64-bit video editing - using up those 8gb ram

[Alendri]

Hi!

I did a search for any earlier posts conserning the subject of 64-bit video editing software. The resulting posts were indeed a let down, however my hopes are that things have changed since those posts were made.

My basic question is are there ANY real 64bit video editing program out there?
I'm asking not because I believe it is faster or because I belive that I need it on my 64-bit machine. I know 32bit software work fine, I'm using it right now.
However, my machine has 8gb of memory. Any 32bit application can theoretically (and practically) only address 4gb of memory. For real time editing of video I saw those super expensive RAM-server stations that can feed your computer via E-SATA. But my thought is that it must be a lot easier to just have a shit load of memory in the own computer, untill I realize I couldnt find a single 64bit application.

Please tell me that the industry isnt so stupid as to force a 4gb memory limit on all poor video editing people.

Proper multicore support would also be neat - so far i've had semi-luck on this part. Most software today can encode with at least a few cores, however almost none uses it for actual work-space calculations.

Thank god i mostly do 3d work, which do have 64-bit support, otherwise I would be pissed at spending the extra money on memory I could never really use.

Thanks in advance for any comments
//Alendri

[Soopafresh]

Sony Vegas is supposed to be releasing a 64 Bit version

http://digitalproducer.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=128710


Proper multicore support would also be neat - so far i've had semi-luck on this part. Most software today can encode with at least a few cores, however almost none uses it for actual work-space calculations. Thank god i mostly do 3d work, which do have 64-bit support, otherwise I would be pissed at spending the extra money on memory I could never really use.



Maya and 3Ds Max will render on Multiple Cores, but normal operation is on single core.

[redwudz]

I had XP 64bit for about a year on one of my computers and finally replaced it with XP 32. There just didn't seem to be enough 64bit programs to take advantage of the OS. And there were plenty of driver issues.

I didn't even consider Vista 64 because if they couldn't get XP 64 'right', I saw little hope for Vista 64. It seems a shame that 64bit OSs aren't utilized more by software makers.

[Alendri]

Thanks for your replies.

Indeed I think it is a shame that viewport and similar operations in 3ds max and maya are only singelthreaded. I'm not sure about the latest versions however, i believe some multicore changes have been made to some plugins, like Hair & Fur.
My comment on that was however aimed more at the memory aspect, not the multicore support. As 3ds max have fairly good 64bit support it can utilize more than 4gb of memory.
I see my previous comment was indeed unclear. Sorry for that.
There is always more to hope for in the world of 3d and encoding

I will check out Vegas, thanks for the tip Soopafresh.

redwudz: Indeed there was severe problems with XP64bit for me aswell. Driver support is better for Vista though. And if i want to use 3ds max and more than 4gb of memory i have no choice than using vista 64 or xp 64. (3ds max is Win only)
Otherwise i would be on the other side of the fence in the 32bit garden shouting at the 64bit side to get a friggin move on so i could go there before i was 90.

//Alendri

[sonic Shocker]

Windows vista ULTIMATE x64 Bit...
NEVER had ANY problems with this version

all 4 processors runing perfectly

Must admit the early versions of 64 Bit (XP) + vista standard had issues.

[greymalkin]

I bought a 64-bit version of vista (business edition) in '07 before I graduated from college because I could buy it on campus for $10! I installed it and ran it for a few days, then immediately went back to XP.

Even on a new machine that was 2x faster than my old one Vista was slow even doing things as simple as copying a small file. I'm probably going to get a PhenomII pretty soon and I'm hoping there have been enough patches/updates to make it run a little better. Otherwise I'll stay with what works.