36 replies to this topic

[photoniks]

Has anyone actually been able to get a response from Roxio's "Support"? I installed EMC 9 and though I can copy a jpeg CD fine, I can to that with windows. When I try to edit a home video loaded from  a DVD the edit screen freezes the computer.  I have to kill the power to the computer to unfreeze it. I can copy a loaded video to a DVD but the resulting DVD won't play on my DVD player. In short this program is of no value to me.
I have a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, 2GB ram, and 7200 rpm hard drive. Everything meets the "minimum" requirements on the box. They only thing I can see that might be the problem is my GPU whcih is an Nvidia GEForce4 MX 440. After much searching it seems that this card is not compatible with DirectX 9.0 whcih I do have installed on my computer. Is it my grapics card that is keeping this progarm from running or is this just more crummy software? If I had read the reviews of this software on Amazon.com there is no way I would have bought it. Sure enough a user reports crashes with videowave which is exactly what I am getting. I could have bought from adobe and probably had a better product--I suspect I would have at least gotten a response from the support group.
This is Feb. 6th---I sent my email for help on January 28th and still have gotton no response. As it stands now I am going to have to take my computer into Best Buy and pay a Tech to figure out why this crap will not run on my computer.

[gi7omy]

You're right regarding the graphics capability

What happens with the program is that it utilises the graphics chipset to render (the load on the CPU is intensive and it needs that extra amount from the GPU)

You could try updating the driver first (the program also requires the latest drivers)

I can't answer re Tech Support - this is a users' forum and none of us work for Roxio

http://www.nvidia.co...p_2k_93.71.html

Edited by gi7omy, 05 February 2007 - 06:25 PM.

[gi7omy]

You said that already

To reply - use the 'add reply' button at the bottom - not the "reply" one

[photoniks]

gi7omy, on Feb 5 2007, 06:24 PM, said:

You're right regarding the graphics capability

What happens with the program is that it utilises the graphics chipset to render (the load on the CPU is intensive and it needs that extra amount from the GPU)

You could try updating the driver first (the program also requires the latest drivers)

I can't answer re Tech Support - this is a users' forum and none of us work for Roxio

http://www.nvidia.co...p_2k_93.71.html

I did update the driver--or rather Gateway support (which works) remotely updated it for me. When I started the program per their request the computer froze again and I had to use the Microsoft Emergency Key ( power switch on surge suppressor). My son has an Apple with iMovie and it makes editing video look like child's play. It might be difficult to do but it seems to me that they could be more explicit as to what graphics cards are needed to run their software, maybe a list on their website. As far as I can see I am going to have to have someone replace the GPU, I am looking at the Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS 512 MB DDR2. I don't relly know anything about how they stack up other thanwhat I can find in internet searches. I have an AGP connection I understand (4x) so I will have to use one compatible to my motherboard. Gateway support suggested I could use a PCI socket on this board but I understand the PCI is not as good as AGP which is not as good as the newest PCIe. In any case I will have to have someone who knows the equipment install it. There are apparantly different voltages on ADP cards and the newer cards are 8x so I will have to be sure it is backward compatible. My ~73 dollar EMC 9 program is now going to cost me several hundred dollars more. If I had known that I would have been tempted just to pay someone to edit the video tapes for me.

I realize this is a user's forum: It strkes me as funny that Roxio seems to rely on its users to solve problems with their products. I was curious, seriously, if anyone has actually been able to get Roxio's support to respond to them. I saw one post where the guy has been waiting I think over a month. although I would no doubt have to update my GPU anyway I really would not have bought this if I had read any reviews on it--I was relying on word of mouth reputation. This is definately the last Roxio product I will ever buy.

Thanks for the info. I have never had to learn anything about the GPU and in the past only new it was better to have a seperate card than have the the computer processor do the graphics. I still know relatively little about them.

[gi7omy]

It's not so much that Roxio relies on us - they gave us this forum to do our own thing really (well within reasonable limits)

Graphics card - if your box has an AGP slot (you need to open the case and look inside - all white slots are PCI, one brown slot set slightly back from the others at the end is AGP, black, it's PCIe

However - AGP8x cards are supposed to be backward compatible - read this:

http://wiki.answers....n_a_4x_AGP_slot

Pricewise they aren't that bad and 256 MB should be sufficient.

The Gateway updated drivers - you may find that they aren't the latest ones anyway (most box shifters use the ones they got when they bought in the cards, which could have been some time ago but the card makers will have moved on since then

btw to replace a card is nothing more than open the case, either remove a screw or punch out a breakaway blanker, pop the card in the slot, replace the screw and box it up. Then install the drivers that came with it (sounds easy if you say it fast)

Edited by gi7omy, 06 February 2007 - 04:11 AM.

