So far i prefer Video Watermarker

Maybe does not make the coffee but i saved tens of $$ when compared with other products, and it does the job.

As we r doing hybrid digital video watermarking project in C sharp
Can u help me...i read all concepts..so i m more interested in u people ...bcoz u can guide me successfully

Whatever happened to Slava/GATOD's fix? If you don't have a fix, then say so, but don't leave your customers hanging. Not giving a fix reflects poorly on GAOTD and Sibental. Turning off DEP and running install from an admin prompt did not fix the problem!

Application unexpectedly closed every time I want to add a video file. (Windows XP SP2)

I have tried several times and ways to get the program to run, without success. I hope that GAOTD does not forget to talk with the vendor and fix this problem of not being able to run the program. I had no problems with the install or even uninstall, it just won't run when I click on it to open the program. The program seems to be one that I could really use.

Perhaps a program that gives so much installation headache is after all not a worth to install one? A program can be great but if the developer cant make it good all the way (i.e., take care off all aspects including installation issues) I'm not so sure.

Oh man,it so good program but I lost it!
I didn't visit Giveawayoftheday.com yesterday because I was sick.

Is there any way you offer this program again?

Please....?

I assume either Slava forgot about us or Sibental didn't have a solution to the many issues this program had? Too bad, this would have been a decent program. I tried on two computers and never could get it to install correctly.

I could never get it to fully install and i tried twice, worked fine up til 99%, then nothing.

Joe (#62), I thank you for your review of VWF's performance. I agree with some of what you said. In particular, I agree that installation problems are not GotD's fault. However, I think my view of this site's "concept" is more broad than yours.

The application's installation process is as important as its features or its operation. For example, we were deprived of the impressions of many people who would also like to comment on its performance but were not able to because of a flawed installation process. At the top of this page, it says it works with Vista but clearly today's offering wasn't ready for Vista. I didn't see any comments claiming successful installation and operation on a Vista box.

Back when I was in school, if I didn't hand in an assignment then I knew my grade was an automatic ZERO. One can't grade what one can't see and an application that won't install is equally worthy of a ZERO.

While it would be great if every day's giveaway were trouble-free, we know that's not going to happen. This site allows software companies quick, risk-free access to real computer users at innumerable locations - each with a unique system configuration. Not only does this lead to the software sometimes performing in less than optimal ways during use but it also exposes problems with the setup/installation process that may not be apparent on the limited number of machines the software company tested their work on.

I understand that these comments are for the software and technical problems are supposed to be noted in the forums. But the reality is that most people aren't going to go searching all over this site for more information.

A smart software company that offered its product on this site would have someone, like a technical support rep, monitoring this page and would not remain silent while so many people complain. Early this morning (#16), Slava said the developer would be contacted. Time is almost up and still no solution. I had some interest in this application, but I don't believe it is wise to install anything that comes from a company that doesn't care about its reputation. Is it any surprise that your review reveals some troubling issues?

Its bad enough not to answer us, but they haven't even responded to the GotD project team!

as always thanks for this site and the cool offerings here...

tested on win xp sp2 and sp3 rc1 clean installs because was frustrated after repeat shutdown of program on the first trial addition of text (watermark) feature to a small avi file

installation fine - conversion from file to diff codec trying varying levels of use or none use of effects - resizing, etc. resulted for the most part in error exceptions or crashes (system restarts at end of encoding for some reason - especially when using resize feature)

tried using avi files and mpegs from many sources

it made me tired with frustration

not worth it in mho - look at the other woes as well...

This is an amazing amazing software for video junkies like me. I can make brand identity of my videos on you tube and Google video using this software. This software has made me happy today. I used it, it worked fast and superb and resulted very well. After long time I have seen video related software that is really innovative. If I loose this program while formating my pc, I will think over to even buy it. Last software that I admired this much was aimersoft video converter and I am still using it. It has become habit. Now this program too will be my habit while working on video.

