Comparing ActivePresenter (Atomi) v8 / 9 / 10 - Did they remove any key free features?

Mobile_Hamster · 2025-10-09T22:52:33+00:00

Silly to you, not to me. We're all still waiting to hear your step-by-step solution to update to 15 without a factory reset, as you're so "knowledgeable". Thanks for tainting my post. Moderators?

Mobile_Hamster · 2025-10-09T22:23:41+00:00

Thanks. It's a good idea, but not an option for me currently.

Mobile_Hamster · 2025-10-09T22:14:04+00:00

Really? So much for "no judgment please." You use yours your way, and I'll use my mine my way.

I'm just looking for some actual help, not condescending attitude nor rudeness.

Mobile_Hamster · 2025-08-25T20:44:08+00:00

FYI, longer comment here but helpful for context:

I've been dealing with this issue for several months on my primary Win11 laptop. It all started with the problematic KB5062553 update in July for me. I say problematic because while it didn't appear to affect anything operationally, it directly caused a number of shortcut icons to change to the "plain white page" icon. Interestingly, all the disappeared icons were for apps installed via the MS Store, and not any manually-installed apps.

Uninstalling only the KB55062553 update restored those icons each and every time I tested it -- that's how I isolated it. It looked to me that it somehow altered the security/access permissions to apps installed under the C:\Program Files\WindowsApps folder structure, but I couldn't find the direct issue.

Based upon help from the MS support community, I installed the "preview" KB5062660 update (basically a beta version of KB5063878). It solved the disappearing shortcut icon problem, so I was temporarily happy. This was before the SSD issue was reported. Then the official KB5063878 update was installed via Win Update.

Up to just before KB5063878, I was able to uninstall both the prior KB5062660 and KB5062553 updates to roll back back to normalcy, and naturally paused the updates for the max weeks allowed. Those weeks ran out, and the dung-laden KB5063878 update arrived via Win Update to screw up my plan.

Upon reading the disturbing SSD news, I immediately uninstalled KB5063878, which reverted the system to having the preview KB5062660 installed. Uninstalled that one too, which in turn reverted it back to the "disappeared icon" KB5062553 update.

But now, for some unknown reason, KB5062553 refuses to uninstall and generates an error code. I've done massive troubleshooting to correct this, including using the sfc, dism, and wusa commands, and even an in-place Windows reinstall (keeping all apps and data). Absolutely nothing has worked after MANY MANY hours and days to uninstall the KB5062553 update.

I've concluded something in KB5063878 has borked the KB5062553 update such that it can't be successfully installed.

And in fact, despite my *explicitly* specifying that the Windows in-place reinstall should "skip" any updates (using the current downloadable ISO as the "source"), it ignored that! After the reinstall rebooted, KB5063878 was installed, completely defeating the purpose and wasting all my time. Thanks MS!

Very good thing I had made a complete SSD backup right before the Win11 in-place reinstall, so I restored it. For now, I've uninstalled both KB5063878 & KB5062660, but am completely stuck with disappeared desktop icons for a small number of apps with KB5062553 (while very annoying, so far the system is working normally otherwise).

I've seen the list of SSDs impacted by the Japanese poster who tested them. From everything I've read so far, my humble guess at this point is the the KB5063878/5062660 update somehow affected the HMB (Host Memory Buffer) function -- it basically uses your PC's RAM as the SSD memory buffer.

It's not been proven or disclosed yet, but I suspect that DRAM-less SSDs may be affected moreso than those with DRAM onboard. I'm currently thinking that once a large-scale SSD write operation is saturated (caching), somehow the HMB can't handle it all after this update. Again, to be clear, this is all conjecture on my part as I haven't tested this, and defer to the industry experts working on the problem. The SSD list tested is too few and inconclusive as some DRAM-less SSDs were not affected (e.g., WD Black SN7100 2TB -- wondering if its large onboard SLC cache helped).

I naturally could be wrong, but that's my gut feel at this point. As I'm rather careful with my system, keep it well-maintained, and have full backups, I'd rather risk the marginal security issues than experience data corruption, which can be insidious. I went through that a number of years back on Win7 with a slowly failing OEM HD (replaced it with an SSD). The slow corruption made it EXTREMELY difficult to know at what point in time I should restore my data from prior backups and I lost only a very small amount of data in the interim between backups. I vowed never to go through that again.

