Dear Dexcon,

I just spent hours typing a detailed reply for you, including dates, locations, what I've done, that I had to dig out to answer your questions as best as i could so you could help me out, and when I tried to post it, it went to an Error 402 page, or something, it didn't post and I lost the whole thing.

Please be patient with me while i recover from my mental breakdown that this caused😵😵😵😵😭😖😫😣 and I'll try re-writing the whole thing again for you.

My apologies.

@The_Lemon-Dude With detailed replies try typing it in Windows Notepad, which you can save. Then when you are happy with it copy and paste the text here.

Many/most of us have experienced the same and now prepare the longer comments in e.g. Notepad.

Thanks everyone for being patient with me.

I feel this little problem of mine is now infinitesimally minuscule thanks to world events since my last post.

I bought SONY VEGAS PRO possibly via ebay, (I can't quite remember), but definitely via the web while living in Australia on Feb 16th 2012, from Erick Haddad, LCD4Video 34224 Plymouth Rd Lovinia MI 48150 – 1565. USA. It cost me about $650 Australian. It came in your typical Vegas cardboard box packaging of the time which included the setup DVD and four pamphlets with serial numbers, setup instructions and promotions for other Vegas products. The 'USPS Express Mail International' receipts also came in the packaging. For all intents and purposes it was bran new, as explained in the sale advertisement.

The setup DVD had Vegas Pro 10,  DVD Architect 5.2 and other software on it. That's where I installed the DVD Architect 5.2 from.

My Vegas Pro 10 still works, I can't remember whether I registered it or not, I suppose I must have. DVD Architect 5.2 worked well in 2012 when I installed it too. But by the time I bought my 3rd P.C. Tower on July 20th 2018 to replace the older two, and re-installed all the software again, DVD Architect 5.2 eventually stopped working, if I remember correctly it did work for at least a couple of months on this new P.C. I can't remember if I registered DVD Architect 5.2 , my habit with software is, if I can run it without having to jump through all these hoops, read tens of pages of agreements, fill out a lot of documents requiring personal details, and all the other demands put upon the buyer, I will. I just want to get on with what I need to do. You know how it is.

I hope I have successfully answered all your questions and you're better placed to help me.

Thanks again.

Thank you for the information, it is very helpful.

LCD4Video certainly currently exists at that USA address but currently its main products are monitors and teleprompters, software offerings being minimal.  Of course, it could have been completely different 10 years ago.

It’s interesting that you bought Vegas Pro 10 from LCD4Video because Vegas Pro 11 - also with DVD Architect 5.2 - had been released by Sony Creative Software some 3 months earlier.  At the time Vegas Pro 11 would probably have cost $600 USD (Vegas Pro 10 was $599.95 USD [$585.34 AUD] when I bought it in May 2011), but the AUD/USD exchange rate on 16 February 2012 was even better at about 1:1.07 in Australia’s favour, so about $561 AUD on that date.  That you paid $650 AUD suggests that LCD4Video must have been selling Vegas Pro 10 for around $700 USD given the exchange rate at the time.  Of course, shipping costs would take account for some of that higher cost.  Nonetheless - Ouch!

Hopefully, the Vegas Pro 10 package arrived with its original plastic wrapping fully intact around the cardboard box.  Assuming it did and it was a genuine Vegas Pro 10 product, it is inconceivable that registration wasn’t required each time that Vegas Pro 10 and DVDA 5.2 were installed on each new computer.  The registration process involved coding in the product’s serial number and minimal personal details such as your name, email address country of residence, and checking one or two checkboxes.  After hitting OK, the system would automatically register and activate Vegas Pro / DVDA.  As you probably wouldn’t have had a Sony account when you first registered either Vegas Pro or DVDA (because it wasn’t bought through Sony), I think that you would have been asked to create a Sony account.  There’s no avoiding this process - it is not optional.

Serial Numbers for Vegas Pro and DVDA look like:

• VP10:                 1R8-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
• DVDA5.2:           1DD-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

If your serial numbers are not in this format, that would be a cause for concern.

As you say that you installed both VP 10 and DVDA 5.2 on a new computer in 2018, and the registration process therefore must have taken place anew (including filling out again registration information such as your name, email address and serial number), then you must have a Sony account.  After Sony sold the Vegas line of products to MAGIX nearly 7 years ago, Sony transferred all then active registration data to MAGIX, so MAGIX should have that information. However, I understand that some Sony data didn't transfer.

It is therefore suggested that you contact MAGIX support via the ‘Send a Support Request’ towards the bottom of https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/support/search/?searchphrase=rrrrrf.  But you would need to include the email address to which DVDA 5.2 was registered as well as its serial number.

Another thing to look for is the version number of Vegas Pro 10 as per the .exe file on the DVD.  The original release of Vegas Pro 10 was vegaspro100a_32 bit.exe and vegaspro100a_64bit.exe.  Both 32bit and 64bit .exe files should be on the DVD.  Each new update to Vegas Pro 10 increased the alphabetical name: 100b, 100c, 100d and the last build being 100e.  If the build installed on your computer is earlier than the ‘e’ build, it would be expected that every time you open VP 10 an annoying message pops up asking you to update to the last build.  Indeed, it's also possible that there’d be pop ups inviting you to upgrade to the latest MAGIX version of Vegas Pro if 'Net Notify' is activated in Preferrences.

An unpalatable outcome would be if your serial numbers are not in the above format, and/or you’ve never had to go through the registration process for either Vegas Pro 10 or DVDA 5.2 each time they’ve been installed on a new computer, and you’re not getting update/upgrade prompts (if applicable), there’s a fair chance that you’ve been sold pirated versions of VP 10 and DVDA 5.2.  Let’s hope that is not the case.