Price MakeMKV too high

[RogerS]

First off all I'm an occasional user of MKV. About every two month I use it once (and normally need to upgrade to a newer version which is fine). This morning it appeared that the beta license key was expired. So in search of a solution I found the option how to extend the license key till August 2010. As I'm an occasional user and a supporter of shareware I looked into the option of buying a license key and I found the page linking to the option to buy the product. Only on the payment provider page the price was listed. The asking price is ?59,90 (incl. Tax)
Personally I find this nowadays a very high price for the overall functionality the program delivers. (For example a good and well know HD video editing solution is even cheaper than ?59 euros. Another example is CoreAVC this costs around 10 dollars).
If MakeMKV would cost about ?20 incl. Tax I would have bought the program but at the current price level it is a no go for me.

[rss70]

I too am happy to contribute to MakeMKV. It's a great program that has served me well. At that price though, there are cheaper alternatives on the market. I would think Beta testers/users would get a discounted price including lifetime upgrades, since we have been using and helping the beta mature.

[mrbass]

Obviously you two are not the target market for makemkv. Use the other cheaper products you mentioned. Move along now.

[mike admin]

Unless you use MakeMKV to convert blu-ray discs, everything is free, including AVCHD processing. For blu-ray, you are supposed to use the program on discs that you own and the price point is set to be the typical cost of two blu-ray discs. It's your choice whether MakeMKV functionality is worth a price of two discs.

[mukooh]

mike. i intend to buy makemkv, it's very quick in converting bluray to mkv. is there any kind of discount coupon code available when buying this product? i'm just looking for a deal these days like everybody else. thanks

[NomadCF]

is there any kind of discount coupon code available when buying this product?

Nope, sorry

[choref81]

I'll join the crowd, saying MakeMKV is not priced right. Comparing a Bluray RIP tool to the price of the Bluray doesn't make too much sense to me (disclosure, I'm a Product Manager at a large software company).

For comparison, the price of a new video game is $59. The cost of making a video game is millions...engineers, QA, writes, marketing, music composers/players etc. Yes, the scale/reach of video games is much higher but this is to give you some perspective. I'm not saying just to complain - I'm sure that by pricing it right (and I think it's completely off - it should be at the $10-$15 range) the sales will jump significantly.

Of course another point for consideration when buying a product is customer service. people expect superior customer service today - from everyone. Why? because otherwise you don't sell. I have an unanswered question in the forum that I can't rip blurays for about a month.Even a "it's a problem with your drive we can't fix is an answer".

I AM thankful for such a great simple tool and I use it to convert all of my DVDs to MKVs. I can't use it to rip my Bluray because 1. I can't and 2. I wouldn't pay such a premium on a tool of this kind, no matter how great it is.

So thanks for all of your hard work, I hope to see a lower price and an answer to my problems.

[setarip_old]

(I'll be the Devil's advocate here) Hi!

As voluntary beta testers, our sole option/purpose regarding MakeMKV is to work as hard as we can to help make this program as bulletproof as possible. This forum is only for discussion of the functionality of MakeMKV.

As consumers, we have two options:

1) Purchase the product at its stated price, or

2) Don't purchase the product at its stated price

[tony55]

@setarip_old

Well said!

Tony

[Marc_G]

My own two cents here...

While I agree the price seems a bit on the high side I will be buying it once beta is expired. True, there are other solutions out there, and I use them for certain things (movies with forced subtitles for example, since I like a solution that auto-converts PGS to SRT subs to make it playable by MPC-HC with no extra work). But I've found MakeMKV's handling of episodic bluray content to be better than anything out there... it finds episodes on TV show discs where other solutions don't. Right there it's worth the price. It's also for me the best DVD to .mkv interface (sure, there are other ways to do it, but I like this the best).

I have a personal policy of never paying for beta (been burned too many times), but once this goes commercial I'll buy it because it gives me enough functionality to be worth it for me. And Mike's support is excellent.

Marc

[icedtrip]

I'll join the crowd, saying MakeMKV is not priced right. Comparing a Bluray RIP tool to the price of the Bluray doesn't make too much sense to me (disclosure, I'm a Product Manager at a large software company).

