Microsoft Windows Vista Business 64-bit for System Builders Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Although I love the UI, it did slow down my routine as I adapted to the new layout and menus and such. This was expected (somewhat) and was not the root of the problem, though.
The reason for the 3 star rating is the fact that all my 32 bit apps that I was looking forward to getting a perfoemance boost from due to the 64 bit processor I am running, ultimately were absolutely sluggish when it came to menu navigation and usability within the apps themselves.
Menu navigation was sluggish and showed unusual latency while navigating within Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, etc. Windows itself was snappy, but interpolation of the 32-bit apps in the 64-bit OS was absolutely sluggish. Rendering times in After Effects, and compression times in Sorenson Squeeze, seemed fast enough, but hard to compare, as I was coming from a single core P4.
Also very much worth mentioning...aside from the occasional unsupported driver (which I expected)...after typing in my password and logging in OK, the touch of any key on the keyboard would immediately lock up the system. (It took me hours to narrow this glitch down to the Event Log Service!). Finally disabled the Event Log service and viola', keystrokes allowed. (odd, but worth mentioning).
My son also experienced Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) several times while playing both Stalker and Oblivion.
Also noteworthy for those with an interest in specific platform related info, I am running the OS on a ASUS Formula Maximus mobo, an Intel 2.4 Ghz Quad Core CPU, 4 Gigs of Corsair Dominator DDR2 RAM, and an EVGA Nvidia 8800 GTS w/640 MB DDR3 on board.
Suffice it to say, after paying full price for Vista and installing apps all week, I turned right around and overnighted XP Pro (32-bit version) on week 2, reformatted everything and am happily using XP Pro with no worries or glitches of any kind. ALL apps are BLAZING FAST, both navigationally and in their rendering perfomance. (Games have not BSOD'd since going back to XP either).
If you rely on your Workstation for a living, or expect high-end, production-class workstation performance, stick with XP for the next couple of years until Vista has been battle tested and proven, and apps have had a chance to port over to 64-bit.
(Anybody want to buy an original copy of Vista...cheap? Only used once!)
;~D


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Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate UPGRADE Limited Numbered Signature Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Do your homework on hardware compatibility. While you may be able to run Microsoft's analysis tool during install which is supposed to alert you to any problems with existing hardware ... it does NOT work in all cases.
Good luck !

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Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have owned this software for about two weeks. My only prior experience with video editing is Movie Maker and InterVideo WinDVD. I was originally going to purchase Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8 but then I noticed this version was just released and it has some new features.
After some initial frustration I am happy with the purchase. The learning curve is what is so frustrating especially for a novice like me. I made two coasters (though I admit that was really my fault) and at one point I was considering trying to return it for a refund because I was getting so stressed. I still get frustrated with the fact that you have to use two separate programs: Vegas Movie Studio 9 to make the movie and DVD Architect 4.5 (included) to make the menus and author the disc.
Now that I've been playing with it every day for two weeks, things are better now. It just takes hours and hours of working with the software which in turn makes the user more familiar with how to navigate through it and achieve a desirable result. No more stress. Now that I have made a couple of DVDs successfully I have a whole new appreciation of Sony Vegas. They turned out great! My movies have a beautiful 16:9 widescreen representation, great audio, decent menus, good video FX, and I've had a blast customizing them. The "Show Me How" tutorial is a lifesaver, but it has its limits.
I have experienced no crashes or anything even close to a crash. I'm using a 3-year-old HP Media Center desktop PC, running Windows XP, with Pentium 4 processor, and 2GB of RAM. I give it 4 stars because of the huge amount of information that is presented at first and the trouble it can cause a newbie and I think the average user is not going to use a lot of the advanced features.

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Sony Movie Studio HD Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Looked like just what I needed to edit and convert AVCHD movie from a Sony camera. The features are there but this product is pretty much unusable. It crashes A LOT, some of the codecs included don't work and others outup video files that are corrupted. Waist of money.
Runing it on a Quad Core, 4 GB and SSD. Editing video from a Sony HDR-CX500V
1 month update - After many forum discussions I found some tweaks one may be able to apply to make this product work. It gets a bit technical but apparently some of the files included in this product are not set to address memeory space over 2 GB. If you have more then 2 GB as soon as your memory ussage exceeds 2 GB, the encoder crashes. There is a 3'rd party freeware you have to download to change the settings of about 6 files in this software and after that the product works much much better. It's unacceptable that Sony can't put out a patch to fix this when others managed to find a solution.

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H&R Block At Home 2010 Deluxe Federal + State + eFile Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Downloading Notes:
Downloading via Amazon is pretty smooth and painless. You can easily download it again later, even to a different computer if need be. Your authorization is stored in your account at amazon. You need to first install Amazon's special Downloader software. That's also fairly painless.
Product Review:
I've used H&R Block's tax software every year since 2004. Always some annoyances, but most of it is excellent.
Price Dips: Below 25 buckss. Sometimes below 20. It went to 22.49 on Jan 12, 2011, for example. Amazon has always had the best price. There's an "Online Price Alert" that will email you whenever this or any amazon product dips below your target price. Google it. It's nicely done.
Unlimited number of tax returns: (family members, what-if copies of your return, etc.) I think TurboTax also lets you do this now, but in the past TurboTax pulled some real nasty tricks with licensing/copy protection, and they continue to charge 18-45% more than H&R Block.
It includes unlimited paper filings for one state ($ 19.95 extra per state e-file). So, I just file state returns on paper.
"Free" tax softwares like TaxAct might be the thing if your return is very simple, but their better versions are almost as expensive as H&R Block at low tide, and not as good.
The 2010 version is just like 2009. (I did a side-by-side run-through.)
Typical minor annoyances: (all carry-overs from 2009)
- Upgrade pitches: They weave it into the interview and make it sound as if "an upgrade to Premium is advised for your situation" even when it makes little or no sense for your situation. Sleazy.
- Unclear wording in a few places, although most wording is very clear and accurate.
- Privacy Policy: Hard to view. Hard to read. Has reassuring tone, but doesn't hold much water.
- Copy...Paste from Interview screens: That would be handy at times. No can do. Can't print them either. Only way I found is ALT + PrintScreen, then paste the graphic into Word or a paint program.


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H&R Block At Home Deluxe
Ideal for Investors and Homeowners
The right choice for customers with more complex tax situations to easily complete their federal and state returns. Includes the H&R Block tax expertise your customers trust--plus our Maximum Refund Guarantee.

H&R Block At Home Deluxe includes everything your customers need to easily complete their federal and state taxes--with the tax expertise they trust. With an easy-to-use interface, H&R Block At Home Deluxe searches for hundreds of deductions to get customers the biggest refund. Ideal for homeowners and investors, the program includes personalized tax guidance and features available only from H&R Block, such as built-in expertise and audit support, expert advice from our community of tax specialists, an H&R Block enrolled agent to represent customers in the event of an audit, and, best of all, our Maximum Refund Guarantee.

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