Polite rant & caution about Cyberlink | Gen-Tech | Forums

I have been using Cyberlink's PowerDirector 7 for about a year now and have been for the most part very happy with it. For a new project I'm working on I wanted to modify one of it's "effects" but couldn't figure out how to do it. So I went to the PowerDirector forum and asked for help.

A moderator was the only one to reply to my question. He informed me that what I wanted to do was not possible without using the very time consuming workaround that I was using.

He suggested that I upgrade to PowerDirector 8 because I would be able to do the effect easily with that.

Well, I'm not a rich man. Spending the $65 (or so) on a new program just isn't in the cards right now. So I decided to download the trial version and use that to do the editing I need. It's a 30 day trial after all, if I put my mind to it I can edit the whole project in that amount of time.

So today I uninstalled PowerDirector 7, downloaded the trial of PowerDirector 8, and attempted to install it.

The first time I tried to install it I got an error message saying some file was missing. The installer then closed. So I tried again. Same result.

Now I figured that there might have been something that went wrong during the download process. It is a big download after all, I could understand if one part of it got messed up. So I deleted the downloaded instalation file and redownloaded it.

When I tried to install it, I got the same error message as before.

Frustrated, I went to the Cyberlink support pages. In their FAQs I found the issue I was having. Their answer as to what a person should do tho was a complete surprise.

Here's what they say: "This might be caused by other software conflicting with PowerDirector.
We are currently investigating all the feedback we've got from end-users
with similar situations. As for now, Please try the below steps to
remove PowerDirector."

Are you kidding me?! PowerDirector 8 was released in early July 2009 and they still haven't put a notice anywhere on their site to warn people that it may not work on their computer before they buy it? That's not cool at all.

I'm just a bit frustrated that it won't work on my computer, but if I'd paid for the full version and then found out they knew it might not work ahead of time, I'd be so ticked off that thier eyes would burn just reading the email I'd send them.

So my advise to everyone is when deciding if you want to purchase a product from Cyberlink, make sure to download the trial version first. Then if that works ok, buy the license.

I have reinstalled PowerDirector 7 without incident and will have to use the workaround, but at least my project will get done.

Ebony: Over-all Cyberlink programs are very good and they keep their prices lower than other companies selling lesser programs for a lot more.

This is the first time I've seen them do something like this, altho I will be keeping a closer eye on their practices now.

ebony said:

 I will just look at them with one eye open, kinda cautious like, ya know?

That's a good plan no matter what company/site you're thinking of downloading something from. IMO