# Mydvd 8 released....just more junk software?



## Denvers Dawgs (Sep 26, 2004)

Just saw that Mydvd 8 with tivo support was released. Anyone try it out on tivo files yet. All I know is that 6.1 crashed/froze when ever I worked on a menu or created a button image. Also, it took about 2hrs to edit a 1hr show, where as TDA only takes me 15mins to do the same show. The only working dvd that I got from 6.1 was on the trial version. The full version I got never produced a single working dvd.....

So has anyone used Mydvd 8 on tivo files with success yet?


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

If they sent it to me free, I would consider trying it again.


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## sfaunt (Oct 30, 2004)

Well, call me stupid cause I just purchased version 8 and have had tons of crashing problems and VERY slow progress creating a DVD for burning. What is "TDA"? Sounds like a much better option.


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## Denvers Dawgs (Sep 26, 2004)

TDA is a good program. I have used to edit mpegs, vobs and it works 100x faster the mydvd, and has NEVER crashed. The only problem that I have when using TiVo files is that the files are not dvd compliant when they are taken off of tivo (they are SVCD I believe), and my dvd player doesn't play the discs correctly (image is off center - It should look like ABC, but looks like BCA) The discs however do play 100% on my GF sony. It all depends on if your dvdv player is capable of playing svcd. Or you could get an mpeg encoder to make it compliant


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

sfaunt said:


> Well, call me stupid cause I just purchased version 8


Stupid


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## lorieanne (Mar 11, 2006)

i just bought mydvd 8 - i can't get it to burn my tivo shows off my laptop - did you have success using this software?  
lmk - thx


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## dxanthos (Jul 12, 2004)

MyDVD 8 doesn't recognize .tivo files saved with Tivo Desktop 2.2. I've read that it will work with earlier versions of Tivo Desktop, hate to go backwards but may need to give that a try.


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## TivoJunkie43 (Mar 9, 2006)

HDTiVo said:


> If they sent it to me free, I would consider trying it again.


I wanna be a beta tester too! 

Don't feel bad I bought Nero7 before it had all the bugs worked out - still doesn't -and I've have to re-install it 5 times.

I wish people would post their system stats, because I figure a video editing program is going to run more stable on a desktop with 2 Gigs of RAM installed, than on a laptop with 512Mb.

AMD 64 3200 overclocked (2.4Ghz)
1 Gig Corsair Ram (TWINX1024-4400C25)
Bla bla bla


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## Scott Atkinson (Jan 19, 2004)

I'm sure there is something smaller and faster for pure burning, but I like both TMPG's dvd authoring program and DVD Lab, which I've been demoing and will buy in 22 days.

Both contain dvd burning engines that are straightforward and reasonably forgiving.

Failing in that, I still have Nero 6, which never seems straightforward or entirely trustworthy, but will work.

Avoid the now-Sonic owned Easy Media Creator 8 like the plague - a truly awful piece of software.

Scott A.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

dxanthos said:


> MyDVD 8 doesn't recognize .tivo files saved with Tivo Desktop 2.2. I've read that it will work with earlier versions of Tivo Desktop, hate to go backwards but may need to give that a try.


Now that's just stupid. I might understand MyDVD having issues with Desktop 2.2 since it was released before 2.2 came out, but MyDVD 8 was released months after Desktop 2.2 came out.

Also what happened to MyDVD 7 or did they think it's cooler to just skip a number and go to 8.

After trying to use MyDVD 6.1 with my TiVo programs and failing horribly, I don't think I'll ever use another Sonic product again.


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## dconner (Mar 13, 2004)

Is this thing really as horrendous as it looks? I had Sonic MyDVD 7, which (barely) worked for getting stuff onto a DVD, and bought 8 figuring they'd have cleared all the bugs out and made it into a workable program by now. Instead... this?

Is there even a way to edit out commercials on this thing, which could be done, albeit clumsily, in 7? Doing almost anything takes at least 30 seconds for the command to go through, especially moving to a different point in the video.

Can this software really be _this_ bad???


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## Marc (Jun 26, 1999)

My husband bought this recently and contacted them on Friday to get his money back since he just couldn't get it to work at all.


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## dconner (Mar 13, 2004)

I just sent them my own request to get my money back. This is maybe the single worst piece of commercial consumer-oriented software I've seen in ages.