Thanks a lottttttttttt Gaotd and watermark factory people

No install problems on XP/SP2.
However, the program turned a 26MB .avi into a 210MB .avi of poor quality (very slow, choppy playback) compared to the original. Then I tried to save it as mpeg and Video Watermark Factory crashed. I gave up at that point.

Media Resizer Pro installed and works well enough. However, I have had nothing but my time and effort wasted with this video watermark program.

Indeed, while I could truly use this program if it worked, I resent wasting time downloading and installing. I don not do this for the "fun" of it. I have been using computers since the early 1970s. I am not an unpaid "beta tester" nor do I care to waste my time on defective products.

Yes, I've tested a number of install and register tactics on this one. Yes, I have received the registration success messages from GOTD, as well as ad blurbs each time, from the seller.

However, despite the work, and indications of success, the program does NOT work. Each install, it loads, but the buttons are greyed out and nothing works.

Look, I do appreciate offerings like this from GOTD. If it worked, fine. It is quite easy to say, "Oh well, those are the risks you take." Nonsense: the time and effort I put into this is REAL. This is not a game, and, quite frankly, repeated failures irk me. A company who sells software like this does not deserve my business. They've already wasted more than $50 of my time ... or do you work for free?

For those who are interested in how the program performs (instead of who had which problem with installation, how they fixed it, and what GAOTD should do about it!) . . .

The watermarking function works well. There are plenty of options: location, color, font, size, opacity, shadow, shadow opacity, etc.

Unfortunately, this program doesn't seem to succeed in generating files that measure up to the original source. Here's what I mean:

1. I watermarked a 25 second .mpg file with some text, and I had the program output both an MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 version. Both files were pixelated when I played them in Windows Media Player-- the source file was not. The MPEG-1 file was badly pixelated. The MPEG-2 was better, only showing pixelation on camera pans. No audio problems detected.

2. Same file, same watermark-- but this time I set the output to AVI. The quality was better (hardly any pixelation), though still not as good as the original, but the audio ran faster than the video, throwing off the timing of the person speaking and leaving the last 6 seconds of video with complete silence.

GAOTD-- you rock! Unlike many who seem not to understand the concept of this website, I don't blame you for the problems of the software you give away (that's the fault of the developers). Nor do I blame you for installation problems. I've been visiting GAOTD daily for over four months, and I've never had a problem with installation. Just follow the directions in the README, folks!

I've gotten some true GEMS from GAOTD, but I know that not every day will be a treasure! It comes with the territory. Glary Utilities, Plato DVD Copy, Wondershare DemoCreator-- AWESOME! It's worth enduring the duds to find these great programs and get them free!

Keep up the great work GAOTD!

On my XP Media Center, I had this same problem with both Sibental products (today's Video Watermark Factory, and Media Resizer Pro of 2 days ago):

Product(s) would only install and run from an administrator-privilege account. Attempts to additionally "activate" or "setup" from non-admin accounts (ordinary user; i.e., my kids' account') did not result in working programs.

Instead I got a small window with the following error message for both products:

Error: Cant't find instalation path!

(with spelling as shown)

For Media Resizer Pro that message appeared in a window titled "connector" and I tracked it to this file: C:\Program Files\Media Resizer PRO\connector.dll

For Video Watermark Factory that same message appeared in a windows titled "Video Watermark Factory", but I have not yet found the file that contained the message (I was assuming the file would similarly be somewhere under C:\Program Files\Video Watermark Factory)

Thanks to "Carol" and others for the comments on Media Resizer Pro regarding disabling/renaming the shell extension file "shellext.dll". That had my non-admin kids' accounts really messed up since every right-click on many file types caused Windows to reload (after displaying the same error message above as when trying to launch those programs).

