Pain and punishment that is Targa
Let me start off that I seem to be slow at learning, either that or I forget the most painful in my life. at work we are replacing a workstation with an existing targa-1000 video capture/output card with a new workstation with a targa-3000 video capture/output card.
The old station, or specifically the damned Targa-1000 card, is the cause of my loss of hair. 5 years ago It haunted me with it's bizzare incompatabilities and oddball requirements and desire to simply quit working for no reason.
So I must have been out of my mind to suggest we upgrade to a Targa-3000 card. This thing is the best example of what not to do i have ever seen in my life.
first off it's only "compatable" with a limited number of outdated motherboards or workstations and other hardware. You CAN NOT buy current hardware and make this horribly overpriced flakey hardware work on it. nope. Calls to their tech support will stop the instant you mention any model number of a machine or motherboard that is not on their "certified list" .. I.E. any motherboard that was made in the past 2 years is not compatable.
secondly even those that have it working have nothing good to say about it. constant crashing, instability, and having to reboot multiple times to get it working are "normal" to them.
Anyways, instead of using my brain, or paying attention to that little voice screaming "NOOOOOOOOO!" in my head i reccomended that we get a targa-3000 board. we did not get a whole system because corperate IT in their gigantic stupidity will only allow DELL computers to be purchased. no if's and's or butts, if it does not say dell then you can not have it (I wonder who is getting a kickback from dell in the company for that policy?) Well DELL is not a compatable system for the Targa, so we try to make do with the stupidity we have been handed...
after messing with the machine and the unbelievely horribly written and outdated documentation from Pinnacle on the targa-3000, I am finally able to get the machine to not lock up on reboot, and the "boardmonitor" app actually sees the card... YAY! but the test software does not work, and premiere simply locks up after 4 minutes if it does not simply bomb on loading because of a targa driver failure.
I am going to be spending about 2 weeks with this utter piece of crap called a Targe-3000 board from Pinnacle, because the vendor will not accept a return on opened hardware (thanks!) even if it is complete junk, and pinnacle loves to ignore you if you do not have their "certified" hardware... in fact it's the first question they ask, " what system is this on so we can tell you unsupported!! go away!"
if you can find a different solution go with it. Avoid anything from Pinnacle and certianly avoid the Targa 3000 or anything like it (pinnacle liquid for example).
i will never EVER again use reccomend or support a Pinnacle product again in my life.
The old station, or specifically the damned Targa-1000 card, is the cause of my loss of hair. 5 years ago It haunted me with it's bizzare incompatabilities and oddball requirements and desire to simply quit working for no reason.
So I must have been out of my mind to suggest we upgrade to a Targa-3000 card. This thing is the best example of what not to do i have ever seen in my life.
first off it's only "compatable" with a limited number of outdated motherboards or workstations and other hardware. You CAN NOT buy current hardware and make this horribly overpriced flakey hardware work on it. nope. Calls to their tech support will stop the instant you mention any model number of a machine or motherboard that is not on their "certified list" .. I.E. any motherboard that was made in the past 2 years is not compatable.
secondly even those that have it working have nothing good to say about it. constant crashing, instability, and having to reboot multiple times to get it working are "normal" to them.
Anyways, instead of using my brain, or paying attention to that little voice screaming "NOOOOOOOOO!" in my head i reccomended that we get a targa-3000 board. we did not get a whole system because corperate IT in their gigantic stupidity will only allow DELL computers to be purchased. no if's and's or butts, if it does not say dell then you can not have it (I wonder who is getting a kickback from dell in the company for that policy?) Well DELL is not a compatable system for the Targa, so we try to make do with the stupidity we have been handed...
after messing with the machine and the unbelievely horribly written and outdated documentation from Pinnacle on the targa-3000, I am finally able to get the machine to not lock up on reboot, and the "boardmonitor" app actually sees the card... YAY! but the test software does not work, and premiere simply locks up after 4 minutes if it does not simply bomb on loading because of a targa driver failure.
I am going to be spending about 2 weeks with this utter piece of crap called a Targe-3000 board from Pinnacle, because the vendor will not accept a return on opened hardware (thanks!) even if it is complete junk, and pinnacle loves to ignore you if you do not have their "certified" hardware... in fact it's the first question they ask, " what system is this on so we can tell you unsupported!! go away!"
if you can find a different solution go with it. Avoid anything from Pinnacle and certianly avoid the Targa 3000 or anything like it (pinnacle liquid for example).
i will never EVER again use reccomend or support a Pinnacle product again in my life.
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