Over the past few days I have been making some DVD’s of some hunting videos my dad as filmed. And, I have to say the process is a total nightmare.
All the positive buzz around Windows 7 made me decide to give it a shot, so I purchased a copy of Windows 7 Pro to use on the Dell I bought to do cross browser testing earlier this year. And, despite being a relatively inexpensive machine, it has much faster hardware than my PowerMac G5 which I have traditionally used for this task. So, I decided to pick up a copy of Adobe Premiere Elements 7 (and they apparently came out with a new version right after I bought 7, and the upgrade cost is the same as the full version cost, lovely).
The XL1 only has a firewire port on it, so I had to install my PCI firewire card in the Dell. I thought it was going to be pretty simple, because Windows 7 recognized the device and automatically installed drivers for it. Neat. Unfortunately, the drivers it so helpfully installed were wrong. Thanks to a tip, I found out that in Windows 7, you have to go to the device manager, and then update the driver for the device. From that dialog you click on browse a specific location, and then pick from a list of drivers. You have to pick the legacy driver. Finding that little gem was a waste of a perfectly good afternoon.
Now I have Windows recognizing my firewire card, and the camera. Hurray. I started a project in Premiere, and went to import the video. Didn’t work. The import screen knew that I had a camera, but simply refused to work with it. Piece of junk. I had to do some digging around, and I discovered that I could get Windows Live Movie Maker, which sucks, but it was able to import video for me.
After importing from WLMM I was able to import the video into my premiere project. From that point on it was mostly just annoying dealing with the issues with Premier Elements, and its generally lagginess and poor stability. Of course, the first DVD I attempted to burn turned into a coaster, thank’s Adobe. Luckily, on subsequent attempts the burn process completed successfully.
The whole process took a really freakin’ long time. During the first DVD took about as long as it would have taken to do it on my G5 with iMovie/iDVD. The difference being that the G5 spends most of the time encoding because it is ancient. Whereas on Windows I spent the time dicking around just getting stuff to work at all.
This entire process has made two things quite clear to me:
- Windows still sucks.
- I need a new desktop Mac.
12 Comments
I have win7 enterprise 64-bit on a rebuilt PC at home, 64-bit amd dual core processor, 4gb memory. The motherboard didn’t come with firewire so I bought a cheap PCI firewire card off Newegg. It installed in two seconds. No drivers, no fuss, worked straight outta the box. Adobe Premiere Elements 8 worked pretty well too, though it did crash occasionally. Not the fastest thing either but it did recognize and import my video off my camera with no problem. So, you had a bad experience. I had a good one. Win7 FTW?
Negative. You got lucky, I didn’t. Snow Leopard FTW :-p
So is it more Adobe, or Win 7 having the issue?
I have a new I7 with latest greatest parts… no problems. x64
I installed x86 on dell inspiron 6000 (about 3 1/2 years old). Can’t get blue tooth or touch pad to work…
**update touchpad drivers from an xps model work on it. but still no bluetooth.
So right now…my experience with dell is not making me too happy…but my piece meal one works great!!!!
Both. I had trouble getting the hardware to work in Windows. And, I have troubles with the Adobe software interfacing through Windows with the hardware.
I think Windows 7 was handling the Dell hardware fine. The problem was my fancy firewire card. Sounds like I would have had more luck with a cheap one.
I am glad your frustration spawned a post.
Seriously Windows does suck. I could write a novel about how rancid my work PC is with XP. My EEE with XP Home actually has been rock solid for a year. The thing is my Mac I’ve had more problems with then any computer I’ve ever owned including a HD failure and a recall. On the filp side it’s a beautiful workstation that has been my primary for almost five years.
My comptuer usage has changed dramatically over the years but still I don’t think I’ll ever buy a PC desktop ever again. People think mac’s are “more money” but seriously buying a mac is like buying a steam mop. You might spend 20 dollars less for the cheap steam mop but for 20 dollars more you get one that is easer to push and to use. Bad anology but regardless.
You are jja
I have no idea what a “steam mop” is, do you have a link?
Started to comment but decided to not get into a mac/pc debate.
gg jja
Actually I changed my mind…
Jja – I have a couple points to make here.
first, is that at least you have the capability to freely put hardware into your Windows PC.
Secondly, for you to say that windows sucks because you had driver issues with one peice of hardware is slightly overkill. Personally I am pretty impressed with how well Microsoft does detecting and automatically setting up such a wide array of hardware as is.
And, finally, you should go buy a new Mac and spend 2-3 times as much.
I personally don’t hate Apple, I dont hate Mac OS – but I do hate their pompous “we’re better than everyone” attitude, price gouging, and overall communistic business approach to the point that I will never purchase their computer hardware.
GG all around; I love everybody.
I have the ability to freely put hardware into my PowerMac G5. Not all hardware is supported, but its the same situation with Windows.
Windows sucks, because Windows sucks. This was just the straw that broke the camels back after I tried to give Windows another chance with the release of Windows 7.
The Mac premium varies depending on the hardware you get. With the recent price drops, it is not as much as it used to be in most cases. For example, if I were going to get a new laptop, it would cost ~$2,000 to get another MacBook Pro. And, I have priced out PC laptops, and I would definitely go with a Lenovo ThinkPad which would cost ~$1600. So, it isn’t really that much more to go with the Mac.
Currently, I am in the market for a new iMac. I figured that with applecare, and taxes, it would come in just under $1500. The dell that I bought earlier in the year, with the 22″ lcd cost me $1300 after I upgraded some of the inferior hardware in the dell, and that did not include a warranty. So, again, not that much of a difference.
I agree with you on Apple’s attitude. I loath purchasing any of their equipment. But, the simple fact of the matter is, it is worth it.
I don’t believe the hardware quality is much different. Their hardware is made to be aesthetic and to “feel nice”.
As Vanlandw says about his iMac – it’s given him more hardware issues than any of his other systems. Which, says to me: “ordering random hardware off the internet, building the computer yourself is just as reliable if not more”
And I’d also like to see the parts breakdown for your lenovo vs Apple’s macbook pro. For 1600 i would wager you get higher specs than the 2000 dollar MBP.
Apples reliability is bested by Asus, Sony, and Toshiba. In fact they’re only very slightly edging out DELL.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/laptop-reliability-survey-asus-and-toshiba-win-hp-fails
Clearly this is probably a pointless debate as we could jab at each others respective viewpoints probably until 2012 when the mayan calender dictates we perish.
I’M A PC AND WINDOWS 7 WAS MY IDEA.
When I say the hardware is better, I am saying it is not the same as the bargain basement crap you can get that people consider to be the acceptable baseline. All computer hardware is made in Asian, and is all subject to failure. Its is just like anything else. The reliability survey you source is guilty of selection, and sampling bias, and is therefore not reliable.
Some things on the lenovo were better, others were worse. Lenovo has a shit brand called IdeaPad or something like that, that competes with other low end systems. But, I am referring to the premium ThinkPad brand.
Also, the Mayans did not predict the end of the world in 2012. That is a myth.
I’m a Mac, and I never have to worry about “printerfriday”
I came here after finding out about your Dark Room program…which is amazing. It always blows my mind at how hard you need to work (or search) just to find ways to make computing more simple.
On the Win7 debate….I think Windows 7 is the best at doing what it’s meant to do, which is provide a stable OS (Windows 7 is huge step up from previous versions) for possibly millions of combinations of hardware and software. So instead of saying “windows is awful, I give up” how about, “Apple does everything I need, so long Windows”?
Of course this is all in fun…thanks for Dark Room…it works on my Win 7 perfectly and it does what I need.