Cyberlink And PowerDVD

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

I have PowerDVD 15 retail edition and have been happy with it but when it poped up a box offering me a reduced price upgrade I though i’d give it a go.

The offer was for version 19 and it was £46 for the download edition so I clicked through all required steps and ordered it. I got an email 5min later giving me my new key and a link to the download site. Off I went and downloaded version 19 but then I tried to install it. The install got halfway through and stopped, giving me an error saying it could not install some file.

I opened a support ticket giving the file name and error number and got a reply saying the upgrade was only for version 16 and above. I responded that it was version 15 itself that made the offer and they said they were sorry and would refund my money.

I have had good service from Cyberlink in the past so I thought I would order  the £79 full version of 19  anyway.

Got the new version of 19, tried to install it, same error. Uninstalled version 15, tried again, same error. Tried to reinstall version 15, same error ! So I now have NO version of PowerDVD.

I raised another ticket but that was on Thursday and so far I have had no reply and no refund.

 

[Ed P]

You probably have some old DRM files of Cyberlink floating around. It may be a good idea to research ‘total removal’ for Cyberlink. McCrappy and Bloated Norton used to have similar problems in leaving lots of old baggage around. Then reinstall your purchase.

If I had to guess I’d start with the Registry but that can be a difficult area as often the problems are hidden by a CLSID.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Thats my guess too but I also have 3 other older Cyberlink products like Power Director that I still use.

I was hoping that Cyberlink support could identify the error code and point me in the right direction. Maybe they ARE looking into it and thats whats taking a while. Can’t do much about it till Thursday now because I wont be back home till then.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Can chase the refund though so I have.

Used online banking first to check for refunds. Nope, just two withdrawls from PayPal *Asknet AG. Who ?

I paid online with my debit card so whats PayPal got to do with it and who are Asknet AG ? PayPal haven’t even got my new card number because I had a new one last month.

Logged in to PayPal. Zero transactions and still the old card number.

Anyway I looked at my payment reciept email again and found that it came from cyberlink@support-asknet.com

Back at the Cyberlink web site I found in the small print that all requests for refunds had to sent to Asknet AG directly by email at the provided address.

I sent off an email and I had a reply saying I now have a support ticket with them. Should have a reply within 3 working days.

But still, who is Asknet AG ?

 

[Boris]

They operate out of Karlsruhe, Germany and “develop and operate online shops for the manufacturers of digital and physical products”

Never trust an atom - they make up everything !

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Yes I looked them up and I don’t like it. I went directly to Cyberlinks website to make my purchase and when it came time to pay I was transfered to another page. Nothing strange about that and the page was covered in the Cyberlink logo. I was actually typing my details directly into Asknet AG.

So what about the PayPal bit then ?

Asknet have a deal with PayPal so that it is PayPal who actually ask banks for the money. And why is this ? Because Asknet have a poor reputation and many banks won’t authorise payment to them.

I do not like it at all so I have the number for my banks Visa dispute team on hand in case.

 

[Ed P]

It is not unusual for smallish companies to outsource their ‘shopping baskets’ to a third party. It is rather more unusual for them to handle all the admin including refunds.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Oh me of little faith. Just had an email from Asknet with the details of their refund to my Visa card ?

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

So now I just need to get on to Cyberlink to get PowerDVD 19 actually working ?

[Richard]

Good news, I understand your paranoia, just because you think they are out to get you, does not mean they are NOT out to get you or rob you.

[keith with the teef]

You can get all sorts of legit keys off of e-bay nowerdays for small money. we all know you can get w10 for a few quid.

I got w10 for £3  and PDVD for simliar price.

As a software I find it to be OK if a bit intrusive. I hold it at arms length.

Considering it can cost alot of money and amongst other things I am not overly impressed with the sound engine.

Which should be top draw. Anyway i would not like to be with out it.

As modern as w10 is I’m still a big beleiver in fresh intalls to solve problems.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

I have to have PowerDVD or similar installed to play back BlueRay’s. Buying an update direct from Cyberlink was meant to be my trouble free solution. Ho Hum

By the way, when it is working PowerDVD can make good use of hardware acceleration. Playing back a Blue Ray using just software shows a CPU usage of 8%. Enabling hardware acceleration drops CPU usage back down to 1 or 2%. The system normally idles between 0 an1 so its almost nothing.

[Author]

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