brenda Ashampoo's naming policy for its products is quite straightforward. A product that is on sale is identified by a version number. A product which isn't on sale is identified by a year number. Thus:

You can buy Burning Studio 16, the latest update of which -- 16 .04, on 16 December last -- will cost you $59.99 at full retail. Or you can obtain for nothing, Ashampoo's stripped-down free version: Burning Studio 2016.

Ashampoo doesn't really help itself -- or anyone else -- when it comes to accurately describing its giveaways. This page, for instance, categorically states that Ashampoo Burning Studio 2016 costs $59.99. Of course it doesn't. As a commercial product, Burning Studio 2016 doesn't even exist.

What should be borne in mind, however, is this. Ashampoo is a generally excellent developer. Its Burning Studio program long since de-throned the expensive Roxio and the hopelessly bloated Nero. I've used Burning Studio for years and wouldn't dream of using anything else.

I also have a selection of other Ashampoo commercial products . . . for none of which I've ever paid anything like the so-called "retail price". That's because, if you download an Ashampoo free product (like Burning Studio 16) you can register it and have your own Ashampoo account . . . and Ashampoo will then regularly notify you of its heavily discounted offers. You'll also pay the real retail price for an Ashampoo product, not the inflated one that's attached to products primarily for marketing purposes.

(For example: Ashampoo Burning Studio 16 does have a stickerl price of $59.99. But if you log into Ashampoo's website today as a "member", the price is. . . $29.99.)

Ashampoo's business model then is to attract customers with giveaways and then hang onto 'em with a seemingly unending range of special offers as well as "member" prices that are half the alleged retail prices.

The paranoid, as well as those who haven't much clue how to use a computer, will of course tell you that registering with Ashampoo -- becoming a "member" -- will expose you to Ashampoo spam which you can't possibly control. Rubbish. Of course you can. Takes 2 minutes to organise server side filtering.

However: if you do indeed do that, then yes, you will miss out on some excellent deals. I, for instance, have an earlier version of Burning Studio which cost $19.99 instead of $49.99. And I've now just purchased from Ashampoo, some specialist image manipulation software created by its partner developer, BenVista. As an Ashampoo "member", I've bought it for 75% less than BenVista would've charged me direct.

As ever and always then, it's your choice. Where Ashampoo is concerned, all that necessary is think VERSION number if you're talking about an Ashampoo paid-for product and think YEAR number if you're talking about an Ashampoo free product. Simples.

MikeR  –  10 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+47)

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brenda
I'm a user, I am not with Ashampoo. I have paid for an earlier version of their full burning program, and it was worth it to me.

In the past few versions, the main difference between the free version (with a whole year in the name) and the pay version (with a version number in the name) is that the full pay version includes extra features for making DVD-videos and video editing:

In the pay versions:
- you can drag video files into the movie burner, like MP4, AVI, MOV, and the program will convert them to DVD-video or Blu-Ray-video format and burn a video disc
- has a workable video editor/trimmer
- has more skins and graphics for creating a video disc menu
These three differences have been steadily improved with each new version of the pay version. Particularly the speed of converting a MP4/AVI/MOV into the DVD-video format before burning.

For burning data CDRs or DVDRs or BR-Rs, both versions are the same. The free versions also will burn video DVDs from videos that have been converted to the DVD format, and there are other free programs to do that but not from Ashampoo. That is difficult if you don't know what to do. The pay version of this program does it automatically.

Also both free and pay versions have a CD ripper to make MP3s from your CDs.

You can install this free version and it never expires. On their website you can download the trial version of the pay version, and it works fully for 30 days then expires unless you pay for it. You can try the extra video features fully with no limits for the 30 days.

J  –  10 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+20)

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Stan You can't have "purchased" Ashampoo Burning Studio 2016. It doesn't exist as a commercial product. If you instead purchased Ashampoo Burning Studio 16, then you have a fully functional, fully featured burning program.

MikeR  –  10 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+18)

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