Be careful of dvdfab I got burned be careful

[hasamas1]

For anyone who intends to purchase a dvdfab product as part of the purchase, you can become a member of the technical forum for the products. The problem is that the person who runs the forum is a bad person called cat4u.
He blocked me due to my complaints on the forum regarding a problem downloading from YouTube. He claims that I complained too much and that is not allowed. You don't get what you paid for, but you shouldn't complain too much because he claims that this is done so that you have many posts as if it were Instagram, which I assume makes a financial profit from. If you want a dvdfab product, consider it even though they really do have excellent products. I have many of their products and the only problematic product is streamfab.
Attached is the message I received from the bad forum administrator.

[VoodooFX]

That's what you get for spam, forums are not your twitter, better go there and apologize instead of ranting here.

Btw, this subforum is called "Latest Video News", so you are spamming here too.

[Alwyn]

Sounds like Voodoo=Cat.

[VoodooFX]

Sounds like Voodoo=Cat.

Nah, not even close, he wouldn't reach his 4th spam post on my watch.

[VoodooFX]

I would employ clsid as a spam detector, more robust than a machine.

https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/issues/3217#issuecomment-2548344345

[cholla]

I have 2 cents plus to say about DVDFab & I'm not spamming.
@ hasamas1; Make your complaint to Customer Service or whatever DVDFab is calling it now.
Since that is not public you will not get banned.
You may have to ask more than once or even 3 times to get help.

I have this strait from a forum administrator:
The purpose of the DVDFab forum is to promote sales & DVDFab itself.
I almost got banned for complaining on the DVDFab forum.
Part of this was also for me & another member PMing each other.
So much for privacy because DVDFab administrators will read PMs.
No problems with me & this member but with what we were PMing each other.
Basically complaining about DVDFab.
AFAIK I'm still restricted at DVDFab forum from sending any PMs except to Administrators.

[ProJiJi]

As the subject has come up I am sort of wondering what the opinion is about that style of running a forum; the admin reading the PMs between two members? That seems to raise privacy issues, no?

In some 30 years as an employee type admin and then as owner type admin I can only remember twice when I felt I had to do something like that and in both cases I documented exactly what was going on, like why and so on. Once was about the wellbeing of a member and other members asked for me to do it and then the owner agreed it should be done. The other time related to site security and even then I felt it was an extreme step and was very reluctant. But it was a co-ownership thing and the other owner was pushing very hard for my approval and had the mods also on the side of doing it.

It just seems like something really, really uncool.

Is that written into the terms of service of that site where you had that happen? I mean, I get a sense it is a sort of given thing for that admin team, so shouldn't it be written into the terms of service?

Anyway, I'm just curious what others may think of that?

[Baldrick]

News??? Nope.

Moved to newbie/general forum.

[VoodooFX]

Anyway, I'm just curious what others may think of that?

I think the only thing you need to worry about some shady Chinese software business is your credit card info not to be stolen.

[cholla]

@ ProJiJi & hasamas1,
I had deleted all PMs at DVDFab but this one.
It is from one of the top Admins that were on the DVDFab forum at the time.
I am quoting the relevant parts.I think they are self-explanatory about the DVDFab forum administration attitude.

More generally, treating this private forum like some ad-supported general forum where you can say anything (like doom9 and others). The purpose of this forum is to support DVDFab products; anything that interferes with that prime task will not be tolerated.

There may be further restrictions on PMs in the future, it is still being abused by several users. I may put them in a new group.

You ask too many questions that begin with WHY... the why is usually either not relevant (not contributing to a solution) or proprietary. It is not what we do here because it is seldom necessary to know the 'why' of something to accomplish the goals of the forum. Just assume there is a good reason, which is almost always the case.

I have taken the time to explain all of this in the hopes you may underestand our purpose here.. You can still post here but the current restrictions mean that you have been very close in the past to a complete ban.

[Alwyn]

That's what you get for spam, forums are not your twitter, better go there and apologize instead of ranting here.

Btw, this subforum is called "Latest Video News", so you are spamming here too.

