This thread has been going on for nearly 24 hours.
It's almost time for lunch again!

John

I started a thread awhile back to see who would be in favour of a dongle. The overall feeling was negative. I think it would be a mistake for SoFo to take this route. Do a search for "dongle" to see.
I agree about the O and 0, that's where I get hung up.

M

Rextilleon, I agree with your statement about the importance of this in the overall financial situation. It has little impact if any.

Proof?
V4 sold in record numbers. Arguably, record upgrades were purchased.
More proof?
Billyboy, who admits he goes through this everytime, is still waiting for V5 to come out so he can upgrade again.

M

I think most are missing the point of my "outrage" which wasn't the silly registration scheme, been there, done that, rather I was HUNG UP on because some SoFo employee thought it was more important to go to lunch then help a customer register software. SoFo apparently closes down at 11:30AM for a hour lunch. I was disconnected at 11:25 AM. It wasn't even that if they would have said, hey, I'm going to lunch in a few minutes can you call back, it was STARTING The process then leaving me hang. That pissed me off as it would any of you.

"It wasn't even that if they would have said, yet I'm going to lunch in a few minutes can you call back, it was STARTING The process then leaving me hang. That pissed me off as it would any of you."

Agreed.

M

I live in Manhattan. You guys have no idea what rude is. You live in a soft cuddly protected world in which a little aggravation is seen as a major crime. At least you're not clinging to a machine gun in the desert right now.

Rude is an employee putting going to lunch above doing her job. If any of you think any phone system cuts off calls in progress I have a bridge in Brooklyn you may be insterested in. <wink>

"At least you're not clinging to a machine gun in the desert right now."

You're right, we're not. Does that mean we can't complain about ANYTHING anymore?
People are dying of cancer, quit complaining about your migrain headache!

Give me a break!

M

"I have a bridge in Brooklyn you may be insterested in. <wink> "

Hey,
I already bought that during my "lunch break" yesterday. They even threw in a "san-gwich" as they say in Manhattan.
John

Last time I called Pinnacle Cust Serv, the guy gave me his e-mail address, shipped me an upgrade disk "under the table" - I should have paid :o)AND e-mailed me back to see if that disk patch solved my problem -

these customer relations things sometimes get screwed up

BFD - life IS too short - Besides my multimedia studio, I barely have time to golf, drink, and have "relations" with my wife !!!!!

You listed "relations" with your wife LAST...Not good!! :)

M

The main codec registration process will suddenly kick in when you use that codec. Until that occurs, the process just lies dormant in your computer like a trojan horse.

On the dongle issue, I should have said there are "some of us" who would buy a dongle version. A number of products I use have dongles and even though they too are a pain, I find them to be less frustrating over time that SoFo's registeration scheme.

I realize most people prefer to register on line. That's OK with me. I have wondered what could happen if SoFo went out of business or a creditor overtook the registeration scheme... Think about your investment in SoFo software and your co-dependency upon SoFo. My point is that if you can't talk to SoFo, eventually, you won't be able to run the software!

I'm sorry, but I still don't get what you mean by "main codec registration". Which codec are you refering to. I have had no issues so far with acquiring footage over firewire, editing, rendering or creating AVI files without VV3 having been "officially" registered yet with a code linked to the computer ID. It's run just fine. Maybe there is something that I'm not aware of.

I'm just trying to learn if I AM going to hit a land mine at 3AM some weekend.

And, yes, it is a licensed CD copy purchased from SF.

Thanks.

Ah . . . You're right ! My priorities are not correct . . .

I should have put "drinking" right after my Multi-Media Studio

(Man - I hope she doesn't see this)

Plasmavideo:

Try this....

At 11:25 am, take your computer and camera on a paying "shoot" so you can do some quick testing and editing of the scene while you are on the set.

Shoot three minutes of tape and capture it with Vegas Video. Then try to create an Mpeg1 or Mpeg2 on the spot so you can determine the best settings. The MainConcept trojan horse registration will pop up and demand registration and since you can't connect to SoFo through the internet, you will have to call SoFo on your cell phone, but SoFo customer service is out to lunch for the next hour. So, you have a crew of three and an irrate client to entertain while you wait for SoFo customer service to return from lunch so you can register the codec.

