Hello PD 11 Forum,
On 2014/03/05 at 9:24 AM PDT I received a reply from CyberLink Support. Here is what it said:
Regarding your concern, the issue with your CD-Key is fixed. Please try to resuse your original CD-Key again and get back to us if you face any trouble.
I was busy all day so didn't have time to test it right away. Sorry for the delay. Anyway, my issue is indeed resolved. I didn't activate anything. All I did was start the software and it magically worked. My old projects loaded without complaints and all library media was there again. I was able to import VOB and MP4 files, just like old times. I got no messages requesting any sort of activation or registration. It just worked.
Because PD just started working I draw the following conclusions:
(1) PD 11 phones home to verify installation credentials of at least two codecs, H.264 & MPEG2 (I don't think the software itself reverted to a trial version but have no way of knowing for sure.)
(2) CyberLink seems to maintain an activation database from which my installation record was expunged. I was not told why. I can only guess the cause was: (a) my email address became invalid and they couldn't reach me or (b) I didn't use the software for a while, probably more than 3 months. Customer service apparently had to add my activation record back into the database.
My total cost in time of getting this software to work was a little over 4 days. I spent about 8 hours trying to figure out the problem before contacting support. It took support 3 days, 18 hours and 25 minutes from the time I sent my request to the time they resolved my issue.
I will contact support and tell them that my software works. I will also ask them if there is anything special I need to do to keep my software working. Do I need to write disks? (Personally I think disks are going the way of the dinosaurs.) Do I need to start it at least once per how many months. Do I need to maintain my email address active? I will post how they reply.
I really appreciate the users here who jumped in to try to help me. But overall, I have a lower opinion of PowerDirector than I had a while ago when I was raving to my friends about how great this video editing software was. I mentioned at the outset of this saga that I needed to quick bang out a small music video project. Well, I did it with a trial version of Corel's product. Video was posted on YouTube two days ago. I'm very happy my software is working again, but I'm not buying the upgrade just yet. I will most likely buy a competitor's product first and see how that goes.
Thanks again for all your help.