After further review....

[ZanzibarTRG]

By no means to I mean this as a flame post or anything else. I just want to understand your product. I just found it on Download.com (v3.024) saying it was freeware and no limitations.

Well after installing and looking at what can only be described as the WORST looking skin ever, I got into the settings. None of the settings are properly explained. Half of them don't even work. I finally got it up and running after numerous crashes. It then came up and was playing fine until the no limitation software thanked me and will not run again. AFTER AN HOUR! An hour?! It took longer to set the bloody thing up!

My question is this, do you actually expect people to pay $25 dollars for a program that is broken, lacks any on hand support and is a nightmare to setup without getting runtime errors?

I liked what I saw of it, for AN HOUR, but there is no way I would ever pay for this. EVER. If you fixed it and had an actual manual to it that would be one thing.

But this has been nothing but a chore, a hassle and ultimately a miserable failure. I know a lot fo your users are happy with this but that was just too much.

ZTRG

[Thatoneguydavid]

wow i have no idea what this guys is talking about.  the software works great. the config interface could use some work( i believe this is happening already).  as far as ease of set up.... it didn't take me long. sure it took  little work but what'ev man.

[draginit]

ever think to ask questions??  your here arent you?,  i recommend you take a breath and try again , theres people in this forum who can get you started without the frustration. the config is pretty straight forward. i think your trouble is more than likely in your music tagging and sorting.  as its where the majority of issues are with newbies.
-take a few minutes to browse the forum and im sure others have already asked the questions you are probably thinking or why dont you post some of the issues youve been having and i guaurantee barry or others here can sort you out.
good luck and dont give up so easy on one of the greatest JB programs being developed!!

[squirrellydw]

Also why did you download it from download.com, that probably isn't the most up to date version anyway.  Have you even looked at this site, there is a new skin now.  This is by far the best jukebox program out there, try asking questions to your problems and they will be answered.  My runs great and I have tons of music.

[Barcrest]

Guess you can't please all the people all of the time...  Shame, if you had come here when you had issues you would have been able to sort out a lot of your problems. The included manual is a little out of date and a bit spartan but it covers the options and should get you up and running. As you said you will NEVER use the software i guess your mind is made up. As i said i can't please everyone and i'm sorry your experience with the software was so bad.

[Orc]

Bummer......

Barry.........

Maybe you should include a txt or sthg that you need an IQ in double figures to use this proggy....

[kizer]

Nah I don't think anybody needs an IQ in the double digits. Its just a matter of taking the time to ask questions. He might have problems with trying to play files that are not properly tagged or contain images in the files. It happens and some just don't understand they are causing their own issues.

[ZanzibarTRG]

The point I was trying to make is that if you are going to charge for software is that you need to have a working product and if it isn't working, more than a bloody hour to actually use the program. And also that it shouldn't be necessary to have to scour the internet or forums looking for answers. It's common sense. It would be like me selling cups with no bottoms and then chastising the clients when they call and complain. But I guess it's their fault, right?

So here's some answers to your questions.

1.) I said that the program, once I got it working wasn't bad. So it wasn't issue of importing music, pics and what not. The problem was the set up time it took was longer than the actual review time of the program.

2.) The setup wasn't a terrible experience as it was the options that lock up the program forcing a reinstall of the program, which in turn means I have to redo the music library.

3.) Orc, here's a text file for you: Go fuck yourself.

4.) I downloaded from Download.com com because it is a safe site and because of the fact that official website as a free eval. I didn't download the latest version from the official simply because I wanted more time to evaluate the software before I decided on it.

But of course, big shock, "I'm a noob", "I need a higher IQ" blah blah blah.

Wow, I wonder why I would never think to come to the forums? It couldn't be because then I deal with elitist, condescending pigs, not mentioning any names (Orc) who insult my intelligence, question my technical skills and just generally act as if I'm the jerk for even being there. So before you all start bad mouthing me about not asking questions or being tech illiterate, understand that this is exactly why the only people that will buy the software are your forum visitors.

