V180 EX-I - V280P Upgrade thoughts

I am looking for some advice on ways I should upgrade our V180. It is a base model that has the Fiery FS200 controller. Not a lot of bells and whistles, no APPE, we have had transparency issues, which is why I am looking to upgrade. I’ve been told I can’t upgrade to the EX standalone controller without going to a new machine (V280P). Of course this option comes with a higher price tag and a slightly lower click charge. I would like to know if anyone knows of any other options I would have without having to go with a new machine. Everything we print is from Creative Cloud and pdf’d. Some of these files are quite large and I need to be able to process these to run 4-500 page books. So far the V180 has been good but is lacking on the software side. And yes I have had the usual drum/BTR problems but my service has been very good and have only lost a couple of days over service issues.
 
what does transparency issues mean?
so basically all you want to do is upgrade from the bustle fiery to the Ex-180 Fiery?
 
Yes basically I would think that we would be better off with the Ex-180 Fiery. I was told I could not do that with our machine. So to flatten the pdf's what software would you use..? ( I like cheaper)
 
Maybe there's a misunderstanding with why they won't do an upgrade. The V180 most certainly can use the EX 180 instead of the EX-i 180. I'm also curious about the transparency issues as the other posters? If some of the larger files are not processing did you ask about increasing the ram in the EX-i 180?
 
I have had some luck with setting CMYK Processing Method to "Full (Source GRC)" within Color Input and for RGB files make sure "Optimized RGB Transparency" is checked. This would be a cheap fix if it works on your problem files.
 
Yes basically I would think that we would be better off with the Ex-180 Fiery. I was told I could not do that with our machine. So to flatten the pdf's what software would you use..? ( I like cheaper)
Open in Acrobat and save as a tiff.
 
I did the "optimize RGB Transpaarency" checkbox with our last machine and knew of that one. I still occasionally get some pages I have to save as .tiff and import back into the job and pdf again. What it gets down to is processing time also. I have to step the file to print 2-up on 12x18 and Re-Rip the job, and 400 pages of color takes a while just to fix one page or two. I was told that my machine could not get an upgrade to the Ex-180 Fiery because it would need too much internal changes (motherboard).
Anybody know different? I think it was easier for them to sell me a new machine.
 
I have had some luck with setting CMYK Processing Method to "Full (Source GRC)" within Color Input and for RGB files make sure "Optimized RGB Transparency" is checked. This would be a cheap fix if it works on your problem files.
I Have the "Optimize RGB" checked, the other output was set to "Full Output GCR". I may experiment with that.
 
Is there a way that I can just flatten a pdf (4-500 pages) before ripping it to be sure there would be no transparency issues? Page by page is not efficient, I'm looking for a one and done solution.
Try saving as Optimized PDF from Acrobat.
 
Pitstop pro would do it.
That may be what I am looking for. Since this is the base Rip for this machine I do not have Impose, Compose or any "Options". The rip can handle the files, just takes a long time and if something has to be redone the whole process starts over. I am trying to make sure when it gets to the stage of ripping the file and proof printing it takes less time.
 
Do the files have spot colors in them or are they CMYK? If spots you may be able to preflight and convert to CMYK within Acrobat and resolve those issues. My new favorite are stupid Canva files..... one single page PDF had 72 transparencies on it. No chance that was printing correct.
 
Do the files have spot colors in them or are they CMYK? If spots you may be able to preflight and convert to CMYK within Acrobat and resolve those issues. My new favorite are stupid Canva files..... one single page PDF had 72 transparencies on it. No chance that was printing correct.
No spot colors, we create everything, all CMYK images. All placed in Indesign usually with some backgrounds then pdf for high quality print.
 

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