Step 5 of the eight step Manual Activation Instructions say to

5) In the Offline Product Activation window, copy the product 25 Digit product key listed in orange. Do not close this window.

In my case no 25 digit number is shown. I let Roxio control the colors and the message "Invalid product key" shows up as orange on a yellow background. I also took the advice posted in this forum to turn off antivirus protection before beginning this procedure.

If anyone has any ideas as to what I could try to accomplish this activation of the MPEG2 codec I'd appreciate it.

here's my post from Aug. 2007 on how I got my EMC 9 & mpeg2 activated

http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?...st&p=142881

it involves a bit of typing instead of using the "automated system"
took me a while to find it but I knew it was in here.

your key is on the back of one of the CD envelopes in a "Boxed Set"
I don't have info on where the key can be found for a download purchase though

if it still spits the key back at you you might have to do a total wipe & clean install of EMC9

cheers
hope this helps

Hi Richard

Thanks very much for this reply.

Still no joy.

My Easy media Creator 9 came via a download followed a week or so later by two CD's via snail mail. No sign of a 25 digit ID number anywhere.

The product ID number that I do have consists of 17 alphanumeric characters starting with


DK-

and ending with

-HHXHC.

I had previously owned a Easy Media Creator 6 and that came in a box. (I still have the box.) It also had a 17 alphanumeric character product ID starting with

FB-

and ending with

-P9NY7. Again, no sign of a 25 digit number anywhere in that set.

It's rather disappointing that Roxio (Sonic Solutions) gives me no support in simply trying to find my (legal) product ID number for Easy Media Creator 9.

Thanks for your help.

Ethan
earonoff@ca.rr.com

it's been a while since I looked at the box & CD envelopes,

(assuming we're both talking about EMC9)
the first key to for the product itself is on the back of one of the envelopes in the boxed set
without that key you can't use any of the product,

there's 2 "activations" one for the product and then one for the MPEG2

I'll look at my stuff this week and post back about what I have,
(which key has how many characters)

but I won't be back in until Wed.

cheers

The offline activation window should have a 25 digit product key, that you enter into a product id box, after you go to www.activation.roxio.com/activateme/

Once you do that, you should be given another 25 digit product key, that you enter into the blank boxes, on the original offline activation window that showed up.

This is a reply to 'grandpabruce'. (I like your choice of a name; I should have called myself 'grandpaethan'.) Thanks for your reply but as I said in my original message there is no product identification number shown in the offline activation window. It is supposed to be in orange and the statement "Invalid product key" shows up in orange but no number appears. As I browsed around in this forum I saw that other people had exactly the same problem, without any resolution shown. But thanks for trying to help.

Is this the procedure that you followed for manual activation http://kb.roxio.com/search.aspx?URL=/conte...S=set-locale=en

I am trying to get some word on what may be wrong, with the 25 digit product key, not showing in the offline activation box. I don't know when I will get an answer, though.

Hi Grandpabruce

I greatly appreciate your following up on this problem. If you learn anything else that I could try I will do so.

Meanwhile I went and bought Roxio Creator 2009 although I have not yet tried to install it. I worry that it might louse up the Easy Media Creator 9 because the subprograms of EMC9 that do work work quite well.

Tnx again.

Ethan




This ia a reply to the post from Ogdens shown here:

Is this the procedure that you followed for manual activation http://kb.roxio.com/search.aspx?URL=/conte...S=set-locale=en


Yes, that is the procedure I have been following (the manual activation procedure).

I went looking through my files etc.

> on the CD envelope is a 17 character code
this is required during installation

after I installed
here's the window I got for the mpeg2 activation



if yours isn't showing the orange 25 digit code (under the Red Lines I used to cover it)
then the installation is probably bad
and you'll probably keep bumping up against this wall
until you do a clean install from the CD

I'm no "Expert" on the intricate details or "bugs" of the program
but I have been doing Software & OS installs since Win3.1 & DOS 5.0
and usually there's no way around an "Invalid Code" / "Invalid Key"
except reinstall, or if there's an opportunity to enter a different key

Cheers

I am not certain that the installation is the problem. The Roxio offline activation does not seem to have been working for a long while.

I have been trying to get some information, from Roxio, on this problem.

Thanks GrandpaBruce and Richard Fdisk.

I tried Richard Fdisk's suggestion to completely uninstall EMC9 and then reinstall it. I then tried the manual activation of the MPEG2 codec. Still no joy.

Richard Fdisk showed the window he received as part of the activation process and I thought that I would show the one I received. Here it is:

Oops! I have the window as a jpg file on my hard drive but don't see how to insert it into this message. Standard copy and paste doesn't seem to be available. If anyone can tell me the procedure I'll show the image. In any event the colors are somewhat different from those that Richard Fdisk shows, and, of course, the 25 digit code is not present.

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

You can use ImageShack to post your picture. It is free.

http://img226.imageshack.us/

[quote name='grandpabruce' date='Mar 24 2009, 06:05 AM' post='265018']
You can use ImageShack to post your picture. It is free.







Thanks GrandpaBruce. I used ImageShack and I hope the image comes thru OK. Interesting to see the difference between the window that I got and the one that Richard fdisk sent to the forum.

