Adobe no longer activating DV Rack now what?

For those that do not know Adobe bought Serious Magic the creators of DVRack (now On Location) and Ultra (a high-end green screen utility). I had to reinstall DVRack due to the fact I had to reinstall Windows on my laptop. After several calls to Adobe technical support, I was finally told that Adobe quit activating DVRack as of November 2008. The only option was the purchase of Premiere Pro CS4 for $800 or the upgrade price of $300 IF you had an earlier version of Premiere. Adobe has my email address and yet I was never told this was happening.

It is my thought that Adobe should provide some type of patch to those of us using DVRack. I heard through the grapevine that Adobe intended to do this but if the products were activated by SoftWrap, we would have to take it up with them. During the time I was trying to activate DV Rack with Adobe, Adobe technical support gave me the SoftWrap number. I called it and was told all they did was handle the sales aspect that the activation was up to Adobe. Now what? You are going to start getting a lot of upset people. DVRack is a necessary tool for me.

Please talk to Adobe and ask them to fix this problem.

Grasshopper



Grasshopper

Tim -

Thank you for getting back to me. I did take your advice. I contacted SoftWrap support. They contacted me with information on activating a new license but, unfortunately, DVRack 1 expired before I could activate it and now I'm in that "loop" where I cannot get into the program to activate the license. I contacted support again a few days ago but have not heard anything yet. I'm beginning to lose faith :-(.



Grasshopper

Tim -

Final report from Softwrap - talked about bummed out. I'm wondering if I am going to face the same problem with Ultra. Again, I appeal to Adobe to fix this problem. If you know who I should contact at Adobe, please let me know. Going through Adobe technical support just referred me to Softwrap who referred me to Adobe.

Janet

Hi there,

Thank you for the email.

Unfortunately we do not handle support for DVRack 1 here at Softwrap.

Please can you contact the author of this title at - http://www.adobe.com about the issue you have with their software.

Kindest regards,

Softwrap Support.


Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: POY-719630
Department: Support
Priority: High
Status: Closed

Grasshopper

Janet,
Sorry for the activation problems you've experienced. We had everything lined up to avoid exactly the situation you encountered, but those plans ran into some unexpected speedbumps. Those hurdles were recently cleared, and an activation utility will be released very soon that will allow you to get DV Rack & Ultra up and running.

Again, our apologies for the inconvenience.

Mark Mapes
Adobe OnLocation QA Manager

Some software companies DESERVE piracy exactly for this kind if behaviour. They are effectivelly neglecting paying customers.

For Serious Magic products that don't involve SoftWrap, you can get a utility here that activates legacy products.
For DV Rack 2.0, you have to go through SoftWrap. If you got to 2.0 via some upgrade path, then you should install the earliest version you purchased, download and install the latest patch, run the legacy activation tool, repeat for HDV Powerpak if applicable, then install the upgrade to 2.0 and attempt to activate with the Softwrap key. If you have a problem at that point, then you'll have to contact SoftWrap.


Mark Mapes
Adobe OnLocation QA Manager

Hi Richard -

This is an older thread and I did receive support from Adobe to activate my software thanks to Mark. I have not yet installed Ultra so that will be the next test :-).


Grasshopper

The activation tool is here: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4246
The last patch for DV Rack 1.0 is here: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3928
And the last patch for DV Rack 2.0 can be accessed from here:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=141&platform=Win....

The instructions you quote pretty much sum up the process. At least I can't think of anything to add.

Mark Mapes
Adobe OnLocation QA Manager

Hi. I'm having the same problem as MANY other users seem to be. Computer crashed. Finally Adobe released an "activation" solution. Except that it doesn't work if you have the HDV Power Pak!

I can install DV Rack... install the newest patch... and use the new activation program to activate. Works fine.

But when I install the HDV Power Pak(and the latest patch), the activation tool does not recognize anything and I can't activate it.

I have to uninstall everything and go back to DV Rack 1 (SD)

And without activating the HDV Power Pak, I can't install my upgrade to DV Rack HD 2.0

Please help!

Thanks!