You Can NOT Test Catalyst Edit!

aboammar wrote on 3/2/2016, 8:01 AM

I sent the following to Sony Support:
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Hi,

I installed the trial version of Catalyst Edit some time ago where I did not have enough time to test it.

Today, I download the trial version again to test it again, but I get error that my trial has expired!!

How can I decide before I buy if I can not test it??

This is a new software in the market, and you should make that trial period at least 60 days, not only 15 days, so people have enough time to test and before they buy.
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And this is the reply I got:
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Hi Yasser,

Thank you for contacting Sony Creative Software.

Unfortunately, once the trial version of our software has expired, the trial can't be run on the same computer again. The only way to try the trial again would be to install it to a computer that hasn't run it yet. As for the amount of time that the trial lasts, you can bring up the idea of extending said time to our developers directly. Please find our Product Suggestion page here: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/support/suggestions

If you still have a follow-up question on this particular incident, please feel free to update it. If you have a completely different question, please create a new incident.

Sincerely,

Neal S.
Customer Service
Sony Creative Software Inc
www.sonycreativesoftware.com
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Seriously???!!!!!!!!! Oh my God ..I can't believe it!!!!!! What the hell is going on with Sony? Since when Sony become so dump and soooo cheap??!!!!

Sony is encouraging Vegas Pro users to switch to Catalyst Edit, and from all reviews I read about Catalyst Edit, almost 90% of the Vegas Pro users heated it and consider it a downgrade!! So, with all this bad reviews, how do Sony expect users to switch and buy a totally new application, if it dose NOT give them enough time to fully test it??

So, Vegas Pro which is mature and superior to Catalyst Edit, gives the testers full 30 days. And in case that was not enough, the testers can simply uninstall and re-install Vegas Pro to get another 30 days of testing time.

On the other hand Catalyst Edit which is totally new and "un-matured" NLE gives you ONLY 15 days of trail, and ONLY one time, so if you could's for any reason to test it in 15 days, then the only way to get more testing time is to install it on different PC!!!! So In my case, and in most users case, we normally one PC, thus we have to buy another computer just to test the damnd Catalyst Edit!!!!!!!

I think the only reason for this extremely stupid strategy of Sony being so over-protective is because Sony is not confident that Catalyst Edit is good enough, thus it dose not give Vegas Pro users enough time to test and discover its drawbacks!! This is the only reason I can think of!!

Anyway, and as most Vegas Pro user say, version 13 is the last version, and Catalyst Edit is a replacement and it is an extremely bad alternative. So after 18 years of being totally loyal to Sony, it's time to say; goodbye Sony, and welcome DaVinci Resolve or even Adobe Premier Pro .. they are the future, and Sony is going down!

Comments

DeadRadioStar wrote on 3/2/2016, 8:21 AM

I had exactly the same experience when SpectralLayers Pro was released. As a result of this idiotic trial restriction Sony lost an almost certain sale.

This Trial Makes it Impossible to Evaluate...

wwjd wrote on 3/2/2016, 8:22 AM

seriously sony, just put a huge freaking watermark on all video out, and call it a day. Here's hoping the 11 people they made catalyst for are happy with it.

I tried CANTalyst on initial release and it was crap. So, if they release UPDATED versions with fixes ETC I can't try it again to see if it is improved???

musicvid10 wrote on 3/2/2016, 10:12 AM

aboammar,
Sony doesn't handle their trial expirations any differently than a hundred other vendors afaict.

You get a fixed trial period from the time you install it. It didn't cost you anything to install it, so I'm wondering why all the drama?

Rest assured, you will get another trial opportunity with the next full release.

aboammar wrote on 3/2/2016, 12:40 PM

True .. this idiotic trial restriction will at end drive customers away, and the biggest loser is Sony.

aboammar wrote on 3/2/2016, 12:48 PM

You have the right solution .. Sony should put a watermark after the trial period, and problem solved for customers and Sony. However, I have a big doubt that Sony will be wise enough to think about it until it loses customers, and go bankrupt ..

