InterVideo WinDVD 8 Disaster

[kjcmjc]

WinDVD 8 Gold sucks beautifully

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36398

[Brian Ellis]

When you do your clean install you had better hope Microsoft accept your key again.

They donked my brother in laws saying because he had reinstalled so many times he must have passed the disk around.

(he did just three re-installs of XP)

They would do that only if there were concurrent hardware changes.

[cuddles]

Just recived a M$$soft update, IE 7 thought I might let it install but it seeks an XP validation to install and receive further "goddies". I wondered how intrusive it might actually be so I canceled install. They never give up!!

[KRSESQ]

IE7 is too new. Customization of the menu and toolbars is disabled, along with other bugs. Wait until the service pack is released.

Kevin

[Hulk]

I'm running IE7 now and Kevin is right I don't recommend it as an upgrade if you're currently running IE6 or another browser. A lot of stuff just won't work.

But if you're starting fresh it seems okay. I'm liking it and have good luck with it so far. Just one problem. Normally when you click open a folder in Favorites (in previous versions) any other open Favorites folders close. That behavior doesn't occur in IE7 and I as yet have not found any way to replicate that behavior. It's definitely a pain to keep having to close Favorites folders. Either that or you leave them all open and have to scroll waaay up or waay down to find a specific favorite.

- Mark

[Jerry Jones]

Well, I got it working.

Had to reinstall Windows XP Home.

But there are two very peculiar things about InterVideo WinDVD 8.

1. Even if you have NO ULEAD PROGRAMS installed on your computer, InterVideo WinDVD 8 creates a folder named "Ulead" in the "Common" folder. There's a DLL in that folder.

2. If you install either Ulead PhotoImpact or Ulead PhotoExplorer, you will discover that both programs install a program called "Ulead AutoDetector," which appears in the system tray. This program has to do with digital cameras. However, a weird behavior happens when you boot your computer. When you boot your computer, you will observe that Windows Explorer AUTOMATICALLY OPENS and AUTOMATICALLY BROWSES to the "Ulead" folder created by InterVideo WinDVD 8. The only apparent way to stop this "AUTO BROWSING BEHAVIOR" is to right-click on the "Ulead Auto Detector" icon in the system tray and -- when the pop-up menu appears -- you must then click OPTIONS and choose the option to NOT LOAD ULEAD AUTO DETECTOR ON STARTUP. Then you can boot your computer and the weird behavior stops.

Apparently, this is all "normal."

But this behavior seems strange to me and I'll bet a lot of users will wonder if this is a bug.

Or they might wonder if there's a software conflict.

Anyway, it works now.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

Well, Intervideo WinDVD 8 has stopped working again... even after a complete system reinstallation.

I do not recommend this program.

Intervideo tech support does not exist.

I now recommend Cyberlink.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

Well, I just sent their non-existent tech support an e-mail.

Told them the program refuses to initiate (open).

They sent me an auto-response message.

I don't hold out much hope that they'll be able to offer any meaningful solution, but... maybe they'll get back to me.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[schmosef]

When you do your clean install you had better hope Microsoft accept your key again.

They donked my brother in laws saying because he had reinstalled so many times he must have passed the disk around.

(he did just three re-installs of XP)

I had to call an 800 # once when I was re-installing windows for a customer. Windows Activation told me to. They asked me why I was reinstalling and gave me a new key right away.

Did they refuse to give your brother in law a new key?

[Jerry Jones]

Still no response from Intervideo.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

I fixed it.

I started searching on the Intervideo Web site, which has confusing navigation.

I finally got to the WinDVD support page.

Guess what?

You have to scroll down about one mile... clear to the end of the page.

Then they reveal there's a new patch for WinDVD 8.

http://tinyurl.com/6nl7l

There's a download link for the patch.

I clicked on it and downloaded the patch and then I installed it.

Now WinDVD 8 is working again.

I was beginning to think I had wasted a considerable amount of cash.

Intervideo should have a link to "updates and patches" just like Ulead does.

But I guess that's asking for too much from Intervideo.

I've never been terribly impressed by them.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

Well, the patch has been working and the problem is now resolved.

InterVideo's WinDVD 8 is now performing as I thought it should have performed from the beginning; the new patch fixed the problem here on my system.

Now there are reports that Cyberlink's new version of "PowerDVD" has problems:

Link to Engadget.Com Web site: http://tinyurl.com/2dptzh

It seems these companies may be releasing these products too soon.

"Not ready for primetime?"

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

Forgot to mention.

I finally got a response from InterVideo's less-than-stellar tech support.

The response arrived several days after I reported the issue and I thought that was quite slow.

The e-mail from the tech support person didn't even inform me of the new patch.

It simply advised me to download a "newer" version of the program from the InterVideo Web site... so maybe they've corrected the problem that was in original download version.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Admiral]

I'm quite happy with Power DVD 6, using it for DVDs, WMP 11 for other formats. To be honest I would've used WMP for everything if I didn't had problems with subtitles and menus with DVDs.

Tryed WinDVD 8, requieres an update for the windows install shield before installing, slow to load, poor performer, doesn't uninstall with the wizzard and have to manually delete and try to clean the registry after.