--- deleted ---

Iit is true what 54 says. Microsoft has made $1.93Billion from Vista so far and they know it is rubbish.Buy shares in Microsoft, run XP on your computer, and for a real computing powerhouse get a copy of OSX Leopard for your Mac. It is the most insanely well built piece of code making computing a sheer pleasure.It is $150 to buy, and it works as it should.
Vista.....how much $3,4,5,6,7 hundred, what a joke to pay that for a Operating system.
This program works a treat running on XPsp2 running under Bootcamp on my M..
It is very fast at what it does.

Sorry, it wasn't #47 but #37. That DEP thing doesn't work.

I forgot to say, that error appears at the end of the installation. When it says "Finishing installation..."

Thanks for any kind of help.

I have Windows Vista Home Premium. I did what #47 said, but it gives me an error:

Microsoft(C) Register Server has stopped working.

What should I do now??

Is re-encoding the video? What is the quality?

working well in xp. thank you! people as sad as it sounds, stop trying so hard in vista and give it up! it is crap will always be crap and microsoft is giggling at you!! monopolies suck

Have to agree with Gid. Toggling DEP is nothing more as one of many possible solutions that sometimes helps, usually not much though. Here it seems bit of nonsense looking at the various problems commenters have encountered. Anyways, after a somewhat complicated install it runs perfectly smooth here. Truly well worth the bothersome install and a sure keeper. May not need it much but for what it does it suits my needs.

Please stop advising Vista users to turn off the DEP and then run the installation proccess. That doesn't help at all and the installation still get stuck. I recommend to wait for official solution coming from GAOTD after considering the installation problems with the program developer.

g.

Installation on WinXP Home SP2 went smoothly, following the instructions in the readme. Interestingly, with GAOTD downloads, i've not had more than one or two installation issues in the last year. And, now i notice several people today giving the advice to run the setup program BEFORE the activate program, contrary to the typical instructions in the readme. Aside from the obvious Vista issues, perhaps this is a source of some of the problems people are having with the installs. Blame it on dyslexia.
As for the program functionality itself, i cannot comment further, as i've not seriously put it through all the paces, except to mention that it's brother, Watermark Factory, is a gem of a program (7.5 out of 10) for photos, and, so far, it seems to be on the same par.

#Vista users
Please combine comment 43 en 46 if necessary..
Keep me posted.

On my Windows XP SP2, installation was fine. On my Vista, I ran the executible using the "Run As Administrator" drop down by right clicking the executible and picking the Run As Administrator selection. The installation went fine.
Trying various WMV to generate a WMV adding "Text Watermarks." It worked but the watermark image clarity was not as good as I would like. Color was fine, and font was fine but the watermark is blured in the video.
However, I have had no luck putting a gif, png or jpg pic as a watermark. After generating the video, there is absolutely nothing there representing a watermark. Strange?? I went to the Watermark Factory website to see if there was any support, tutorial or help files hoping to find an answer. Dont hold your breathe. There is nothing on the website that will help you discover any problems what so ever with this product. My rating, from 1 to 5 stars. I give this product 1/2 star.

While this is a program I don't need I can see that others will want it. Thank you GAOTD for your efforts. Thank you to the publisher Sibental. Inc. I downloaded Media Resizer pro and I like it. I hopr to see more of your offerings.

This will be helpful

1. Go to Start Menu
2. Choose Computer Properties
3. From Tab menu choose Advanced and than Performance - > Settings and then
Data Execution Prevention.
4. Select "Turn On DEP for all programs and services except those I select"
and press button "Add..."
5. Check the box and press OK.

As 42 and others have stated...

Just a couple of tips that work everytime for me. Always read the Readme.txt file to know how to properly Activate the software BEFORE running the install programs or the programs themselves. With the following changes of course. Some of the most common activation problems can be helped by doing the following.

1. Those GAOTD programs and games that come with two .exe files, “Activate.exe” and “Setup.exe”, such as this one. It is always better to run the “Setup.exe” file first, then uncheck “Run Installed Program Now” or “Launch Installed Program Now” at the end of that setup. Now run the “Activate.exe” to activate properly. It will let you know if it was activated. Now you can you run your GAOTD program and it should be activated.

