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CmiVFX down again...


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There's an upside to their policy

I can access the training DVD's pretty much anywhere I have access to the internet, which helps me in a work environment because we don't have DVD players on our boxes, as apposed to DVD's where I need to keep them on me in the event that I need an expression that I once saw way back when -I sort of like this, a bit like youtube :)

But then again, it is frustrating when you log onto a service you've paid for and it doesnt work.

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  • 1 month later...

Hard to look a gift horse in the mouth. Our company recently bought all this material... and as I sit here watching it I'm reminded again of why I hate streaming video. This thing seems to back up every so often and repeat about 3 seconds worth of what I just watched. I tolerate because I didn't purchase. But I must insist yet again, that I will not purchase this material myself until I can have a physical download.

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Yeah, I´ve done that (not with camtasia, but with other similar software), but the truth is it took me about 5 days of spare time at work to capture just one product I had legitimately purchased. One week worth of my spare time at job to be able to see at home what I bought months ago.

I don´t know what you think, but in my opinion I´m being punished for being legal as opposed to searching for pirated copies. This is bad considering I´have purchased their videos several times (i.e. not a casual buyer).

Edited by Netvudu
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it took me about 5 days of spare time

...and I bet any of us could find a copy in less than 5 minutes on some fileshare site.

Wavesmack (CmiVFX), I'm assuming you are probably listening on this thread? We'd really appreciate an update on how you feel about all of the points we've raised. Do you not think we're making some legitimate points?

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...and I bet any of us could find a copy in less than 5 minutes on some fileshare site.

Wavesmack (CmiVFX), I'm assuming you are probably listening on this thread? We'd really appreciate an update on how you feel about all of the points we've raised. Do you not think we're making some legitimate points?

Sorry for my absence, We were working on the new website for a long time.

I love your enthusiasm for delivery methods.... it is a HOT topic.

But sadly... i must start to show you.... our method is the NEW method now for many companies. For example... Digital tutors is now entirely like our system. And others are converting.

We just happened to do it first in 2007. Of course we were going to get bashed for being different.

Just so you ALSO know... we invented the digital noise algorythm for digital download quicktimes. Our software ran on linux and stamped certain frames with a hidden noise algo that only our software could detect.

LONG STORY SHORT..... we are STILL in piracy battles from 2005! So that system doesnt work worth a damn.

As for the other training companies still lingering.... 3dbuzz etc..... they purchase most of our houdini videos to watch..... and im guessing planning on using it for research for playback.

(I dont think they use it for their content i mean)

So, I dont know what to expect from them.... but not this.... without a proper QUICKTIME DRM, we will be continuing our R n D with streaming media.

We have written software that can do a DRM... but it lacks support on linux.... which is unacceptable.

Our method works on 32 and 64 bits of OSX, WIndows AND Linux.

Our delivery is instant. In the next few weeks you will see yet another surprise....

but for our content to even produce a profit at a digital download rate assuming how pirated we have been in the past... we would need to bump our prices back up to 79.95 much like gnomon.

However MORE PEOPLE VOTED FOR CHEAPER PRICING... and that vote was higher then 79% of our user base.

We will never give up on new technology... we are the FIRST to do everything in our industry.... as much as that sometimes has its downsides.... we will keep looking for new answers to existing problems until its solved.

But as of right now, expect the rest of them to follow us sooner then you think.

We make the richest training for Houdini. SideFX themselves are logged into our player nearly 24/7.

We try really hard to provide kick ass real world scenarios.... but its a give and take process.

(If your a programmer, and have a method for DRM that you know works and is cross platform.. step up to the plate and contact us... but something tells me not to hold my breath on that)

note this though.....

now that the new website is up, and we moved to the new streaming server..... we plan to only have one reboot a month for performance reasons. we will do this in odd hours and will be down for only 5 minutes.

last month WAS A MESS. this new site took years off my life. many of the issues were due to programmers error and poor QA on that team. we had let go of them and hired new people to fix it. So.. we know about those issues. we are past that now.

I hope this info helps.... and always looking for your comments.

For fast response though... email me directly. or hit support@cmivfx.com we respond immediately. (if you want to talk to a trainer... it might take longer due to timezones around the world.)

-chrisMaynard

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All that enthusiastic marketing blurb doesn't change the simple fact that your way of delivery is unreliable and unusable for lots of VFX people.

It also doesn't change my option of not buying from you anymore until you offer downloads. Other's opinion might vary, of course.

Dragos

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As someone who's currently with limited internet access and bandwidth, I highly agree that this is quite annoying.

It can be taken for granted living in a place with good communication infrastructure where internet and bandwidth aren't much of an issue.

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LONG STORY SHORT..... we are STILL in piracy battles from 2005! So that system doesnt work worth a damn.

-chrisMaynard

Okay, but how does your new system stop people pirating your videos using screen capturing software? If you can give a satisfactory answer to that question, then maybe I'll be able to understand your policy.

Otherwise, I find it hard to see the benefit to CmiVFX for using an online player.

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I'm glad to see good, valid points being made here...an odforce tradition..

for myself, I think I own all the Houdini stuff at cmi and personally I've never had any issues (other than not having time to watch/study all the material)...

while it's true that the streaming delivery method isn't perfect for everyone the fact is (at least IMO) this represents the delivery method that WILL be standard for more than just training videos in the future...

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I'm glad to see good, valid points being made here...an odforce tradition..

for myself, I think I own all the Houdini stuff at cmi and personally I've never had any issues (other than not having time to watch/study all the material)...

while it's true that the streaming delivery method isn't perfect for everyone the fact is (at least IMO) this represents the delivery method that WILL be standard for more than just training videos in the future...

We show your username over the video in flash that our detecter can see. so screen recording and pirating is the same result.

we will find out.... and people from all over report us the files on ftp's odays, xforce blah bla bla...

and we have snagged a few screen recording guys... they paid us out in cash for damages. that worked out for us in those 2 instances.. but its not always that way.

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For fast response though... email me directly. or hit support@cmivfx.com we respond immediately. (if you want to talk to a trainer... it might take longer due to timezones around the world.)

-chrisMaynard

Well, as someone without internet-connection at home, I will not buy any product. This online-streaming-thing to me is like buying a book, but have to go to the library to read it. Anyway, I just want to comment and this phrase above, since it's just a phrase, I wrote an email a good year ago and you never responded or maybe we just have different ideas of the term - immediately.

Edited by primzahl
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