NicW noted Australian software engineer, and developer of Dvdinfopro after burning the midnight oil has found the BenQ media info error in dvdinfo 2, and 3 beta. He will release an update to dvdinfopro 2.57 that will address this issue and also have notice in it about new and improved dvdinfopro 3.xx to be released this coming weekend. All owners of 1.xx, 2.xx will get free update to version 3.xx DVDInfoPro will continue to be donationware.

Below is sample scan using dvdinfopro 3.xx

all interested in nicW take on Donationware please see this link

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtop...f28df78ba52d36

spam

At least make an attempt to make it look like something else.

Is the speed issue fixed with the benqs? or is that just a side effect of the drives..hate to take all night scanning

and a suggestion maybe you could have a dvdinfo version without advertising that has less features..then it would be a choice whether you want extra features and some advertising (which i really dont mind since even this forum has advertising "looks at top of this page..hmm neo games" ) ...just a idea.

the 1x scan speed on BenQ is fw related not hardware as my nu tech using same chipset as the benQ 822 can scan at speeds upto at least 4x with no problem.

The Benq drives for some reason do not follow the speed commands for scanning, even though the engineer told me they do. I have repeatedly asked them to look at this, and once again just recently. Hopefully they will do something about it soon.

Your idea is interesting and I will give it some thought, and bounce it around our closed group.

well that way you could come out with new features and have them only available for the commercial program and just have your basic features in your free one. that way you can always say i have a completly free program its dvdinfo if you want the pro version then you get ads with it or you can donate and get lifetime upgrades etc. seems fair..and beleive me being a programmer i know hosting a site buying developer software and hardware to test with is not cheap..I for one see no problem in paying for software i use knowing the hard work and money some put into it.

Very interesting. Maybe I could open V2.5x as the completely free one when I release V3.00 this weekend.

I think the user community would be grateful if you did that.

The CDRLabs thread is closed. So I'll reply here.

I don't think that donationware is the correct name. True donationware is one where people donate out of the kindness of their own hearts because they love the software so much. Not because there is an "I'll remove the ads and give you a registration key if you 'donate' this much" incentive. That's twisting the meaning of "donation." Also, true donationware is where the author gets compensation when someone appreciates the program and donates. But with the ads there, the author will reap a profit from the ads even if nobody liked the program and didn't donate a cent. This is not donationware because a user "contributes" even without donating.

NicW said in the CDRLabs thread that he needs this money in order to support the high costs of the program in terms of drives and media. Someone else in that thread then made a point (that Nic never responded to) that some of the features in DVDInfoPro are official jobs and that Nic gets a number of free drives and free media (I was lurking in the forum when back in April Nic got a free 832S complete with 3 pieces of the very rare +R DL media... and when the 1213S came out, there was a thread announcing Nic getting the 1213S. And I remember reading that he got a free 411S, too... who knows what else he got?). Nic claims that he used a lot of media for DVDInfoPro, but as someone pointed out in the CDRLabs thread, it doesn't make any sense because DVDInfoPro doesn't burn media and that all he needs is a few burned discs to make sure that error scanning working right, a few RW to make sure that RW erasing is working, and a few blank recordables to make sure that the drive is sending the correct "CDB" command to the drive to tell the drive that the drive should booktype. None of this should take a lot of media, I don't think. Also, Nic says that the donation also compensates for his time. But isn't that what makes the difference between a job and a hobby? A job is when you get paid for your time and a hobby is not. I think that if Nic wants to say that his donations compensate for his time spent, then donationware is a very poor choice of words in my opinion! It is not volunteer work or some kind of community service if you get paid for the time--compensation for raw resources is one thing (which, apparently, the companies are already doing for him), but compensation for time is something else.

Other poeple like OC-Freak, Jamos, and rdgrimes are true examples, I think, of people who should really deserve donations. They've all purchased a lot of drives with their own hard-earned money for testing (some of OC's drives came free, but according to his post listing all his drives, the vast majority came from his own pocketbook) and they've also all expended a lot of media for testing (especially rdgrimes and his mountains of contributions to the media tests forum! ). And not to mention, this takes up a lot of their time, too! And they don't even go around soliciting donations. Well, if anyone should, it's them!

In my personal opinion, calling DVDInfoPro "donationware" or even any form of "freeware" is very misleading and offensive, because it insults the very concept of someone putting in their time and effort for the good of the community and not for the good of their pocketbook. DVDInfoPro is commercial software and should be labeled as such.

thanks for the input. Commerical is also wrong and does not fit. Commercial software does not provide full functionality even with adverts. Sometimes they supply full or limited funciton for a time period. This was the whole point of the debate on Cdrlabs when I requested it be terminated as some could not behave themselves.

Whatever I am still looking for a suitable classification, and at the suggestion of CDRLabs, V2 of the program will become true freeware this weekend.

Nic likes to whine about how he needs to get compensated for his time and expense, yet he refuses to state just how much "compensation" he actually gets from all the ads and "fees" that he charges users.
He thinks nothing of spamming all the forums to get more downloads and ad fees, then when he gets run out of the forums, he sends his drones to do the spamming for him. Pretty pathetic really, and painfully obvious.

i think the term adware applies..very much like other adware programs i have.

i dont know why the advertising is needed? unless he gets alot of revenue from those companies which i doubt having marketed on the web before. i think 2 versions would be the way to go. like so many proggys on the net. one freeware with basic features the other you have to pay for. dropping the ads altogether in that sense, but there are others who dont mind the ads so who are we to really say. just make it the way you want nic if people want it they will use it if not thats life. no ones forcing anyone to use this program. and im not a fan boy more of a neutral observer..i do use it from time to time but not alot as im not really into all the technical things it does.

ok i think this topic has been discussed enough im closing this thread before any flame wars erupt. and really this is a bit off topic as this is a media forum not a software one.