It now seems that the op was entirely justified in his "spamming". I for one won't be touching DVDFab based on the above comments.

[VoodooFX]

It now seems that the op was entirely justified in his "spamming".

"Entirely":

News??? Nope.

Moved to newbie/general forum.

[Incorrigible]

I for one am glad this is being brought out into the open.

While I am not in the market for this type of software, I do find it extremely telling that they fear user inputs on their forum that are anything other than in the best interest of promoting sales.

If one is confident in the product they market they welcome feedback, even negative and show potential customers that they care and will work to fix the issues encountered.

I for one think the responses the OP has received are deplorable and hope he continues his campaign on as many venues as possible, Facebook, online forums, etc, to raise awareness.

The responses he received on that forum are scammy at best, scummy at worst.

[dellsam34]

Good Lord, look how many browsing tabs he has open on his screen, This guy is indeed a spammer working for some organization spreading propaganda and complaining and playing the victim too much.

[ProJiJi]

Good Lord, look how many browsing tabs he has open on his screen, This guy is indeed a spammer working for some organization spreading propaganda and complaining and playing the victim too much.

I'm not sure what that post is meant for us stupid ones (like me) to focus on, but I am thinking that this thread has been somewhat educational for me - - - but then it should be noted that I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed - - - quite stupid be me.

Now what am I on about here, you might ask. (That doesn't take a question mark, does it?)

Anyway, I decided to go see what this DVDFab stuff is all about and I think I see it has a big footprint; meaning a not so small customer base.

So why would I gave a hoot about that?

Well, if the admin to which there is reference to in the OP's posts is willing to be reading private PMs of her/his customers, then what would stop this same admin, and her/his team, from checking what a customer's password is? Not sure if you folks know it or not, but the admin tools for a lot of the out-of-the-box site admin tools do allow the admin to view your password.

So if you have an admin, and/or her/his team, that doesn't/don't have any respect for privacy rights ...???

You see, way too many folks use the same pattern of password for all they use on the Net, and that can be big trouble if you have a dishonest admin watching what you are doing on a given site.

Yes, I used that vocabulary "dishonest". I think an admin that is doing that PM spying is dishonest. And I don't give a hoot if it is an admin in China or Greenland. That style of "It's China, so ..." is stereotyping and not so cool in itself.

Anyway, if this thread was started by a spammer, a troll, a whatever, I still have learned that it is probably a very good idea to stay the heck away from that DVDFab thingy until the owner gets into this Community and informs us that the admin I am focused on has been fired.

[Gripweed]

This is the reason the OP was banned from the StreamFab forum... On 12/15/2024 he posted relatively the same message to 4 different thread. He was sent a warning message telling him that this was a violation of the forum rules and told not to do it again, or he would be banned. This rule has been in effect since 09/07/2009. On 12/18/2024, he posted again, basically the same message except that this time he made it sound like everyone was declaring the company and the forum a fraud because the developer wasn't able to fix his problem in the timeframe he expected.

He wrote... What's going on, why aren't YouTube downloads being fixed? It's never taken this long to fix a problem that should be simple. It worked in previous versions. Note that the forum has already started talking about fraud.​

He was the only one to claim that fraud was being perpetrated. If he had read the message posted on 12/15/2024 by StreamFab's Project Manager, he would have known that a fix would be released 3 days hence. It was released and it solved the problem. But since he had to get his last digs in, he was already banned for sending 5 of the same message. If a Moderator can't control a forum, you wind up with anarchy. Look what he did on this forum - posted to the News section and had to be moved by Baldrick to the Newbie/General forum. Add to that, he posted 3 times almost the same message to a Program Review on this website. The forum from which he was banned was for StreamFab. He instead posted 3 reviews to the DVDFab program that were just criticism of the forum Moderator and not a program review. Totally different program, totally different forum. He obviously has no understanding of how forums and reviews work.

[Attachment 84310 - Click to enlarge]

[cholla]

There is a problem with DVDFab being in China as there is virtually no way to force DVDFab to honor it's contract.

