HMD license

Did you know that Hyper Media Director ("HMD") is a legacy SpinetiX software, retired since Jan 1st, 2014 ? We’ve since developed a new generation of powerful digital signage software called Elementi. See how to upgrade from HMD to Elementi.

Introduction

The HMD Software License was available as a plastic card having the License Key printed on the back of the card and covered by a protective layer. The License Key is written as five groups of five alphanumeric characters in upper-case separated by dashes (-) (e.g. XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX).

Notes:

• The HMD software is legacy SpinetiX software, retired since Jan 1st, 2014, therefore it's no longer possible to buy HMD licenses.
• Always keep your HMD software license in a safe place to be able to retrieve it if needed.
• There's no connection between your HMD license and your HMP device(s).

HMD License type

There were three types of licenses:

1. HMD Lite License

   This license allows you to use HMD Lite on a single computer. Note that HMD Lite License cannot be changed / upgraded into an HMD Professional License.

   The usage of HMD Vouchers has been discontinued and any unused voucher can no longer be used.

2. HMD Professional License

   This license allows you to use HMD Professional on a single computer.

3. HMD Trial License

   This license was free of charge and allowed you to evaluate HMD Lite for 30 days. Starting with Aug 1st, 2013, trials are no longer supported.

License registration

It is no longer possible to register HMD licenses. See how to upgrade from HMD to Elementi.

License activation

Each time Hyper Media Director software is run, a check for a valid license is performed and if the result is negative, you will be requested to activate an HMD License in order to continue using the HMD software.

The HMD License can be activated on a single physical computer at any given time.

• While the HMD License limits the number of computers on which it can be activated concurrently, it doesn't limit the number of users that can use the HMD software on that computer (each user must be registered on that computer and will have to activate the HMD software under his account with the same license key).
• Note that the above might not be valid for remote connections and / or unsupported configurations (see HMD system requirements).

Note:

Use Direct activation in case your computer has Internet access, otherwise use Manual activation.

Before-activation notes

• Before activating your HMD license, it's strongly recommended to ensure that the HMD software will run on your computer. The reason for this is that once your HMD license has been activated, it will be locked on that "Computer ID" and, consequently, not possible to be activated on another computer without following the license release procedure, which is likely to take quite a while.
• If you have multiple network adapters on the same computer (e.g. one or more local network adapters, plus the wireless network adapter), we recommend you to enable all of them while performing the direct activation from HMD, otherwise you might have problems when switching from one adapter to another.
  • Once the license has been activated, you can safely disable the one(s) you don't regularly use.
  • The manual activation is restricted to one Computer ID only, therefore make sure to specify the one you are using the most, since the HMD License will not work when using the other network adapters.
• If you are using any adapters beside the local network adapters and the wireless network adapter, like VPN connections / clients, Bluetooth adapters etc., make sure to disable them before the license activation! This is to avoid having HMD wrongly assign any of these adapters as the Computer ID used during activation. For these, the MAC address can change over time in which case the HMD will stop working!
  • Examples of such VPN clients that should be avoided / disabled: Cisco Systems VPN, Nortel VPN, Juniper etc.
• Virtual machines (e.g. VMWare or Virtual PC) are strongly not recommended (mostly for performance reasons), nevertheless they can be used with HMD 2.2.3 or later, without the previous MAC restrictions (e.g. even when the VM has a locally administrative hardware address for the Virtual Network Adapter).
  • See the release notes for more details.
  • Prior versions of 2.2 were only allowing universally administrative MAC addresses and before those, virtual machines were not supported at all.
  • Never configure two machines, virtual or physical, to use the same MAC address.
• Using your machine with the NIC (network interface card) in Network Bridge mode (Windows feature) is not supported.

Direct activation

HMD Activation

To activate your HMD license (Lite or Professional), follow these steps:

1. Open HMD.
2. Click the "Enter product key" button (this will open another window).
3. Enter your License Key (five groups of five alphanumeric characters in upper-case separated by dashes).
4. Click the "Activate" button.
5. HMD connects to our servers to verify your License Key. In case of failure, HMD displays an error message containing the reason of the failure.

Reactivation:

If you have (re)installed HMD and had previously activated a license on that computer, you can click the "Re-activate" button - HMD will connect to our server to retrieve your License Key so that you will not have to enter it manually (step #2). Then click the "Activate" button.

Notes:

• The activation process does work through proxies, but it does not work with proxies that require authentication. If you receive messages such as "Error 407", "Authentication required" or "Access is denied" then you are behind a proxy that requires authentication. In this case, you need to manually activate your license (see details below).
• The "Have license.txt" button can only be used after a manual activation.

Manual activation

If your computer does not have access to the Internet or the automatic registration procedure fails due to proxy configuration, you can manually register and activate your license, following these steps:

1. Login into your account on SpinetiX web site.
2. Open the page https://extranet.spinetix.com/registration
3. Enter your Computer ID (as shown on the HMD activation window - see the "HMD Activation" image above).
4. Save this file on your computer to a general location such as your Desktop.
5. Press the "Have license.txt" button at the bottom of the Software License Validation window.
6. Select the file you have saved on step #4.

Notes:

• If you use the manual activation, the Product Key will not be displayed in the Help > About window.
• The license.txt file is valid only on the specified computer - using this file on another computer will not work.

License release

The support for releasing Hyper Media Director licenses has been discontinued.

Equipment can become obsolete and you might need to change PCs - when that happens, you have two options:

• Upgrade to Elementi using your current HMD license - this is free up to Elementi 3.1.1!
• Request us to release your HMD license in the system - this is a paid service and the price can be provided upon request.

Note:

Moving the license.txt file to another computer is not going to work.