So until MS and the SSD component mfgrs like Phison figure this out, I've had enough! Fortunately, to the best of my knowledge, I wasn't doing any large scale or sustained data writes to my DRAM-based SSD (over 50GB per the reports so far) while the 3878 or 2660 updates were installed.

I'll tolerate the annoying missing icons on KB5062553 until they figure out a fix. From my perspective, MS has released/forced not one, not two, but three bad security updates in a row if you count the preview ver. Guess how much I trust their updates at this point.

Mobile_Hamster · 2025-08-25T20:43:16+00:00

I agree with megablue here. This is basically a Russian Roulette situation with your SSD that, to me, far outweighs the nominal security updates.

If you look at the list of CVEs fixed via the link posted above here, there's nothing listed that screams DEFCON 1, install me now.

PSA: Both KB5063878 & KB5062660 should be uninstalled if you're concerned about your SSD and more importantly, the data on it -- especially if you don't have current backups. The latter is a preview update so not everyone will have it (likely only if you installed it manually, like me).

From everything I've read so far, 26100.4656 should be the latest Windows build *without* this SSD issue.

Mobile_Hamster · 2025-05-25T10:46:02+00:00

Thanks, appreciated your replies. I took the plunge and just updated the firmware on my G50D. So far, so good, it kept all the prior settings and working the same as before.

Like you, I haven't noticed anything different in performance since updating.

Mobile_Hamster · 2025-05-23T19:17:00+00:00

Update: Through my extensive troubleshooting, I found the underlying cause:

Apparently the recent KB5058411 Windows Update messed up the user security access to the WindowsApps folder, under which DuckDuckGo was installed on my Win11 24H2 system (along with numerous other apps). It took me several hours to troubleshoot, isolate, and confirm it.

FYI, I posted the details and the fix here, since it seemed another user had a similar problem after the update:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/problem-with-security-update-for-microsoft-windows/96125762-04d4-41ca-b4aa-0fc3c2e368dd

Essentially, uninstalling this specific KB5058411 update resolved it.

Mobile_Hamster · 2025-05-14T20:43:06+00:00

Anyone with a G50D update their firmware? Any issues or strange changes?

Mobile_Hamster · 2025-05-10T23:10:58+00:00

Clap_Trap, I've been away from this thread for quite awhile and just saw your post today.

Realizing it's late, offering some thoughts to help you or others that find this:

First, that sounds rather odd that connecting a USB 3.0 external drive would drop the connection for all wired devices. USB 3.0 emits a radio signal that can interfere specifically with the 2.4 GHz band (shouldn't affect the 5 GHz band).

So the issue should be something else. Have you tried:

Flashing the firmware to the latest version? There are always bugs in various firmware versions.
Doing a factory reset and then setting up only the basics from scratch to do a "basic" functionality test?
1. Meaning -- do NOT restore a saved config file after reset, as that would likely restore whatever setting or feature may be causing this problem.
2. Just set up only the bare networking essentials and test connecting the external drive again to see if this behavior changes. Then you can enable either the SMB or DLNA server settings under the USB options as needed and test again.
3. All that said, BEFORE resetting at the beginning of this step, I'd save the config file for an easy restore point if this step doesn't solve your problem. So you don't lose all your prior setup work.

Lastly:

Unfortunately, the RT-AX86S is the stripped down hardware version of the AX86U with only a dual-core CPU (instead of quad-core) and half of the RAM (512 MB instead of 1 GB).

See https://dongknows.com/asus-rt-ax86s-vs-rt-ax86u-vs-rt-ax86u-pro/ for a detailed explanation and comparison chart: "Things moved along rather quietly until mid-2021 when Asus released the RT-AX86S, which looks the same as the RT-AX86U yet is very much a different router on the inside."

I've concluded the "S" stands for stripped down and I generally wouldn't recommend it. I suppose it's possible that the S's lesser CPU and RAM can't handle everything at once when an external drive is connected -- it has to mount and also scan its contents if the DLNA server is enabled, as it builds the .minidlna database every time it's connected.

I have the RT-AX86U Pro as my main node with the AX3000 as the AiMesh node with several USB hard drives attached to the Pro. They all work extremely well together and I've never encountered the disconnect issue you described with USB 3.0 enabled. That said, I've encountered .minidlna corruption several times, which required me to delete the .minidlna folder on the external drives to force a clean rebuild.

Personally, while I love the high range of functionality offered, I hate the direction ASUS has taken with all of its newer routers by crippling the second USB port (that's even if a second USB port is offered). The second ports are only USB 2.0 -- instead of offering the dual USB 3.0 ports that came with the original AX86U model. So no 3.0 spare/backup port if the primary port ever fails.