Unfortunately, I see no good future for Sony Creative Software... Not any more, especially with their support team which sucks big time! Soooo slow response time ..sometimes it take them more than 6 weeks to reply to you. Basically, you can not depend on their support.

aboammar wrote on 3/2/2016, 1:01 PM

That is why my friend I said: Since when Sony become so dump and soooo cheap??!!!! Because they are imitating the cheap companies with such idiot new policy!

They used to be one of the best in the business in term of software quality, support, and in their trail strategy where you could try freely for 30 days, and extend the trial buy uninstalling and reinstalling the software.

Now, they are probably the worst (comparing to competitors) in term of software quality where they still sale outdated such as Acid Pro, and buggy such as Vegas Pro. And they are totaly the WORST Tech Support EVER. And besides all that, they become so over-protective with new un-matured applications such as Catalyst Edit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

astar wrote on 3/2/2016, 2:03 PM

If they want to follow, they should follow Blackmagic and give away Catalyst Edit for HD work, and sell the 4k full version.

PeterWright wrote on 3/2/2016, 6:33 PM

aboammar,

Remember though that installing a limited time trial version of a product then not trialling it within that time is not a good move.

John_Cline wrote on 3/2/2016, 6:35 PM

Geez, aboammar, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel. LOL

rmack350 wrote on 3/2/2016, 6:41 PM

Making it expire X days after the first run is probably the simplest way of limiting a trial. Programming-wise it'd probably be very easy.

A better way to approach it would be to give you 15 actual usage days, with a notice on each day you use it stating how many days you have remaining.

Inserting a watermark might take a little more effort than either of those approaches.

As far as "losing a customer" goes...the only way they're going to know they lost a customer is if you pay for the software and then demand a refund an hour later. Otherwise you're the customer they never had.

ushere wrote on 3/2/2016, 7:27 PM

Sony doesn't handle their trial expiration's any differently than a hundred other vendors afaict.

watermark would be a good idea...

meanwhile, go trial some other stuff till the next release comes up ;-)

megabit wrote on 3/3/2016, 10:23 AM

Just wanted to ask: is the very architecture of Catalyst the reason that the Secondary Windows monitor cannot be used as a second preview monitor, or is it just an early in-matured version problem?

Piotr

aboammar wrote on 3/4/2016, 12:47 PM

I am not sure, but my guess is the last reason you mentioned.

DeadRadioStar wrote on 3/5/2016, 3:13 AM

Clearly the OP is not getting much sympathy here, but I'm guessing some of the less sympathetic responses are from those who have never been faced with the consequences of such a trial system that allows only a once-off attempt and effectively requires you to buy a new computer in order to perform a second test. Such a system in my eyes is beyond stupid.

What about the situation where you've built a custom computer and installed the trial, only to find some incompatibility? Let's say you need to order a new graphics card. Delivery takes a few days, then you've got to get the time to install it, change drivers, and check that everything else is still working to satisfaction. Now you fire up the trial again and ..... no, clearly the vendor assumes you're attempting to steal the software and as a result you may never again be granted the opportunity; at least not until the next release, where the vendor hopes to sell more product.

In Sony'd defence, there are worse examples out there, such as those that require you to buy a proprietary software protection dongle just to run the trial, but such products are typically in the four-figure price category where the cost of the dongle is small in relation to the full purchase price.

A good example in my opinion is Izotope's system which gives you a timed trial with full functionality, and reverts to a save-disabled version afterwards. For NLE's a watermarked output seems a reasonable compromise, as suggested by others above.

But once-off time-bombed trial versions of software that's marketed as "professional" .... sorry, I'm out.

aboammar wrote on 3/5/2016, 4:07 AM

You are right my friend ..

I don't know what happened to Sony Creative Software when they decided to go with such a dump, and cheap move with such new, un-matured, and un-proven software!!!