For comparison, the price of a new video game is $59. The cost of making a video game is millions...engineers, QA, writes, marketing, music composers/players etc. Yes, the scale/reach of video games is much higher but this is to give you some perspective. I'm not saying just to complain - I'm sure that by pricing it right (and I think it's completely off - it should be at the $10-$15 range) the sales will jump significantly.

Your logic here is flawed. You're comparing a large video game company to a 1-5 man operation. Now, I'm not sure if Mike Admin is the sole developer or if there are a couple others helping out, but comparing MakeMKV to a video game doesn't even make sense. To me, the comparison to 2 Blu-ray movies is simply to put it into perspective of how decently priced the software is. People wouldn't think twice over 2 movies, but the ability to rip and use those movies how they see fit is worth only 25% of those combined movies, max?!

Everything being done with MakeMKV can be done for free, but he is making a great application to streamline and make it stupidly easy. AnyDVD HD costs $100, but I would take MakeMKV over AnyDVD all the time because it supports what I want/need better. RipIt for OS X is going for ~$20, and all it does is DVDs. I paid $30 for VisualHub back when it was being developed, even though Handbrake was always free as were the tech being used by VisualHub, because it was the best at what it did. And I wasn't even mad when the guy behind VH decided to quit the project. I got more than my money's worth.

The iPhone app store pricing is killing some of these developers. Where a $1-$15 app can be somewhat understandable for an iPhone, the same cannot be true for the PC or Mac platforms.

The last thing I will say is, why are people complaining about the price? DVD ripping will always be free, and Blu-ray is free for as long as it is in Beta...and it is still in Beta!!

[tony55]

Let me jump back in here for just a minute.

I think it could be cheaper but than again, I don't think it's overpriced. Especially since it's still in beta and so much thought and effort has gone into the program and the improvements.

Re: the size of the Makemkv staff all I would like to say is that I have 2 Seagate Fat+s and 1 WD media player these are the devices I use to play my MakeMKVs. Both companies are super large in comparison. They both have forums and both companies released Beta products initially. They didn't just release them. They sold them and both forums are filled with customers that are dis-satisfied. Neither company even though they have the money, the staff and the expertise to do do so, go out of their way to even fix little problems. Firmware upgrades fix somethings and at the same time they disable other things that do work. Instead of fixing a faulty product it is their tendency to just release a new model and move on from there.

So, on one hand maybe it could be a few dollars cheaper, but on the other hand this program works and there hasn't been a rush to sell it before it's ready.

MakeMKV staff shows a commitment to the product and for me that counts quite a bit.

Tony

[setarip_old]

One last time, let me "suggest" that it's not appropriate to voice our opinions (positive or negative) regarding pricing structure at this forum.

I'm sure you've all heard of email and PMs ;>}

[choref81]

One last time, let me "suggest" that it's not appropriate to voice our opinions (positive or negative) regarding pricing structure at this forum.

I'm sure you've all heard of email and PMs ;>}

What other forum do you suggest? Do I need to PM Mike Admin about my opinion? IMHO - it is an appropriate place as it falls under a "general MakeMKV discussion". I'm sure this feedback only helps if anything.

Anyway - I realize that everything is free during beta - I am thankful for that. If I take the time to post here is only because I love the software and prefer it over any alternatives. Saying the price is too high is my personal opinion. I believe that lowering the price will only do good to Mike Admin's bank account. He'll simply sell more.. it's not like he has much overhead for every sale that he needs to sell less at a higher price.

[setarip_old]

Mike has already responded (in this thread), as follows:

Report this postReply with quote Re: Price MakeMKV too high
by mike admin » Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:27 am

Unless you use MakeMKV to convert blu-ray discs, everything is free, including AVCHD processing. For blu-ray, you are supposed to use the program on discs that you own and the price point is set to be the typical cost of two blu-ray discs. It's your choice whether MakeMKV functionality is worth a price of two discs.mike admin

What more does/should he have to say?