Switch

This is version 4.71 NOT 4.75!

I shall not continue to use this software. They seem to want to charge huge amounts for small upgrades. Then do not keep their versioning updated so that it works with MU. Pity. They're just pricing themselves out of the market :-(

Here is an open letter I just wrote to NCH Software. My email contained screen captures to prove my assertions, but NCH Software makes it extremely difficult to contact them in any normal fashion: no email address is listed anywhere on their website, which supports BigJohnson's assertion that tech support is "appalling." So is sales and marketing for that matter. Be careful dealing with this operation. ============================= NCH Software: I guess that the English language must get subverted when it travels south of the equator! Either that, or your company has a policy of blatantingly lying about the capabiliies of your software. I already detest your upgrade policy, in which you expect customers to pay again for very minor changes (if any at all) in your applications after only a few months of use. I have stopped upgrading because too many problems ensue when your “updated” version breaks the serialization scheme. No other software development in the world uses such a complcated, paranoid, greedy softwar-upgrading system as you, and I have exposed your practice on MacUpdate.com for other potential customers to take into consideration before getting involved with you. But to catch you lying on the Internet during a Google search! That’s a new low! I refer to a Google search for “audio converter dss to mp3.” You Google Adword ad puts you at the top of the list, and you declare: “Easily convert dss audio dictations to wav or mp3 or a PC or a Mac. Works on Windows and Mac.” <Screenshot 2014-10-08 04.20.45> Now, I don’t know how Australian English interprets those words, but in America, this reader interprets it as saying that, if I use you Switch audio converter program on a Mac, I will be able to directly convert the Olympus proprietary format called “dss” to a much more universally recognized format caled “mp3.” Am I missing something here? I think not. Of course, the problem is that, after one tries out either the free version or the paid version of Switch, this assertion turns out to a lie. A falsehood! A fabrication. Whenever I have tried to perform such a conversion of DSS files to mp3 on a Mac, I get an error message telling me that the files are empty, blank, devoid of data, despite the fact that the Finder tells me that there may be MB of data in the DSS file, just waiting to be heard and/or converted. The amazing thing is that, on the website page ( http://www.nch.com.au/switch/kb/1405.html )where you conveniently provide a list of formats which are suppored by Switch, you admit that Switch will NOT convert DSS files. This admission of truth invalidates the Google ad for the product, in which you claim that Switch can perform such a conversion on a Mac, whille, in fact, it cannot. <Screenshot 2014-10-08 04.23.17> Closer up shows this: <Screenshot 2014-10-08 04.23.25> Of course, why, after all these years you have not yet bothered to implement such a feature is beyond me, since you attempt to be friendly and ask us to tell you what features you would like added to your products’ capabilities. You would think that, if you were operating an ethical company, you would either not advertise capabilities which your software does not possess, or you would make good on your claim and actually set your mind to implement a feature that you intutively know will suck customers to visit your web and try out your software. However, since I glean an underlying patina of low integrity informing your business practices, I have elected to provide you with this feedback in the hopes that you will take this whack on the side of head and improve your face to the world by taking corrective action: (1) Stop lying. (2) Stop claiming that your software can do things which it cannot, OR implement your software with the power you claim it has now. (3) Get real about your abominable and greedy software upgrade practices. No customer likes to be milked every 3 months of so by having to pay for a minor tweak to your applications. I certainly won’t support such a practice, and, now that I caught you lying, I won’t be supporting you in any other monetary way ever again.

As a demo, Switch provides the same full functionality as the "plus"version which you must pay for, else Switch gets turned off, i.e., its demo period expires. The good thing about Switch is that it does a good job of converting a wide variety of formats. Among other things, I got it years ago to convert a propriety format that Olympus uses in their digital voice recorders to mp3 files. It also has a very nice batch feature which lets you convert a whole shebang of files in one shot. The bad thing about Switch is the rather dodgy updating feature and pricing scheme. NCH makes no bones about wanting to grab your money any way they can. They don't wait until a full version number is released on a product for which very little development is done between minor. If my memory serves me correctly, if you happen to download the next incremental update, which can occur in about three-month intervals, you have wiped out the correlation between your original serial number and the .point upgrade version, and the minor tweak will cost you. Word to the wise, if you get this software: never lose the original download and its serial number, just in case you fall victim to this unfriendly updating scheme. NCH tells you upfront—as if it's a disclaimer—that if you happen to lose your serial number, it's all your fault, and they will not bother to send you your original serial number, or they can't for one absurd reason or another, due to some alleged inability to keep track of their customer's records. In short, then: good software, but lousy, sub-standard tech support and licensing scheme.

Hello All, Please be careful, switch is no longer for free and is misleading everyone . So MacUpdate must set it as shareware or MSH must stop this misleading.

This app has worked like a gem for a while, but now it crashes every single time I try to convert a wma to anything else. I have the latest flip4mac, latest switch and the latest OS. It will convert other formats, just not wma. The only error on console is "exited abnormally: bus error". Anyone else having problems?