First Mac Software Purchase - Popcorn 3

I admit that I usually don't buy software, only because most commerical software is functionally poor, full of bugs and does offer good support. The one good thing about PC's are that there are lots of varieties of Windows software that do the same thing and alot of it is freeware. Unfortunately for Mac's it's hard to find share/freeware software simply because it takes different and less prevalent technical skill to write software for a Unix operating system, especially software with a user interface.

So under the belief that what Mac compatible software lacks in variety it should make up in quality. That's one of the principle reasons of my decision to invest in our iMac. This may not be 100% true...

I needed some software to backup Adian's DVD's. DVD's are expensive and he's not exactly careful with them, discs are ruined by the littlest of scratches. I purchased a product called Popcorn 3 , cost me $49 (by Roxio, a well known name in both PC and Mac software). We'll it didn't launch when I installed it :-( !!!! After an hour of searching their support site for answers, I found a bunch of disgruntled customers with the same problem on a MacForum, fortunately they found a fix. Anyways I got it working so now I can backup DVD's and also transfer them to my Nano to view my movie rental when I'm on the road (since we never seem to have time to watch them at home).

I can say however that it's a great product. It can compress a 9Gb movie onto a 4Gb DVD disc with little noticeable loss in quality, and it's fast. It has the functionality I need and its simple to use. The only thing I didn't like was the initial problem (show stopper) and the crappy support. It's really Roxio's fault not Apple, but it just goes to show you that nothing is perfect Macs or PCs.