DVDFab (UI/General) Worst User Interface Ever

[muzikman]

I just upgraded from a version 8 Qt to 9.0.3.8. I am shocked by how horrible the UI is on this product! Everything is wrongly sized, key UI elements are very hard to find, sticky controls don't stick... The list of bugs and ugliness goes on and on.

Will the next version return to a reasonable UI? At least I could get done what I needed in the older UI. I am a developer and I would NEVER allow this product to be released if I worked on it.

[XX14]

I just upgraded from a version 8 Qt to 9.0.3.8. I am shocked by how horrible the UI is on this product! Everything is wrongly sized, key UI elements are very hard to find, sticky controls don't stick... The list of bugs and ugliness goes on and on.

Will the next version return to a reasonable UI? At least I could get done what I needed in the older UI. I am a developer and I would NEVER allow this product to be released if I worked on it.

I find the user Gui very friendly even for the begining users if you don't like the first screen that pops up when first launched you can go into settings so just the main gui shows up.

I find Version 9 to be fantastic with all the advanced options and still easy enough for a beginner.JMO

[signals]

muzikman

After using it some I think you will recognize that in some ways it is actually superior to v8. You are welcome to provide more details on what you think are the shortcomings. Just saying it's bad is not really constructive.

[GregiBoy]

Here we go again!!!

A one-post developer expert that has made no comments all through the transition from V8 to V9.

I wonder what he develops?

[signals]

Greg, be nice.

[muzikman]

I've developed software for many companies from mainframes to embedded devices. I spent years at Microsoft, for example.

I can give dozens of example of why DVDFab 9 is terrible. The fonts are either overly large or overly small. There's a vast amount of unused border space around the overall window and many dialogs. If I resize the main window the controls start to overlap each other making them unreadable. Many settings don't "stick"; for example, if I set a "custom" frame size and click "OK", the go back and check it, the values are reset to default. The framing information doesn't help me preserve the aspect ratio as other imaging programs do; I must calculate the values by hand! If I try to modify a device profile such as iPad.mp4, it creates iPad.mp4.custom. If I try to modify that profile, it creates iPad.mp4.custom.custom! If I try to set the language and subtitle information, the range of subtitles is not available from other parts of the UI. The preview window shows results that are different from what it renders (subtitles, for example). If I drag the slider on the preview window the preview hangs.

I could go on and on. I have used literally thousands of products on Windows, OSX, Linux and other OSs and DVDFab9 is one of the worst I have seen. DVDFab 8 may have had problems, but at least I could find a path to getting the results I wanted. With DVDFab9 I have not been able to find reliable ways of guaranteeing the results I want.

[GregiBoy]

I was trying to be nice to my limited Australian ability but CBR got me anyhow!!

As you well know, I have been far, far more cutting than that.

Greg, be nice.

[grampaw]

I'm just a lowly user who likes the new interface - nice balance in design between beginner, who doesn't want to see anymore than he needs, and expert, who can drill down into all the options. I'm with GregiBoy, and tend to discount opinions based on "I spent years at Microsoft," who is not exactly noted for user friendly interfaces. BTW - I started writing code in 1962, and have seen (and developed) a lot of interfaces over the years. (Ночной дозор probably won't like my comments either)

[muzikman]

User Interface

Along with Microsoft, I've written code for platforms since '69 and have an iPhone app on the market as well as several freeware programs on Windows and OSX. My comments are based on comparing DVDFab to well-known UI and usability standards.

The problem with DVDFab is that you can't achieve consistent results without toggling across many different tabs, buttons and fields in several different locations. The design decisions about what gets put into different control zones is unclear. I often rip movies in foreign languages with English subtitles, and I usually rename the output files and reframe the output. Every single rip requires minutes of fiddling across diverse parts of the program. Along with navigating the interface, the appearance of the UI is just awful: sizes are inconsistent, rubber-banding doesn't work and no pop-up help is available within the dialogs. And this doesn't even begin to the address the bugs.

If you compare DVDFab to apps available for iPad and Android its deficiencies are glaringly obvious. This is a new day for applications, and the standards for "good UI" have increased dramatically in the last 10 years.

[Chameleon]

Best GUI in the business, easy to read and easy to understand, even a caveman can do it.

[XX14]

Best GUI in the business, easy to read and easy to understand, even a caveman can do it.

LMFAO Great Gieco quote.

[Muttley.Drat]

This is gonna be unpopular

I'm afraid I'm with musikman on this one. Even if I do think the MS Ribbon is a disaster.
A LOT of settings are just not available, (default save location for example) and the options to do anything other than standard make you drill down a lot further. They seem to have hidden too much, you can't see what it's doing.
I especially hated the way it kicked off a new explorer window at the end of each copy (but that has been removed completely in 9.0.4.2 (this is good for me but may irritate others, how bout an option in settings ?)
The save location drop down box also seems to keep a history and I've never found a way to delete items from this history.
Don't get me wrong, it's a great program, I just don't like the interface.
Why not have 'skins' for it ? that way people like musikman could craft their own UI and show you what they think is good, then you could make the skins available, track downloads and comments and get a view of the different classes of user and what they want out of it ?

Mutt

[mountainquilter]

not the best GUI

I don't like it half as much as the old interface! I am trying to rip a DVD and I can only get an MP3 where are my controls? Why ruin a nice interface when nobody was complaining about it! Now we need instructions on how to do what we already knew before and your instructions on your website are for the old GUI, what's that all about???? And I still can't copy Jack Reacher!!!!!! It wants a double sided disk! Guess that's a lost cause!

[90312]

I have created a folder on the C: drive where everything I do goes by default. Where exactly do you want to be your default save location and we can do this if you want.

[Muttley.Drat]

mountainquilter,
You should be able to select DVD5 output which will compress it on the fly.
Alternatively you can do what I do (cos I want the big files to convert to avi) and then use DVD Shrink to reauthor (combine two or more to one disc) specify what size you want and then burn to say a standard DVD-R

Mutt