are in the minority, but I appreciate that isn't a safe assumption).

It was me that used the term 'hardened users'. I meant no offense to anyone and wasn't suggesting that anyone with problems was a newbie! I consider myself to be a hardened user (since v3, must be over 5 years now) but I really meant the people who know it inside out, up and down and sideways - people like Spot and Edward, i.e. the guys we would probably call Vegas gurus. What's so different about their config that causes them not to be able to break it? That was really my point. Genuine apologies if it read differently to that.

That said, problems still abound, so how do we get a measured and spec-rich response to Sony? (I'm on a rare thing myself today - a Monday morning shoot! Not good with Mondays. A late response to any further posts should be expected!)

[Jeff Harper]

Thanks, Ian....I'm sure you meant no offense, I was being touchy and defensive. I find this whole thing exasperating. And I am a relative newbie, just jumping in at Vegas 5. I'm also not used to not finding a solution either on my own or with help, and I feel certain there is no solution to this issue until a fix is issued, or we find the common problem.

Could we start a specific thread soliciting in the title for people with say a specific problem, say the titler, to post their specs?

You tried, but I believe it was not a thread dedicated to the subject.

I'm going to sleep! Just finished post on two projects...I'm toast.

Best Regards...

[Jon McGuffin]

It would be nice if we could at least get together a list of bugs that people here are reporting that we can confirm that they are in fact, bugs. Take that list to Sony and hopefully (wishfully) get some type of response back from them that would address a timeline on how/if they are going to address it.

a "Known Issues" list would be helpfull to at least help people understand that a problem they might be having doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong with their box.

Jon

[Matthew Chaboud]

Ian and others...

I was indeed joking about catching someone out because anyone can do a binary dump of Vegas and the Vegask dll and find no encryption. Plain-text and opcodes abound.

The application *is* signed, which merely means that Windows can tell if someone has tinkered with the bits of the app. That's just part of running on Vista these days.

-Matt