They are dreaming if they think that users will buy such an application just to try it .. truly what an idiot move! If Sony will continue with this trend, it is going out of business sooner or later.

By the way, I already started to learn DaVinci Resolve 12, and I advice everyone to try it .. its an amazing and extremely powerful grading application that is worth at least a $1,000 .. yet, is is offered FREE of charge to anyone. Will Sony learn something or two from Blackmagic Design?

Also, the video editing capabilities of DaVinci Resolve 12, which by the way similar to Vegas Pro in many ways, is very good and easy to use. Sure not as powerful as Vegas Pro yet, but it is going to be sooner or later.

Download the free version from here:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

megabit wrote on 3/5/2016, 7:12 AM

Am I mistaken, or does Resolve only offer full-screen display over SDI? The same may be intended for Catalyst Edit, making additional hardware investment a must...

Piotr

riredale wrote on 3/5/2016, 1:09 PM

Gosh, when it was installed were you made aware that it would time out at some point? Then what's your issue?

I have seen trialware that (a) times out (b) x number of uses out, or (c) watermarks. For whatever reason, Sony chose (a). As for the timeout, I would think 7 days is too short and one year too long. But it's Sony's to choose and if they mentioned the limit at the outset then what more could one expect?

Do you have another PC? We all have wildly different situations here, but I have a desktop PC AND a laptop, though the laptop is far less powerful.

Anyway, sorry for your frustration, but I think the anger and shouting is a bit much.

Laurence wrote on 3/6/2016, 7:30 PM

I tried Catalyst Edit, decided I wasn't interested, then some time later, wanted to try out Catalyst Prepare for preparing footage for Davinci Resolve. My trial period had timed out. No big deal, I thought, I'll just try it on another computer. It worked for the first session, then never again since I signed in with the same email. It worked out OK though because I found an excellent transcoder called ClipToolz V3.

vtxrocketeer wrote on 3/6/2016, 9:40 PM

Am I mistaken, or does Resolve only offer full-screen display over SDI?

You can preview full-screen, but the preview covers up the GUI on single-monitor mode. On dual-monitor mode, full-screen preview covers up the node tree and color controls. It's been discussed on the Resolve forum. Evidently SDI-out to a broadcast monitor is the only way to get full GUI and full-screen display simultaneously. For that one needs a Blackmagic box and a monitor with SDI input.

megabit wrote on 3/7/2016, 12:30 AM

You can preview ]i/[full-screen, but the preview covers up the GUI on single-monitor mode. On dual-monitor mode, full-screen preview covers up the node tree and color controls. It's been discussed on the Resolve forum. Evidently SDI-out to a broadcast monitor is the only way to get full GUI and full-screen display simultaneously. For that one needs a Blackmagic box and a monitor with SDI input

Exactly what I mean. What I'd like to know is whether this limitation stems only from BMD promoting their hardware, or is a real limitation of the program code... And back to the OP: having tried Catalyst Edit, I can see lots of similarities to Resolve GUI - and no provision for full screen on Windows Secondary Monitor, either :(

Piotr

wwjd wrote on 3/7/2016, 8:17 AM

for the P O C that catalyst is compared to its full featured step-brother, Vegas, they ought to be THROWING catalyst at us for free during its 3 year start up "BETA" period and let us work the bugs out.
I see the catalyst Forum links to somewhere else.
man, weird business decisions

aboammar wrote on 3/16/2016, 11:02 AM

Thanks to Sony, they agreed to extend the trial of Catalyst Edit for another 15 days.

I appreciate that even though it should not be that complicated in the first place, and it should be standard to try the software for at least 30 days .. 30 days of actual usage of the software, not counting the elapsed days when not using the software!

DGates wrote on 3/16/2016, 7:13 PM

whiner.

Laurence wrote on 3/20/2016, 11:14 PM

I tried running the demo on a second computer but it seemed to time out immediately using the previous date from my first trial period even though that was a different computer.