I bought DVDFab Platinum.
It was supposed to always update any new copy protection.
By the time Cinavia came out DVDFab had been made "modular".
So Cinavia was not considered by DVDFab to be a copy protection.
If I can not make a working copy from a DVD with Cinavia that makes Cinavia a copy protection.

DVDFab Platinium was also supposed to do Bluray as it was new.
Then as time went on that became only the oldest form of bluray encryption.
So a breach of contract but I have no way to enforce it.
Also there was no mention in the original webpage for Platinum of not including older OS's.
Whenever DVDFab decides to they no longer update for an older OS.

When I purchased Platinum it would work offline.
There was nothing about the program must be online to work on the web page.
Now DVDFab will only work for the full version if I'm connected to the Internet.
If I'm not it reverts to DVDFab HD Decrypter.
The same for Passkey.
If offline it "FAILS" to work.

I got one of their older media players free & it was supposed to work with midi.
I complained about this on the DVDFab forum.
I was told that the midi that was supposed to be in this player was a mistake.
They did not plan to fix this.
https://forum.dvdfab.cn/forum/software-support-english/dvdfab-media-player/370914-play...d-or-midi-file

Using DVDFab products is a necessary evil for me.
But the company & it's forum are dishonest.
They know there is virtually nothing a customer can do if they do not honor their contract.

Before some "fanboy" brings this up I believe the electronic contract or user agreement states they can make changes at DVDFab's will.
I guess that means they could make their software not work at all.
If that is what they did customers could do nothing about it.
So like the OP's title states: "Be careful" or better "Buyer Beware".

[dellsam34]

So they are the only company with a software that rip Blu-ray? As to downloading YT videos, I'm pretty sure there are better alternatives.

[cholla]

So they are the only company with a software that rip Blu-ray? As to downloading YT videos, I'm pretty sure there are better alternatives.

I'm sure there are some other companies that are supposed to rip blu ray.
I do not know if they work or not.
So someone else can post if there are others.

The DVDFab Platinum I have only rips DVD & maybe some very old blu rays.
However DVDFab Passkey will rip blu rays & is one software I use for this as I bought it long ago.
It still updates so far .
I also have Slysofts AnyDVD HD & it will rip some blu rays.
I have not nor do I plan to purchase any software from redfox as I consider them the left over crooks from slysoft.

MakeMKV will rip bluray to a .MKV.

Maybe Clone BD which is supposed to be elaborate bytes but may be affiliated with redfox.
It needs a decrypter like AnyDVD HD or Passkey.

[dellsam34]

I've used AnyDVD HD several years ago when I was into Blu-Ray rental thing, My main use was burning to BD-R and BD-R DL, I quite few years ago, therefore never needed the software anymore, I remember back then there was no definitive fix for Cinavia. I may have to rip my existing collection of original BD-ROM discs out of fear of disc rot and I will soon need a good ripper that can deal with Cinavia.

[ProJiJi]

While I am not big on the stereotyping of an entire nation of people because of nasty leadership, or poor leadership, or other related leadership troubles; I do pay attention to problems of commercial law in a given nation and how that might affect folks in this sort of new style of marketing using the Internet. In fact, that is one reason for my signature.

I see above that one of the VideoHelp Community citizens wrote about commercial law enforcement related to entities based in the PRC and that seems to be a rather difficult topic to address without walking into the No-Go-Park of politics, which ownership here clearly has written we aren't allowed to enter. BUT, it is a topic that deserves serious attention and if we are careful we might be able to explore that topic outside the No-Go-Park. Sort of staying on the perimeter.

As for the OP's history on other sites, I am not so sure that bugs me here. I had no clue about this DVDFab stuff until I saw this thread here in this community and as this is a topic that directly points to a big problem on this new Internet, I am not inclined to be critical of the OP here in this thread. I suppose that means I could care less about the OP's history on other sites. Of course, who gives a rat's arse about my opinion, yes?

