MakeMKV, just BUY it already.....

[Woodstock]

Make it a reasonable price and we'll talk.

So, what is your idea of a "reasonable price"? 5USD? Would you be willing to go 10USD? Or are you firmly attached to the idea of "FREE!!!!"?

The author of the program thinks it is worth 60USD. Other authors of similar programs demand 90 or more PER YEAR.

Using the program for "FREE!!!!" requires you to get a new key every 60 days or so. The author may be late in posting that "FREE!!!!" key, which requires that you either wait for him to accommodate your wishes, or that you (temporarily) wait to rip your (paid-for) disks, or that you set your system date back to sometime when the last "FREE!!!!" key was valid long enough to start the program.

I've seen the arguments for over a decade of why it's "TOO EXPENSIVE!" Personally, as a program author myself, I have no sympathy. My registration was paid within a month of starting to use MakeMKV.

[Billycar11]

I made this account just for this post.

I'm waiting for the next beta key. why?

I don't know about you people, but I personally don't have $60 to piss away for something that I can't justify the cost of. Being able to watch my DVD's without putting them in is nice, but if you think it's worth $60 nice, put the crack pipe down and back away from it and we will get you some help. Make it a reasonable price and we'll talk.

you can do dvds for free i believe.

$60 is one of the cheapest UHD bluray rippers around some are more than that per year and makemkv is buy once.
plus it has been getting UHD key updates for free for years.
plus it supports the best UHD drives and has released all the fw for users to use for free
without MK firmware provided by makemkv the UHD community would be a fraction of what it is.

[Tom899]

I purchased a key a few weeks ago, paid with PayPal. My PayPal email receipt came with the Key, so, it was practically instant.
I have a PC and a Mac. The key worked on both.This pretty much tells me it will work on a new or changed computer when the time comes.
If you backup your discs, the program is very much worth the price. I did save $10.00 for buying a drive from Billycar11.
Tom

[OperationDx]

lack of posting a beta key purposeful or is the developer busy? I'm personally not ready to buy but it is a useful tool. I mean if generating a key is such a issue maybe the developer should make the keys last 4 - 6 months. Unless this is coming out of beta soon I don't understand the reason to make the program unusable for potential new users for a 1/3rd of the month. I mean I only recently found this program and think it's great. But I did have to invest in hardware to get things working which adds to the total cost of making things work. I think asking $63 USD is a tad to much however that is not up to me so one day I'll have to do it as I'm already half invested anyway.

However for now it would be nice if the developer could please just release the next months key. I appreciate the efforts of this community and again I have only recently discovered it.

Thank you.

[dg11375]

The beta key used to be provided around the first of each month for years and was posted as recently as April, 2024.
Is the monthly beta key no longer to be offered

[Flesh]

The only thing that 'justified' the pricetag for me is that I realized I likely spend more than $60 on coffee per month, let alone alcohol. I think I'll skip the trip to the liquor store this week & support Mike instead.

[mattias83]

Personally I don't get the point in not generating a new key until a third or more into the new month. Usually there's a couple or few days into the new cycle before there's a new key but now it's up to a third of a month. If they want to increase sales, how about making the cost more reasonable? The asking price is an awful lot for a piece of software like this. It's a great tool but that's still a lot of money.

[JustForThis]

Make it a reasonable price and we'll talk.

So, what is your idea of a "reasonable price"? 5USD? Would you be willing to go 10USD? Or are you firmly attached to the idea of "FREE!!!!"?

My idea of a reasonable price? $20, maybe $30 tops. Before all the Gollums speak up about how I dare try and try of put a price on someone work.... I'm sorry you feel that way.

for something I am going to use for a few weeks to rip my collection to files then use maybe a few times a year if I get a new DVD, that's all I'm willing to pay (and reading the comments I see I'm not alone. $60 is too much. if you spend that much on coffee in a month then sure you have money to piss away. When $60 is more then your allotted monthly budget for "entertainment", F U, I'll spend hours on the net looking for a crack or key long before I open my wallet.

[Woodstock]

My idea of a reasonable price? $20, maybe $30 tops. Before all the Gollums speak up about how I dare try and try of put a price on someone work.... I'm sorry you feel that way.

Then, if that's your limit, you'll have to deal with finding a different ripper, OR wait for Mike to allocate the time to post the "FREE!!!!" key for you.

[JustForThis]

My idea of a reasonable price? $20, maybe $30 tops. Before all the Gollums speak up about how I dare try and try of put a price on someone work.... I'm sorry you feel that way.

Then, if that's your limit, you'll have to deal with finding a different ripper, OR wait for Mike to allocate the time to post the "FREE!!!!" key for you.

Yes, excuse me for being poor, your Lordship. Fortunately the program is still working for me and I only have a few more shows to rip before I'm done and I'll be doing that while I can. After which, indeed, I like the rest of the peasants will have to rely on the free key as your precious ring still eludes our current financial status. Thank you for your concern.

[Toker]

Yes, excuse me for being poor, your Lordship. Fortunately the program is still working for me and I only have a few more shows to rip before I'm done and I'll be doing that while I can. After which, indeed, I like the rest of the peasants will have to rely on the free key as your precious ring still eludes our current financial status. Thank you for your concern.

So just wait for the key to be available. One of the perks of paying for the program is that you don't have windows where the program doesn't work.

[briansemerick]

I think the issue is that the author has always done a thing, for years. Then it changes without notice, yet still says "free while in beta". Everyone is used to it, and it has become a ritual to just go to the site and grab the new key.

