The Linux Chronicles Surprise - Encore Pro in Virtual Box

[NightHawkeye]

For the sake of completeness, I just had to try Virtual Box, a free (for now at least), and largely open source competitor to both Parallels and VMWare. Surprisingly, Virtual Box works quite well, and not just for Encore Pro. Although Virtual Box has only been available for a couple of months now, it appears to be the fastest of the three programs when running Windows XP. (e.g., Audio runs perfectly in Virtual Box, but is choppy in both Parallels and VMWare.)

This little test drive of three software engines has not turned out at all the way I anticipated. I originally liked Parallels enough that I even purchased a license for it. Naturally, I was really hoping it would work out and I tried everything I could think of, but Parallels has some serious issues running Encore Pro. I also liked VMWare a lot, because it just worked, but only the reader is free with VMWare and I can just imagine wanting to modify the Virtual Machine configuration at some indeterminate time in the future.

A real sleeper, Virtual Box just came along and outperformed both VMWare and Parallels. Never would have guessed that. Funny how an actual test drive or two can influence things.

Just in case anyone's interested, here's a link to the Virtual Box website.
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Screenshots

And here's a link to an "unofficial" guide to installing Virtual Box under Ubuntu.
http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/VirtualBox

BTW, I never did get MyEncore to run in any of the virtual machines; not Parallels, not VMWare, not Virtual Box. I think that's OK though, because Encore Pro Analyzer works just fine in Virtual Box. (I haven't tried it in the others - not sure I will, either.)

Regards,
Bill

[blarg]

I never did get MyEncore to run in any of the virtual machines...

As long as we're being complete here, you might as well try Encore Pro Analyzer.

[Snoredog]

well thanks for the update, did you install .NET to run MyEncore? I think it is required to run it.

[NightHawkeye]

As long as we're being complete here, you might as well try Encore Pro Analyzer.

LOL. Is that an echo I hear? .

Blarg, I also noticed that Virtual Box will soon be available for the Mac. Hard to beat the price.

well thanks for the update, did you install .NET to run MyEncore? I think it is required to run it.

Yes, I believe the installer required that. I used both the online download of .NET Framework and also the old download from my original installation of MyEncore; no joy with either version.

I've been wondering whether a newer version of .NET Framework would help. EPA installs with version 2.0, whereas MyEncore installs with version 1.1. Just to satisfy curiosity I may try a newer version with MyEncore. There's even a .NET version 3 available. (It'll only take a few minutes to find out if anything works.)

Regards,
Bill

[blarg]

Blarg, I also noticed that Virtual Box will soon be available for the Mac. Hard to beat the price.

Interesting. I like parallels a LOT and it works better on Macs than it does on Linux obviously, but I'll be poking into it when it comes around for sure.

[yardbird]

I haven't posted in a while but I still lurk.

I have been running Ubuntu linux since August of 2005. I have Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty) running as the host machine and using VirtualBox I have a WindowsXP install with EncorePro. I have tried VMWare Server (also free) but it doesn't handle USB devices connecting and disconnecting and the "discovery" of the card reader was always hit-or-miss. VMWare Workstation handles USB better but a legitimate copy of that costs around $200. You can get it for $100 if you can show academic affiliation, but that's still not as good as FREE.

VirtualBox is free and handles USB stunningly well. This won't FREE you from Windows, but it makes your life easier since you no longer have to reboot to a Windows install just to read your card.

I haven't even ATTEMPTED MyEncore in a VM. And I must have been away longer than I thought because I don't even know what Encore Pro Analyzer *IS*!!!!! hehehe

[blarg]

I haven't even ATTEMPTED MyEncore in a VM. And I must have been away longer than I thought because I don't even know what Encore Pro Analyzer *IS*!!!!! hehehe

Hehehe, well, welcome back. It's good to have ya.

One of our forum members wrote a software package once it became obvious that MyEncore was no longer receiving updates.

http://james.istop.com/EncoreProAnalyzer/

[Snoredog]

[quote="yardbird"]I haven't posted in a while but I still lurk.

I have been running Ubuntu linux since August of 2005. I have Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty) running as the host machine and using VirtualBox I have a WindowsXP install with EncorePro. I have tried VMWare Server (also free) but it doesn't handle USB devices connecting and disconnecting and the "discovery" of the card reader was always hit-or-miss. VMWare Workstation handles USB better but a legitimate copy of that costs around $200. You can get it for $100 if you can show academic affiliation, but that's still not as good as FREE.

VirtualBox is free and handles USB stunningly well. This won't FREE you from Windows, but it makes your life easier since you no longer have to reboot to a Windows install just to read your card.