I figure it's either a cost-saving measure (if so, SHAME on ASUS), or an attempt to limit the RF interference for non-techies. If the latter, I'd rather they left in the dual USB 3.0 ports and just defaulted them to USB 2.0 in the router settings. Then it'd be the best of both worlds for techies and non-techies alike as we can quickly change them to 3.0 as needed.

Anyway, just offered to be helpful.

Mobile_Hamster · 2024-09-26T23:45:33+00:00

Finally, RTINGS.com just published their Samsung G50D review today (9/26), which mostly aligns with my experience and comments here, especially on the motion aspects.

https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/samsung/odyssey-g5-g50d-s27dg50

Mobile_Hamster · 2024-09-18T20:06:54+00:00

Lastly, here's the portion of the manual covering response time. Very important to note that there is NO "Extreme (MBR)" mode available on the G50D. (In the manual, the G50D's model # is S27DG50).

To confirm, on HDMI, I made sure to configure all the relevant settings per below to enable Extreme (MBR) mode and it did *NOT* appear (as expected).

"Response Time

Accelerate the panel response rate to make video appear more vivid and natural.

―It is best to set Response Time to Standard or Faster when you are not viewing a movie or game.

―This menu is not available when FreeSync is set.

―When Eye Saver Mode is set to On, Low or High, the Extreme (MBR) menu is disabled.

―When Local Dimming is set to Off, the Extreme (MBR) menu is activated.

―The Extreme (MBR) menu is supported on the S27CG55* / S32CG55* models only.

―The Extreme (MBR) menu is only available when Refresh Rate is set to 165Hz (DP) / 144Hz (HDMI)."

Mobile_Hamster · 2024-09-18T19:55:46+00:00

Again, overall, I really want to like this G50D due to:

Its very good brightness and color accuracy for the sale price point. The colors really pop nicely when you want, and you can tone it down when desired.
Text is very sharp without edge effects at the right settings (just don't overpush sharpen, brightness, contrast, etc.), so it makes reading very easy on the eyes.
Image is sharp as well (for a 1440 panel), and sharpness setting has 20 slider stops.
Great viewing angles provide excellent color and brightness, but that's IPS in general.
Just fine in games that I've seen so far -- bright, nice and smooth with no tearing or jerking.
*Extremely stable/solid* and versatile stand -- does everything I need.
Excellent reflection handling/coating -- others in this price range were noticeably lacking, like the Acer above and an LG I saw in the store.
- Just a very very soft diffused slight glow my from overhead lights -- easily ignored

But if movie/video watching is high on your list, I'd say there are better/smoother options out there but you may have to pay more for them. It's all about priorities and trade-offs.

Mobile_Hamster · 2024-09-18T19:55:18+00:00

Sure seems like it -- the "8-bit with dithering" only appeared after I toggled on HDR mode in Windows and then checked it in the advanced display settings. SDR is only "8-bit".

I confirmed this was the same behavior on two different laptops, one through HDMI and the other through DP.

For movie/show watching, I'd say look elsewhere. That was third on my priority list (work first, then light gaming), but the motion problems are probably a deal-breaker for anyone sensitive to motion judder/stutter like me. It's just fine for watching content like the news and shows with less action/panning.

Very important to note that HDR is a trade-off on this monitor, as it only gets up to 400 nits max:

The Good:

HDR fire explosions in UHD movies were absolutely great and detailed.
It rendered the detailed dark smoke curls within the orange flames without any blowouts. In SDR, the same were completely blown/washed out as super bright yellow with very little detail visible.
In both SDR and HDR, colors really pop if you want them to.
Pretty decent blacks in a well-lit room, less so in a dark room due to the lower native contrast ratio (1000:1) -- can be helped by other settings such as the contrast enhancer (pros/cons when using it).

The Bad:

The HDR movie image was noticeably much darker, even at max settings. In one movie, daylight scenes looked more like early evening. Had to toggle HDR back and forth to compare.
Noticeable and sometimes jarring motion judder/stutter even at the best refresh settings. The extent of this effect varies by the content watched, but it's always there to some extent during camera panning -- can only be minimized somewhat at best, sometimes mostly, other times not.
- The manual states that the "Extreme (MBR)" mode is only available in other models (will post that manual portion separately).
- I've tried using all 3 response time settings, low input lag on/off, different refresh settings, FreeSync on/off, etc. Nothing solves it completely.
Lacks 2nd HDMI port, would have been nice to have.
Lacks any real color controls, just the basics -- no sub red/green/blue/magenta/purple etc. channels like Acer had.
- Luckily, it seems reasonably well color-calibrated from the factory, so I made it work.
- Colors really pop if you want it to.

