Goodbye Roxio

[mka]

I have used the Roxio Easy Media Creator (EMC) products for many years and I really liked them. They were easy to use and let me do what I wanted to. Looking at this forum I know that others have had problems, but I guess I was lucky and was not one of them. This all started to change with version 8. Installing EMC 8 on a new system about 4+ years ago I discovered that it causes Windows 2000 to give an error message when one wanted to shut down. It took hours of installing and reinstalling the operating system and one piece of software at a time before I established that it was EMC 8. The bad thing was that uninstalling EMC 8 left crap on the system which continued to cause this error message. Fortunately, I had a dual boot system and EMC 8 installed ok under Windows XP. However, Label Creator no longer worked for me. Since I had another label creating program (unfortunately not as nice though) I decided to live with EMC 8. I just built a new system and wanted to run EMC 9 on it. The installation was as fresh as it could get (and I had all the latest drivers, etc.). Unfortunately, I cannot get EMC 9 does to show any background photos in the menus. All I get is a black screen. I can add videos to the project and they sort of play but without the menu backgrounds, the program is worthless to me.

 

I am a retired computer science professor who knows something about software and software development having been involved in a lot of it. All programs have bugs but I cannot remember any commercial software program that I ever used that had such gross bugs. Roxio seems to have gone down hill. The only way that I can explain the problems with EMC is by a lack of proper testing that is unacceptable. Some of their managers should get fired (and perhaps some sloppy programmers too) for letting software like this out their door.

 

I am giving up on Roxio but I am very, very sad about it because, as I said earlier, I really liked the product. I am looking at other programs right now, but suspect that I will always miss EMC. Currently, I am trying the Ulead Visual Studio 10+. Their editing module works pretty well but there is no separate menu creation module (which is really stupid and the person that decided on this mode should be removed from any decision making process in the future). Menu creation is a step in writing a project to a disk or file. Menus are created on the fly and after the project is written it is lost and would have to be recreated from scratch. I like the way that Roxio did it. The menu stayed as part of the project and one could always tweak it anytime.

 

(Note to Roxio: Ulead's program may have bugs but the basics seem to work out of the box so why can't yours? Maybe it's time to get new managers and/or programmers.)

 

By the way I cannot go back to earlier "working" versions of EMC because I am now moving on to HD videos and want all the features needed to work with those.

 

So, goodbye Roxio. I'll miss you. In principle you have a great program and it's a shame you are botching it.

[ggrussell]

For someone that is a professor of Computer Science, I'm not too impressed with his knowledge of computers and his lack of patience. Only 2 posts and never even bothered to see if there WAS a solution here. With the black screen problem, It's likely that his video card does not fully support DirectX 9.

[FwFdfireman]

Hmmmmm..........I am no software programmer and I sure don't know a lot about the inner workings of Windows BUT I have been playing on computers since Windows 98/Me and the one thing I learned was......

 

Don't rush out and buy MS latest and greatest OS. Every release, no matter how much they say they tested, tends to be buggy. After a bit they start releasing fixes, updates and patches. The "Professor" lambasted Roxio and failed to mention MS and how his problems COULD be related to a buggy newly released OS.

 

Works perfect on my XP machine.........and I WON'T buy Vista until at least a year goes buy and I am ready to lay out the money for a DX10 compliant video card.

 

In closing......the only true mistake Roxio made was not getting the "Professor" to write the software. Oh well, maybe next time.

[gi7omy]

He reminds me a bit of a guy I studied with - absolutely brilliant when it came to electrical theory, but one time we were out with the model aircraft club and he was fiddling about with his radio control system because it 'didn't have the range it should'. He went on and on about maybe re-designing the front end to improve sensitivity, etc, etc and the subsequent conversation went like this:

 

"If I replace the RF amp transister with such and such, that will improve things"

"Davie - have you got a meter in your box?"

"Yes why?"

"Give it to me for a minute"

 

I stuck the meter across the batteries and just said

"Go buy a new set of batteries - they're down to 20% of what they should be"

 

[lubricity]

I was told to disconnect one hard drive and one burner. So the machine wasn't getting confused during the copy process.

Sarcassum I don't need right now. reading through this forum. Another big fear is, once it starts to work. All the OTHER problems the people are having.

Like I said earlier, this software is a joke. I guess if I wanted to plant my butt in front of the computer 5 hours a day, this may work.

I'm going this morning to pick up Nero. I'll report back with the results. If they are just as bad, I'll let you guys know.

[FwFdfireman]

LMAO.................Exactamundo!!

[FwFdfireman]

I was told to disconnect one hard drive and one burner. So the machine wasn't getting confused during the copy process.

Sarcassum I don't need right now. reading through this forum. Another big fear is, once it starts to work. All the OTHER problems the people are having.

Like I said earlier, this software is a joke. I guess if I wanted to plant my butt in front of the computer 5 hours a day, this may work.

I'm going this morning to pick up Nero. I'll report back with the results. If they are just as bad, I'll let you guys know.

