blueguerilla Posted May 31, 2013 Report Share Posted May 31, 2013 I am building a show from my office, to be played back on a watchout 5.3.1 system. Unfortunately my bootcamp mac running windows 7 has run into some problems, namely me creating a partition and having the bootcamp partition disappear. (smart, I know.) Anyway, deadline is approaching, and rather than back up, wipe the machine, and re-install mac os and then bootcamp, I'm just going to go and buy a PC tomorrow morning. So, hopefully someone reads this before then! I am planning on buying a windows 7 machine, but was wondering if I see a good deal on a windows 8 machine if I would be safe in buying it? This is only for programming shows from home or the road, although it would be nice to have the option of using it as a control machine in the future. Any pitfalls I should watch for? Right now just looking at your pretty standard notebooks, 4-8gb ram, 500-1tbHD, probably i5 or i7 processor. Anyway, I hope someone is up as late as me, or maybe in Europe enjoying breakfast, and can offer some advice. Unless I hear otherwise I will look for a win 7 machine. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Leong Posted May 31, 2013 Report Share Posted May 31, 2013 My 2-cents on the matter - Because of proxies, scaling of Stage media resolution, and the fact that the Prodn PC does not output to fullscreen displays, a basic PC will do - on-board gfx, webcam to stand-in for live video, etc. Not sure about Win 8, as I'm on Win 7 64-bit, but Win 8 should not be a problem where compatibility with WO is concerned. The big boys, when they wake up, will know. Concentrate on what a laptop should do better than a desktop - portability and battery life. You may also want to pay attention to the LCD display size for eye strain, visibility, drain on battery, and overall build quality as a laptop gets more abused than a desktop. also, dunno about the 500-1TB har-disk. Personally, I'd opt for a 256GB SSD to ease the wait during boot-ups and shut-downs. good luck shopping! Thomas Leong 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
makkot Posted May 31, 2013 Report Share Posted May 31, 2013 I personally use a win7 Dell as a production PC, but its 2 years old thats why has 7. I use a netbook and Win8 to run backup timelines and never had any issue with watchout5. If u dont need to use it as a display, i dont see any issue in buying a Win8 PC. Maybe an ATI card will be more enjoyable with watchout, as i always had slow latency in editing with Nvidia card especially on notebooks. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueguerilla Posted June 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2013 Okay, thanks. I ended up buying a basic HP laptop with Win 7 on it, one of two left in the store. Aaaaand of course it died on the first day. Awesome. Not completely dead, just the laptop monitor itself, completely black. Working off a secondary display and will make do until I can return this piece of crap. Is that the only weigh-in on windows 8? I am so tentative because they say "Compatible with Windows 8. Windows 7 required for full functionality". How about a little more clarity on that one, Dataton? What functionality will I be missing out on? How is it compatible if it's not fully functional? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator jfk Posted June 1, 2013 Moderator Report Share Posted June 1, 2013 ... Is that the only weigh-in on windows 8? I am so tentative because they say "Compatible with Windows 8. Windows 7 required for full functionality". How about a little more clarity on that one, Dataton? What functionality will I be missing out on? How is it compatible if it's not fully functional? That is a legacy message aimed at Windows XP, not Windows 8. Windows 8 provides all functions available in Windows 7. Message should probably be updated to ... "Windows 7 or higher required for full functionality" That said, Windows 8 provides no additional benefit over Windows 7. More likely the opposite, Windows 8 contains more potential new things that are not needed but will still muck up reliability. So you will pioneer a bit as the experience pool on Windows 8 is small. Windows 7 on the other hand is mature and limits WATCHOUT in no way. Dataton publishes tuning guidelines for Windows 7, Win 7 is still a current product, and it is a tried and trued platform. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueguerilla Posted June 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2013 Okay, thanks. That's a very clear answer. Now I now I am free to get a win 8 machine if I have to. I prefer 7 anyway, so I am still going to try and stick with that, but good to know I have options. Especially since this laptop will only be for offline production, it won't even be used as a control laptop. cheers! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Leong Posted June 1, 2013 Report Share Posted June 1, 2013 ..Not completely dead, just the laptop monitor itself, completely black. Working off a secondary display... Try: Windows Key + P and see if you have inadvertently switched it to 'Projector Only'. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator jfk Posted June 1, 2013 Moderator Report Share Posted June 1, 2013 ... Now I now I am free to get a win 8 machine if I have to.... 'Have to'? If I had to choose a machine with Win 8 installed, I would buy a copy of Win 7 too. To properly prepare it for WO, you should reformat and re-install Windows anyway (then tune). Might as well install a tried and true variant while you are at it. I personally would pay the Windows retail copy price NOT to be a pioneer. ymmv You can always pick out the pioneers, their the ones with the arrows in their back. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Dannert Posted June 1, 2013 Report Share Posted June 1, 2013 As as far I know, most (Win8 Pro only?) versions/keys allow you to downgrade to Windows 7, if you want. One needs a Windows 7 disc, though, but it might save you some money. /jonas 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueguerilla Posted June 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2013 So, I did end up getting a windows 8 machine, (a Toshiba 15.6 AMD A10-4600M, dual Radeon 7610M-7660G Graphics cards, 3.2Ghz, 1TB hd, 8GB ram) only because they didn't have any windows 7 machines there anymore. I know with some further searching I could have found one, but this whole thing is to get me through in a pinch. I think post show I am might return this machine as well, then take my time to find the right one. This is the 'right now' machine. And yeah, to downgrade you need Win8 Pro, which you either have to buy installed, or purchase stand-alone. So $150 just to be able to downgrade, with a windows 7 licence on top of that. Ridiculous. Currently running my timeline no problem though, so lets hope that keeps up, thanks everyone for the advice. I'll let you know if I get any arrows in the back! Hopefully not, this is just a programming machine anyway, all show content will be run off a proper rack. Oh yeah and Thomas checking display settings was the first thing I did, it definitely was a toasted cable. The laptop didn't even recognize its own display as being there in preferences, and there was a lovely click as you opened the case, you know the sound of a cable getting pinched between plastic hinges, yeah, that sound. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator jfk Posted June 2, 2013 Moderator Report Share Posted June 2, 2013 ... And yeah, to downgrade you need Win8 Pro, which you either have to buy installed, or purchase stand-alone. So $150 just to be able to downgrade, with a windows 7 licence on top of that. Ridiculous. ... You don't consider the circumstances that end up with that time vs money tradeoff the ridiculous part? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
makkot Posted June 2, 2013 Report Share Posted June 2, 2013 If its going to be used as an offline production machine, I really cant see any issue in Win8. In my experience I never faced any issue editing watchout5 (not even 5.3!) with win8. No pioneering too. It simply runs in editing mode, no need to count on "display on" reliability. Using it as a display is really another business. Third party app for tile screen skipping and different management of shortcuts and options can really make u loos more time in tweaking Windows. For sure i would not raccomend Win8 today as a display. By the end of the year when Win8.1update will be released i would think about it as a doable option. but not as a today display. But for editing? no issue at the horizon for me. Anyone have had problems to report? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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