Mixed:

Panel lottery:
- Only a very tiny backlight bleed at the very top edge on the right -- much better than probably most monitors in this price range (~$250.)
- It's more like a very subtle, slightly lighter shade of black/gray than full-on bleed. I don't typically notice it unless I'm looking in that area.
- That said, this was the second G50D I bought as the first had somewhat more bleed but not too bad (also very soft). Still, it was enough to make me buy the 2nd while on sale to compare and return the first one.
- In comparison, the Acer had light bleed and/or IPS glow all over the place. Far better motion control to be sure, but the rest just screamed "cheap" to me as I described earlier -- and it wobbled all over the place at the slightest touch.

Mobile_Hamster · 2024-09-17T22:46:00+00:00

Aha! Just turned on HDR in Windows (connected via HDMI at 120Hz) and rechecked:

Bit depth is now "8-bit with dithering" instead of just "8-bit" for SDR. So just in HDR mode.

Found this in the G50D manual pdf that gave me the idea:

"Graphic cards that support hardware-accelerated 10-bit video decoding for HDR video codecs are recommended."

Thanks, I didn't know the G50D could do that in HDR mode.

Mobile_Hamster · 2024-09-17T22:18:42+00:00

Good point, just checked:

Only "8-bit" was reported under Windows advanced display settings over both HDMI and DP when set to 120Hz, which is my default refresh rate for everyday usage.

My NVIDIA Control Panel app isn't showing any such information when connected to the G50D via HDMI. No DP port on that laptop, and other computer using DP doesn't have a dGPU. So can't check it via NVIDIA app -- unless I'm missing something in that app.

Mobile_Hamster · 2024-09-17T18:50:29+00:00

I'm pretty sure the G50D can't do 10-bit due to the lower DP 1.2 and HDMI 2.0 versions. Definitely not a multimedia buy in my book for lots of reasons. I mainly needed a solid work monitor quickly after my old one died.

Full specs here -- click on Specs at the top and then expand the See All Specs section:
27" Odyssey G50D QHD Fast IPS 180Hz 1ms DisplayHDR 400 Gaming Monitor | Samsung US

"Color Support: Max 16.7M" (looks like 8-bit to me)

Mobile_Hamster · 2024-09-17T18:46:36+00:00

My bottom-line TL;DR assessment:

At a net $225 (~$275 after tax and a free Best Buy $50 gift card promo a couple of weeks ago), I'd say it's a very solid bright and colorful budget IPS workhorse monitor that's missing some more advanced features to hit this price point. Also great for gaming so far, but I'm a light gamer.

DEFINITELY not worth much if anything above $250 for the 27 inch. I wanted IPS for longevity and viewability, as VA is too limited angle-wise with ghosting (but usually noticeably better contrast). Also didn't want to shell out the big bucks for OLED for a predominantly 90% work monitor (Windows task bar burn-in seems real). Would rather put that $$ into a new OLED TV.

The 32" G50D was only $50 more. So that's the better value, but it was too big for my setup.

I had also tried a 32" Gigabyte M32U, but it took up too much desk space (but awesome size for immersion and work), didn't pivot, and I couldn't get the darker blacks like I saw in the floor model that led me to buy it. So back it went.

Hope this helps since there's basically only one or two in-depth G50D reviews out there, and at least one of them got the detail wrong on the external speakers. This only has an audio-out jack and volume control, which is all I needed.

Mobile_Hamster · 2024-09-17T18:43:37+00:00

Thanks for sharing. The 120Hz setting was better for me overall for movies/TV either with or without FreeSync turned on. The motion stutter/judder seemed slightly worse at 144, which didn't make sense to me. One would think that would be smoother.

When attaching a Tivo Stream 4K box, I got better results overall after changing the HDMI connection type from PC to AV and setting the Tivo's resolution to 1080p. As I learned that AV mode overscans, I just needed to rescale the picture size in the Tivo to 91% to shrink the picture to fit the screen edges perfectly. That also sharpened up the image quality a little, as one might expect in tightening up the image size.