I haven't even ATTEMPTED MyEncore in a VM. And I must have been away longer than I thought because I don't even know what Encore Pro Analyzer *IS*!!!!! hehehe

[yardbird]

AH.... ahhahahah.... I don't do the iPod thing. And I never did take a liking to music I paid to download and then couldn't play on any device that plays music. Not a slam.... just not what I do. And I work on a college campus and have grown to hate iPods. Again.... not a slam.... just a conditioned response.

AND.... mac minis are cool! (I quote systems for the departments on campus). Amazing tehy can fit so much in such a little package, ain't it?

[highacidity]

I post for the first time after lurking for a while, and look... another question I was going to ask is answred in this thread.

I am interested in seeing this type of software work on the Mac as well. Thanks for the tip on the Virtual Box. It won't be until this fall at the soonest for me to try this, plenty of time to see what happens with any of you trying this out

[blarg]

My favorite thing about Parallels is coherence mode. You can have the windows intermingling just like they're all in the same OS.

USB with the DT-3500 has worked flawlessly from day one.

Oh, and Parallels boots my boot camp partition. If I want to play Half Life 2, I reboot into windows. If I want to use Encore, I start it up in Parallels. All from the same windows installation.

[Snoredog]

AH.... ahhahahah.... I don't do the iPod thing. And I never did take a liking to music I paid to download and then couldn't play on any device that plays music. Not a slam.... just not what I do. And I work on a college campus and have grown to hate iPods. Again.... not a slam.... just a conditioned response.

AND.... mac minis are cool! (I quote systems for the departments on campus). Amazing tehy can fit so much in such a little package, ain't it?

When I first bought my G4 MacMini, I just used it like a big ole iPod. Plug my iPod into it, it dumps everything to the iPod. I haven't bought a single song on-line yet. I loaded all 300+ of my CD collection on it going back to 1968, I even loaded Santana Abraxas, Jethro Tull Aqualung, Deep Purple. Everything from rock to country with jazz in between. I find when they are available within a click you start listening to that old stuff again. Hehe I seen that Chrysler Avenger commercal on TV with the gear shift doing Smoke on the water, I click on it and there it is.

I take the Macmini in my RV, could play DVD's, listen to endless supply of music, surf the net, works pretty good. I already had several ViewSonic flat panels and a dozen mice. Laptop keyboards don't seem to last me, I wear the letters off the keys and they look all worn out within a year. I have 6 laptops currently all that way. I figure if I wear out a wireless keyboard on the Macmini I can buy another one for $59 bucks and be brand new again instead of a new laptop. Besides these Intel core duo's be waay faster than G4 ever was, little screamers now they are.

[Snoredog]

[quote="NightHawkeye"]For the sake of completeness, I just had to try Virtual Box, a free (for now at least), and largely open source competitor to both Parallels and VMWare. Surprisingly, Virtual Box works quite well, and not just for Encore Pro. Although Virtual Box has only been available for a couple of months now, it appears to be the fastest of the three programs when running Windows XP. (e.g., Audio runs perfectly in Virtual Box, but is choppy in both Parallels and VMWare.)

This little test drive of three software engines has not turned out at all the way I anticipated. I originally liked Parallels enough that I even purchased a license for it. Naturally, I was really hoping it would work out and I tried everything I could think of, but Parallels has some serious issues running Encore Pro. I also liked VMWare a lot, because it just worked, but only the reader is free with VMWare and I can just imagine wanting to modify the Virtual Machine configuration at some indeterminate time in the future.

A real sleeper, Virtual Box just came along and outperformed both VMWare and Parallels. Never would have guessed that. Funny how an actual test drive or two can influence things.

Just in case anyone's interested, here's a link to the Virtual Box website.
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Screenshots

And here's a link to an "unofficial" guide to installing Virtual Box under Ubuntu.
http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/VirtualBox

BTW, I never did get MyEncore to run in any of the virtual machines; not Parallels, not VMWare, not Virtual Box. I think that's OK though, because Encore Pro Analyzer works just fine in Virtual Box. (I haven't tried it in the others - not sure I will, either.)

Regards,
Bill

[Wolfmarsh]

Did you also try to use Wine?

That may give some good results.

[yardbird]

EncorePro won't even install in Wine.

Yes, actually I did try it as I thought it would be the easiest solution (always try "easy" first.... then move on to "I wonder what happens if I do *this*"... hehehe). It just didn't work and because EncorePro is such a niche program, I doubt there'd be much help from the folks over at WineHQ.

I may try again at another time because Wine is constantly getting better, but at last test it didn't work in Wine.