Rating: Summary: The improved Disc Copier actually burns faster than Nero Review: You can burn multiple CD's at once for large projects. What a major advancement!
Rating: Summary: The user interface is seamless Review: Creator 6 is clean and a refreshing change from previous versions-all five main applications are just a click away. My personal favorite is DVD Builder-in a few minutes I was able to burn a movie from my raw video and play it in my DVD player.
Rating: Summary: After a week, very few complaints. Review: The appeal of this product was the addition of DVD mastering to its broad stable of capabilities. I purchased a DVD burner in late 2001 and have had a hard time finding a reliable, flexible, reasonably-priced DVD authoring solution.Roxio has come up with the best low-end solution I've seen. First of all, it has no issues with my DVD-R/RW. burner, which already puts it a cut above the 3 other products I tried (OEM stuff that was included with the burner). The interface for the layout software may be just a bit too simple, though: it provides for an intro video clip (which plays as soon as your DVD is inserted in the player) and what appears to be an endless cascade of menus and sub-menus. The program provides a couple dozen menu themes, but there doesn't appear to be any way to create use a custom theme, and the provided themes seem to be based around a familiar chapter-style interface--more traditional menu navigation (ie, "Play Movie/Set-Up/Special Features") doesn't seem to be an option. Basically, the DVD-builder is created to get your video to DVD with a minimum of difficulty, and a lot of flexibility is sacrificed to that end. Fortunately, the program seems to be able to handle just about anything you throw at it where content is concerned: I mixed MPEG files with raw DV footage, including a variety of resolutions ranging from 160 x 120 to 752 x 480, and the program just workhorsed its way through the job at the click of a button. Not spectacular, but workable, and a great way to distribute your reels to prospective clients. I've played a bit with the audio side of things, too, recording a few old LPs to CD, using the "DeClick" filter to remove pops, crackles, and ticks, and the program works very well for that. The DeClick filter isn't quite as effective as I'd like, but it does take out a good bit of the surface noise. Once the LP is recorded, breaking it into CD tracks is a trivial activity that can generally be done without manual intervention. One thing that's inexcusable in the audio program, though, is the lack of an undo function (if it's there, I can't find it). Also, it seems that once a track is marked, there's no simple way to unmark it. It's not hard to work around these small limitations, but they really shouldn't be there in the first place. One thing I don't like about the whole package is the all-or-nothing aspect of it: it wants to put itself everywhere on your machine...in the Start menu, in the clock tray, on the desktop...and it likes to be running in the background whenever you boot up. If you use the drag-to-disc feature, that's not a bad thing, but anything that creeps into so many corners of my system makes me a bit antsy, and the fact that the ROXIOP.exe program prevents my Win2K machine from shutting down without manual intervention doesn't give me warm fuzzies, either. I'm hoping a patch is on the way. Overall, I like this program a lot after a week--it's easy to use, doesn't seem to consume too many resources, and does what most people are buying it for. Could it be better? Sure. Can you get something better for the same price? Not from what I've seen. Addenda: I discovered the drag-to-modify nature of the track markers which allows the user to easily move or delete existing tracks simply by tugging on their flags. I also discovered an unfortunate glitch where the track markers are concerned: it seems that sometimes a tiny, split-second piece of your track will inadvertently get attached to the track marker, resulting in a short burp of sound right before the actual track begins. This would be bad enough to be a show-stopper, except that it's easily corrected: if you have a burping track marker, delete it and create a brand new track marker (with no associated burp) in exactly the same spot. This has cleared up the problem for me every time I've tried it.
Rating: Summary: Still Exploring... Review: I installed Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 on my PC yesterday and so far, I love it. Installation and registration were a snap. I am still exploring all the extra goodies and features. With two small children, the PhotoSuite feature, will come in handy. I was able to edit the quality of a photo, as well as, add a fun caption. I was so proud of my own photo creation, that I wanted to share it. So, I did. I was able to select send e-mail directly from the command bar. Too cool... I also had fun editing my audio tracks. I'm certainly not a Disc Jockey, but with the AudioCentral I can mix and edit my music, to my style. I look forward to finding new projects to create with my Creator 6. I am only rating this product 4 stars, because I have not seen it all. This product is exactly what I was looking for, and I didn't even know it.
Rating: Summary: Does everything I want and more Review: The tools in the product are very complete. The disc copier was fast and simple to use. Creator Classic is just that, Classic, I love it! DVD Builder is really simply to use once you get the hang of it. I'd have to say there is a slight learning curve to it, but the tutorial is useful. I like how easy it was to create DVDs and VCDs from pictures and videos so quickly. The Audio Central product is mostly junk. The MP3 ripping is quick which is nice, but the rest of Audio Central is way behind other Audio applications (I'll still use Windows Media player until something better comes along).
Rating: Summary: A few warnings Review: The maker neglects to mention that the CD inserts prepared and saved with Easy CD Creator 5 will not be formatted the correctly in this new version: you'll have to recreate any jewel case inserts you have on hand. No fix planned, according to their customer support. Also, the memory leak problem from version 5 is still present in version 6. (At least, I assume that's what it is: after burning several CDs, open programs start to malfunction just as if there was insufficient memory, and sometimes I get an insufficient memory message.) I've asked about this, but get no answer. Also, in the Label Creator, when you copy a picture object, apparently it's copied to a clipboard within the program, rather than the system clipboard, so you can't paste it into (for example) MS Word. This is a pain as you try to recreate your label inserts.
Rating: Summary: Bar none- the best Review: I've always been a long time Adabtec turned Roxio softare user but this software is incredible. If this was twice the price it would be money well spent and I would pay it.
Rating: Summary: Super product Review: I am very impressed with the new release of Easy Creator. I love the new DVD copy feature!! Super job!
Rating: Summary: Dude Review: Everyone told me it was good, we'll see!
Rating: Summary: On the Roxio movie maker software. Review: This software came with my new Dell Computer and it has been a very frustrating experience. Dell DOES NOT give or offer any support for this software and Roxio will not give or offer any support either (unless you purchase it direct from them, then, I don't know). I was held on hold with Roxio for 1 1/2 hrs and finally gave up. For some reason, although you can compress the VHS capture source down to fit on a DVD (MPEG-1, and four more options), it still says that the files are too large to transfer. I bought the top-of-the-line Dell to handle all the system requirements. There was no manual that came with the software and the help menu was not informative enough. I have had my computer 3 weeks and have been off work during this time and still can't get it to capture all the time, or compress properly when it does work. I even went as far as buying a new VCR and a variety of cables (including "Monster" cables) in hopes that this would remedy the problem, but to no avail. And now, the video portion has finally stopped working. A waste of good money.
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