VP - I run x64 XP Pro and I tend to agree with what you are saying. Although I didn't see any appreciable performance increase - I have found that my machine has been more stable with the 4GB of RAM being seen. I think it is really six of one and half a dozen of the other. I prefer having as much RAM being available to me and to a certain extent - future proofing myself for things like the recently announced 64bit version of Vegas. If I know the guys in Madison, they are more than likely to make it backwards compatible for 64bit XP Pro. All that will need to be done is install. I don't have to upgrade my machine. And when I transition to the recently announced XDCAM EX, my work will be more productive from my POV.

As of right now - 64 bit is a marketing scam that simply makes the user think that more is better - like 64 bit MUST be better than 32 bit...cause it's 32 bits more!

Only for people who don't have a use for it. Games & 3D apps have benefited quite a bit (the latter for over a decade). Databases benefit. We don't because nobody in our field wants to bother taking the time to do serious work on it. Same was said when OpenGL became popular (it was, many times, just as fast as or slower then software renders due to the lack of hard + drivers to support it).

The true test of x64 is with a 64-bit app (not Vegas).

Try a few render tests with the two versions of Windows Media Encoder and see if there's a difference. The 64-bit version of VirtualDub is worth playing with too, but only if your CODECs are also 64-bit (and not just ported versions).

what are the listings (what are they called)
on the windows media encoders?

how do I do this test?

Aug

You can download the stand alone Windows Media Encoder - from my initial testing, the 64bit version smokes compared to the 32bit version. You can find them for free on Microsoft's website.

Sonar Cakewalk has a native 64bit version as well. There is a video you can watch here that demonstrates the true power of native 64bit content creation

About to buy a new PC and it seems sensible for the sake of a little bit more money to be ready for the 64-bit Vegas and other apps. Three questions:

1. Should all my software that runs on 32-bit XP run OK on 64-bit XP?

2. Can I expect to find everything in 64-bit XP in the same place as in 32-bit XP? i.e. directory structure, GUI, registry layout, control panel etc..

3. Any other dangers or disadvantages?

Thanks

Nick - here are some differences:

1) Install of 32bit apps will default to "C:\Program Files (x86)", while 64 bit apps will default to "C:\Program Files". I personally modify my installs to put everything into D:\Program Files (I have my primary drive in 3 partitions - C is my OS, D is my Programs files, E is My Documents). My F Drive is for Audio and my Raid 0 G drive for Video. Back up is done to a 160GB USB drive.

2) You will find that some apps will not want to see your burner - Adobe's Apps are prone to this - PPro and Audition refuse to see it although SONY's apps sees it just fine.

3) There are some third party apps that are native 64bit that I use. AVG, InfraRecorder (CD/DVD App), 7Zip (archiving utlity), nVidia drivers, etc.

4) The GUI is identical to 32bit XP Pro

5) The only issues you might have is related specifically to third party hardware drivers (My old school Canon BJC-80 printer works fine, my Epson 880 has no 64bit drivers). I have had no issues capturing with firewire from my TRV950's in Vegas or PPro 1.5.1 - I don't have an HDV camera so I can't say if that will be an issue or not.

6) Quicktime Player is a little wonkey for me - embedded QT player loses it's play bar - it goes black, but still is functional - not sure why, but I live with the minor inconvenience. Standalone player works fine.

To give you an idea of what I run on my 64bit desktop:

Sony Vegas 7e, Sound Forge 9a, Cinescore 1.0b, Acid Pro 4f, Premiere Pro 1.5.1, Audition 1.5, After Effects 6.5, Photoshop 7, Golive 6, Acrobat Reader 8, Sorenson Squeeze 4.5.1, Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, OpenOffice 2.2, O&O Defrag (64bit), freeAVG 7.5 (64bit), Trillian IM client, Quintessential Player, etc. So I don't think you should have any issues software wise.

HTH,

Cliff Etzel
bluprojekt

"is it me or is xp64 no faster in processing? perhaps its only faster in loading programs???"
============================

First XP was never really built to work at 64 bits... it's been patched like crazy to get it to 64 bits, so it's not very efficient. If you want to run 64bits then it's best to make the move to Vista64 which was specifically built for the job.

Second, you won't find much in the way of huge performance increases.... while your OS may be 64bits, you're still running 32bit applications. The only REAL advantage to 64 bit systems for the moment is that they handle memory much better. XP32bit doesn't really know what to do with anything over 3 gig of ram, where as the 64bit systems do.

I would say it will be at least another 6 to 10 months before the 64 bit systems are worth it. Sony is SUPPOSED to be coming out with a 64bit version by the end of the year.

These are good observations. Ultimately, we are getting short changed by Sony for now. Why is there no 64-bit version of Vegas available? Seems kind of strange since every new computer is x64 compatible. I guess Sony Creative management wants to live at the end of the innovation curve, rather than the beginning. Slackers! :-)

"Second, you won't find much in the way of huge performance increases.... while your OS may be 64bits, you're still running 32bit applications."

I am? Huh, I thought the 64-bit Windows Media encoder and the 64-bit version of VirtualDub were both... err... 64-bit. Go figure. ;-)

So I went with XP X64 Pro after all on my new computer.