If it's out of beta now, cool. But it seems like a new key could just be created and posted. If it's not being posted, I feel like there is a reason. Maybe it's not going to be free anymore.

[OperationDx]

I also agree with the $30 USD suggestion for the price of the program. Also if the program is coming out of beta it would be a really good idea to give the community a heads up a month or two in advance. As the program seems to have been in beta for at least 15 years or more.

If holding the beta key is a way to push people into a purchase that is also a really bad look. This will cause the community to lose trust and why open communication is important. This all seems like bad timing to me because I'm very new to Make MKV.

[OperationDx]

Also a side note:

It appears User "Woodstock" is directly involved in this project and it is not a good look to be engaging in a negative way with users on this board. While you may not agree with the suggestion of a lower price. I don't think it's good etiquette for someone directly involved to disparage a potential customer. I would suggest to rather explain the reason for the price (Operational costs, Employee wages, Niche Product ect) Then to take a hostile stand aka "Well I guess you need to find another program.

I do not know what your role here is but clearly the boards are controlled by you. Nearly all the sticky posts are authored by you personally. Which means you probably have operational knowledge of the reasons the next beta key has not been released.

In essence you are the board moderator and also a sales representative for Make MKV.

[SainJain]

I also tried to rip a DVD right now and the key was out.
Seems i'm 11 days late.

While this is annoying, i jumped to the buy page two times already before and never bought it.
Although after a digitalizing a ton of blurays and dvds for me and my friends and wanted to support it every time.

Beside of the fact that i can download most of these blurays as "shows the pirate flag", unless it is a very rare dvd or bluray, which might be more or less spitting into the developers face as an argument.
I realize that, no insult intended, just saying.

I have to say i still want to support this and visited the buy page a third time right now.
Wondering what i was missing the last times because i didn't buy it.
And to update my feelings and experience why i did not do it before and reply here.

Although Mike does this for years now for free, i think the thing was that i have to use a debit card. Am i wrong?
I don't see paypal.

I'm not that paranoid, but i think it is the fact that i have to send money to an unknown person, and afaik there is no company behind this, was a reason against this.

After all, this is a legal grey zone, although it seems you are allowed to make a backup copy from your physical media.
An argument against this legal grey zone would be, that it still cracks a security protection.
And an argument against this would be too, that i'm already talking about "holds up a pirate flag again".
No clue what happens if i download something from the ship but still own the physical part.

Also i think it was 100 Euro before, which was really too high a price, not in the sense of how much it is worth, but just speaking in the sense of an unexpected emotional gut punch for that much money.
It is probably 10-15% of what some people earn monthly.

You use a program to make a copy of something you already own.
Which would be, counting by the amount of things i copied and watch (just for myself, not for my friends), add around 2-3 Euro to every bluray or dvd.

No clue if it makes sense discussing about making it 30 Euro so more people buy it and this would flush more money in the cashbox.
But as others said, this is up to the developer, and you have to pay what people want you to pay, if you want what they offer (Socrates? ).

I know someone who also uses this for free, and i thought about splitting that 60 Euro (100 Euro back then?) now, so it makes 30, paying for my friend and me.

I have to actively try to rationalize with all this facts, that i spend that much money.

But i still can remember the first time that i was so happy about this, went to the purchase page, but this much money was the mentioned gut punch, i expected 20 Euro or so.

Then i need a debit card. And there is no certification or company.
(I just scrolled down, there is one now? Probably never did this before, because of the price)

I just tried to rip my dvd with VLC.
I think it has no security protection, because it is very old.
I failed, lol. (Without reading up on how to do it right, i had to reply here first)

I think i can still make an iso out of it and wait for a new beta key.
After riping all my collection i rarely use makemkv anymore.
Maybe 5 times a year, which makes it even less worthwile.
And i really use the ship much more if i buy a new bluray and i like it.
It is also much easier.

I still would send an amazon gift card to Mike.
Bypassing my need for security, setting my own value (no clue how much that would be), but just to thank for that amazing program and how much fun i had with it.
Maybe ask my friend and we split it into 2 x "whatever amount".
Maybe also send 6 x 10 Euro in the time of one year.
(Yeah i know, poor people living from paycheck to paycheck)

Having said all this, maybe for mike as a feedback or for others here discussing, this is all i can say.



Update: I just rechecked what i wrote. Seems there is a company behind this.
I have never seen this before and thought this is a privats person project.
Copyright © 2008-2024 GuinpinSoft inc

"And the last thing. The registration key will unlock the current version so it would never expire. It will also work on all future versions of MakeMKV. However we reserve the right to disable any specific registration key in future versions on extraordinary circumstances. "

This is probably a bit interesting too, under which circumstances this might happen.
As there is no contract? and i guess for that much money it will probably also kind of stop people from buying.
And it is written very small, which adds to the shock if you go back from the purchase page and look for information, who is actually behind this and read very carefully to find more information.
What i probably did back then, because of the mentioned security need for that amount of money.

Update 2: The design of this site makes everything i mentioned in my previous Update kind of invisible and you need to actively look for this information.
Maybe add the company you buy from and explain under which circumstances and why the key can get removed in a more present way to the purchase page.

I'm no stranger to forums or inexperienced with IT, but this is just my impression.

Update 3: Holy! You can choose Paypal by clicking that dark grey downwards arrow on that light grey background.
I have no clue since when this is possible, but please change the site colors, lol.
Maybe it is because of my dark mode.
I literally did not see now, or ever before if it was always possible, that there is an arrow.