Instant CD/DVD

Rating:
Summary: One of the best CD Burning Programs I have ever used
Review: Pinnacle Instant CD+DVD is by far one of the best programs I have ever used. Nero is also very good. Pinnacle Instant CD+DVD is very informative while you are burning a CD. Much more informative than Nero or Easy CD Creator. The graphical interface is very similar to that of Easy CD Creator's, this one, is much better though. This Program Easily allows you to burn Data and Audio CD's, DVD's, and just about anything else you can think of. If you are looking for a good Burning Program, look no further than Pinnacle Instant CD+DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Great suite
Review: This is truly a great program. It has all the features of other CD/DVD burning programs and more. Instant write allows you to access the CD/DVD as a HD/floppy but unlike others it allows you to make it accessible on any computer by "closing" it. There is also a single virtual CD drive that is created. The package also includes "Expression" program, which is like a Studio 8 Lite (I actually think it may be better). And of course "Instant Copy" which is sold as a stand-alone program for coping DVDs. The interface is very clean and informative. And with a huge rebate it is very cheap- really to cheap for how much it offers.

Rating:
Summary: How does Pinnacle stay in business?
Review: This review is for Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD version 7.06. There is a newer version on the market, so I was able to pick this up cheap, thinking that I was getting a bargain. Guess again. I was hoping that I'd be able to edit video files that I'd ripped from DVD after changing them from VOB to mpeg. No luck. Whenever I try to import video it crashes. Haven't tried other formats yet. Maybe I'll have better luck with avi or mpg, but I'm not holding my breath. In addition, the interface on the video editing software is idiotically simple, yet simultaneously unintuitive, so you get the worst of both worlds.
Patches? The Pinnacle website was no help, having only three links in the support section for version 7x. All of the links were dead, but it didn't matter anyhow because none of them appeared to be related to my problem. Haven't contacted support yet.
Oh, and good luck getting this thing off your machine if you don't want it. Not only does it not come with an uninstall, but it stashes files all over the place, and it screwed up my other burning software so that it wouldn't work! If you install this, make sure you use a program that keeps track of the changes made so that you can completely uninstall it (I think there's something in Norton utilities that does the job). In addition to the craptacular editing program, Instant CD/DVD comes with several other programs, none of which interested me. I have tried the disc burning program--I had no choice since Instant CD/DVD screwed up my Nero files--and it worked the first few times, but it soon started crashing, too. I figure it crashed about 20% of the time. I've also tried Instant Copy, which is included in the Instant CD/DVD suite, as a stand alone program and found it remarkably underwhelming. It takes for-e-ver, even on a P4 machine. I much prefer DVD Shrink, which is free and decrypts discs, unlike Instant Copy.
After spending hours fooling around with Instant CD/DVD I realized that it's much more than just bad software. It's a material refutation of the dogma of free-market efficiency. If Pinnacle is still in business, then clearly, clearly, markets don't work in the manner that economists like to imagine.
The most satisfying thing about this software is the feeling you get when you throw it in the trash.

Rating:
Summary: How does Pinnacle stay in business?
Review: This review is for Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD version 7.06. There is a newer version on the market, so I was able to pick this up cheap, thinking that I was getting a bargain. Guess again. I was hoping that I'd be able to edit video files that I'd ripped from DVD after changing them from VOB to mpeg. No luck. Whenever I try to import video it crashes. Haven't tried other formats yet. Maybe I'll have better luck with avi or mpg, but I'm not holding my breath. In addition, the interface on the video editing software is idiotically simple, yet simultaneously unintuitive, so you get the worst of both worlds.
Patches? The Pinnacle website was no help, having only three links in the support section for version 7x. All of the links were dead, but it didn't matter anyhow because none of them appeared to be related to my problem. Haven't contacted support yet.
Oh, and good luck getting this thing off your machine if you don't want it. Not only does it not come with an uninstall, but it stashes files all over the place, and it screwed up my other burning software so that it wouldn't work! If you install this, make sure you use a program that keeps track of the changes made so that you can completely uninstall it (I think there's something in Norton utilities that does the job). In addition to the craptacular editing program, Instant CD/DVD comes with several other programs, none of which interested me. I have tried the disc burning program--I had no choice since Instant CD/DVD screwed up my Nero files--and it worked the first few times, but it soon started crashing, too. I figure it crashed about 20% of the time. I've also tried Instant Copy, which is included in the Instant CD/DVD suite, as a stand alone program and found it remarkably underwhelming. It takes for-e-ver, even on a P4 machine. I much prefer DVD Shrink, which is free and decrypts discs, unlike Instant Copy.
After spending hours fooling around with Instant CD/DVD I realized that it's much more than just bad software. It's a material refutation of the dogma of free-market efficiency. If Pinnacle is still in business, then clearly, clearly, markets don't work in the manner that economists like to imagine.
The most satisfying thing about this software is the feeling you get when you throw it in the trash.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth - even for free
Review: This software is a prime example of what a bad written software can be! After I installed the software, I did not find any good way of trimming away some of the excess fat in order to make a good quality backup (i.e. lack of program options). Fortunately, I found some public domain software - "InstantCopySettings" to help with this. The software takes way too long even on a P4 machine to transcode a DVD. The real icing on the cake is that after it automatically adjusted to fit on a 4.7GB DVD+RW, it complained about not being able to write to the disk. Since it creates the content in its proprietary format, I couldn't even use Nero to burn it to the DVD. DVD Shrink Beta 5 did a great job of converting including writing to the same DVD+RW disk - i.e. the disk was not faulty.

I also tried to make a DVD using still images. Couldn't figure out how to make this work.

Saving the worst for last - this software also installs "Instant Drive". This interfered with DVD Shrink making it hang. I cannot even uninstall the "Instant Drive" completely (amateur programmers!).

I did get the software for free after rebates - but it is collecting dust now! I would recommend staying away from it.