Upgrade to Win7
 

Am thinking of upgrading my computer from Vista to Win7. Do I need to deactivate Cineform Propect HD on Vista and then reactivate it once Win 7 is installed?

Moreover are there significant benefits in switching to the Win7 OS? I see there is a current issue with Cineform and Premier CS3 running on Win 7.

I would deactivate and reactivate if I were you, just to be safe. I upgraded from Vista 64 and my Win 7 upgrade didn't go smoothly. The upgrade failed in the middle and the computer did not revert to Vista 64. Ultimately, I had to do a clean install, then was in the position of reinstalling all my old applications.

Now I'm currently waiting for Cineform to send me a new activation code for NeoScene. I don't know how to activate it otherwise because the old activation code doesn't work. I've sent e-mail to support and opened a support ticket.

(EDIT) UPDATE: Cineform responded to my support request and now I've been able to activate on Win 7. Thanks, Cineform!

Interesting to hear of your problems with Win 7. I wish I could help you, but I am in the process of upgrading my hardware, and I was planning on going with Win 7 also. I just assumed that Adobe CS-3, CS-4 and Cineform Prospect would work. Am I wrong?

For hardware I am looking at an Intel I-7 860 processor on the new P-55 platform. I know that 1366 chipset is suppose to be the hot one, but the 860 matches or beats the I-7 920 in performance, uses less power and less heat. I know there is a new 8 core chip coming out next year for the 1366 platform, but given the slow rate at which NLE's adopt and take advantage of new hardware features, I figure it will be at least 3-4 years before they really support / need more then 4 cores with multi threading. By then, I will be on my next build and they may have things like SATA 6 USB 3, Quad channel memory, etc.

One last thing, I currently have an Nvida video card. It works great except that I can NOT get video out to a second monitor to work with CS3 and Cineform. I've been told this was a problem with Nvida cards and CF. Is this still an issue? Is everyone here using ATI cards?

Any input on the above hardware and/or the ability to use Win 7 with Adobe and Cineform would be greatly appreciated. Thanks - PK

It was just the upgrade that was a problem. Once I clean installed, everything seems to be working. The upgrade was a nightmare, though.

I downloaded the latest NeoScene and it works fine. I just need to re-activate it, and I guess I can't do that without Cineform's help. I run a dual monitor setup with a Nvidia GTX285 card and haven't had any issues, either with Win 7 or previously with Vista 64. The Windows update site even pulled the latest video drivers, and they appear to be the same version as the latest drivers on the Nvidia site. My NLE is Vegas, so I don't know about the Adobe NLE products. I use Photoshop CS4, however, and it's fine with dual monitors on Win 7, too.

Also, FWIW, I have the i7 920 CPU. If I were buying today, I'd get the same i7 860 that you're looking at. The 920 is incredibly fast and I have zero complaints, but I agree the 860 seems to be just as fast and is much cooler.

Hey Brian,
Great to hear that Win 7 is okay. I guess since I'm doing a whole new system, it would be all clean install anyway. I Have vegas 8, and yes, no problem with dual monitors there. The issue is with Adobe and Cineform (or at least that is what I was told a year or so ago).
If I just import an HDV file without CF, I can get the second monitor to work - it just won't work when the Adobe presets are set for Cineform:(
Thanks, and take care - Paul

I would never upgrade a OS. It might go back to the days of Windows 95/98 but it was always asking for problems trying to upgrade an OS.

Full Clean Install, failing that a dual boot option if needed.

Brian
Thanks for the report.
I was toying with the idea of upgrading in place Vista 64> Win7 64, but now I think I will just bite the bullet and do a clean install.

Use Windows Easy Transfer to Save all your Documents/Desktops/Favs and you can just import these back in, its a great feature.

Yes, I should not have gone into the update process so recklessly. I had all my documents on a second hard drive, only the applications and OS on the C: drive, so I figured I may as well give it a try to "upgrade in place," since I knew I could re-install my apps if it failed. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened -- about 75% of the way though, it told me the upgrade failed and it would revert to Vista 64. After clicking OK, it kept looping and rebooting and saying it failed, but it never reverted to Vista. Then it gave me a weird DOS/console box and there wasn't anything I could do but shut the computer off and on. I had to access the Internet via my iPod Touch to learn to hit F8 when booting, choose boot from DVD (containing the upgrade disk), and do a completely clean install.

In hindsight, I should have de-activated NeoScene, then done a clean install of Win 7, then installed and activated it.

On the bright side, now I have a clean install of Win 7.

In any case, I've updated my earlier post to note that Cineform responded to my support ticket and I have been able to re-activate NeoScene on my system. I didn't have any downtime because they responded and I activated within the 7-day trial period. Everything seems to be working just fine on Win 7 now!

Leaving aside OS changes, if you are changing hardware you definitely need to deauthorize/authorize ... Your system code will likely change.

Four considerations to make you change your mind:

1. Bad overclock capabilities at stock voltages
2. No PCI-e expansion capabilities on a P55 mobo
3. No upgrade possibility for a hex-core Gulftown
4. Integrated graphics, so no upgrade to CUDA/OpenCL