[trlowe]

I have been a long-time PAYING user of Roxio's products (even before they were Roxio) and it seems to me that instead of getting better, Easy Media Creator is getting worse. What are your thoughts? Maybe if Roxio or Sonic (or whoever owns who now) hear enough folks complaining they will listen.

I just built a new computer (AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400, 2GB DDR, Win XP Pro SP2) and reinstalled everything from scratch. I also upgraded (if you can call it that) to EMC 8 from EMC 7 and while 7 (and 6 before that) worked fine, I can't get 8 to work. (I have a post in another forum about that.) I entered a "self-serve" support request several days ago and have not heard from Roxio yet. Additionally, they force you to use "Roxanne" for your initial support request and Roxanne doesn't even have an option for EMC 8 which has been out for several months. (It only goes through EMC 7.5).

The main application I use is the old faithful Creator Classic (which doesn't doesn't work anymore). This has always been a great application. Yet Roxio insists on just hanging more and more programs onto this central application. All it does is make the whole thing bigger and less stable. (I remember Easy CD Create 3.5 when this was the ONLY application there was!)

My intent is not to just rant about Roxio, but I am personally getting very tired of paying my hard-earned money for these products that get worse with each release instead of better. And also the fact that it is getting harder and harder to get any help from Roxio to resolve these issues. Just take a look through these forums and you will see that people are frustrated. It only looks better now since they flushed all of the forum content on 1/1/06.

I would like to hear from others as to your thoughts about this and what you think we could do to make it better.

[tednor]

they are slowly but surely dragging ALL of their brands through the mud. somebody should tell them about "ASSET PROTECTION" meaning they have a responsibility to shareholders to strengthen the reputation of each individual brand they market, not mix them all up in a soup bowl of **** and end up with not ONE decent product at the end of the day.

Edited: please refrain from using socially unacceptable words. If you want to rant, do so. Just keep it clean.

This post has been edited by ggrussell: 05 January 2006 - 09:19 PM

[jimbo206]

tednor, on Jan 6 2006, 12:04 AM, said:

they are slowly but surely dragging ALL of their brands through the mud. somebody should tell them about "ASSET PROTECTION" meaning they have a responsibility to shareholders to strengthen the reputation of each individual brand they market, not mix them all up in a soup bowl of **** and end up with not ONE decent product at the end of the day.

Edited: please refrain from using socially unacceptable words. If you want to rant, do so. Just keep it clean.

Have used it since version 6 and for me I had problems with 7 (on a dell P-3 450mz). Was watching the stats for the forums before they changed the format and from what I see there were fewer posts in version 8 compared to the entry of version 7 so I think it works more than it doesn't for most. Haven't had any problems running V-8 and have really pushed it by editing a 2 hour video (almost 8gb mpeg file!).

Did have a problem on an E-Machine T3265 with on-board video, after updated the video driver it works fine so when the guru's harp on updating the video drivers I understand firsthand.



E-Machine T3085 ,Athlon XP 3000+ , Windows XP-sp2, ATI-Radeon AIW-9600,

1gb ram, 160, 200 internal HD's (approx 1tb on the network)

NEC, I/O magic (internal), TDK,Pacific Digital (external) DVD burners

Sony TRV-19 Mini-DV and TRV-480 8mm Digital (cameras)

[patatrox]

jimbo206, on Jan 6 2006, 11:08 AM, said:

for the forums before they changed the format and from what I see there were fewer posts in version 8 compared to the entry of version 7 so I think it works more than it doesn't for most.

Bingo. Your assessment matches our own reporting for all support channels, not just the forums. There will always be those that complain because it doesn't work for them, and then there are those which ask for help when it doesn't work for them. Lately there seem to be a bit of the first kind.

[Patty]

patatrox, on Jan 6 2006, 08:24 AM, said:

Bingo. Your assessment matches our own reporting for all support channels, not just the forums. There will always be those that complain because it doesn't work for them, and then there are those which ask for help when it doesn't work for them. Lately there seem to be a bit of the first kind.

