"Activation key invalidated" issue - a new discovery

[eaglerock 6]

"Activation key invalidated" issue - a new discovery

Quote

For months now, EyeTV has refused to launch, claiming that "Your activation key
“69ZM4-HUDJDSX-JGB4T73-D1NVZ22”
has been invalidated. Enter a new activation key above. If you find this to be an error, please contact Geniatech Customer Service."

Customer Service has no email. A large number of people have been complaining about this on the Forum for several months. Geniatech has not responded to requests for support, not even with an explanation of the problem.

I have just updated a new-to-me computer with a transfer of an older build of EyeTV 4.0.0 from a dead computer running macOS 10.14.6 to a computer running macOS 15.3.1. The old build - EyeTV 4.0 (8528) launched without the "validation" complaint, but would not receive content from my tuner (an HDHomeRun Quattro). The automatic update offered the current build - EyeTV 4.0 (8532). When I relaunched EyeTV, the "validation" complaint reappeared.

Here's what I believe is the problem. Geniatech has introduced a launch function into recent builds of EyeTV 4 that checks activation keys with some sort of authentication server at Geniatech, to confirm that the installations were paid for. THAT SERVER DOES NOT WORK. It is not responding to the authentication requests, and so customers that have paid Geniatech good money for their software cannot use the software they paid for. All because Geniatech is treating its customers as criminals.

Either release a build of 4.0 that removes the "validation" check, or get the "validation" server to respond to launchtime requests, or issue new activation numbers that your system considers "valid"...or just announce that Geniatech is end-of-lifeing a product that customers all over the world have used and loved, but is a product Geniatech has essentially wrecked, and shows no visible interest in repairing.

I have just sent the above-quoted message to Geniatech Tech Support, in the hopes of at least getting a response. Based on many years of experience, I do not expect that anyone is going to fix anything; but at least they can't say they weren't told about the issue.

After the death of my 2015 13" i7 MacBook Pro Retina last May, where I alternated successfully between EyeTV 3.6.9 (7530) and EyeTV 4.0 (8528) using a networked HDHomeRun Quattro, on macOS Mojave 10.14. I have been scrambling around trying to recover a restorable copy of my data (the series of crashes that killed the laptop also wrecked my Time Machine backup). After many months of drag-copying (copied folders lost their titles; I had to drag them one by one, and restore the file titles individually), I finally recreated a bootable drive to act as a data source for a Migration Assistant restoration.

Yesterday night, I successfully transferred the data to a 2019 16" i9 MacBook Pro Retina with a clean install of macOS Sequoia 15.3.1, using Apple's setup assistant. The copy of EyeTV 4.0 (8528) that was installed with the transferred system launched successfully, without the "invalidated activation number" notice; but that build refused to load any data from my networked HDHomeRun tuner. The automatic update window offered an update to EyeTV 4.0 (8532), which I accepted.

Mistake! Once (8532) launched, the "invalidated activation number" notice reappeared, as had happened with a different installation on an external Big Sur/macOS 11.. So the issue is recent; whoever's responsible for the activation check that treats paying customers as petty criminals - they're probably still employed at Geniatech, or under contract to them. They could remove this activation check, if they chose to do so. Who aren't they doing so?

I will try uninstalling EyeTV 4.0 (8532) and reinstalling EyeTV 4.0 (8528) to see if that eliminates the activation problem. Perhaps some bits were left behind or damaged in the data transfer, and the absence/damage is preventing the data stream from the tuner. I will note that the build available from the "Latest 64-bit software for your Mac" page on the Geniatech site is 8528, not 8532. I'll post back with the results.I'll also post back if I get any response to my complaint email.

If we can finally get some resolution to this offensive, stupid validation issue, then we could progress to the fact that the EPG hasn't worked reliably for years, and hasn't worked at all for for months/years at a stretch. But until the application works, worrying about the EPG makes no sense.

Does anyone know whether there was an intermediate build 8530?