 

Nero wouldn't work for me......Roxio EMC 9 did PERFECTLY. Nero may work for you and if so then that is good. But you will find over in their forums just as many of the same kind of posts about people having problems. It is frustrating to buy software and it doesn't work on your machine and you can't get the problems solved.

 

Software developers, they are an easy bunch to jump on, but I wouldn't want their job. Do you realize the hundreds of thousands of machine combinations out there they are trying to write software for?

 

OSs, MBs, graphics, NTSC or FAT32, Raid or no raid setup, bios settings, overclocked?, drivers and on and on and on.

 

If there is EVER a software developer that can write a program that works on every single computer.....well he or she would be worth ten times their weight in gold. Haven't seen one yet.

[grandpabruce]

Nero wouldn't work for me......Roxio EMC 9 did PERFECTLY. Nero may work for you and if so then that is good. But you will find over in their forums just as many of the same kind of posts about people having problems.

 

Nero has forums? I know I have seen the cd Freaks forums, but I never could find a Nero sponsored forum.

 

Both Roxio and Nero have worked for me, although I haven't purchased Nero since version 6 Ultra, which offered nothing as far as video editing.

 

Problems with software are very frustrating. Not all programs work on all machines, unfortunately.

[FwFdfireman]

Nero has forums? I know I have seen the cd Freaks forums, but I never could find a Nero sponsored forum.

 

Both Roxio and Nero have worked for me, although I haven't purchased Nero since version 6 Ultra, which offered nothing as far as video editing.

 

Problems with software are very frustrating. Not all programs work on all machines, unfortunately.

 

Actually, no, Nero doesn't itself have a forum. Sorry I misled on that one. I was referring to AfterDawn's website which is another great forum for DVD anything, Burning, Editing and tons of other stuff. They have one section solely for Nero. http://www.afterdawn.com

 

Nero 6 seemed to be the more stable version. I had purchased Nero7, the latest release. No go for me.

[Xyzzy]

While we are on the subject, it really makes me wonder why on Earth Roxio doesn't include any kind of debugging tool in their EMC suite.

You know, check "debug" box here and here and make program crash, then email us this-and-this file. Instead we have to write lenghty diatribes, still maybe missing the point.

 

Can someone tell it to me, please? I know it is easy, I know it is useful, so why not?

 

X.

[grandpabruce]

Actually, no, Nero doesn't itself have a forum. Sorry I misled on that one. I was referring to AfterDawn's website which is another great forum for DVD anything, Burning, Editing and tons of other stuff. They have one section solely for Nero. http://www.afterdawn.com

 

Nero 6 seemed to be the more stable version. I had purchased Nero7, the latest release. No go for me.

 

I visit Afterdawn forums quite often. There is much useful information there, on many different computer related problems. I have been a member there, almost as long as I have been a member here. (March 2004)

[ggrussell]

I know it is easy,

Are you a programmer? Personally, I thnk that would be just another nuance. Most people wouldn't bother emailing it even if all they had to do was press a button plus you're adding more bloat and having error trapping code in memory at all times could add more CPU overhead. I can see having error trapping code for beta though and then remove it for final release.

[Beerman]

You mention problems but I only see 1 other post by you recently and it appears, you haven't asked anyone for help. Why not?

[bimicher]

I have used the Roxio Easy Media Creator (EMC) products for many years and I really liked them. They were easy to use and let me do what I wanted to. Looking at this forum I know that others have had problems, but I guess I was lucky and was not one of them. This all started to change with version 8. Installing EMC 8 on a new system about 4+ years ago I discovered that it causes Windows 2000 to give an error message when one wanted to shut down. It took hours of installing and reinstalling the operating system and one piece of software at a time before I established that it was EMC 8. The bad thing was that uninstalling EMC 8 left crap on the system which continued to cause this error message. Fortunately, I had a dual boot system and EMC 8 installed ok under Windows XP. However, Label Creator no longer worked for me. Since I had another label creating program (unfortunately not as nice though) I decided to live with EMC 8. I just built a new system and wanted to run EMC 9 on it. The installation was as fresh as it could get (and I had all the latest drivers, etc.). Unfortunately, I cannot get EMC 9 does to show any background photos in the menus. All I get is a black screen. I can add videos to the project and they sort of play but without the menu backgrounds, the program is worthless to me.

 

I am a retired computer science professor who knows something about software and software development having been involved in a lot of it. All programs have bugs but I cannot remember any commercial software program that I ever used that had such gross bugs. Roxio seems to have gone down hill. The only way that I can explain the problems with EMC is by a lack of proper testing that is unacceptable. Some of their managers should get fired (and perhaps some sloppy programmers too) for letting software like this out their door.

 

I am giving up on Roxio but I am very, very sad about it because, as I said earlier, I really liked the product. I am looking at other programs right now, but suspect that I will always miss EMC. Currently, I am trying the Ulead Visual Studio 10+. Their editing module works pretty well but there is no separate menu creation module (which is really stupid and the person that decided on this mode should be removed from any decision making process in the future). Menu creation is a step in writing a project to a disk or file. Menus are created on the fly and after the project is written it is lost and would have to be recreated from scratch. I like the way that Roxio did it. The menu stayed as part of the project and one could always tweak it anytime.