I quickly despaired at being able to do something *complicated*, like, y'know, *editing*, but I figured I'd take a shot at giving it a simple task, putting 5 TiVo'ed episodes of Justice League Unlimited on a DVD. With version 7, I could do this rather easily, though if I wanted to edit the commercials out, that was a considerable chore and wouldn't always come out right.

But burning 4 episodes to a DVD, that was easy enough.

First, for some reason, even *two* 30-minute episodes produced a "not enough space" message. This with the "fit-to-DVD" setting, even. Then I fiddled with settings to get 2 episodes on a single DVD, and... well, it actually did produce a DVD, though one of appalling video quality, evoking "watching a UHF station from the next city off an antenna during a thunderstorm" memories.

And on top of that, a ghastly user interface that seldom even does what it tells you. For instance, "Add Videos" and select 3 of them, as prompted on the screen. After the standard 30 seconds to complete any command, it puts *one* of them on the menu, and one only. They were just kidding!

I wondered why I was getting, like, 1 e-mail from Sonic every 3 days bugging me to buy version 8, and I think now I know - they're desperate to make some quick bucks before the word gets out.


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## JS2003 (Jan 10, 2004)

I'm still using v. 6.1, and that is such a piece of garbage, I'd be hard pressed to think why I would want to upgrade. I've never used DVD creation software that more confusing or more buggy. The Sonic stuff constantly hangs, forgets that I've already registred/unlocked it...

Nero and Roxio are both so much reliable. If it weren't for .tivo support built in, I would never have considered trying MyDVD. It's almost surprising to see commercial software that is so poorly written.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

JS2003 said:


> I'm still using v. 6.1, and that is such a piece of garbage, I'd be hard pressed to think why I would want to upgrade. I've never used DVD creation software that more confusing or more buggy. The Sonic stuff constantly hangs, forgets that I've already registred/unlocked it...


If you have 6.2 I highly recommend grabbing the 6.2 upgrade since that fixes a lot of the hangs that occurred when trying to edit or burn TiVo files. See this post.


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## Denvers Dawgs (Sep 26, 2004)

Ok I just downloaded the 6.2 zip. know what? What do I need to click to install it there is like 144 files in the zip?


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Denvers Dawgs said:


> Ok I just downloaded the 6.2 zip. know what? What do I need to click to install it there is like 144 files in the zip?


Basically the zip file is a zipped version of the installation CD.

Here's what I did:
1. Uninstall the current 6.1 version of MyDVD. Basically in the add/remove programs control panel remove anything that has "Sonic" listed in from of it. The only exception is the TiVo plugin (unless you feel like reinstalling that as well, but its not included in the zip file).

2. Reboot.

3. Unzip the zip file into a temporary directory and then double click setup.exe.

4. Follow the installation instructions.


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## jkc01 (Sep 1, 2004)

seems there arent many options for people that dont want to take 4 hours to make a dvd, and then another 2 for it to burn.

i have what i think is a pretty fast pc

DELL Dimension 8200 p4 2.5 ghz
512 megs of ram
500mhz fsb
and an NVIDIA card with 256megs

Maybe i should get another 512 megs of ram, but no one but dell sells it, and they want like 400 bucks for it.


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## dconner (Mar 13, 2004)

jkc01 said:


> Maybe i should get another 512 megs of ram, but no one but dell sells it, and they want like 400 bucks for it.


Interesting, I think I'm seeing where Dell makes a huge profit margin. IMO, 512 megs is way too little these days, but I think a lot of PCs are sold with too little memory because that's a way for them to make the price point look really low. Then they use proprietary memory chips to gouge the customer for what he learns is a semi-necessary upgrade.

But FWIW, I've got 2 GB, and MyDVD8 *still* sucks.


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## jkc01 (Sep 1, 2004)

Well It Was Top Of The Line 2 years ago, and for many reasons i will never buy another dell, and thats 1 of them
Apparently "award winning customer service" means an expansive yet never ending series of voice or tone prompts. i am not sure they have a customer service department


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

HDTiVo said:


> If they sent it to me free, I would consider trying it again.


I would second that. MYDVD has been the biggest waste of money on software since I got suckered into buying ram doubler in 93-94. Support is absolutely 100% horrible being limited to free online support only, and it can take weeks for a rep to get back to you. Phone support is paid only though some people have managed to get free support via phone, but the message system for support indicates a charge will occur.

Sonic MYDVD 6.0 was the worst ever purchase I have made for software and Sonic has not offered any updates, patches, or any type of fix since it was released. I wouldn't waste my money.