AND, yesterday I realized I had made a stupid error, but that isn't uncommon for me, especially as of late. The error was due to careless observation, because it was only yesterday I happened to take in the full landing page here and noticed that the entity we are focusing on here in this thread is also a sponsor of this community.

So I was late with that observation about this entity under review here being a sponsor, but it is too early for me to figure out how that might influence this discussion. Might it mean a DVDFab representative will answer some questions here? Might it mean we are in swamp territory with site management here?

Enough of that observation for now.

I noticed in one of the posts above a reference to the terms of service for the entity we are focused on here and that it might have language that implies it can do anything it wishes, and that is of note. I'd like to ask if those specific lines of the terms of service that member has could be provided to us here? And I'd like to ask if anyone knows how many times this entity's terms of service has been updated (changed) since the founding of the company?

[Gripweed]

I have 2 cents plus to say about DVDFab & I'm not spamming.
@ hasamas1; Make your complaint to Customer Service or whatever DVDFab is calling it now.
Since that is not public you will not get banned.
You may have to ask more than once or even 3 times to get help.

This is correct. The use of the StreamFab forum is for users to help other users with StreamFab problems. For reporting problems and complaints to Customer Service (an indirect link to the Developer(s), who may or may not be a third party entity) you are expected to send Feedback. A formal ticket will be made and passed to the Developer(s). Even Moderators and Administrators do not have direct access to the Developer(s). That is part of the reason that the last two Moderators and Administrators (myself and another gent) resigned. Though we took the brunt of the user complaint abuse as total unpaid volunteers, we had no direct method to pass it on. Our indirect method more often than not ignored us.

I have this strait from a forum administrator:
The purpose of the DVDFab forum is to promote sales & DVDFab itself.
I almost got banned for complaining on the DVDFab forum.
Part of this was also for me & another member PMing each other.
So much for privacy because DVDFab administrators will read PMs.
No problems with me & this member but with what we were PMing each other.
Basically complaining about DVDFab.
AFAIK I'm still restricted at DVDFab forum from sending any PMs except to Administrators.

If this in fact happened, it must have been quite a while ago. I assure you on a stack of religious literature of your choosing that as Administrator (myself and the other gent) never had the ability to read other's PMs. There is simply no option in the forum software to allow such a thing that I ever saw, and I had full access to all the options available as far as I know. There used to be an Administrator/Moderator that ran the forum named Signals that was supposedly a bit of a bastard. A good percentage of all permanently banned users were due to him. He was around in the beginning in 2009 and left in April 2022, before I started on the forum as a user. Perhaps in that time period he found a way to read other's PMs.

[ProJiJi]

Some very reassuring information posted there, Gripweed.

But this contains more than one worry-bug:

Even Moderators and Administrators do not have direct access to the Developer(s).

That you team members didn't have direct access is the first worry-bug, but that you apparently didn't even receive information from the owner(s) as to how many were in development slots at the company is a second worry-bug that could actually start to hatch baby worry-bugs when deeper consideration is given to that.

Isn't it about time a company representative showed up in this discussion and clarified a few things? This discussion is certainly beyond anything that could be defined as spamming.

As for the question about access to PMs, that can't be properly addressed without the information of what platform that site was using. Possibly more information, if the admin tools were brought in separate from that which the forum platform provided. Plus there is the ability to tweak a given system.

[Gripweed]

I had deleted all PMs at DVDFab but this one.
It is from one of the top Admins that were on the DVDFab forum at the time.
I am quoting the relevant parts.I think they are self-explanatory about the DVDFab forum administration attitude.

Without a doubt, that had to be Signals. I've seen some of his other posts and he was always threatening everyone. He was a real power head trip. I can only assume that management finally had enough of him and that's why he suddenly disappeared in April of 2022. In absolutely no way was the StreamFab forum administration attitude of Signals anything like the attitude of us, the recent Moderators. Our first interests were to help our fellow users with tips and procedures to make StreamFab work better. That's not to say that we didn't have to occasionally have to deal with individuals with their own agenda. It happens on every forum (and before that, every "Usenet" newsgroup). But no, we didn't go looking for trouble. When it came to us, we took care of it in the appropriate manner.