[snowman]

They are right, you have a better chance of getting answers here.  I submitted an email suppport request on Jan, 17, never to get a response.  If you live in a different time zone where you have little time to call support, you might as well forget any other type of response from Roxio, Sonic, or whoever you want to call them.  If they don't intend to provide support, they shouldn't offer it.  For the most part, their program is good.  If you do have any problems, the forum here is your only chance for assistance.

[gi7omy]

snowman, on Feb 6 2007, 04:22 PM, said:

If you live in a different time zone where you have little time to call support, you might as well forget any other type of response from Roxio, Sonic, or whoever you want to call them.

Actually Roxio do have Tech support in Germany, Ireland and a couple of other places as well as the California offices

[Tom at Roxio]

snowman, on Feb 6 2007, 08:22 AM, said:

They are right, you have a better chance of getting answers here.  I submitted an email suppport request on Jan, 17, never to get a response.  If you live in a different time zone where you have little time to call support, you might as well forget any other type of response from Roxio, Sonic, or whoever you want to call them.  If they don't intend to provide support, they shouldn't offer it.  For the most part, their program is good.  If you do have any problems, the forum here is your only chance for assistance.

Hi!

We do have support, through a variety of channels... RoxAnn, Knowledgebase, and our Web-based support system... http://selfserve.roxio.com/ ... and we have the best user forums anywhere, due to the support of many great Roxio customers who know our products inside and out.   Our Customer Care department doesn't provide support through e-mail - sorry.  The reason for this is that we use a database system to create support tickets, letting us categorize and track issues.  If you use the link provided above, you can enter a new ticket, which is just as fast and easy as e-mail... but provides better visibility of issues for us (allowing us to focus our resources on the biggest problems first).

While we don't officially provide support and answers to issues here in the user forums, we monitor issues being reported and discussed, to provide answers to questions that our power users might not know, for instance.

I work in Product Management, where we plan for new products.  I don't work in Customer Care... but I can tell you that we have a large and very competent organization.  So, again... if you need immediate help, follow the "contact support" link provided... http://selfserve.roxio.com/

Tom

photoniks, on Feb 5 2007, 05:08 PM, said:

Has anyone actually been able to get a response from Roxio's "Support"? I installed EMC 9 and though I can copy a jpeg CD fine, I can to that with windows. When I try to edit a home video loaded from  a DVD the edit screen freezes the computer.  I have to kill the power to the computer to unfreeze it. I can copy a loaded video to a DVD but the resulting DVD won't play on my DVD player. In short this program is of no value to me.
I have a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, 2GB ram, and 7200 rpm hard drive. Everything meets the "minimum" requirements on the box. They only thing I can see that might be the problem is my GPU whcih is an Nvidia GEForce4 MX 440. After much searching it seems that this card is not compatible with DirectX 9.0 whcih I do have installed on my computer. Is it my grapics card that is keeping this progarm from running or is this just more crummy software? If I had read the reviews of this software on Amazon.com there is no way I would have bought it. Sure enough a user reports crashes with videowave which is exactly what I am getting. I could have bought from adobe and probably had a better product--I suspect I would have at least gotten a response from the support group.
This is Feb. 6th---I sent my email for help on January 28th and still have gotton no response. As it stands now I am going to have to take my computer into Best Buy and pay a Tech to figure out why this crap will not run on my computer.

Photoniks - Easy Media Creator 9 requires a DirectX 9.0 compatible video card.  See http://www.roxio.com...quirements.html

This shouldn't be too expensive if you shop around.... about $40 at the low end.  It sounds like your system is a few years old, so the video card is probably plugged in to an AGP slot.  Just be sure you buy an older AGP card, and not one of the newer video cards designed to plug into a PCIe slot.  And, of course, be sure it is DirectX 9.0 compatible.

Tom

[Rafiki]

Tom at Roxio, on Feb 7 2007, 05:03 PM, said:

Hi!

We do have support, through a variety of channels... RoxAnn, Knowledgebase, and our Web-based support system... http://selfserve.roxio.com/ ... and we have the best user forums anywhere, due to the support of many great Roxio customers who know our products inside and out.   Our Customer Care department doesn't provide support through e-mail - sorry.  The reason for this is that we use a database system to create support tickets, letting us categorize and track issues.  If you use the link provided above, you can enter a new ticket, which is just as fast and easy as e-mail... but provides better visibility of issues for us (allowing us to focus our resources on the biggest problems first).

While we don't officially provide support and answers to issues here in the user forums, we monitor issues being reported and discussed, to provide answers to questions that our power users might not know, for instance.