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## LHMPDX (Mar 16, 2000)

Shame on TiVo for partnering with a company that has such terrible support.


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## cwynn55340 (Apr 2, 2006)

I read some of the earlier posts, and just couldn't resist not replying...Have any of you ever tried or heard of a program called VideoReDo Plus version 2.2? It doesn't have all of the fancy "bells and whistles" of other programs, but it's a GREAT package for editing tivo recordings! Namely, getting rid of those stupid commercials...It takes me about 15 minutes to edit an hour long episode. And the best part is, when you are finished editing, it saves your project in a format that is easily recognizable by sonic DVDit Pro 6. I know you guys don't care much for sonic products, but believe it or not, I've had pretty good results with DVDit Pro 6. Sure, there is one HEEK of a learning curve, but the sky is the limit as far as the possiblities! 

So, to sum it up, I use VideoReDo Plus to edit out commercials, and sonic DVDit Pro 6 to do my "dirty" DVD authoring stuff! Believe me, I've tried a lot of combinations, and this seems to work the best with tivo recordings!

P.S.- By the way, I use Tivo Desktop 2.2 to transfer recordings to my computer, in case any of you guys are wondering?!...

My specs:

Generic (Built it myself) Intel Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz
2 GB RAM
Windows XP Media Center Edition
Tivo Desktop 2.2
HP DVD Writer 740i
Sony DVD Writer DRU-720Ai
NEC DVD Writer ND-3540Ai


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## Denvers Dawgs (Sep 26, 2004)

I use TDA to author/edit my tivo files, The problem is I haven't found a reliable program to make them dvd compliant yet? I may try and use mydvd to just burn it to a dvd after I already edited it in TDA


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## Joey Bagadonuts (Mar 13, 2006)

> Have any of you ever tried or heard of a program called VideoReDo Plus version 2.2?


Yep, and it is discussed in a few other threads throughout this forum. Off the top of my head, I don't recall reading anything from anyone who isn't happy with the program. Alot of us use it in conjunction with NeroVision. Edit in VideoRedo and burn in NeroVision. A great twosome.


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## gspeterson (Mar 30, 2005)

I upgraded to Sonic 8 last week (hoping it was better than 6.x), and it was a step backwards.
Not only can I not edit TiVo files, but I can't edit non-TiVo files either.

I also plan to cancel and get a refund, and plan to not use them ever again.  

Looking for Plan B....


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

This past week after reading this thread I decided to deal with Sonic again to address an issue I had a few months back. At the time I called and the option on the phone was for a "new paid incident" so I opted for the free web support. It was three weeks before someone decided to reply and it was "reinstall the software". I did and posted my results. After a week I stopped checking the forum for a response.

So, when I called and got through to phone support I mentioned the three week wait and asked how that could be defined as support. The tech said, "I'm not going to go there." And BTW, my issue still wasn't resolved, they wanted me to purchase a 17.00 "CD Backup" and install from there instead of using the download I paid for months ago. I was like, "Why should I pay for a CD-Back-up when your free trial doesn't install correctly either and exhibits the same issue?" 

He couldn't explain why my download or the free trial on their site wouldn't install. Absolutely worthless. One positive note however, the paid incident wording is apparently just a dodge to make people hang up and use the web as he never asked for any billing information.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Stormspace said:


> So, when I called and got through to phone support I mentioned the three week wait and asked how that could be defined as support. The tech said, "I'm not going to go there." And BTW, my issue still wasn't resolved, they wanted me to purchase a 17.00 "CD Backup" and install from there instead of using the download I paid for months ago. I was like, "Why should I pay for a CD-Back-up when your free trial doesn't install correctly either and exhibits the same issue?"


Sadly 3 weeks is a "quick" response from Sonic (now Roxio). I've had responses come in 3 months later when I forgot I even asked a question.


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## TivoJunkie43 (Mar 9, 2006)

morac said:


> Sadly 3 weeks is q "quick" response from Sonic (now Roxio). I've had responses come in 3 months later when I forgot I even asked a question.


Nero support isn't any better. It took 3 weeks for them to respond to my e-mail (s) and all they had to say was that I should do a clean install of the updated product. Thanks alot! 

They never even addressed my issue (s).

1. Product update doesn't update, only uninstalls the product.

2. My other issue is that NV4 is nonresponsive (20-30 min.) when burning a DVD with chapters, and animated menu buttons. Although NV4 does work, you wouldn't know it by watching the time line (progressed/elapsed), and I can see where some people would just give up - after 20 minutes - and end the program thinking it has crashed (froze). I'm thinking about upgrading my hard drive from ATA to SATA, but I doubt this will help.