It seems to me that as software advances, people don't think it is necessary to upgrade their computers as well. I know for all the problems I have seen on the boards regarding v8, a great number of them are having problems because of this issue. I am not a techy and yet I have been aware that you can't put advanced software on out of date equipment. Seems to me that seems to be more of a problem then anything else. I have never had a problem with any of the Roxio programs I installed.

[trlowe]

I would agree with what was said that it appears to be working more than it is not working. I personally, have used versions 3.5, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 and really never had any problems up until 8. There is also some truth to the comments about people trying to use it when their hardware and software doesn't meet the requirements. However, for me, that is not the case. If the hardware is the problem, it is because it is too new. I just spent a bunch of money building a new system that is really cool. It also seems to be very stable. (AMD Athlon 64 Dual-Core 4400+, 2GB DDR, SATA HDD, nVidia 6600GT PCI-E graphics, Windows XP Pro SP2)

A previous reply said that only those with problems complain. But remember this: the ones with the problems PAID THEIR MONEY TOO and are entitled to some support from Roxio to help resolve those problems. They shouldn't just be ignored. If Roxio then determines that the customer's computer is not up to par then so be it. However, for Roxio to assume that everyone having problems has a sub-par computer or has, in some way, caused their own problems is unfair to those of us who haven't. We still need some help.

For instance, before the forums were "refreshed" I searched for others having problems with crashes in module MFC71.DLL (or whatever it was), I found several of them. However, the only responses from Roxio said "well I can't recreate the problem here." None of them ever even offered any suggestions as to how to fix the problem. Since that module is apparently a common Microsoft module, there has to be some suggestions Roxio could provide to help resolve the issue.

I'm not trying to just dog them, I know the support folks are very busy. However, I just would like for tem to be a little more helpful to those of us who pay their salaries by buying their products.

[dunroamin1]

I have been a user of EMC6-8 over the years and must admit that I have not had need to come to these boards before now!

I have also been caught out with not upgrading drivers etc, my machine I think is up to spec.

Quite a few of the problems have been down to me not keeping my machine regularly serviced, if you did not service your car it would soon stop!

Ok I have some problems still but working through them

In summary it is not down to Roxio all together


David

Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2, Pentium® 4 3.20GHz, Memory: 2048MB RAM,NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600, 160gb smasung HD, on board Audio (thinking of chaging this)

[patatrox]

trlowe, on Jan 6 2006, 09:50 PM, said:

A previous reply said that only those with problems complain. But remember this: the ones with the problems PAID THEIR MONEY TOO and are entitled to some support from Roxio to help resolve those problems. They shouldn't just be ignored. If Roxio then determines that the customer's computer is not up to par then so be it. However, for Roxio to assume that everyone having problems has a sub-par computer or has, in some way, caused their own problems is unfair to those of us who haven't. We still need some help.

Absolutely, but thats what technical support is for....

Webtickets submitted at http://selfserve.roxio.com will take at least a few days to get a response. If you need a more immediate response then call the 1-800 number for technical support, you will get to talk with a real person and not provide any billing information unless they discuss it with you first, and trust me, before you have a concern about getting charged $35 you should call first and discuss it.

[REDWAGON]

patatrox, on Jan 7 2006, 06:27 PM, said:

Absolutely, but thats what technical support is for....

Webtickets submitted at http://selfserve.roxio.com will take at least a few days to get a response. If you need a more immediate response then call the 1-800 number for technical support, you will get to talk with a real person and not provide any billing information unless they discuss it with you first, and trust me, before you have a concern about getting charged $35 you should call first and discuss it.

Based on what I have been reading so far in this particular post is that there are basically two general problems that everyone is having. Those that are having problems do to their computer hardware not being set correctly for one reason or another and those that are having problems not knowing how to make a particular situation or function work when using all the different abilities the program has to offer.

I am in the last group. I do think that the help files in the program are really lacking good substance, but in turn, I would much rather have this community forum that is provided by Roxio as my help rather than the help files provided.

When I first started using EMC 7 I was really lost at just how to make a certain function work, but it really didn't take long for me to get my answer when I joined this forum and started asking some of the knowledgeable persons how to get the job done. Another thing I notice in a lot of these posted questions is the OP really doesn't give enough information about their problem for anyone else to help them. It really pays to make sure you include all of the information you have about your problem to the board, rather than just state "I hate this program because....".

