Edward, Jeff... thanks so much. I guess I'll keep both for now then (since space isn't an issue), and have a go with each in turn. I was thinking it was like when you used to open, say a Vegas 4 file with Vegas 5... seems like it upgraded the file and you couldn't go back. I was wanting to use the 64 bit to be able to use my 6 Gigs of RAM for rendering, etc. You wouldn't happen to know if either version has any trouble with dual video cards installed? I have two 9800 GT cards. Will search the boards.

This always was the best place for prompt, knowledgeable answers... I'm grateful it still is!

Off to fire her up. I'm excited to be back with Vegas!
Marcia

I don't know about the cards. I'd just run it and see how it does first.

Marcia et al., if you ever want to scrape your PC clean of Sony products, Sony recommended their knowledge base article No. 4289 for the specific procedure to follow (XP or Vista, your choice).

It doesn't look like you'll have to avail yourself of this procedure. For the record, if you do run into problems, the only solution I have ever seen here and on the Sony forums is to install and register 8.1 on a clean installation of Vista. It is a kludge solution, for sure, but it works.

Steve

I'm not discounting your experience at all, Jeff, but this procedure has worked for me and others. Sony didn't recommend it to me, for the record; I just did it on my own. Obviously reformatting a HDD just to install 8.1 is a royal pain if you've set up and tweaked a system a lot.

Steve

The black frames issue and preview issue might go away with a clean install, but I don't believe it will. I'm not saying other issues aren't prevented on a clean OS, but I just happen to be of the opinion it won't fix this. I don't care enough to find out because I can't use it with Ultimate S and Magic Bullet anyway.

When I next reinstall Vista again I will find out. It would be nice if it worked. But truthfully, saving a little time on a rendering doesn't matter much to me. My video projects render so fast now I can't believe it, unless I'm using MB, and I don't use MB that much anyway.

OK, I'm beginning to see your point of view better now. I just sat down to edit my old 6.0 project and I really tired of the black frames and 8.1 hanging when I click on the Project Media tab (another annoying and totally reproducible effect). So I installed 8.0c and, what do you know, everything works, including MB Looks.

Now, the big difference is that preview speed and quality take a major hit in 8.0c compared to 8.1 on my system. For instance, I get full 30fps when previewing avi clips at Best/Auto or Best/Full in 8.1. That gets whacked down to about 12-15 fps in 8.0c. Apparently 8.1 is nicely optimized to work on a 64 bit system.

Differences in *render times* aren't that large, however, as between 8.1 and 8.0c. Since I just, um, graduated to HDV, I think I'll tap into the smoother editing experience in 8.1 once I finish my last project in 8.0c.

Steve