 

(Note to Roxio: Ulead's program may have bugs but the basics seem to work out of the box so why can't yours? Maybe it's time to get new managers and/or programmers.)

 

By the way I cannot go back to earlier "working" versions of EMC because I am now moving on to HD videos and want all the features needed to work with those.

 

So, goodbye Roxio. I'll miss you. In principle you have a great program and it's a shame you are botching it.

 

You were running EMC 8 in 2003 or earlier? How were you able to do that since EMC * was not released until sometime late 2005 at the earliest (if my memory seves me correctly)?

[ogdens]

mka

 

Goodbye.

[lubricity]

Im not a computer professor. I have had two days of hell.

I'm taking my #9 back tomorrow and get my money back.

I'm not computer ILLITERATE. But expect software to work a little with some tweaking. This software is like going back when the Apple first came out. Someone didn't do their homework.

I have had my machine apart and unplugged hardware, uploaded drivers, and reconfigured software.

But never copied a DVD full of information. Just DATA from the hard drive.

You guys that have hours to tweak your machines are fine, but I have more things to do with my time.

Thanks for the one guy that tried to help.

[bimicher]

Im not a computer professor. I have had two days of hell.

I'm taking my #9 back tomorrow and get my money back.

I'm not computer ILLITERATE. But expect software to work a little with some tweaking. This software is like going back when the Apple first came out. Someone didn't do their homework.

I have had my machine apart and unplugged hardware, uploaded drivers, and reconfigured software.

But never copied a DVD full of information. Just DATA from the hard drive.

You guys that have hours to tweak your machines are fine, but I have more things to do with my time.

Thanks for the one guy that tried to help.

 

You certainly gave up easily. You never really explained exactly what you are doing, what program you are using and did not even tell us what burners you have when asked. It is very hard to offer much help without any information. From the little info you did supply, it just may be that you need to update the firmware for your burners.

[lubricity]

You certainly gave up easily. You never really explained exactly what you are doing, what program you are using and did not even tell us what burners you have when asked. It is very hard to offer much help without any information. From the little info you did supply, it just may be that you need to update the firmware for your burners.

I put the info in burning problems. I did upgrade the firmware.

Give up? I spent $95 for a program that doesn't even come close to working.

I have NOT made one DVD successfully. And I am only copying data off my hard drive. No fancy videos. This software belongs back with the software engineers. It is PATHETIC.

Even the Online Help button doesn't work. A complete joke.

I will chalk up the 10 hours of computer work as a lesson learned. And I will put my machine back together now.

 

[

[gi7omy]

Out of idle curiosity - what possessed you to take the computer apart?

 

To update drivers, defrag the disk, install without any background apps, including A/V) which btw is recommended on ALL installations if you actually read what it says, doesn't need a screwdriver - it's all SOFTWARE and not ONE bnit of hardware (unless of course you don't have a graphics card that's capable of doing the job)

[Beerman]

Out of idle curiosity - what possessed you to take the computer apart?

 

To update drivers, defrag the disk, install without any background apps, including A/V) which btw is recommended on ALL installations if you actually read what it says, doesn't need a screwdriver - it's all SOFTWARE and not ONE bnit of hardware (unless of course you don't have a graphics card that's capable of doing the job)

Boredom?

[ggrussell]

You guys that have hours to tweak your machines are fine, but I have more things to do with my time.

 

This software belongs back with the software engineers. It is PATHETIC.

I didn't have one single problem loading EMC9 on any machine that I have. NOT ONCE. If you feel like you can write a better DVD burning application, you are free to do so.

[Xyzzy]

Are you a programmer? Personally, I thnk that would be just another nuance. Most people wouldn't bother emailing it even if all they had to do was press a button plus you're adding more bloat and having error trapping code in memory at all times could add more CPU overhead. I can see having error trapping code for beta though and then remove it for final release.

 

I am not working as a programmer, if that's what you mean. I have MSc in Computer Science and I have done my share of programming work in the past.

I do not write about debug versions, but simple debugging, like fe in StudioLine Photo Classic (to name a program that is not competition to Roxio).

If people write to forums and support, I guess they'd bother to email a file.

That EMC is in a dire need of error trapping code, it's obvious - haven't you heard about errors reported by M$ libraries, because they haven't been properly trapped and handled by EMC?

 

 

X.

[sknis]

mka

 

Goodbye.

 

Probably SP not up to date (needed SP4) or had a USB device that caused the problem. There were many of those. I had one. Had to remove that dang thing when I wanted to shut down and I think it was with XP.

 

Yes, goodbye and good ....

[gi7omy]

Debugging would definitely be overkill in an app like this - the average Joe Bloggs has his jaw drop about 4 feet when confronted by a MS debug message (which btw is usually caused by MS and their 'version' of some software like Java)

 

I'm still curious tho who told Lubricity to take his machine apart - I've never seen that advised here on any board. Someone may have said to 'disconnect' in control panel, system, device manager - but never to actually open the box and haul stuff out.