I work in Product Management, where we plan for new products.  I don't work in Customer Care... but I can tell you that we have a large and very competent organization.  So, again... if you need immediate help, follow the "contact support" link provided... http://selfserve.roxio.com/

Tom
Photoniks - Easy Media Creator 9 requires a DirectX 9.0 compatible video card.  See http://www.roxio.com...quirements.html

This shouldn't be too expensive if you shop around.... about $40 at the low end.  It sounds like your system is a few years old, so the video card is probably plugged in to an AGP slot.  Just be sure you buy an older AGP card, and not one of the newer video cards designed to plug into a PCIe slot.  And, of course, be sure it is DirectX 9.0 compatible.

Tom

I have a DirectxV9.0 compatible card (see signature), have DirectX9.0c installed, have tested it using DxDiags (all passed), have the latest drivers from NVidia (V91.47), yet STILL can't get any of the video components in EMC9 to work.  Please see my post http://forums.suppor...showtopic=17153.

[Tom at Roxio]

Rafiki, on Feb 8 2007, 12:21 AM, said:

I have a DirectxV9.0 compatible card (see signature), have DirectX9.0c installed, have tested it using DxDiags (all passed), have the latest drivers from NVidia (V91.47), yet STILL can't get any of the video components in EMC9 to work.  Please see my post http://forums.suppor...showtopic=17153.

Rafiki,
This is another issue... best to handle it in the other thread.  

Just off the top of my head, I would say that it looks like your computer is underpowered.  

What are you doing down there?  Nuclear physics?  A quad-core Xeon!


Tom

[aydeet]

I wish I had read the Amazon reviews... I have had my computer crash several times while editing vidowave    I have a brand NEW DELL dual core.. (one month old)  so its not my hardware! drivers..etc

[grandpabruce]

aydeet, on Feb 8 2007, 09:07 AM, said:

I wish I had read the Amazon reviews... I have had my computer crash several times while editing vidowave    I have a brand NEW DELL dual core.. (one month old)  so its not my hardware! drivers..etc

Your onboard video chip is the problem.  New onboard chips are the same as old onboard chips.  They don't cut it.

[Rafiki]

Tom at Roxio, on Feb 8 2007, 07:03 AM, said:

Rafiki,
This is another issue... best to handle it in the other thread.  

Just off the top of my head, I would say that it looks like your computer is underpowered.  

What are you doing down there?  Nuclear physics?  A quad-core Xeon!
Tom

Hi Tom,

Actually I want to produce a film and decided to buy a "grunt" machine since being involved in the IT industry, sitting around for PCs to do their work is not my idea of productive time, so I thought this Dell build would see me sweet. I've had issues with the HDD access speed on the 490 and seems to be a design fault, so Dell have agreed to take it back and refund my $$.  Apart from that it's a rocket ship.

Sad part is since I bought EMC9 in September I haven't been able to create anything other than burn a few CDs, which I could have done with the installed (free) Sonic software. I've tried various threads and found one where someone else was having the same problem with video cutting and all seem related to DirectX.

My entire business (IT) uses Dells for all sorts of applications, yet it seems the forum clearly shows Dells have an issue with EMC9. I'd then ask why don't Roxio test EMC9 on some Dells and see if it is a Dell problem or a Roxio problem? Surely the large installed Dell base would make it in Roxio's interests to get it to work because if I had a dollar for everytime someone on this forum has suggested "update your drivers" as a stock answer, I'd be wealthier I'm sure!

I'm now at my wits end having run all the diags I can on DirectX, still to no avail.

If EMC9 doesn't work on my new hardware when I get it, then the I guess the CD will become an expensive coaster!

[gi7omy]

Problem with running tests on Dells Rafiki is there ain't no such animal as a 'standard' Dell - they come in all sorts and flavours and I doubt that Roxio would have the space to put even all this month's models in for testing, not to mention all the other box-shifters.

However, what does happen is that Dell obtains a modified version of the Roxio s/w to their specs and that's what's installed on their boxes. It's possible that there is some conflict between the OEM s/w and the full suite (not being down there I can't say for certain) and you would need to run a registry cleaner to completely wipe all Sonic and Roxio references out of the registry after uninstalling the Dell version.

Problems with Dells - possibly due to the fact there are a lot more of them out there in percentage terms, but as a rule of thumb, most of the 'I want a computer, ship me one right away' versions are built to the cheapest specs - onboard graphics that don't quite cut it. It's different in your case tho. One thing tho (and it's the reason why it's always mentioned) is that graphics cards can spend quite a few months moving round and sitting on shelves once they leave the factory and the CD that ships with them is usually out of date by the time it ends up on someone's desk, so updating the graphics has become standard advice.