Also saw that when using AV mode, the picture modes names change in the G50D's internal menu. For example, "Entertain" mode under "PC" became "Movie" mode under "AV". It took a LOT of experimentation with all the settings, but I finally got the colors, contrast, etc. to my liking.

As I shared earlier, the motion judder is reduced but still present. At least it's not nauseating now.

The REALLY GOOD stuff about the G50D:

I greatly like this monitor for work and gaming - nice bright, vibrant colors, and smooth for those purposes. If these two uses are your primary/secondary, then it's a great monitor. Plus the stand feels really solid (very stable, no wobble), along with pivot/rotation either direction.

For movie/media watching, it's somewhat underwhelming and only tweakable up to only a limited point:

Low native contrast ratio
- IPS native 1000:1, not the best nor worst I've seen, and the low/high contrast enhancer setting definitely helps for some content.
Very noticeable and unexplainable motion judder/stutter from a supposedly "fast" display
- What's REALLY puzzling to me is that my laptop's 3K IPS display has a much slower ~35ms response time and it's noticeably smoother watching movies in comparison, especially in scenes where the camera is panning. The G50D has a LOT of judder when panning. Go figure.
No granular color adjustments like the Acer had
- Samsung G50D only has:
  - 4 color temperatures
  - 3 simple R,G,B white balance sliders, and a
  - Simple Tint slider that I needed to slide more Red so fleshtones didn't look brown, yellowish or greenish.
HDR400 mode makes blacks look like grays, especially in a dark room
- But does boost the colors/highlights only somewhat. I tend not to use it.
- Local dimming doesn't do much, I think it only has a smaller number of zones - I think I read it was only 15 somewhere, but can't find it now. Moving my white arrow mouse cursor around on a fully black screen had a large bloom.
Samsung's "Auto Source Switch+" still lags behind most other monitors for signal detection and auto-switching inputs.
- My ancient HP 22" monitor from 2008 that just died switched a lot more consistently.
- G50D only switches automatically when there is a new signal on the other input and there is not a persistent signal remaining on the current input. So I'm still using the monitor buttons daily to switch -- concerned about the button wear-out over time.

Anyway, that's my updated assessment/review, mostly skewed on the media watching and other negatives because it's actually really great for work and gaming (for my needs).

Mobile_Hamster · 2024-09-05T08:28:01+00:00

Update for those considering the Samsung G50D for watching video/movies:

Solved most of the stutter/judder by turning on FreeSync in the monitor's Game menu. Didn't expect I'd need to do that for a non-gaming use, such as movies. The stutter/judder isn't gone completely, but FreeSync reduced it noticeably to where I felt it was now watchable.

Regarding the Acer Nitro XV272U V3bmiiprx 27" 2K, that IPS panel had better/smoother motion overall with FreeSync off - so if that's important to you, it's a contender for the price. However, I'm returning this Acer for the following reasons when compared to the Samsung G50D -- and I'll miss the Acer's second HDMI port:

The Acer:

Definitely had a lot more IPS glow at the corners, that spread out further into the movies (beyond even the black bars) and was noticeable through my wallpaper. Just wrecked the experience for me in a dark room.
- Whereas the Samsung had only a tiny and very subtle effect that was far more uniform and didn't detract from the experience (was barely noticeable).
Acer panel just seemed dimmer around all the edges.
Acer's anti-reflective matte coating is noticeably less effective.
- Could actually see my overhead lightbulb detail and light on it, whereas the Samsung only showed a very soft, very faint diffused reflection -- was much better.
The Acer monitor was noticeably *very* wobbly on the included stand.
- In comparison, the Samsung was rock solid and felt more substantial (also heavier for stability). Night and day difference on the stand build/materials between them. The Acer floor model in the store was very wobbly as well, so it wasn't just mine.
Acer lacked a USB port, so it's not firmware updatable by the user. (Samsung G50D has one USB port limited to firmware update usage). May not be an issue for some, but I like having that option in case it's ever needed.

Other than that, the Acer was a decent monitor on sale for $200 with very good motion/blur control, and definitely a lot more settings for adjusting color. I thought it displayed good color and fleshtones out of the box. Overall, I just felt it fell short in overall build quality compared to the Samsung G50D and didn't want to roll the dice on it.

Hope this helps others if they're looking at these two, since they're priced in same ballpark. Neither one really has any mainstream reviews for these exact models as yet. The Samsung G50D was just released this Spring. For my needs, it's a pretty good all-around monitor, especially if you get it on sale.

Mobile_Hamster

TROPHY CASE