Barcrest, I respect and understand the amount of work that goes into such a project, and I do understand that it costs money and that the reason you are charging is because of the lack of donations (as pointed out on your site). But, it just isn't right to charge for something that is still a work in progress.

ZTRG

[Thatoneguydavid]

i dis agree.  i understand how hard it is to develop software and how much time goes in to it.  the software has its quirks but i have never had it crash, never had to re-install, never had to do any of the stuff you are describing. so as far as i see, and from my experience,  the above is not an accurate portrayal of Freebox.

Oh and PS  it took all of about 20 min to get my juke working (with the b&b skin, that i found before installing because i did not like the screen shots of the default)

[squirrellydw]

took about 20 minutes for me to setup as well.  Software is great and if you have problems with something try asking.  I guess you didn't pay for your copy of Windows since we are know that software is always work in progress. 

Good luck in finding a better jukebox program that is constantly be updated and improved.

[eist1]

I think the big thing about this jukebox is that it's not just an "out of the box/what you see is what you get" piece of software. The best part of this is that if you or anyone else sees a function that you would like to see included in the jukebox and it makes sense and would be useful to others, Barry has MANY times worked days to get that function added and working. This is a "living" project that just keeps getting better with time. This jukebox is more of a community than it is a software, many of us in here have put in hours/days of work building new skins and cleaning up different parts of the code (with no payment) just to make this jukebox better. The way I have looked at it, the money given to Barry is more for his time, and to keep him interested in keeping this project going. I think you will find many users on here that have paid the $25, but after seeing the work Barry puts into it, have given him a few more bucks just to say thank you. Plus, add on top of that, Barry is in the UK so I don't know if anyone has seen the exchange rate lately, the $25 US anyone sends really is only about $12.50 BP.... I guess as Barry said, you can't please everyone, but if you are looking for a jukebox community that is active daily to answer questions or comment on suggestions than this is the place to be.

[Barcrest]

Can't belive this post has taken such a nasty turn.... I can believe that he spent an hour trying to get the software to work, however i don't know why it wouldn't launch for him again after it shutdown.

Yes the demo is limited to an hour, but you can relaunch it again or at least you should be able to. I'm assuming that it was still listed as running in task manager, if you had ended that task you could have launched it again.

As for the options you don't need to re-install if you stuff them up unless you clicked on save settings. Even if you had done this you can just delete the freebox.ini file and it will launch with the defaults there isn't any reason to keep re-building the library (Which takes about 20 minutes on my 750gb music collection, so it's not the end of the world).

If this thred carries on with petty insluts i will lock it, lets all try and play nice.

[justtaint]

I can easily see how it would take longer than 20 minutes to install and config.  Somewhere I documented my struggles with installing Freebox on Windows XP MCE.  MSVCR71.dll and MSCAL.OCX aren't included in Windows XP MCE, and it appears Freebox assumes they are present.  (Barry, did you start including those with the program?)  For some people download.com would be the logical choice to find freeware software, and this forum would never even come to mind.  What would be nice is a complete walk-through, written with a complete newbie in mind.  (I know there is a manual, but I find its not basic enough or covers every subject).

[spacefractal]

I just searched what it happens, and found the link:
http://www.download.com/Freebox/3000-2168_4-10786639.html?tag=lst-1

Download.com state Freebox is free and with no limits, but this software found out to been cripplede. Not fine from Download.com, which is completly why he wrote this post.

I also hate term like "free download" or just hide it to get them to download software, but just find out it demo AFTER it installed. I dosent like this type of software.

I have to say I have NO problems v3 cost money, because it clearly state on this site. But you should contact download.com and correct the problem info about linence and limit which is wrong.

I guess it because v2 actuelly was free and just updated the link without Barcrest knownable?

[kizer]

Looks like they are hosting the download as well.