From an NLE systems integrator regarding tech support.

[p+ssed]

I am a systems integrator who started bundling DVD Workshop into our NLE's. I purchase from a distributor (forget about tech support from them...)

I like the program.

I am completely disgusted with the following:

I can get no phone support - at all. Prove me wrong!

Ridiculous.

I have to register twice - once for products and once for the forum? Why can't my product registration automatically register me for the forum?

Ridiculous.

I can get no real online support FOR MY CUSTOMER (some of us still believe in Customer Support). I have to register my customer's copy of the software - to get what? FAQs? The "right" to receive product news (sales pitches...) I can't get web-based help-desk support.

Ridiculous.

My customers are NOT hobbyists. They are professionals, who need fast professional help from a professional company when they have problems.

Adobe, while not perfect, at least believes in helping its customers.

I will be integrating Encore into future systems.

[Devil]

Maybe there is more than just Ulead which is ridiculous.

Firstly, where are you and which support no. do you call that does not answer.

Secondly, I know of no software that allows product registration to register for forums, as they are usually on separate servers, as is the case for Ulead products.

Thirdly, I have had no difficulty with e-mail support but, if you take an aggressive tone, I can understand that the Ulead spam filter may misinterpret your message.

Fourthly, as this - and some other non-Ulead forums - offer the best service and usually provide an answer to genuine problems, it is rare for problems to go unanswered. As this is your first post, maybe it is you who is being ridiculous.

Fifthly, I suspect you may simply be trolling.

[phd]

I would have to agree with the first post.

Devil, you may get email support as a Beta tester but the rest of us are out of luck.

As a purchaser of a premium product (MSP and Studio Quartet) I have gotten no support.

Last one I sent, they told me to reinstall, which I did. I replied that didn't work. They didn't reply. I replied back to them again after a couple of weeks. They sent me the same form email to reinstall. I have not heard back from them again.

I have followed up several times over the past 2 months and still no reply. Obviously, I am not filtering it as SPAM since they could send me the same suggestion as a reply. They pressed #1 on their Help reply software. If they are filtering emails as SPAM, they need to get their act together. I will not be purchasing any upgrades since obviously they do not support their products.

It was a lot of money to pay for non-existent service.

[heinz-oz]

Well, I'm no beta tester but have had no trouble getting support. it may be a case of how you ask determines the kind or lack of answer you get.

True, I can be a bit abrasive when I get pissed off, unfortunately for some poor soul out there they end up at the receiving end just because they also don't bother to even have a quick read of the instructions. They state no details of their system or their problems, just expect any reader of their statement "It doesn't work, why?" or something to that effect, to have an answer ready for them right away. I'm only human, believe it or not and when I find myself confronted with the same ignorance again and again, I tend to get a bit sarcastic. Sorry, but that's just the way it is.

I don't think there is anyone out there, who came here for help, or to ULEAD technical support for that matter, stating at least the basic information on their system, the problems they were facing and provided a bit of information about the properties of their source material, has ever been snared at, treated arrogantly or did not get any help at all. It's the tone of the shout that determines the echo.

[Devil]

Devil, you may get email support as a Beta tester but the rest of us are out of luck.

I've not always been a beta tester and I certainly had no problems with support when I needed it. As a beta tester, my e-mails do not go anywhere near the support guys, anyway.

I agree with Heinz. An e-mail stating "WS2 crashes, what am I doing wrong?" type of message will never be answered, where a polite one with full details will generally be answered, provided it is sent to the right person. No one has yet stated WHERE they have phoned and/or e-mailed.

[p+ssed]

Devil - I appreciate that the tone in which a request for help is made is important. I also agree that details about the problem are helpful. I did not curse, or use symbols to fake my curses. The tone of my original post accurately describe how I felt after failing to get the help I needed from Ulead in order to help my customer.

I am not trolling, nor am I just mad. I am simply fed up with the trend among companies who want us to buy (and continue to buy) their products, and make it next to impossible to get timely and accurate tech support. As a system integrator, I deal with dozens of tech companies on a daily basis. There is a broad spectrum of support available to me AS A CUSTOMER. Do I need to be a beta tester in order to be "special" enough to be able to find a tech support phone number on a website?

Prove me stupid and show me where I can find a tech support phone number, on the Ulead website, that lets me talk to a qualified technician. I couldn't find one. THAT is why I'm upset. I can call an IBM 800 number that is on their HOME PAGE, talk to a qualified technician within 30 seconds, and get whatever help I need that is necessary to resolve my problem. No, I don't work for IBM. But ask anyone who has needed tech support for their IBM product, and I GUARANTEE you they will tell you that IBM does it right. And there is no reason that Ulead can't do it right. They simply choose not to.

Not being able to find a tech support number on the Ulead website (again - prove me wrong) is bad enough. But then going through the product registration BS (remember - I'm not the end-user. I'm an integrator trying to help my customer) and not even finding a web help-desk is - I'll say it again - ridiculous.

I can't wait for e-mail responses that may take days and may or may not contain useful information. I need a phone number. Many tech companies these days seem to feel that they have the right to deny me that service. Well, they do have that right.

And I have the right to purchase another company's product.

We as consumers are more and more empowering companies to save money by eliminating the kind of tech support we are entitled to. Yes - entitled to. We say to ourselves "oh, it's OK, I guess I can wait a day or two for an e-mail response..." And we continue to buy their product. I for one want to use my purchasing power to support the companies that recognize that you, me, and other consumers like us, are the reason these companies exist. I want to buy from the companies that prize customer service and technical support as fundamental to their success.

