CyberLink Director Suite 365 – 1 Year Subscription

I had hopes that trying this suite there would be something new that I could try but no, this is just a rehash of the same tired stuff with new buzzwords to promote it. Therein is found the root of the issue, media enhancement software reached its peak years ago and software developers really don’t have anything really new to offer, only minor tweaks and gimmicks.

As a career professional photographer and media producer my workstations are loaded with dozens of software apps. Some of them are ancient by some definitions – I regularly use software tools that I bought almost 20 years ago. Why, because they do the job. This suite starts off on the wrong foot with me by giving itself the self-proclaimed title of professional. Cyberlink is and has never been a primary choice of professionals, they revel in gimmickry and cheesy effects but are at the far borderline when it comes to what I need to succeed in my business. Not that they’re useless, like I said I own a lot of apps that I use one or two tools from occasionally but I would never ever consider any one of them a one stop solution.

I want to define a few things I’ve mentioned. The first is I said I own some apps that are as much as 20 years old that I still use. The tools work so there has never been a need to upgrade them or pay for newer versions. Cyberlink knows the reality that most pros really don’t buy new versions every year so they’ve jumped on the currently popular bandwagon of making their products into rental plans, which they coyly call subscriptions. There are some very significant things wrong with that business model, the most obvious being that since there is really nothing new to invent regarding media editing software they are forcing users to pay them a ransom every year to continue using the same thing, of course making some minor insignificant update to justify continuing to charge you rent. Some companies who are trying that sting do it in such a way that if you walk away after the first year you simply lose out on continued support. Other companies are more aggressive and will self-destruct the software to make it unusable unless you continue to cough up your rent payment. They do something even more scary – here’s a quote from what they make you agree to “90 days after the ending or expiration of your subscription plan. CyberLink will erase/delete all of your data files stored in the Cloud storage”. That’s right, if you are a working professional media producer with tens of thousands of client images that are your bread and butter for your very income they will simply delete them unless you continue paying them the hostage fee.

If you are still good with doing business that way, what do you get with this suite. Cutting through all of the fluff the core apps are PowerDirctor 17, PhotoDirector 10, ColorDirector 7, and AudioDirector 9, most of which I already have as stand-alone non-subscription apps. The versions in this suite are virtually identical. I expected and hoped that they would be somehow tied together to interact as one might expect from something called a suite but no, it’s just the same old thing in a new box with a new pricing scheme.

One final note on this and other similar so-called subscription plans – remember when you used to be able to renew software apps as a preferred customer for a significant discount off the retail price – these days it’s common for them to charge you the identical price year after year to renew, or even more by saying that they will charge you the “then current” price or refuse to even reveal the renewal price until your rental period ends. My answer to any such company is simple – if you won’t sell me what I need for one upfront price that lets me use the software for as long as I want, I choose not to do business with you.

I bought this cyberlink 365 professional video, audio & photo editing, director suit 1 year 1 pc subscription plan on Amazon . It workoed great for about a week and after a week the power director video director is simply not responding. I would close it and open again and after few minutes same problem, it’s not responding. I don’t see free phone call for customer support option , it gives me option to subscribe for more money if I want phone costumer support. I don’t see how I would resolve this issue by submitting in writing and waiting for the response. I don’t think I would buy it again

Although I was excited to receive the product today when Amazon delivered it. I found installing it, is a very unpleasant experience, if you don’t buy this product as a digital download installed from the vendor. As Amazon only makes the physical DVD version available for purchase and you must use the “redeem code” on the CD sleeve, during install. However, the “redeem codes” on the physical DVDs that Amazon is providing, do not work to register the product, mine failed repeatedly.
I called customer service and they told me they would send me a an email with instructions of what they needed from me, to get the “redeem code” to work and they would perform the registration for me. They wanted my Amazon invoice, images of the product and the sleeve with “redeem code” and screenshots proving, the code fails to work. Then, they also required, I run dxdiag on my machine and send them a text file with a complete inventory of my machines equipment. Then, they told me, they may need my password for my account to try on their end.
At the time time of writing this review, My Director Suite 365, redeem code from the DVD version, still does not work and I am still not able to get this $100 software package to install with the provided license.
I am not sure how many days it will take before their customer support fixes the license key / redeem code.
I was planning on editing videos today, but now I am not sure if I need to go buy a product from another company, just so I can have editing software and get Amazon to refund my money, as they are selling products with invalid license keys.

Very poor product design by Cyberlink!

Great product however there is a steep learning curve at first. I am super happy with the program and have been using it for video and photo editing to include green screen work.