Rating: 
Summary: Stellar product from end-to-end
Review: I can't say enough about this fantastic suite of products. Like their package says, "One product - infinite possibilities", this product allows you to do it all when it comes to digital media. First of all, it installed flawlessly and I was able to pick up how to use it in no time thanks to the great interface. With all the tools at hand, I was easily able to manage and organize my media files of photos and videos on to my PC. I then was able to edit and touch up some of my digital photos. It even has a great photo stitch capability to create seamless panorama pictures, which I did a great shot of the desert at sunset. I especially enjoyed using the timeline/storyboard editing where I combined still images, with video and added music. It provided great functionality and was fun to use, what more can you ask? Next was time to burn my finished product on to DVD, which was straightforward. And finally, I used the software to create and print out labels directly onto the media using my Epson printer. From end-to-end this is a stellar product. I recommend it to everyone, why I'm even buying an extra copy to give away as a Grad present to my nephew.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Awful
Review: This is the buggiest software I have EVERY purchases and believe me, I have blown a lot of dough on all different kinds of products. Free software works better than this. How is this company going to stay in business putting out crap like this. Shame on you, Mr. Roxio, SHAME ON YOU!
Rating:
Summary: GREAT BUY DESPITE WHAT OTHERS SAY
Review: I purchased this product on amazon and have had nothing but success since. (It even arrived a day early) I went with my gut and ordered it despite VERY negative reviews. I must tell you. IT WORKS! No matter what they say, it operates exceptionally well if you have a somewhat new pc, XP home edition. The installation process is lengthy, but the rewards are amazing. You can do virtually everything. This product is PERFECT for amatuer filming (which I do) and simply making home movies. You can make video cd's, once again perfect for amatuer filmers, cd's, and even dvd's. The precision editing is amazing in that you have total control over every aspect of your movie. Perfect for novices, yet great control for veterans. The steps are so simple to follow, that I didn't even read anything from the guide and was able to begin working.
This new product is great. I suggest getting it. It beats the heck out of Windows Movie Waker.
my page:
www.geocities.com/theout_takes
Rating: 
Summary: Less is More (As a CD Creator, this is more of a downgrade)
Review: I have been one of the advocates of using Roxio over Nero for quite a while now. I have used Easy CD Creator to burn hundreds of music and data discs over the years, but this is the version where I may have to switch. This review is for avid users of EZCD Creator versions 4, 5, and 6, which I believe are all better than 7. Don't get me wrong. DVD Builder, VideoWave, and the new PhotoSuite 7 are both definite improvements, as are the capture and storyboard features. However, I would like to focus on the degraded "Creator Classic" and the nearly unrecognizable Label Creator, which I use the most and have come to rely on. Instead of a general complaint, I will give examples. Here are some of the best features that have been screwed up in version 7:
1. You can no longer right-click on the column attributes above the song titles. You are limited to Size, Type and Date Modified. In Creator Classic 6, you had could display the bit rate, duration of a song, track number, album name, etc., etc.
2. Although you can still preview a song, it is a tiny little box with very limited features. You can no longer play several previews from the same player like you could in versions 4-6...another downgrade.
3. I have also noticed that this version is much fussier with MP3 files. Nearly any bit rate would play in version 6. This one is hit and miss. A song that plays in your media player may come out with pops and defects after it is burned to CD.
4. If you have an MP3 file with both the artist and song title, the artist name is dropped from the playlist. Kind of inconvient if you are making a compilation disc.
5. If you decide to save your project and burn the disc later, good luck. The artist title will be automatically deleted from the Artist field, the Disc Title will also be deleted, and the playlist may or may not be shuffled and song titles may be substitued for others. Sounds like a major bug to me. This happened more than once to me. Another problem not found in previous versions.
6. If you drag and drop more than one song title to a different location on your playlist, there's a pretty good chance that the program will shut down completely, and you can then start over again.
Now, on to Label Creator.
1. You now have options. Too too many options. Why should you have to CHOOSE whether you want the artist, track list and media type, as well as decide which of the 12 different options you want on the label? Isn't that overkill? What was wrong with the basic clicking of the "CD Contents" button and have it automatically display the track list?
2. There is also the issue already mentioned by another reviewer of the label creator not allowing you to drag tracks line by line. The playlist is now in a block. You can't stretch song titles like you could in previous versions, and the songs will not display alpha-numerically.
3. Last, how about a wizard to help you decide which of the 8 different layout options you want. What was wrong with the basic front, back and insert? Believe me, when it comes to labels, less is more.
Well, that's my 10 cents about Roxio's new bloated bundle.
Rating: 
Summary: The worst version yet!
Review: This program is terrible. I've installed every version Roxio (Adaptec) has created and this by far sucks the most. I continued to use the program even after I noticed it was much slower than version 6. However, after installing the "patch" to version 7.0.1.34 or whatever number it was every video file and DVD I owned played so dark in any media player that I couldn't even see the video. Luckily I had a hunch that Roxio 7 was the problem and just uninstalled it, instead of re-doing my entire system. I'm now back to version 6.2.xxx.xxx and will stay there until they fix their problems with 7. I've never seen a company that allows such noticeable problems to be released to the public. I guess they've never heard of beta testing.