Ethan

Ethan, it came through just fine. Yes, that is the screen you should get, but you should be getting it with the numbers to use, when you go to activateme.

I have still not heard back from Roxio.

OK, thanks much for your help, GrandpaBruce. If you do learn anything about this problem from Roxio support I will certainly try it out. Right now I think I have reached a dead end. I did contact Roxio about this and they said that I had a legacy product that they could not support. Actually I bought the Easy Media Creator 9 less than two years ago and I did not need a lot of support - only the 25 digit identification number needed to activate the MPEG2 codec. And, of course, I did have the 17 character alphanumeric serial key (which is all they ever sent me in the first place). I hope that most of the other users of this software were more fortunate than I was.

Thanks again.

ethan a
earonoff@ca.rr.com

Ethan, did you ever check your display properties, especially the DPI settings, as asked earlier? I only mentioned it then & now because your screen shot didn't look quite the same as Richard's. The text and the activation key boxes in particular are taking up more of the window on yours. I'm just wondering if those settings is why it's not displaying the number. Just a thought.

(The following is a very long tedious discussion of my struggles with this problem. I apologize to anyone who reads this and wonders why I spend so much time discussing this problem. I would suggest that only people who are struggling with this activation problem take the time to read this although I suspect that my friends grandpaBruce, Larry and Richard fdisk, who have made many useful suggestions, will also read it.)

I thought Larry's suggestion was excellent. I don't use a standard (for my system) setting of 96 dpi but use a custom 144 dpi. But now I can't verify if this would have worked (manually activate the MPEG2 codec).

Here's what happened. A day ago I decided to install the new Roxio Creator 2009 that I purchased a week ago from Roxio. I was reluctant to do this because the subprograms of EMC9 that work work quite well, as I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread. This new C2009 worked well and EMC9 also worked well in the functions in which I use it: copying discs, recordnow, a few others. This seemed a good solution to me: use EMC9 where it does work and where I am used to it, and use C2009 in other uses involving video.

But after seeing Larry's suggestion I went to the standard 96 dpi and tried a video function in EMC9. And before getting the message that my MPGE2 codec needed activation it said that I had a bad installation. Although I had uninstalled and reinstalled EMC9 a few days ago (at Richard fdisk's suggestion) this was the first time it had told me that I had a bad installation.

I then went back to my custom 144 dpi - no change.

I then uninstalled and then reinstalled EMC9 and to my surprise everything worked: it never told me that I had to activate my MPEG2 codec! I could have left it like that but didn't think that was fair to myself or to others who might be struggling with this activation problem.

I then completely uninstalled EMC9 and C2009, trying to make a fresh start as if I was a new user.

I installed EMC9 and, again, everything worked. It never said that my MPEG2 codec needed activation.

I then installed my C2009 and it works fine, as does EMC9.

What can I conclude from this? When I installed C2009 it made one or more changes to my system which were not undone by the uninstall of that program. (I can prove this easily. When I first installed C2009 I had it play a dvd movie (a Woody Allen movie named "Alice.") After completely uninstalling C2009 and then reinstalling it and then testing it with "Alice" the program asked me if I wanted to continue this movie from where I had stopped it the last time I was playing it and when I said yes, that was what it did. So some information is retained on the computer across an uninstall followed by a reinstall.) I don't know what these changes were but apparently they were sufficient that EMC9 no longer asked me to activate my MPEG2 codec. (As was pointed out in other threads on this topic in the Roxio forum the new versions of Roxio, including C2009, never ask for this activation.)

So I have both programs (EMC9 and C2009) installed. Both work fine. I am never asked to activate my MPEG2 codec. But I can not verify Larry's suggestion to use the standard 96 dpi in order to see the 25 digit code required for manual activation of my MPEG2 codec.

My thanks to everyone who made suggestions concerning this problem.

You're welcome, and I am glad that you got everything up and running. I don't know if Larry's suggestion on the 96 dpi would have worked with the offline activation, but I do know, that you will possibly have screen problems, with some of the programs, if you don't have it set to 96 dpi. If you do run into problems, set it to 96 dpi to see if clears them up.

Also, you don't always get the activation notice, right away. Sometimes, you have to use either VideoWave, or MyDVD, many times before it asks for the activation. If it does, and you can't activate, try Larry's suggestion.

Hi GrandpaBruce

I'm glad you mentioned this. I would have found it annoying a week or two from now to once again start getting the notice that I had to activate my MPEG2 codec. Now I'm mentally prepared for this event. It's interesting that the Roxio software is so sensitive to boundary conditions that it sometimes acts one way and then the other way.

Once before Roxio had let me down. I had created many (50 or 60) data discs using their "Drag to Disc" software (a big mistake - I don't do this any more). When I got the EMC9 suite its DragtoDisc program could not read any of these old DragtoDisc disks. Luckily I found the "CD Roller" program which was able to read every one of these disks - not free but worth every penny.

I think I found CD Roller via Google. I think next week I'll browse in the Roxio forum to see what it says about this issue.

Have a good weekend.

Ethan

Using Drag to Disc, to burn your important data, is like playing Russian Roulette. You will eventually lose your data. Use Creator Classic, instead of Drag to Disc.