I appreciate your feedback, and the feedback of others.

[phd]

Perhaps you can point out what is wrong with how I asked?

Mind you, My Oct 4 response is after they sent me the same form response suggestion a second time.

Subject: Fwd: UPTR:305040:MediaStudio Pro 7 - Video Paint
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 14:14:33 -0400
To: Technical Support<ts_Reply@ulead.com.tw>

It has now been an additional 2 weeks and I have not heard anything from you.

--- the forwarded message follows ---

Subject: Re: UPTR:305040:MediaStudio Pro 7 - Video Paint
Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2005 23:39:11 -0400
To: Technical Support<ts_Reply@ulead.com.tw>

Nelson,

As I stated previously, this did not work. You are telling me the same thing you said before.

Following is my reply to you as well as the followup email I had sent to you.

Subject: UPTR:305040:MediaStudio Pro 7 - Video Paint
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 23:44:29 -0400
To: ts_Reply@ulead.com.tw

Hello,

It has been a week since I replied and I have not heard anything further from you.

--- the forwarded message follows ---

Subject: Re: UPTR:305040:MediaStudio Pro 7 - Video Paint
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 11:31:59 -0400
To: Technical Support<ts_Reply@ulead.com.tw>

Hi Nelson,

That did not help.

Do you a another suggestion? Please check that it is not to simply reformat the hard drive. That is a solution that has been tried for this particular issue and has not worked in the past.

Also, please bear in mind I can reproduce the error on 2 separate computers as well. Different hardware and different configurations.

Based upon the lack of posts and answers for this issue, it is not a common problem. Nor has there been an answer that has worked.

I have tried creating a larger swap file up to 2GB as well as changing the drives for temp files.

I have searched the internet as well as the other Ulead forums for an answer as well. Here is one of them.
http://www.dmnforums.com/cgi-bin/readwh ... ostid=2583

Thanks,

[Devil]

Call 1-(310)896-6396, Monday-Friday, 9:30am - 5:00 pm PT

I assume you are in the USA - if not, there are a host of web sites and tech support e-mail addresses. If you get no satisfaction from the US tech support, then try one of the others.

BTW, this and other non-Ulead forums are also here to help and will do, if you would only state your problem.

Oh, IBM isn't so great on tech support, either. Try and get support for IBM ViaVoice. I gave up using it because of zero help and an inability to react to a serious reported bug, repeatedly mentioned by various users in their forum (the ONLY support medium) over three versions.

[p+ssed]

What "tech support"? I still haven't seen a phone number for tech support. And I've said my piece, so I'm not going to argue about their policies any more. I've got work to do.

Perhaps Devil (and others) can help me solve this.

Dual-XEON 2.66 / 512MB
TYAN S2665UANF
2GB DDR ECC
80GB IDE system drive
4 x 73GB U320 RAID-0 attached to system backplane.
nVidia FX5700 AGP
Newtek VT(4)
XP SP2
no other PCI cards.
Ulead DVDWS2 (latest patch)

Video clips captured and edited using VT(4). 3GB Video project rendered as reference AVI. Imported into new Ulead project as First Play clip. No menu. Failures are occurring during video conversion. I do not know whether error messages are coming up. I have asked my customer to write down any messages from now on.

Using the same 3GB rendered file, the process fails about half the time. The failure does not seem to occur at the same point in the conversion process. The failure occurs whether the job is run as a disk burn or an ISO file creation. Neither the audio conversion, the multiplexing, nor the actual disk burn ever fail.

Tested with the DVD project directory on both system drive and RAID (both defragged). More than 30GB available on both drives.

DVDWS2 normally works fine with rendered AVI files from the VT(4) system. In fact, Newtek now bundles the LE version with the VT(4).

My gut feeling on this is that the encoder is "choking" on a bad bit of video. The problem with that theory is that it works half the time, and, the fact that it doesn't fail in the same spot every time. Also - wouldn't the AVI render eliminate any problems in the source video?

The answer I was looking for from "tech support" is whether their software has an error log that a technician could look at. Generally, I've found that problems can be diagnosed very quickly if someone familiar with error logs looks at them.

[p+ssed]

BTW - Happy Thanksgiving everyone...

[sjj1805]

I am not a Beta Tester Either. It didnt take me long to find their contact phone number on their website

http://www.ulead.com/tech/custservice.htm

[p+ssed]

I too found that number when I first looked on the website. I gave up on it after trying it for an hour and getting nothing but a busy signal.

[Devil]

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the Newtek VT(4). I do know, however, that video mixers that have inputs from unsynchronised sources or with different frame rates can produce glitches. I suggest that it may be educational to take the file into an NLE, such as MSP8, and re-render it, to see whether this will cure it. Which codec is used for the AVI?

[p+ssed]

The VT(4) captures video and audio through either firewire or an analog I/O box. All analog inputs have frame-syncs. The clips used in this project were Y/C sources captured to uncompressed AVI. VT(4) also includes an NLE. Projects in the NLE are rendered to uncompressed UYVY AVI reference files. They are AVI wrappers.

[Devil]

OK, I'm guessing now, but it looks, as the glitches are not consistent, that your RAID array or something else may be tripping up at the high bitrate required to transfer massive files during encoding. Have you tried using a lossless compression at a lower data rate?