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Vitamin D Video: A Licensing Surprise

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Last December I purchased a copy of Vitamin D Video for OS X. However, I’ve been moving various services  over from my iMac to the new ASUS EeeBox. At first, I assumed this would require that I purchase another license for the Windows version of Vitamin D Video.

I figured it was worth a shot to see if the licensing would transfer over to the Windows version and to my surprise, it did. The Windows version accepted the OS X license file for Vitamin D Video.

Many companies would go out of their way to force users to purchase a new license for the same software under a different platform. I’m impressed (and pleased that I saved an additional $50).

Updated 08/31/2011: In a response from Vitamin D Video, regarding a related matter, I was informed that the ability to use the license across platforms was intentional.

Stuck with Vanguard for X10 Cameras (for now)

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I have an X10 wireless camera in use. It works fine though I’ve never been happy with the software. I’m hoping that in the near future mControl will include X10 camera support but until then it looks like I’m stuck with Vanguard. Like most of the software provided with X10 devices it’s a bit clunky. My biggest irritation right now is that it consumes a great amount of CPU resources (often between 80%-90%). I’ve searched forums, etc and have found many complaints but no solutions that have helped me.

At least one user suggested running Vanguard in Windows 98 Compatibility mode. It doesn’t seem to have made a difference in my case. I may see if there’s a newer version of the software available and hopefully it may address this issue.

Updated 08/30/2011: In December 2010 I finally abandoned the X10 camera and software completely. Instead, I bought a Foscam F18918W IP Camera and Vitamin D Video camera monitoring software (available for Mac and Windows) and haven’t looked back.