HELP! I may be forced to the "Dark Side"

[Tim R.]

I'm a Mac head. I administer a half dozen Macs at my work (4 Protools systems). We are exploring the possibility of incorporating the "Interplay" option into our workflow with AVID. Interplay is an XP only option in Protools (at this point anyway-and probably forever). I'm in need of some insight (books, websites, tips) on administering Protools on PC's. How to keep them running smoothly etc. ALSO, if anyone has direct experience with Interplay and Protools some info there would be helpful as well.

Thanks

Tim

[C]

I'd be interested to know why you need a PC? The video's all seem to suggest that the Interplay only functions on the picture side then is Digidelivered to the post department which theoretically could be on any system capable of opening a digidelivery and an OMF.

Is anyone using this in a workflow that could confirm/deny that?

Sorry Tim, not helpful I know but I'm intrigued.

Ceri

EDIT: Just found the workflow document. Ignore me!!

[Tim R.]

The key advantages for Interplay Client (it seems) are that first, you share media from your ISIS server, then also when you finish your mix, you can post it back to Interplay and it automatically puts it back in the AVID sequence (either replacing tracks or adding to existing tracks). This is key for us, since we mix pieces, put them back in AVID (where they can be revised further), then they get exported to an EVS server for playback.

Tim

[C]

Would you switch your entire facility to PC or just have an assistant to grab and push material?

If you go with the latter then you may be able to have a MacIntel and dual-boot it?

[Tim R.]

We'd start by just changing our primary posting machine that interacts with AVID (that has to push back to AVID). Our other Systems act more as islands (or strictly OMFs one way from AVID).

Tim

[TheHenchman]

I don't think it's anywhere as bad as you might think it is.
Ask this same question here on the Windows forum, and you'll probbly get a bit mor info regarding running PT's in XP on a PC, as opposed to people tleling you why you should figure another way to still be able to use a MAC.
Who cares what the box is. The main thing is, how stable is the sofwtaer running on it.

[Tim R.]

That's what I'm looking for. Tips on keeping the OS running smoothly. I can keep a MAC running perfectly. PC's are another story. My wife bought a new PC less than 2 months ago and it's already having stability issues, running slow etc.

[quote}Who cares what the box is. The main thing is, how stable is the sofwtaer running on it.

[/QUOTE]

[TheHenchman]

That's what I'm looking for. Tips on keeping the OS running smoothly. I can keep a MAC running perfectly. PC's are another story. My wife bought a new PC less than 2 months ago and it's already having stability issues, running slow etc.

That's odd. I've run PC's for years.
One thing to run every now and then is Adaware, it get's rid of weird malware that have been downloaded form the internet.
I use my laptop for all my audio stuff, and internet stuff, and have no problems at all.
The ony thing that happened was my drive went down. Not much you can do about that. My previosue laptop ran for almost 3 years with no drive issues at all.
This one, which has a shockproof enclosure and an accelerometer, lasted 6 months.

[audiogeek1]

We have been running PT on XP for more than 2 years with very few problems. The biggest thing is to not run any anit virus software. Slows the machine down. Also we only plug our machines into the internet to get updates. Use Mozilla Firefox browser when doing this. Fewer viruses.

We have 6 HD rigs on PCs and 2 on the new quad macs. I can tell you the PCs are way more stable than the new mac. We are running 7.2 because of media station needs. But our macs about every other day are having a problem. We switched from mac 2 years ago with the other six machines so we can be compatable with Unity. We all went kicking and screaming. But we all were really surprised at the outcome. The PC was as stable if not more than our Dual 1.25 macs.

Hope this helps

Mike

[phaseout]

At home I run PT on OSX. At work we have a combination of windows and OSX boxes.

PT runs great on the PC. Just keep it off the internet as much as possible. One of our main rigs is a PC. 99% of the time the network connection is completely turned off.

(in network properties click "show in task bar when connected". Right click the network icon in the task bar an disable/enable the network as necessary. takes about 3 seconds from start to finish)

We only turn on the net when we need to authorize a plug-in or get something from a ftp site.

In reality, even this is fairly extreme. The rest of the PC rigs are always connected to the net. Stay off the p0rn, warez, even e-mail and you should be fine.

In short, 99% of the tips and tricks needed to get PT running smooth on a PC are in the first few pages of the "getting started" guide and the tips/tricks thread in the windows forum.

Cheers!