Software Conflicts DVDFab All-In-One Mac: Software Failure

[iMarc]

I am a long-time DVDFab user for Windows. The product always worked well and was continually updated. When the Mac version was announced, I figured I'd keep it in mind if I ever got a Blu-ray drive for my Mac Pro.

I recently got a new 2010 Mac Pro (5,1) 12-core 2.66 GHz machine with 32 GB RAM and Lion 10.7.3. I outfitted it with a Pioneer BDR-206D in the lower optical drive position. The 206D was rated the best Blu-ray drive for the Mac according to several sources. The drive works beautifully with Toast 11.0.4 and Blu-ray discs are recognized and mounted in the Finder.

Going on DVDFab's reputation, I ordered the Lifetime All-in-one for the Mac. I installed it, registered it and proceeded to test it out.

First Test: Rip a BD movie (Star Trek): Fail. The Blu-ray Ripper never accessed the Pioneer drive. It displays the dialog box, the line increases from left to right, then restarts. This repeats again and again. In one attempt, I left it on overnight and it never succeeded in accessing the disc.

Second Test: Clone a BD Data Disc that I recorded with Toast: Fail. Once again, the software never accessed the BD drive.

Third Test: Convert a video from .MKV to .MP4 using the iPad preset: Fail. I drag the .MKV into the Video Converter window, click the iPad preset, then click Start. I immediately get the "Fail" sound and a dialog box that says "Work 1 failed, Error = 500.00 3".

In short, I have been unable to get this software to succeed at ANY task. I am attaching the internal and process logs for the third test. I am using the most recent release, version 8.1.6.3. I did a clean install after deleting all traces of the previous install to insure there was no corruption.

I am completely unhappy with this software. It cannot even succeed in what should be the simplest of its tasks. Unless this can be fixed VERY quickly, I will expect a full refund. This software is not up to Fengtao's usual standards; it does not work at all. And, quite frankly, I have no desire to beta-test software for which I have paid a lot of money.

[GregiBoy]

You did have a FREE 30 day trial!!!

[iMarc]

No Trial Period

You did have a FREE 30 day trial!!!

Actually, I didn't. When I first installed the software, it listed everything as "expired", even though I had never installed a Mac version before. Based on my (foolish) presumption that Fengtao had a viable product, I went ahead and paid for it before trying it out.

With 20/20 hindsight, I SHOULD have waited until I could get information from Fengtao to enable the free trial period. I would say that I technically AM in my 30-day trial period since I only downloaded the thing late night of Wednesday, Feb 29.

Then the "fun" began: When I first tried to activate the software, I found I could not log in to the "Member Center." I sent a message through the Support link on the website explaining my problem. A day later, I got a useless reply parroting the info from the website about how I should log in to the "Member Center" to activate my purchase. I then realized that my old account with Fengtao from 2007 was still active (I hadn't used it in at least two years.) So I was then able to activate the software which would NOT run without activation. Then I started my testing (as detailed in my first message above). I then had to wait two days for posting access to these fora. Even allowing for the time-zone differences, response time from Fengtao has been slow, at best.

At this point, I am VERY frustrated. I've paid a lot of money for software that can't even convert a video from .MKV to .MP4 for an iPad like Handbrake does... and Handbrake is free! And so far, all of the Blu-ray functions are completely non-functional.

[iMarc]

Apology

You did have a FREE 30 day trial!!!

Hi GregiBoy,

I re-read my second post and I wanted to make something clear: I am not attacking you. If my frustration at the software made me seem harsh, I sincerely apologize. I meant no disrespect to you.

Regards,
iMarc

[iMarc]

Status Update And A Question

I felt it proper to provide a status update. And I have a question.

At 6:18 AM Eastern Standard Time this morning, I received an email from Mona in the DVDFab Service Team. She acknowledged that they could reproduce the problem with the Video Converter module. She requested "... some time to check it out."

She requested I send her detailed information about the other issues with the Blu-Ray Ripper and Blu-Ray Copy modules, including logs and screenshots. I have done this. I also assured her that no other programs were accessing the optical drives while I was running DVDFab.

I asked a question of Mona and I'd ask it of the folks out there using an Internal Blu-Ray drive on a Mac Pro: My Pioneer BDR-206D Blu-Ray drive is in the lower optical bay and the Apple-supplied LG DVD-RGH61N "Superdrive" is in the upper bay. Has this set-up worked for others? What if I switch the two optical drives? Has that set-up worked better for people? I'd really appreciate some feedback on this. Thanks!!

[GregiBoy]

No offence taken and I understand your frustration both previously as a Moderator and as a user, to the extent that I will only use Fab for the "Ripping" process (By this I mean the actual ripping to my HDD, not the B/S that Fab goes on about) and use FREE software for all other tasks a Fab is very deficient in many areas and I have been pointing these areas out for literally years.

The main deficiency being in their QA...

[iMarc]

Some Success

As Mona suggested in answer to my question, I did switch the two optical drives. Once I put the Pioneer BDR-206D Blu-Ray drive in the upper optical bay and the Apple-supplied LG DVD-RGH61N "Superdrive" in the lower bay, DVDFab was then able to read from the Pioneer drive.

That doesn't mean that everything's perfect by any means. In fact, the software seems to fail for no discernible reason. In one case, the GUI froze up at the 60.xx% mark and the cursor was "beach-balled" whenever it was over a DVDFab window, yet the Blu-Ray rip completed and the extracted M4V file was good.

On the other hand, I've had errors happen and a "Work 1 failed" message at the 99.82% mark. It's also gotten to 100.00% and the GUI will not finish the rip process (though the ripped file was OK).

I'm attaching a couple of images. The one timestamped as 2012-03-09 at 11.01.10 PM shows the last case I mentioned. The Task Time Elapsed is 48:24, Task Time Left is zero, the Total Time Elapsed is 3:50:25; meaning I let it go for over three hours after it got to 100.00% yet the rip did not "finish."

It's obvious to me that DVDFab Mac still has a way to go before it's stable and reliable. But at least I'm having some success with it now.