[cholla]

I noticed in one of the posts above a reference to the terms of service for the entity we are focused on here and that it might have language that implies it can do anything it wishes, and that is of note. I'd like to ask if those specific lines of the terms of service that member has could be provided to us here? And I'd like to ask if anyone knows how many times this entity's terms of service has been updated (changed) since the founding of the company?

I could not find this now.
It may have been on the web page when I purchased DVDFab Platinum. This was in 2008.
I did find this in the License.txt

9. ENTIRE AGREEMENT.
This is the entire agreement between you and Fengtao Software Inc. which supersedes any prior agreement or understanding, whether written or oral, relating to the subject matter of this license.

@Gripweed, It was signals that I developed a problem with.
Funny thing about this was at first I got along with signals.
It was when I suggested using DVDShrink in a post or two I got on signals bad side.
BTW This was the correct solution.
After that I was always on signals bad side.
It was made worse with the linked post in post #17 here.
Then I was PMing with another member that signals had a problem with.
The only way signals had the information about these PMs was to have read them.
signals PMed me about these PMs but I deleted them.

[cholla]

I've used AnyDVD HD several years ago when I was into Blu-Ray rental thing, My main use was burning to BD-R and BD-R DL, I quite few years ago, therefore never needed the software anymore, I remember back then there was no definitive fix for Cinavia. I may have to rip my existing collection of original BD-ROM discs out of fear of disc rot and I will soon need a good ripper that can deal with Cinavia.

I believe (although I have not used it) That the DVDFab Cinavia "fix" is still a work around.
There is no good fix for Cinavia that I know of.
The best solution is to have a settop BD player made in 2012 or before.
The LG I have was made in 2012 & ignores Cinavia.

[dellsam34]

I'm done with ripping my HD-DVD collection and officially started ripping my BD original collection, Cinavia doesn't concern me much since I will be playing ripped disc images using something that doesn't give a rats @ss about Cinavia, something like Kodi or the likes, What concerns me though is the fake playlist, Not sure if makemkv keeps tabs of all discs true playlists.

[ProJiJi]

Thank you for the feedback, cholla.

I'm sort of surprised there isn't a clause in that #9 that states that a customer can cancel if they don't agree. Well, maybe that is #10?

But if you paid money for a product, isn't there some protection in the laws of some nations from that #9 sort of thing? I guess that is getting too technical in that funny world of the lawyers and starting to slide off-topic. Still, I think I'd be mighty miffed if some company had me pay for something and then turned around and changed the terms without offering me my money back. Or some of it, at least.

"world of the lawyers" reminds me of something I think somebody wrote into a script for a movie: "Lawyers don't practice justice, they practice law." (I'll put that in quote marks, but I might have the wording wrong.)

[cholla]

Thank you for the feedback, cholla.
I'm sort of surprised there isn't a clause in that #9 that states that a customer can cancel if they don't agree. Well, maybe that is #10?

I'm posting the License.txt as an attachment.
The opt out is the trial version as stated in the License.txt.
This is from the last version that works with Windows 7 32 bit OS.
It still updates but not the version.
Not mention of this was on the DVDFab web page when I purchased DVDFab Platinum.
That older Windows OS's would be dropped from newer versions.
Also Platinum was supposed to be the complete package.
When DVDFab decided to go "modular" only two programs were left DVD Copy & DVD Ripper.
I consider this proof that DVDFab can change the software any way they want to.

Here is another thing you might find interesting:
There was an old German version of DVDFab not affiliated with the Chinese company.
I do not know if Fengtao bought the rights to use the name DVDFab.

[Attachment 84368 - Click to enlarge]


[Attachment 84369 - Click to enlarge]

[hasamas1]

Thanks to video hep. I worked with dvdfab and always bought more and more software from them. Now due to many problems with the dvdfab software I decided to buy from a competing company.
I saw the software and used video help at
https://www.videohelp.com/software/sections/video-streaming-downloaders
video help is very helpful in finding good software