What's new in VP 10.05?

RandyL

I just received an email notifying me of the release of VideoPad 10.05. My version is 8.39. It looks like the upgrade will cost me $50, which I think may be as much as or more than I paid for the program originally. I have not found any information listing new features of 10.05 to justify the upgrade price.

So can anybody please list some features that make the upgrade worth the money? I'm sure there are many like me who really don't want to diddle with all that would be involved with upgrading and then perhaps needing to roll back to the previous version without first getting a sense of what we have to gain from the upgrade.

If there's an easily accessible list of new features that I should have found, I apologize for my failure to find it. If no such list has been provided, then as far as I'm concerned, shame on NCH for asking us to buy an upgrade without taking the trouble to tell us why. It almost gives the appearance that there are no new features that will look attractive if listed out, and they're hoping we'll buy the upgrade, do some videos, perhaps find that new videos are not backward compatible with previous versions, then choose not to roll back in order to keep access to our new stuff, so that we're stuck with an upgrade that we didn't want to buy and would have decided against buying if we had seen the list of new features up-front.

So what's up here, did I blow it, or did NCH?

borate

New releases can always be test driven for free and used indefinitely. Some features will be disabled. Check out the latest. Just retain your licensing info. Keep in mind that updates are free for six-months from the date of purchase. Special sale prices appear from time to time.

Compatibility occasionally can be an issue, though usually not. It is wise to export with the release (or one close in time) to the version used to edit.

RandyL

Thanks for the reply. Are you telling me that there's never any listing of new features or other improvements? Why make us take time diddling with a new version and leaving us to find out for ourselves what the differences are? Wouldn't a listing of improvements be helpful to everyone? I'm a fairly new user of NCH software, so I haven't yet learned the company's patterns. I'll just say that if there's no listing of improvements, I'm going to assume that there aren't any improvements worth advertising, and I'll keep my money. Might be shortsighted, but I'm not going to risk wasting precious time. Thanks again for taking some of your precious time to reply to my question!

borate

A more comprehensive listing might prove enlightening. This is about as good as it gets. The company wants users to experience the program.

RandyL

"The company wants users to experience the program."

I appreciate that! It's nice to be able to see for real what you're getting. But this in no way substitutes for the company also telling users what the improvements in a new version are. Some of us have to prioritize production efficiency, not playing with software to see what we think of it. Tell us what we'll get in exchange for the cost and time required to update! Saying "we want you to experience the program" sounds like a copout. I see nothing to gain by the absence of a list of improvements over the availability of such a list--unless the company itself isn't convinced that the upgrade is really worth the money. In that case the company has something to gain: income that it wouldn't get if the truth of the matter is that there's really nothing new worth spending time and money for. That's not the kind of company I want to do business with. I never heard of a successful company that isn't proud to tell the marketplace what its products will do for them--including what's new and improved in a version upgrade.

Thanks again for replying.

Randy

[deleted]

Currently an "Upgrade" or "Latest" version of VP is made available in the light of users finding problems or bugs in the current version which, in some situations might be a show stopper. IMO these "Latest" versions perhaps ought to be more correctly called a "debugged" version.

A true "upgrade" would be a version that works just as before (i.e. without major bugs) but has some enhanced features for example that follow suggestions made byusers or in which parts of the program have been rewritten to enhance the way it works. As Borate rightly points out a "debugged" version (to use that term) is available as soon as the problem has been fixed, and if you bought your current program less than 6 months before, it can be downloaded free of charge. It may be that the you never experienced the bug but nevertheless you can still download it. In fact this scenario also applies to "Latest" versions which have enhancements (like user suggestions).....That would still be free.

However it is perfectly logical that one would pay for "Debugged" or the "Latest" version after 6 months of use.

Although you may be given the option to upgrade, (no harm in asking) there is no compunction for you to take up that offer if you find the "old" version you are using OK. At the same time trial versions (Beta versions) are available for users to test and report on or simply to try out.

Whilst it is true that later versions do not always work with older project files (e.g. vpj files) This is not usually the case except where the vpj files were created with quite old versions. It should be pointed out that some users who used VP 4.xx and 5.xx to create projects (which are pretty old) unrealistically still expect to open these vpj in much later versions of VP.

When NCH develop versions (or correct versions) with important changes the differences are listed here...

https://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/versions.html

Limited as these change descriptions seem to be they are similar to those seen with other software.

The advice I think would be to keep with the version you are currently using if it does what you want. Update to the latest before your 6 months is up. Give it a try and see if it is better (or just the same). Revert to your old version if you feel that is better. All that is free. If, on the other hand if you have had it for more than 6 months,there is no compunction to upgrade. You can run the trial version free for a time (usually with restricted export) and then upgrade and pay if you like it. If you don't you can revert to the old version again.

Nat

RandyL

The list of versions that you and Borate supplied gives at least a helpful impression of what's to gain by upgrading. Since I'm not a power user of the program, not all the entries yield clear meaning for me. But that's helpful in itself: these changes apparently do not bear on things that I'm actually doing currently.

I still think that you'd serve your customers best by making it as easy as possible for us to get some meaningful impression of what the upgrade will do for us. So that's my customer feedback for you, for whatever it is worth.

Thanks for your time. I hope some other forum readers will also be helped by the discussion.

borate

Put your positive suggestion to the company. This forum is populated primarily by users, just like yourself.

https://www.nch.com.au/suggestions/index.html?software=VideoPad