The orginal "platinum" version of WinDVD, do you mean WinDVD 4.5? There were some bugs at the beginning, but many of them were solved almost imediately in the following days and within 2 to 3 weeks. For the final version(s) of WinDVD4.5 are very good indeed. They even have hyper-threading support. It is unfortunate that they have to re-position their product lines in reponse to the coming PowerDVD 5. Anywa, back to WinDVD 5 Platinum, there are a few program inteface bugs, yes. And, I am sure they will release another build version soon. I personally have not experienced the bugs/problems you mentioned. However, I must agree with your view on the separation of audio panels. This move is clearly to match the PowerDVD package ... but still, it sucks. Okay, the price ... nobody would pay $99 unless you miss all those promotions and rebate coupons. There is a $20 rebate coupon for first-time purchaser; rebate coupon for upgrades; rebate coupon for switching to WinDVD (you have some other DVD program already installed on your computer, and it doesn't matter which one) Once it detects the presence of another DVD program, you are eligible for the rebate. I think I must have missed some other promotions ... but hey, why don't you go there and see for yourself.