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Ahead OEM licensing

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Ahead OEM licensing

Postby mvallevand on Thu Sep 25, 2003 6:45 pm

I just want to rant a bit that it appears that Nero doesn't support both a CD and a DVD using their respective OEM license. I know this is duplication of an old thread <sorry> but Nero really should listen to this complaint. I'm seriously thinking about returning my drive and going one with Roxio now, A friend, and an ex-Nero user didn't have to suffer through this.

Also before I go through the pain does anyone know if InCD also suffers the same stupidity?

If v6 was really production ready, (I don't like it versus 5.5 yet) I'd likely buy the upgrade. Now I have a bad taste with Ahead over the quality of v6 vs previous versions, and this stupid multi-OEM stuff, I am for the first time in years rethinking my committment to this family.

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Postby CDRecorder on Thu Sep 25, 2003 9:38 pm

What typically happens is that an OEM version of Nero only supports one brand of drive. This drives me crazy when I have more than one brand of drive in my computer, but that isn't currently a problem as I only have Lite-On drives in my desktop computers. Currently, I have an LTR-48125W and an LTR-52327S in my main PC, and both work with the OEM Nero software that came with one of them. :D

I, too, wish Nero would change this policy.
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Postby CowboySlim on Fri Sep 26, 2003 12:38 am

Let me beat Craig to the punch, he has addressed this issue before. Ahead licenses Nero to the OEMs for a minimal fee. The OEM version is included at almost no extra cost, if not free, to the consumer. When the OEM is paying a small fee to Nero and passing none, or almost none, on to the consumer, do you expect that the OEM wants to allow that Nero to be playable on a competitor's drive?

When we bought those 52x32x52x LiteOns at Best Buy last month for $10 (AMIR), how much of that $10 do you think was allocated to the bundled software.

Let's not look the gift horse in the mouth!
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Postby CDRecorder on Fri Sep 26, 2003 1:38 am

I appreciate that, CowboySlim, but what about Roxio ECDC? I've never seen it locked to a particular brand of drive. Do OEMs pay more to include ECDC than they pay to include Nero?
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Postby cfitz on Fri Sep 26, 2003 1:49 am

I think you may have missed mvallevand's point, Slim. He isn't asking for something for nothing. He has two valid OEM licenses that he paid for, one for the CD burner and one for the DVD burner. But he can use only one at a time, and must manually re-enter the license numbers every time he wants to use the other burner. I also found this to be quite annoying.

Craig did offer a tip to ease the license number juggle - make two .reg files, one to install each license number, and put them on your desktop where you can easily double-click on the desired one when you want to use the associated drive. That is better than opening up regedit and typing in the number each time you want to switch drives, but it would be nicer if Ahead allowed you to enter multiple license numbers for one Nero installation and eliminated the problem altogether.

Of course, at this point I would rather Ahead spent their time fixing all the bugs in Nero 6 rather than adding licensing features... :(

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Postby CDRecorder on Fri Sep 26, 2003 2:00 am

cfitz wrote:I think you may have missed mvallevand's point, Slim. He isn't asking for something for nothing. He has two valid OEM licenses that he paid for, one for the CD burner and one for the DVD burner. But he can use only one at a time, and must manually re-enter the license numbers every time he wants to use the other burner. I also found this to be quite annoying.


I think I missed this point, too. I used to have an AOpen and a Lite-On burner in a PC, and it was rather annoying to have to switch the serial number (or use ECDC) when I wanted to switch what burner I was using. It would be nice to be able to enter multiple serial numbers simultaneously.
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Postby CowboySlim on Fri Sep 26, 2003 1:33 pm

I think you may have missed mvallevand's point, Slim. He isn't asking for something for nothing.


No, I didn't miss it. Perhaps I overstated my point. Let me try again: Perhaps he is expecting too much (or more than I do) for a little (something marginally removed from nothing).

I have the same situation also. The Dantz Retrospect and Nero bundled with the Yamaha burner (now in my daughter's PC) won't burn to my Memorex (LiteOn) drive. The Nero bundled with the Memorex that won't burn to my 52x32x52x LiteOn when I get it off the floor and into the box (no, it really doesn't look like Hoxlund's bedroom). However, that drive and the Verbatim (LiteON) (Verbatim now in my son in laws PC) drive both are bundled with the Express version of Nero which I recall Craig saying that would work anywhere.

And yes, I can understand the annoyance of the multiple installation with my Nero 6 on one bootable partition while retaining 5.5 on the other until 6.x settles down. OTH, that is my purpose of the 2nd HDD with a bootable partition, to work with "beta" software and precluding it from disabling my machine without a backup.
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Postby mvallevand on Fri Sep 26, 2003 4:37 pm

Thanks cfitz for pointing out the registry option. This works out a lot better then my old method of having to uninstall, install the older OEM version, update and then patch each time I wanted to use a drive. Of course again if v6 was better then 5.5 or at least as reliable there wouldn't be an issue.

I have not installed InCD yet, I really don't care about the CD but I really would like to the the DVD-MRW format drive there at all times. I guess I'll find out what happens!
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Postby dburg on Fri Sep 26, 2003 4:42 pm

Hum, doesn't nero 6 support multiple serial numbers at the same time??

Btw, InCD does not have serial-number limitation to brand of recorders.
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Postby CDRecorder on Fri Sep 26, 2003 4:48 pm

dburg: Would it be possible for a patch for Nero 5.5 to be released to allow the use of multiple serial numbers? I am sure that many Nero 5.5 users would appreciate that.
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Postby cfitz on Fri Sep 26, 2003 5:07 pm

dburg wrote:Hum, doesn't nero 6 support multiple serial numbers at the same time??

I don't know. You tell us. I haven't seen it documented anywhere, and don't have two Nero 6 serial numbers with which to try it. Looking at the registry, I don't see anything obvious that would make it appear to support multiple serial numbers.

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Postby treemana on Sun Oct 19, 2003 5:45 am

I am in the same boat. I have three different OEM versions of Nero, with three different serial numbers. I also discovered that I can't change drives in Nero Burning ROM, (Nero will only allow me to select the drive accociated with the most recent serial number I entererd.) However, I can change drives in Nero Express.

So, let's say I'm in Nero Buring ROM with my AOpen drive selected. In order to change to my Pioneer drive, I would first have to go to Nero Express, then change drives, then go back to Nero Burning ROM. I will then be able to use my Pioneer drive in Nero Burning ROM.

I realize that this is several more mouse clicks than would normally be required, but I least I can use both of my drives without having to uninstall/reinstall Nero or tweek the registry.
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Postby dodecahedron on Mon Oct 20, 2003 3:39 pm

treemana wrote:So, let's say I'm in Nero Buring ROM with my AOpen drive selected. In order to change to my Pioneer drive, I would first have to go to Nero Express, then change drives, then go back to Nero Burning ROM. I will then be able to use my Pioneer drive in Nero Burning ROM.

it's not clear from your wording if this actually works and you do this, or you are contemplating that it would work.

does it actually work?
i would think not.
Burning Rom would work only if the drive is compatible with the serial number stored in the registry.
(but maybe the check is only done when the app is launched and so it does work???)
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Postby treemana on Mon Oct 20, 2003 11:14 pm

dodecahedron wrote:does it actually work?

It works for me. I can use both my AOpen CD-R and my Pioneer DVD burner in Nero Burning Rom. It seems the only time Nero checks the serial number in the registry is when you try to select the drive. If it's already selected, it works fine.
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