It also takes a long time for Nerovision4 to respond to a command (10-20) seconds in some cases, and the same when moving a cut point. it's almost frustrating enough to go get VideoReDo for $50, and if I did a lot of editing of commercials I probably would.

I guess NV4 was not designed to be user friendly, any more than their customer support is, but at least Nero7 works.

I'm glad I didn't purchase Sonic because apparently it is just more junk software.


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## rollout (Nov 3, 2003)

I am glad to hear others thoughts on Roxio. I felt bad thinking it was the WORST program ever written. I am a software developer and would NEVER have released such a piece of crap.

I am writing to them to day to request a refund.


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## rnortoniii (Sep 18, 2002)

I have had a lot of problems with MyDVD transcoding Tivo files. It's incredibly slow. And I never could figure out how to edit out commercials. Finally, I gave up on it entirely. Now I use 3 programs to accomplish this task. Although it's a 3-step process, the speed savings make it worthwhile. First, I use DirectShow Dump Utility to strip the Tivo wrapper and give me an mpeg files that I can work with. This program is free and can be found at http://prish.com/etivo/tbr.htm. Second, I use VideoReDo to remove commercials and output the result to a commercial-free mpeg. This program can be found at http://www.VideoReDo.com. Third, I use ConvertXtoDVD to convert the mpeg to DVD format that is burnable by any DVD creation program. This program can be found at http://www.vso-software.fr. Personally, I prefer CloneDVD2 as a burning program. This program can be found at http://www.slysoft.com. I hope this information is useful. Please feel free to re-post this information anywhere else that it might be useful.


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## djmorse (Apr 25, 2003)

sfaunt said:


> Well, call me stupid cause I just purchased version 8 and have had tons of crashing problems and VERY slow progress creating a DVD for burning.


"Me too". 6.1 was much more stable than version 8, and that's not saying much! 8 constantly freezes, is SLLLOWWW (and this system has 1.5GB RAM!), forcing me to kill the program, and adding multiple .tivo files, I got a "You're not authorized to view this content" or some garbage. There were also background processes (RoxWatch.exe??) that ate up RAM. I've uninstalled this piece of garbage. DO NOT buy this program -- stick with Nero.


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

My copy of MyDVD installed and worked for about 6 months until one day it just stopped. No explaination, it would just die during transcoding. I used the online support options and 3 weeks later after multiple bumps on the case number I got a reply. Reinstall the software. That was so very helpful and I'm sure it tooks three weeks of research to come up with that one.  

I uninstalled and then went to do the reinstall from the disk I did the original install from and then put in a jewel case on my shelf and never touched it again. The installation bombed. I tried several times to get the software to load with no luck, so I reformatted my PC's harddrive and tried again later. This time it installed, but every time it did so it launched the Microsoft Installer and then got stuck in a loop. Clicking cancel would allow the software load, but trying to do anything would lock it up.

I uninstalled it again and tried to install the demo version from the web with the same results. A call to support was easy enough and I dodged the offers to relieve me of money for the support, but when I got through I was told I'd need to puchase a "back-up" Cd for my software. Basically they told me my media was bad, even though their own online demo wouldn't install, and they were unwilling to hold the line while I did this.

No, Sonic is a bad company producing nasty bug ridden software that they are unwilling to support, take responsibility for, or work with customers to even review their software prior to purchase. Sonic is NOT worth anyones time.


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## dconner (Mar 13, 2004)

On the bright side, they were surprisingly quite efficient at processing my refund after buying the "online download" of the program. So don't let worries about the hassle stop you from returning this piece of garbage!


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

dconner said:


> On the bright side, they were surprisingly quite efficient at processing my refund after buying the "online download" of the program. So don't let worries about the hassle stop you from returning this piece of garbage!


That's because Sonic isn't the company that handles the sales. They have another company to do that. When I made my purchase it was Digital River. I don't know who they are using now.


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## dconner (Mar 13, 2004)

Digital River sounds familiar to me, so I think that's still correct.


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## klowners (May 19, 2006)

so here i am....my MyDvd 6 trial just ended -- i had absolutely no problems burning tivo files to dvds and dvdrws......

im reading that v8 was fashioned by satan himself -- they are offering me v6.2 i think --- will this work like the trial?

or am i stuck with 3-Pete up there?


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