Here is my support ticket [Ticket# removed by moderator]

In Photostory 18.1.3.36, when I tried to render to MP4, a pop-up window appeared asking me to purchase a codec. So, I purchased an HEVC codec (note: I own several video programs including Magix Vegas, but it is the extra steps of having to render over and over which I found to be time consuming. So, I just wanted to render the project in Photostory). Anyway, after paying for it, the HEVC codec failed to correctly install, giving me the "Error -10 message"

(Don't worry, I am about to address the MP4 rendering issues of Photostory 19 which is broken, too, but first let me share with you the Magix' Tech support response)

Here is what name removed by moderator wrote:

"Dear [Omitted]

Thank you for your message.

Please disable your antivirus application and firewall temporarily and retry the installation/activation since there might be quite a good chance that your system protection blocks these processes.
Additionally note that our program uses the Internet Explorer API for the online communication modules. Therefore, this is relevant to our program's functionality, as well as your general system functionality and security. You will need to manually adjust something in the Windows/IE Internet settings. Please go to the system's Control Panel and proceed to "Internet Options". Switch to the "Advanced" tab and find the "Security" section in the long list of checkboxes. Among other things you will find entries for the different Internet communication protocols here.

Please check whether the options TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 are ticked. If that is not the case, please enable/tick these options and confirm your settings. Then try again with our program. If the problem persists, please send a screenshot of the dialogue described here, showing the relevant TLS protocol settings.

If you're still not getting on with the activation, there's one more aspect we have discovered that seems to have helped in such a situation: A crucial operating system service that should be running by default has been disabled. In order to check this, please bring up the Windows "Computer Management", e.g. by opening the Windows Start menu, right-clicking on "Computer" and choosing "Manage". In the Computer Management screen, navigate to the "Services and Applications" section on the left-hand side and proceed to the "Services" sub section. Find the "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" in the alphabetic list of services and check whether the status for this service is "started". If not, right-click on this entry and start/resume it. Then try the program/feature activation again.
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Thank you for contacting Magix Support.

Best regards,
name removed by moderator"

So, I did all of those things and then I sent images to Magix Tech support confirming that I followed through with each step, but I still kept getting the same "Error -10" message. There was a pop-up window when I started Photostory that offered me an upgrade. So, I decided to try it just to see if maybe HEVC codec I purchased would work along with this upgrade.

Inside of Photstory 19.0.1.16 I was able to render the project to .MP4. However, when I tried to open the rendered file, it would produce an error message in Appe Quicktime Player and, in Windows Media Player, there would only be a blank image.

I bought another laptop. But when I went to my Magix online account to try and download my software, my updater service had expired. So, now I only have access to Photostory 18 and not Photostory version 19 (which is absurd. How can a software company give a user an upgrade and allow the user to register and use it, and then, later, take away the upgrade? Just why?). Today, Magix Tech support contacted me, asking me to purchase an upgrade to Photostory version 19.

I told name removed by moderator "I have been very generous with my time: writing out detailed explanations to Magix' Tech support, attaching .jpg images and screen capture movies. It is NOT appropriate for you to tell me to pay for a Photostory upgrade in order to have the [full] functionality of the HEVC codec that I already paid for."

Here is name removed by moderator message, below:

"Dear [Omitted]

Thank you for your message.

I am very sorry that the program does not work as expected. Let me try to help you with the problem.
First of all it is necessary that you have installed the latest version of Photostory. I can see in your customer account that your update service for Photostory expired on September 18. So if the program asks you to extend the update service, I would recommend to do so first. After that you should be able to load all available updates until version 19.0.1.20, the latest one."

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Thank you for contacting Magix Support.

Best regards,
name removed by moderator

MAGIX Software GmbH
Supportmanager

Postfach 500109
01067 Dresden
Germany