2. Those GAOTD programs and games that have just the one “Setup.exe”, always run the “Setup.exe” and then uncheck “Run Installed Program Now” or “Launch Installed Program Now” at the end of the GAOTD installer setup. This is when GAOTD usually will give you a popup with any Registration info that you have to enter. This is usually missed and lost if you run the GAOTD program right after installing. Now you can copy and paste all registration info.
(I usually save to notepad first in case I close the popup). Sometimes you have to scroll to get all the key information. Sometimes GAOTD will do this automatically and will let you know it was sucessfully activated. Now you can run and register your GAOTD program.

3. Those GAOTD programs and games that have just the one “Setup.exe”, and a .Reg file, always run the “Setup.exe” and then uncheck “Run Installed Program Now” or “Launch Installed Program Now” at the end of the software installer setup. And considering any info in the “Readme.txt” file, then run the .Reg file and the registration info will be added to the Registry. That is how MOST .reg files are used. Now you can run your GAOTD program.

Also, most programs will have a tab somewhere in the program that says “Help”, is a “?”, or has an “About” tab. After activating your program, you can usually go to one of those tabs and you can see if the software is “Registered” or not. Sometimes it will even say on the splash screen when you first start the installed program. It all depends on the program.

Hope this helps future installs and activations.

Thanks GAOTD. This one is cool.

#All
For the lucky ones who could afford Windows Vista:

To install in Windows Vista:

1. Load Windows Vista under administrative account.
2. Disable UAC(User Account Control).

a. Press Windows Key + ‘R’. (or click Start-Run )
b. Enter ‘msconfig’ in the invoked window.
c. Switch over to tab ‘Tools’, choose ‘Disable UAC’ and press ‘Launch’ button.
d. The console window with message ‘Command completed successfully’ will appear on the screen.
e. Reboot the computer.

When done,please turn UAC back on..
a. Press Windows Key + ‘R’.(or click Start-Run )
b. Enter ‘msconfig’ in the invoked window.
c. Switch over to tab ‘Tools’, choose ‘Enable UAC’ and press ‘Launch’ button.
d. The console window with message ‘Command completed successfully’ will appear on the screen.
e. Reboot the computer.

Dear all
Always run setup exe file first and after the instalation has been compleated ,run activate exe (internet connection is required for sucessfull activation ,you wil never get error messages like you are getting now.

Thanks, FM for the tip in #57. However, windows Vista came up with "A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available."

Very good¡ One of the best GAOTD as far as I remember. Adding a watermark is just one of the options.

I have a problem that it triggers an exception error when trying to generate a MPEG but I have that same problem with other softwares as Gimp and Solid Works so it's more probable a problem from my PC.

Could it be that the HD where I install the softwares is formatted in the oldie FAT? (my error of course)

Yeah, I forgot to say. After you install, if the program will not run try running the "Video Watermark Factory" program by also right clicking and selecting "Run as Administrator".

Not to mention I forgot to say Thanks to GAOTD!!

boy, my bad....my comment earlier was based on watermark factory and didn't realize there was a video watermark factory. My stellar review was based on the watermark factory and not the video watermark factory which I have not tried yet. sorry guys...

For those having trouble in Vista, here are two things that may be causing the problems. I would save this info to a file as you may need it later for another program.

First, extract all files from the zip file rather than opening them directly in Explorer. Now, right click the setup file and select "Run as Administrator". In Vista, just because you run a program from an Administrator account, doesn't mean that you have the "Elevated Priviledges" of an Administrator.

Second, Windows has a feature built in called DEP (Data Execution Prevention ). As quoted from another website...

