Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum

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Summary: easy to use rad product
Review: For someone my age this is a sweet product, it does everything i could want it to do...it has totally worked for me. I think it's a great product and I recommend it to everyone.

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Summary: Easy CD Creator 5 - Not keeping up with hardware!
Review: I eagerly anticipated using this latest version of Roxio's CD writing software when I bought my Backpack cd-rewriter, model 193200. I was dismayed when [they] had not updated the software to be compatible with a model that is now stocked in...stores throughout the country. All [that] needs to be done] is some registry updates... I've got to change a device setting on my own so the software thinks I've got an older model...

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Summary: Pure Garbage
Review: I had heard about the problems people with Windows 2000 were having, but since I have Windows 98 I didn't think I would have any problems. I had used Easy CD Creator 3.5 and was happy with the product. Easy Creator 5 is garbage. Even after installing the available updates and taking all 17 steps recommended by their tech staff, the program wouldn't even copy a simple music cd. When I gave up and reinstalled the 3.5 version, it again worked perfectly. Do not buy this product! PS They won't let you post a review without giving at least one star. It doesn't deserve it.

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Summary: Not for W2K
Review: This product may work well with other operating systems, but is one of the poorest released for Win 2000, it is very difficult to load and use. The manufacturer states they do not support updates of Win 2000 or server editions. Their nice little automatic start up selection menu has a very good chance of crashing the system. If operations are done too fast, even on a dual 1 gig mhz processor system, it will hang and have to powered down to restart and use again.

I had hoped that with new owners and a new edition that problems would be solved, but this is not the case. If you can find something else that works, buy it and let me know as I am also looking.

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Summary: Lynn
Review: Please save your money and don't buy this version. I shelled out the $.. to burn VCD's and all is does is hang. Version 4.1 works fine. The extra money you spend for all the new bells and whistles you might as well just set fire to it.

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Summary: not what they claim
Review: I just bought this worthless product about 2 days ago,after spending about 2hours on the phone with these people, just to have them tell me that the VIEDOIMPRESSION part of the softwear does not do what it says it will do. they sent me to the company that makes the program and I got the same answer. They said that thet new of the problem but have not done anything about it. Please people do not buy this product and want to record your digital movies on cd because you can't.

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Summary: Where oh where did my download go, where...
Review: I have had adaptec Easy CD Creator 3.5 ever since i had a CD-RW drive, now i cant find a download. So i get 99 dollars saved up and send it for easy cd creator 5 delux, well, turns out it aint that delux after all, i cant even get it to burn a mp3 file yet.

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Summary: Meets or exceeds my expectations.
Review: When I had a local computer store install a CD-R drive, it came with the Adaptec CD-RW software. I had problems with the drive from the beginning, and sent it back to the shop. I feel that the system began to crash and I got "Out of Scan Range" messages after the screen went blank. The repair technicians could not fix the problem.

A friend told me that the problem was with the software. The "CD Creator" software which was bundled with the Goldstar CD-RW drive was what she called a "stripped-down" piece of software and could not do what I wanted to have it do. The implication was that I would have to buy a "real" piece of software to do make use of the CD burner's capabilities. I decided to do some shopping. In the course of my "shopping", I read reviews, and I narrowed it down to the Roxio "CD Creator 5 Platinum" and Cakewalk "Pyro", both of which had mixed reviews. I made my decision in spite of the reviews to go with the Roxio product. I felt like I was casting my fate to the wind, taking the luck of the draw. I am glad I chose the Roxio product.

At first, I backed up the old CD-RW software because I was not sure the new software would be any improvement. I was skeptical. I had read some of the negative reviews, and I did not want some of the bad things to happen to me. Maybe I am lucky because I am running only Windows 98, but now I am convinced that I have a good product.

I am pleased with the performance of this product. The friend who suggested that I buy new software remarked that it was "idiot proof" so I should have no problems. I think she meant that it had an intuitive interface. You know, "real men don't need instructions" and will try to run software without reading the instruction booklet. Hey, it worked for me. I am basically interested in making copies and archiving my original CDs. Having had casette tapes cooked in my car tape player during a week of temperatures in the 90's, I do not want the same thing to happen with my CDs.

I could never do compilations with the old software I had. It would always crash. No problem with that now. I also like the CD labeling software that comes with this software suite. I have not tried to do MP3 compilations. I have heard good reports of what can be done with Roxio's software and MP3's.

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Summary: So many problems, I don't know where to start.
Review: I've had my CD burner and version 3.5 of this product for some time now. Loved it. I wanted version 5 "Platinum" so that I could make Video CDs. But it looks like 5 can't read some AVI formats that every other program I have can read with no problems at all.

In addition, 5's audio noise reduction algorithms are horrible. It sounds better to leave even noisy vinyl untouched. The "Realizer" enhancement function must be designed for the tinniest of cheap speakers, because on any decent system it gives way too much bass. Before getting Easy CD 5, I happily encoded MP3s at 128kbps, but Easy CD 5's encoding sounded horrible at that rate, forcing me to use the more wasteful 160kbps.

Then, when I finally had something I wanted to put on CD, I found that my trusty CD-RW drive was unable to make any CDs at all. Even though the program reported "CD created successfully", any audio or data CD I made crashed Windows as soon as I tried to read it.

I can't think of anything I like about the program, and I don't think it's a coincidence that my Windows system is very unstable since I installed Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum.

Rating:
Summary: If only zero stars was an option here
Review: The ONLY reason for me to "upgrade" from 4.0 to 5.0 was that Roxio couldn't play nice with the CDDB people, and 5.0 could supposedly talk to the new online songs database.

Except it can't. I can't wait to see whether they'll ever own up to admitting that they've completely misrepresented both 4.0 AND 5.0, and that now NONE of their software has this feature.

I can't stress enough that one should not buy this product -- particularly if you have an earlier version.