ONYX or Wastach? HELP!

[Jake - Advantage Signs]

I need help choosing between ONYX ProductionHouse and Wasatch SoftRIP.
It's a long story, but I will try to make it brief.


We have been using Wasatch to run our two HP5000s since the company opened. A couple of years ago we bought a HP9000 and a Summa cutter. At the time we bought it neither machine was supported through Wasatch, so we had to purchase ONYX PosterShop. For the last 2-3years we have run two rips and I am trying to cut that down to one.

Problems:
PosterShop only supports two printers, and has no color profiling engine integrated.

Wasatch 5.1.5 does not support my 9000 and Summa. And only has 8bit color. No color profile engine.

Solutions:
Upgrade to ProductionHouse to get additional printer license and a second RIP engine.

or

Upgrade to Wasatch 6.7 to run my 9000 and Summa (also, would have to purchase the iMatch3 from Xrite to use in conjunction with my Eye1 for color profiling).

------

ONYX upgrade = $1600 which will get me the printer licenses I need and the color profiling engine. I can run my cutter and all of my printers.

Wasatch upgrade = $600. Cutting module = $250. Xrite iMatch3 = $400. Total cost = $1250.

-------

Almost a dead heat...

Which is better? I have used ONYX more than Wasatch, so I'm used to the interface. In fact, it would be a no brainer in favor of ProductionHouse if it weren't for the transparency problems I have had with PosterShop...

 

[FatCat]

FWIW - I've been running Wasatch with the cut module since last fall. Overall it's a solid RIP but doesn't have a lot of extra frills like some other RIPs do. However, it's been rock-solid for me and processed every file I've thrown at it even printing smooth gradients directly exported from Illustrator. Color accuracy is spot on and using the trace feature or sending cut paths to my Summa has been a breeze. I know many will grumble about Wasatch's customer service and/or upgrade policy, but you should know going in it will cost you $299/yr. to keep updated with the latest software - or you pay the $600 if you let it lapse.

Can't say a thing about Onyx, though I've heard many praise it.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

I'd go for Onyx, but wait for X10. I hear profiling in X10 will be significantly improved over previous versions.

 

[Jake - Advantage Signs]

It looks like we're going to go for ProductionHouse. We had a big talk here about pros and cons and decided to go with the ONYX upgrade.

RE: X10...

From the conversations I've had it looks like ONYX is going to go the way of Wasatch when it comes to upgrades and service contracts... Basically I am going to upgrade to ProductionHouse from PosterShop to get the added features and printer licenses and THEN if I want X10 I will have to sign a service contract for the upgrades. Or.... I could wait and buy ProductionHouse X10 outright, but from the discussions I've had it still looks like you need to get into some sort of service agreement to keep it current.