All in all, it is my personal opinion, that Roxio's EMC program is one of the best all around programs on the market for doing a whole lot of very complicated functions and it just makes sense to me that a lot of those using the program just don't "go to school" more about learning the program. And using this community board is one way of "Going To School" as I see it.

I am still quite a "ROOKIE" (well, I once was an "apprentice" whatever that constitutes) using EMC, but boy have I come a long way and am getting some terrific results from the program productions I am working on, thanks to some of the better know "gurus" that frequent this forum !!!

Frank....

[tommjean]

At $35 per support call, with Roxanne not even listing EMC8, and Weblog pretty much un-responsive... I have to wonder what empirical data the reports you are seeing regarding "those who ask for help" is based upon.

patatrox, on Jan 6 2006, 08:24 AM, said:

Bingo. Your assessment matches our own reporting for all support channels, not just the forums. There will always be those that complain because it doesn't work for them, and then there are those which ask for help when it doesn't work for them. Lately there seem to be a bit of the first kind.

[dpeteual1]

I have used each version and loved them (through 7.5). I have a new computer and do not think my system is a problem. MyDVD in v8 is not working at all. I used Sonic MyDVD 6.1 and loved it. MyDVD 8 in EMC8 won't work at all. When I go to preview mode, the computer just hangs. I have to use task manager to close EMC8. Unless something is done fairly soon, I have wasted my money.

[bill@mds.com]

trlowe, on Jan 5 2006, 06:37 PM, said:

I have been a long-time PAYING user of Roxio's products (even before they were Roxio) and it seems to me that instead of getting better, Easy Media Creator is getting worse. What are your thoughts? Maybe if Roxio or Sonic (or whoever owns who now) hear enough folks complaining they will listen.

...SNIP...

My intent is not to just rant about Roxio, but I am personally getting very tired of paying my hard-earned money for these products that get worse with each release instead of better. And also the fact that it is getting harder and harder to get any help from Roxio to resolve these issues. Just take a look through these forums and you will see that people are frustrated. It only looks better now since they flushed all of the forum content on 1/1/06.

I would like to hear from others as to your thoughts about this and what you think we could do to make it better.

No, it's definitely NOT your imagination. It is getting worse.

I just restarted my machine because EMC 8 just crashed it. I was 15 or 20 minutes into a detailed account of why I agree with you, and what sort of bugs I've discovered in the software, and why I think the user interface has gotten much worse.

I was running the Audio CD creator software in the background while writing here, so I could quote the exact application names, button names, menu names, etc. THEN I GOT ONE OF THOSE VERY-SCARY BLUE SCREENS OF DEATH. You know, the ones that say "if this is the first time you've seen this screen..." then it tells you how to recover (and advises you to uninstall whatever hardware of software caused it). These are worse than the "regular" blue screen of death.

The only other time I've seen this kind of blue screen is on my development machine (which is separate from my "office machine" where I run the Roxio stuff). I use a separate machine for doing hardware and software development, and have only ever seen 2 or 3 of those nasty, scary screens before. I can understand it happening there, while developing software to talk to unproven hardware boards, but I really can't understand how somebody can release "mainstream" commercial software that causes it! And, I wasn't even DOING anything with the software except going back and forth and loading mp3 filenames into the song list, etc (to document how the new "easy" Audio CD creator app puts songs in some messed-up order).

Suffice it to say that I'm not pleased with V8 at all. I should have done more research before plunking down my money, which I imagine there's no way to get back. I'm not usually one to mean-mouth software, but in this case, I really wish I hadn't purchased it. I was fairly pleased with V7.5, and just upgraded without thinking, ASSUMING it would fix some of the bugs I was experiencing there.

I'm not going to go thru all the details again, so you'll just have to take my word for it that I have a pretty new, pretty high-powered Dell PC, with an up-to-date WinXP Pro version, and I pretty much know what I'm doing. This Roxio V8 software is buggy. And, IMHO, harder to use. And, so far, it's been 8 days since I asked for help on a bug I found in the MyDvd application -- I haven't heard a peep yet.

After that crash, I'm going back to V7.5. At least the crashes there (mostly in the Label Creator) never caused a Scary Blue Screen Of Death.