[Beerman]

As a many year Dell buyer, I can say, if you get the pre packaged deals, you're wasting your money.  The best way is to customize it.  I get mine with the minimum of ram and add my own.  I usually add my own dvd drives but use their dedicated video and audio instead of onboard stuff.  Then, I wipe the drive clean, partition the drives and reinstall the OS and I've been very happy.  In the last decade I've purchased 18 desktops and laptops from Dell and only twice did I have to use the warranty. Once for a hard drive (which I could have made work if I wanted to) and once for a new motherboard because the NIC went bad.  They took care of me quickly both times.
Do not get the cheaper models as you do get what you pay for and this not only goes for Dell but all the major brands.

[sknis]

Rafiki, on Feb 8 2007, 02:21 AM, said:

I have a DirectxV9.0 compatible card (see signature), have DirectX9.0c installed, have tested it using DxDiags (all passed), have the latest drivers from NVidia (V91.47), yet STILL can't get any of the video components in EMC9 to work. Please see my post http://forums.suppor...showtopic=17153.

In that earlier post, you said you had a GeForce but in your signature, you listed a Quadro FX.

Double check on that video driver. I went to the nVidia site and thought that 91.36 was the latest for your "Quadro" specific card. Also notice that they do not "guarantee" the drivers from their pages. What they seem to suggest is that you choose the driver for the application. I don't see Roxio on the list but a competing company lists 91.36 as the one that is certified. Just for information, 93.71 is the latest driver for a lot of the "normal cards".

Edited by sknis, 13 February 2007 - 07:19 AM.

[Rafiki]

sknis, on Feb 13 2007, 07:15 AM, said:

In that earlier post, you said you had a GeForce but in your signature, you listed a Quadro FX.

Double check on that video driver. I went to the nVidia site and thought that 91.36 was the latest for your "Quadro" specific card. Also notice that they do not "guarantee" the drivers from their pages. What they seem to suggest is that you choose the driver for the application. I don't see Roxio on the list but a competing company lists 91.36 as the one that is certified. Just for information, 93.71 is the latest driver for a lot of the "normal cards".

Yep.   Typo due to confusion from anoher post which listed GForce and Quadro with similar drivers but different versions.  I upgraded from Quadro 91.36 (latest on US site) to 91.47 (latest on UK site!), but the removal and reinstall of the driver required a removal and reinstallation of EMC9, plus the #$^@ thing wouldn't then recognise the CD Key, so I had to find the patch to get it installed. After all this the previous error remained.  I believe the 93.71 version is for the GForce but I'll confirm.

Maybe better to reformat with a clean OS, no IE7, no WMP11 etc etc and see how it goes. Just need to find more hours to do this, after which I still have no gaurantee.

[gi7omy]

I wipe and reformat every 6 - 8 months anyway - I don't know about you but I usually wind up with a lot of orts and dregs in the registry that are just too much hassle to remove manually so the wipe is better (nothing like starting with a clean slate)

But before doing the wipe, I'd recommend you go here and download their latest full file and the incrementals - thay're ALL the MS patches rolled up in one .exe file (saves a lot of time manually doing updates after a re-install

http://www.autopatcher.com/

[grandpabruce]

Rafiki, on Feb 13 2007, 02:28 PM, said:

Yep.   Typo due to confusion from anoher post which listed GForce and Quadro with similar drivers but different versions.  I upgraded from Quadro 91.36 (latest on US site) to 91.47 (latest on UK site!), but the removal and reinstall of the driver required a removal and reinstallation of EMC9, plus the #$^@ thing wouldn't then recognise the CD Key, so I had to find the patch to get it installed. After all this the previous error remained.  I believe the 93.71 version is for the GForce but I'll confirm.

Maybe better to reformat with a clean OS, no IE7, no WMP11 etc etc and see how it goes. Just need to find more hours to do this, after which I still have no gaurantee.

What do you mean you had to remove EMC 9 to install the video card driver?  That makes absolutely no sense at all.

[Rafiki]

grandpabruce, on Feb 13 2007, 01:53 PM, said:

What do you mean you had to remove EMC 9 to install the video card driver?  That makes absolutely no sense at all.

I uninstalled the old vodeo driver (V91.36) and rebooted, installed the new one (V91.47) at the standard XP 1024x768 desktop and rebooted then when I went to run EMC9 it asked me for the .msi package, which of course is embedded in the .exe I downloaded, so I couldn't point it at the .msi.

I also couldn't understand why EMC9 now wanted to reinstall iteslf so I cancelled the operation, but each time I hit cancel, it would roll back and start again!  I couldn't stop it.  The only way I could stop it was to kill the process and reboot. I tried again and it did the same thing, so I had to completely remove EMC9 and reinstall.