Reliability of S6000 & S3000...?

[johnneumann]

I've owned two Casablanca units thus far, the original Cassie and then the Casablanca Kron.

The original Cassie was bulletproof. I can probably count on one hand the number of times it crashed and required starting a project over from scratch.

The Kron was completely unlike the Cassie. Over the years, I speculate I've had to reload about one in every four projects because of a complete loss of data. And of course, the first few years didn't offer any kind of data backup other than playing my clips back onto a miniDV tape in real time.

These have not been happy years for me with the Kron.

I searched the forum for insights into the reliability (ie crashing and losing projects) of the S6000 & S3000. There are one or two posts that seem to indicate that crashes are still happening, but those posts are not that frequent ... so I suspect that they may be indicative of the occasional bad unit that plagues any product.

Perhaps I can ask openly...? Those of you with knowledge and usage of an S6000 or an S3000 ... are these things bulletproof, like my Cassie of old? Or are crashes, hard restarts, project losses, gnawing fear and graying hair a common occurrence?

Can a guy plan to edit happily for endless hours without fear of losing his stuff? Or are retrieval visits to backed up files common?

I can't tell you what it does to a guy ... a Kron owner for years now ... to have in his soul the thought that one in every four projects will be lost and you just have to psychologically budget for that amount of loss and do-over. There's never any calm and joy in editing anymore, always the gnawing fear that the next keystroke will cause a red-box crash ... a sight I'm way too familiar with.

Is the newest generation (the S6000 and S3000) any better?

Please be brutally honest. One or two posts on the forum would suggest that the problems that I've experienced still remain.

-JOHN

[BobFoster]

Well, in my opinion, the Solitaires and Renommee/plus units are pretty much bullet proof. Though not current offerings, they are much of an upgrade from a Kron. If you are not yet into high definition they may be just the ticket since they can be found very reaonably priced as used. I have a S4000 pro that has been sitting on the shelf for about a year and a half waiting for bullet proof OS software. Currently doing 99% of my income projects on Prestige and Renommee Plus units. Just my opinion. YMMV S6000 and S3000 may be the ideal units.
Bob F/ GVP

[Franklinbencosme]

Ok, in my case I have the s-6000 coming from the nightmare s-pro 4000,the s-6000
is more STABLE and of course a little more faster then s-pro4000 and the s-4100.
A few weeks a go I have I crash with the s-6000, and I lost all the work, I was lucky
that the night before I make a COPY to another project, but I lost many editing work
That I do during the day before the CRASH !!....Any way very trust comparing the
other machines special the s-pro4000 !! the Renommee is a CHAMPION,but for
SD only !......Good luck and fell free to e-mail me for any question !!

Frannklin

[CKNewman]

What operating system are you running on your Kron?

Did you go to an empty project before turning off the Kron?

[MichaelD]

I know of two Krons that have been 'on' for almost two years, 24/7!
They are set to time lapse record and have functioned without incident.

The early Kron got very bad press but as the software changed and improved then it became, on the whole, a very reliable machine.
Bear in mind that it wasn't the mechanics that changed just the system running it . . .

Software is a critical factor in the reliability stakes and 'our' many back-up options are invaluable in this day and age but as far as hardware goes I've found that the SATA drives (used by most Bogart systems) to be far more reliable than the old IDE units.

[johnneumann]

Thank you for the replies, guys.

I'm not sure that a Kron running 24/7 recording time lapse is a valid testimonial to its reliability, though. I can't imagine anything less CPU intensive than time lapse photography.

That's like saying my Mac is bulletproof because I've had it on 24/7 for two years and it's never crashed ... even though the only software I have in it is MSWord and I just enter a journal entry once or twice day ... and nothing else.

My Kron, when I still use it (which is less and less frequent because I'm just burned out on all the crashing), has four or five hours of footage in there, bazillions of scene clip edits, transitions, text, is rendering and burning DVDs. When I edit, I suspect that I look like an advanced videogamer ... fingers and mouseclicks flying fast and furiously for hours. This thing gets a real workout! (I should say got a workout ... I've just about had it with crashes and I'm ready to move on, hence the forum question.)

I know it's only been three posts, guys ... but the lack of enthusiasm to the question is revealing. I'm one of these users whose experience is still largely shaped from my years of having discovered editing through the original Cassie. Those were days when Casablanca users were raving fans. The forum posts back in the day glowed and people were very passionate about their editors.

Maybe I'm reading between the lines here and from some other posts with crashing issues ... but the vibe I'm getting is one of "It pretty much works." ... "Mine doesn't crash that often." ... "I can put up with this." ... "The crashes are a small price to pay for the cool OS." ... "It's in the same family with (name of past unit) so these are still great machines."

No fire at all.

Breaks my heart. I can still remember when the Cassie changed my life in a huge way. It opened up a new world for me. Now I have this pervasive fear when I edit because I don't have enough certainty that I'm going to make it all the way to a finished DVD without losing everything. It's just not fun and carefree anymore.

I guess it's like Las Vegas. The house needs to keep the customer losing enough so that they make a profit, but winning enough so they are inclined to stay and gamble more. I'm sure if someone got a college degree in gaming, they would learn what the working percentage of wins to losses is that keeps a customer coming back, even though they are not taking home any money. Somehow I feel like my percentage at the Kron just reached a tipping point. My mindset nowadays is, "Well, I'll probabaly get through this project okay ... but it's just a matter of time before I lose everything again."

That ratio of the "I'll probably get through this okay" vibe versus the "I'll probably lose my data" vibe has tipped. Now, even when all is well as I'm working on a project, all I see is the next crash coming. That's not a fun feeling.

Thank you again for the replies, guys. I appreciate hearing about your experiences.

[CKNewman]

Did the dealer you purchased the Smart Edit upgrade from tell you that you needed to upgrade the stock memory of your Kron to 256 MB when you upgraded your software from SE4 to SE6? If you didn't do this it would account for system instability.

[johnneumann]

Hi Craig,

Yep ... I've got all the necessary memory.

-JOHN

[JBrooks]

John,

I have owned just about every Casablanca unit that has hit the market and I have had great success with all units. Currently, I own the S-4100 and Bogart 3.2c. It has been very reliable and stable for me. Yes, I would recommend the S-6000 editors as they are built even more robust than the S-4000 series units.

Joel Brooks
MIT Video
http://www.mitvideoproductions.com

[CKNewman]

When I edit, I suspect that I look like an advanced videogamer ... fingers and mouseclicks flying fast and furiously for hours. This thing gets a real workout!

Doing what you described above can definitely cause a system freeze. I've done it myself - so I had to learn to pace my mouse and keyboard use so that my Kron+ has the time to respond. This isn't word processing, it's video editing - and that takes a lot more computer resources. Give the computer time to do what you want it to - I would suggest waiting for the screen to catch up.

With this in mind, switching from the project you're working on to an empty project and then back will force the Kron to save your work. This is a good routine to get into, especially when you're experimenting and tweaking effects. It helps reclaim memory so the system has more to work with (and remains stable). I learned to do this often enough so that the red box of death seldom appears, or doesn't appear at all during an editing session.

I never heard of anyone having a problem when they closed down on an empty project. I would suggest a small test project to try this out. Just don't exceed the capabilities of the computer by going too fast.

Of course you have your Kron in a well ventilated area so that heat isn't building up and causing instability.