Hardware that installed no problem
Apart from the graphics cards, DVD writer etc. that came with the computer, the following all installed fine:
- Canon Pixma iP4300 printer
- Echo Gina 3G sound card
- Contour Shuttle Pro 2
- Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0
- My various old external USB2/IEEE1394 drives and USB flash drives
- Sony VX2000 & Z1P
- Sony GV-D900E deck
- Generic IDE/SATA to USB widget (the best $20 I ever spent)

Hardware that would NOT install
- Epson R210 printer (even though I installed their 64-bit driver it wouldn't install).
- HP Scanjet 2200c scanner (old)
- Western Digital MyBook and Combo button manager and lights (but the drives function fine as regular external drives over USB2 or IEEE1394).
- Creative Live! Cam Vista IM webcam. Pretty lame of Creative not to bother with a 64-bit driver as this is a current model :-(

Native 64-bit software
- Windows Media Player 11
- Internet Explorer (bundled with the OS). Does not support Flash etc yet so I'm sticking with the 32-bit version for now.

That's all I could find for the time being as far as my programs go. There is a 64-bit VirtualDub but it says it's "compiled specifically for the 64-bit modes of the AMD Athlon 64, AMD Athlon FX, AMD Opteron, and Intel Xeon EM64T CPUs. In other words not my Q6600 (right?).

32-bit Software that installed no problem
All this stuff appears to run OK so far. OK, so it's the most bloated PC in history but I do actually use all this stuff :-)
- Sony Vegas 7.0e
- Sony Sound Forge 9.0a
- Sony Cinescore 1.0b
- Sony DVD Architect 3.0c (DVDA 4.0 won't read my MPEG2 files)
- Acronis True Image 10 (and it's already rescued me big time)
- AVG 7.5
- Brightcove Publishpod
- Bulk Rename Utility
- Ccleaner
- Canon CD Label Print
- Cineform Neo Player
- CCE Basic 2.70
- Debugmode Frameserver
- DivX 6 Pro
- Filezilla
- FLV Player
- Google Earth
- Google Video Player
- Google Video Uploader
- Directory Opus 9 (but without Explorer replacement until they release 64-bit version)
- ICQ 6
- Itunes 7.3
- Izarc
- Lavasoft Adaware
- Main Concept MJPEG demo codec (will still decode after demo expires)
- Mozilla Firefox 2
- Mozilla Thunderbird 2
- Nero Burning ROM 6.6.1.15
- Womble MJPEG Video Wizard DVD
- On2 Flix Pro (needed to fax them to reset the install count)
- OpenOffice 2.2
- PC Wizard 2007 (a fantastic new find)
- Printer's Apprentice 7.5 (for viewing fonts)
- Quicktime 7.1.6 Pro
- Real Alternative
- SciTE 1.70 (great text editor for coding)
- Skype
- Spybot Search and Destroy
- TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5
- TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress
- Tweaknow Regcleaner Std
- VASST Gearshift
- VLC Media Player
- WinMerge
- Xvid
- Adobe Reader 8.1.0
- Gspot
- HDVSplit 0.77 beta
- IE PassView
- PCGEdit
- Putty
- TCPOptimizer
- VirtualDub
- VirtualDub plugins Deshaker, Smart Deinterlacer
- Windows Defender
- Windows Live Messenger
- Scenalyzer Live 2.1

Software that required some trickery to install
- Adobe Design Premium CS3 (Acrobat 8 install problems but got there in the end)
- Lame MP3 encoder
- Cool Ruler 2 (ancient installer but brilliant utility)
- Concise Oxford English Dictionary (ancient installer)

Software that would NOT install for love nor money
- Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 (I tried 8.02 as well but no go).

All in all so far so good. I'll report back any 64-bit related problems as I encounter them.

Now here's hoping that Sony give us Xp x64 compatibility in the next version and not just suppor for Vista x64.

"Now here's hoping that Sony give us Xp x64 compatibility in the next version and not just suppor for Vista x64."

==========================================================

I would be VERY surprised if Sony offers XP64 support. I went with Vista Ultimate 64 because the various software vendors I deal with have made it crystal clear that they intend to go FORWARD with Vista and not backwards with Xp64. Writing all of these extra drivers and such cost money and they don't make money on drivers.

Is it really that much extra work? I'm guessing that demo Sony ran was too early for Vista x64 and so was probably already ported to XP x64. Judgning by these forums Vista seems to have gone down like a lead balloon so far amongst Vegas users so IMO Sony would be wise to support XP x64. Sonar supports both (although of course it was introduced much earlier than 64-bit Vegas will be). Fingers crossed.

One thing that was clear during my install and configuration process, as I searched for drivers and read various forums, was that trying to install all my hardware and software on a Vista 64-bit machine would have been significantly more trouble as of today. No doubt in the near future much more 64-bit Vista support will come along.

"as I searched for drivers and read various forums, was that trying to install all my hardware and software on a Vista 64-bit machine would have been significantly more trouble as of today."
=======================================================

Your hardware/software install list pretty much matches mine to a "T" for Vista64. My Epson printer DID install though... most of it anyway. The part that did not install was the automatic disk printing. I now have to manually set up the printer for disk printing. It sounds to me that XP64 and Vista64 may be similar enough so that a set of "universal" drivers could be done for both.

After using the system for a bit longer, here are some on-going problems with XP x64 Pro:

- The Quicktime plug-in in both IE7 and Firefox just displays pink and green rubbish. Then crashes the browser if you click on it. Presumably a similar issue to Bluprojekt's on the same OS.

- Can't get a webcam to work for love nor money. Tried MS VX-1000 and Creative Live! Cam Video IM Skype™ Edition both of which are supposed to be supported, but both display a similar corrupt video stream. If anyone has a webcam working on this OS then please let me know the model. Or maybe it's a motherboard issue.

- I seem to have a problem with CS3 Photoshop PSD files "placed" in an Illustrator project. It's OK if I drag a PSD file into Illustrator but if it's "linked" the Illustrator project can't find it.

These are fairly small issues but probably enough to make me change to 32-bit XP or to Vista if the forthcoming 64-bit Vegas is not supported on XP x64 Pro.