OK, so, I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. My point is that I've seen expensive shoots brought to a dead stop over gottcha's and the MainConcept gottcha could stop your show if you haven't registered it.

Gotcha!

I was confused by "main codec". I didn't realize you meant the "Main Concept" mpeg encoders. I was thinking you meant the "main" SF DV CODEC.

Sorry for the mis-understanding. Yep, I agree it's a pain.

PV

You guys are beginning to frighten me. Up until now I have been very happy with VV3 and have sung it's praises wherever I have been. But now I will be a little more cautious. I was quite unaware of the registration issue and it's implications. I registered by phone (I must have been lucky and caught them on a work break) and have never tried to use MPEG3, etc., and so that additional registration issue never came up. As I said in a previous post my computer is in the shop (they have now diagnosed a faulty motherboard which has to be sent back to Taiwan for warranty claim, which is another problem I am fighting) before I can install my Vegas 4+DVD. Dealing with the registration procedure, which if it is as difficult as has been related in this thread is one thing we should not have to endure, but if SoFo does drop Vegas and our software does eventually become useless, that is another matter that I think we all should be concerned about. We have a lot of money and time invested in this and I think it is incumbant on SoFo to give us some sort of assurance to renew our faith in our investment by modifying this unfriendly registration policy.
I await with interest a comment from SoFo.

>>...a faulty motherboard which has to be sent back to Taiwan for warranty claim

Ron,
Do you mean you have to wait for the actual motherboard to come back from Taiwan? And here we are discussing being hung up upon on the phone as a major insult! What kind of a country do you live in? If there is something wrong with your motherboard the seller should replace it pronto pronto and THEN worry about Taiwan or whatever. And he shouldn't hang up on you either (I said that last bit that to make sure BillyBoy knows I'm in the right spirit about things. I mean one wouldn't joke about things like this, would one?)

Tor

Me joke? Nah, never.

As far as sending the MoBo back or any part, usually you should be able to keep the current part, give them a credit card number, then they should ship a replacement, and a prepaid UPS shipping label to send back the defective part. Done that lots of times. The only reason they want a credit card number is in case you 'forget' to send back the original part they have a means to charge you for the replacement.

Sorry guys. I did not mean to sidetrack the main, and very important, issue of this thread with my motherboard comment. I am told that Azus will not replace a board without them testing it first and I now learn they have a facility in Northern California where my board has been sent. But there is also the possibility of another problem arising. Although my motherboard is only 15 months old and has a P4 CPU, the mounts on the latest ones are different and I may have to buy new ones. Oh, how I hate all these update problems. It would be nice if I could just buy a P4 computer and install Vegas 4, and edit happily forever after!
Side gripe finished. The point I was intending to make in my previous post was that I have not yet installed Vegas 4 in my computer and there are already questions about how long I am going to be able to use it. From what I have been able to pick up from this Forum, if any change is made to my computer hardware Vegas looks upon it as a new computer and I will have to go through the whole registration process again. Is this true? And if so what happens if something happens at SoFo and Vegas is discontinued and I have another MoBo, or hardrive or something, fail? Is that the end of my Vegas NLE? Don't get me wrong. I like my VV3 and I want Vegas 4 to succeed, but this does leave me concerned.

Stop talking like this I just know tonight I will have a nightmare. I'll wake up in the middle of the night after dreaming that I got a letter from Pinnacle saying they now own the VV4.

Honestly, I'm not concerned. Maybe I do see this through rose coloured glasses, I don't know.
I still have VV3, but only because I can't afford V4. If I could, I'd get it in a heartbeat!
I think SoFo got quite an awakening when they sold V4 in record numbers. Probably made them stand back and re-evaluate their options. Maybe they'll hang on to the desktop software bizz afterall; leave the riskiness of MediaSite for someone else.
If anything, someone will pick this up and run with it. It's too solid a package that some company can't see a good profit in it.
Worse comes to worse, I think there is probably a permanent activation code that they can give the registered users which activates the software without having to go through SoFo. Does anyone who knows about these things confirm that it's do-able?
I own SoFo software because of the complete package...great software, great support(for me anyways, I've never been hung-up on...;)), and great prices. Because of that I hope SoFo hangs on to the software.

M