License/Key Confused about upgrades

[pawnslinger]

First, let me say that I am really enjoying DVDFab! It took a little work to figure out exactly how to use it to get the results I wanted, but that was time well spent, and the smooth operation of the program ever since has been ample reward for my investment of time... and money.

Earlier this year, I registered 8.0.5 (I believe that is correct). I purchased 2 keys, one for the DVD section, a lifetime key, and one for the Blu-ray ripper, a 2 year key. I will probably upgrade the Blu-ray ripper to a lifetime key (as I am very happy with my obtained results). But that key doesn't expire until 2013, so plenty of time left.

I notice that several upgrades to the program have become available since my registration, and I have just downloaded the latest of these. But I hesitate to install it, because the FAQ seem to indicate that I will need to pay a "small renew fee". I am unclear on this point? If a fee is required, then I should not install the upgrade -- right? I don't want to lose the usage of the existing product, which works quite well for me.

So the question is this... should I install the new version or wait for my 2 year subscription to expire, before I install a new version?

And, since I purchased my DVD lifetime key after the cutoff in 2008, am I entitled to any newer versions with that key? Or am I limited to using 8.0.5 with that key indefinitely?

[CBR929]

Hi pawnslinger
You will be able to use the newer versions with out any sort of renewal fee.
The newer versions help with newer encryptions and bugs, so do not be afraid of using them.
CBR929

[pawnslinger]

Thank you!

As I mentioned earlier, I am very pleased with the program, and look forward to using it for many years to come. And I will support the program with whatever fees become necessary! Good work deserves the support of satisfied customers!

[CBR929]

Glad to help.
Happy burning.
CBR929
EDIT Just so you know, Lifetime means Lifetime, so you will have the use of the options that are Lifetime for the rest of your life or Fab's life, which I hope will be many years from now.

[pawnslinger]

So far so good with the upgrade. But I did notice one thing that might be something good to do in the future. When I installed the latest version, it picked up right away on my license keys, and there was no problem with that. However, the new version did not gather the configuration options I had set in the older version. So I had a fair amount of going back and forth, to get the options reset as I had had them.

Could save some effort for folks if the new version would get the options automatically out of the old configuration.

[pawnslinger]

Okay, I had to fallback to the old version. The DVD Ripper flunked out with the new version. At first, I thought it was just my options being set wrong, because it was defaulting to CUDA decoding (which doesn't work so well on my system for some reason), so I changed the options to "software" decoding and it still failed. Went back to 8.0.5 and it worked great. The DVD I was working with is an old one from 1998, don't know if that is a problem.

But it rips fine in 8.0.5. In the new version, the rip seems to work, but the playback is VERY slow for the video (which is WAY out of sync with the audio... which oddly enough seems to be okay). The video is jumpy and very VERY slow, like 1 frame per 10 seconds ... just a guess.

By jumpy, I mean that it skips a LOT of frames. But the audio seems to be played back correctly at the right speed, and sounds fine.

[signals]

It should do this in most cases but sometimes not across major update lines, i.e. v7.x to v8.x etc.

So far so good with the upgrade. But I did notice one thing that might be something good to do in the future. When I installed the latest version, it picked up right away on my license keys, and there was no problem with that. However, the new version did not gather the configuration options I had set in the older version. So I had a fair amount of going back and forth, to get the options reset as I had had them.

Could save some effort for folks if the new version would get the options automatically out of the old configuration.