--Quote--

Data Execution Prevention is a security feature that can be a bit of a pain at times. Often things will simply appear not to run at all; hopefully you will notice a bubble from the taskbar letting you know that DEP is the cause. If Vista (and actually this has been around since Windows Server 2003) sees that a process is being spawned that "could" be unwanted, DEP shuts it down. This is especially common in some application installations: if a Windows Installer setup (MSI) calls an executable in Vista, DEP could very well put a stop to it. If you are trying to run an installation or other executable being stopped by DEP, it could save you some trouble so turn it off while you attempt to give it another shot…
--Quote--


To turn off DEP do the following. After a reboot, run setup again as descibed above with Admin Priviledges.


Run a command prompt as administrator. From the start menu, select "All Programs", then "Accessories" and right-click on the "Command Prompt" shortcut and choose "Run As Administrator". From here you can use the following command to disable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) with the following command:

bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff

Hit Enter and you should see "Operation Completed Successfully"

Some say you don't have too, but I would Reboot and DEP should be off.




After setup has finished, and you have tested this program to make sure it works, turn DEP back on...

To turn DEP back on again, do the following:



Run a command prompt as administrator. From the start menu, select "All Programs", then "Accessories" and right-click on the "Command Prompt" shortcut and choose "Run As Administrator". From here you can use the following command to enable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) with the following command:


bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOn

Hit Enter and you should see "Operation Completed Successfully".

Reboot and DEP should now be Always On.


Please let everyone know if any of this helps.

During the last year I have tried several watermark programs and I like this one the best for all the features and especially the embossing feature which makes it easy to use. I found it the easiest and the most versatile of the half a dozen or more programs that I have tested. Great give away today and can't believe it is only at 55% positive on this give away at the time I am posting this. Well, can't please everyone but I thought for sure this program would be one of the hottest give aways of this season for sure. Again, thanks for a great giveaway and now I don't have to buy it,until my pc crashes (lol).

Hello Give Away of the Day (G.GAOTD) and Give Away of the Day (GAOTD). a sojestion on this pages when you are at the bottom of page needs a Link back up to the TOP of Page and /or a link like the ones you use for yesterdays (past comments) that go’s like: View all comments »
Wood like to see the other site you have (G.GAOTD) have what this site has, a drop down Menu of GAOTD English, GAOTD Spanish, extra.

>Jay

"arn’t you sposta run setup then activation? can it bez operator head space and timin’?"

You're killing the English language. No, you have to run Activation first, to activate the setup. If you don't, you're stuck with a trial version.

Hi Slava...this is my first post. I too have XP SP2 and was able to download program and complete the install. However the program won't launch even after 2 uninstall and reinstall tries. Would love to try this program as I do quite a bit of video editing and creation for a local community TV channel. This is the first problem I have had with running an installed GAOTD program offering in the past year. Keep up the great work. Nad

I am not so fortunuate to run Vista , but on WinXp all seems to be running smoothly.
Program supports DivX (if installed) and has a lot of settings to choose from when converting to mpeg,avi,rm en wmv9.
But CPU usage stays at 100% while converting...so you can only sit back (and relax :-) 'till the conversion finally finishes.

did the same to me : “Microsoft Register Server has stopped working”.
Shame looks like a desent program, with some good features, Guess I will Not know, but I guess the program has Issues I am On Vista Home OS . Hope this can be resolved before the end of the day, I would like to try this I have been looking for a progrom to resize and watermark,
Uninstalling now

TQ Slava

I have tried several times to run this program and it resulted with not opening (would not run). It seemed to activate alright, install OK, but each time that I click on it to run, nothing happens. My OS is Vista Ultimate. Hope to be able to use it if there is a fix.

I installed successfully the program on Vista, but I can't run /launch/ it.

Install issue:

Acivate.exe = ok
Setup exe= ok
unstalling the MS runtime = ok , then the following message was displayed: " unable to execute file, shellExecuteEX failed; code 87"

Has somebody an idea ? TK

I have Vista as well. I'm waiting for the solution from GAOTD. It's a nice application I need for my website.