Rating:
Summary: Unbeatable product for the price
Review: I honestly can't believe the price of this product. It's literally packed with powerful programs that cover everything digital. From powerful photo and video editing applications to stella CD/DVD burning and authroing, this is a first class application. I had Ulead for photo and another app for video and Creator 5. No need for these other applications now. Most impressive is the fact that it is SO easy to use. This is not an upgrade, this is a whole new world.
Rating: 
Summary: If it works it works and if it doesn't...
Review: There's a reason for the variety of reviews of this product. On some systems it obviously works, and for some folks it's a disaster. I was in the second camp initially. For the record, I'm quite computer literate. I wasted many, many hours trying to get this suite of programs to work, to no avail. Here's the deal. I installed it, and downloaded and installed the update. The "home" screen would open and close in about a half second. If I went to the programs menu and individually started the component software, some components would open and some didn't. The ones that opened saw all my drives as source drives, but not as destination drives. The only component that actually worked was the drag-to-disc program. Everything else was a disaster. I have a pretty high-powered PC, so that's not a problem. I've used a large number of other similar products, also not a problem. I uninstalled every software component on my system that I thought could be conflicting, no solution. Uninstalled and reinstalled more times than I can count. Bought it over a weekend, so of course wouldn't get an answer from email support till Monday. Talking to tech support had a $35 fee, and also had to wait till Monday. So, no work got done over the weekend. At least some companies will connect you to India or Singapore to let you talk for free to a human who doesn't understand the product. At least you can vent! Not Roxio, no, on a weekend or after hours, you get to "ask Roxie", a virtual support entity that of course has never heard of your problem. (OK, to be fair, she/it can handle lots of basic issues). I was ready to play frisbee with the disk. But Monday morning, on a whim, I called their offices (in Toronto) and lo and behold, they fell all over themselves to help me out. They connected me to tech support, and even gave me an event number to bypass the $35 fee. To my suprise, I was able to fix the problem in four minutes flat. It did require changes in the registry settings, something very few people would (or should) mess with without guidance. I'd never have figured it out without their help, and the average person would probably have had to pay the $35 if they'd just called tech support outright. So, happy ending, and I was impressed with how nice they were once I got hold of them.
As for the functionality, it so far works as advertised, although I haven't burned any DVD's yet. Overall, it seems to me that some of their menus are clunky and non-intuitive, but once gotten used to they're OK (although I've gotten better photo-editing software for free with scanners!). Also, I like the ability to merge audio tracks, a nice feature missing on some other programs (great for live tracks where you want song markers but no breaks).
Seems to be a good product, although I'd invest in a quick call to Toronto before calling tech support directly if you have an immediate issue.
Rating:
Summary: Meant for novice who doesn't know any better...
Review: This software isnt worth the money it costs in my opinion.
Do yourself a favor and go buy
Nero 6 Ultra Edition (Nero Burning Rom). You will be much happier.
This software is pretty much designed for the novice in mind.
There are many better tools that can be used instead.
Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this software. You'll be so sorry...
Review: Not only is the software riddled with bugs, but the customer service is terrible. I write software for a large corporation, so I have a little experience under my belt. This software was either rushed out the door, or Roxio's quality assurance department (if it even exists) did a very poor job of testing this software. Many of the features just plain don't work. And the one's that do, are often riddled with little bugs that make it take forever to get anything done. Usability is very poor as well. Nothing is labled what you would expect it to be or is placed where it should be.Don't waste your money. You are better off getting something else. When I posted something like this on their discussion web site, they banned me from the site. What does that tell you?
Rating:
Summary: Great package!
Review: I'm sorry to hear some users are having trouble with Easy Media Creator 7, but I'm greatly impressed by this package. Rather than a simple bundle of mediocre standalone programs, I find most of the components here to be very complete and full-featured. We're expecting our first baby in a month so I've been making videos and photos of my wife, showers, etc. to send to out-of-town relatives. I've been able to make great videos with little effort, and the ability to output to almost any video format with any parameters (bit rate, screen resolution, etc.) makes it much easier to make an appropriate file for streaming on the web. The "moving pictures" feature is great for zooming in on certain parts of the video or a photograph. There are tons of transitions and other effects, and editing/splitting/adding audio and video works well. Note, I haven't burned any full DVD's, so I don't know whether sync will be an issue as has been reported elsewhere. I'm a fan of Paint Shop Pro (using version 8 and Paint Shop Photo Album 4), but I find the PhotoSuite component of EMC 7 to be a great substitute for all but the most demanding/complex of editing tasks. For casual tasks like cropping, red-eye removal, changing resolution, cataloging photos, and the like, I find this to be a much faster replacement for PSP8. Photosuite does a much better job making panorama photos than any of the other eight or ten packages I've tried. Drag and drop works flawlessly for me (I turned off XP's built-in CD mastering software, perhaps that's the source of conflict for some people), and has the added benefit of supporting CD-RW, which I believe some other packet writing software doesn't. Regarding customer support, I agree that getting live support may be difficult (as it is with virtually all software these days), but there is a very active customer forum where I was typically able to quickly find answers to questions I had, and in one case a Roxio employee answered my query within a few hours. I'm very pleased with this package, and fully recommend it.
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