Easy Media Creator 8

List Price: $99.95 Discount Price: $28.49

Customer Reviews:

Feature laden, yet problematic 'Creator 8' [Posted on 2008-08-19]
Roxio's Creator 8 Suite raised the bar in affordable multimedia editing. Its box reads `Everything you need to copy, edit and burn'

Unfortunately, if you are not familiar with Roxio, the process after purchasing Creator 8 can be annoying and antagonizing.

Roxio Creator 8 offers over 25 integrated software programs in one box: Quite impressive for its competitive price. Too, Roxio has a reputation for producing software that's compatible with major PC's. Given the price and Roxio's reputation, this purchase was a no-brainer. So I got one.

The install is fairly simple. The software is rather gigantic (2 disks). The amount of resources this software uses was average (at first). The problems this caused afterwards on a fresh PC were troubling.

When you begin using the software, you notice the simple Roxio Home site, offering you a plethora of services. I mainly bought this Roxio was for Photosuite. So when I clicked and watched the Roxio Creator 8 Home page disappear and PhotoSuite begin loading, I was eager. Suddenly, it PhotoSuite disappeared and returned back to the Roxio Home page. Curious as to why this happened, I tried it again only to have the same issue repeat itself. I then began troubleshooting this issue and soon realized how annoying the Roxio Support site can be. There were plenty of users having this same problem. Yet Roxio found it best to refer links to other people having this same issue instead of publicizing a resolution or work-around: As if a `group think' on a web site link was a realistic fix. After spending more than ample time inside Roxio's archaic Support web site, I set off to search engines for help. Here, I found the same antagonized users attempting to find help - some in the same boat I was in.

Meanwhile, I began noticing my PC had now become slower as the Roxio software, I later found, had installed Hard Drive monitors in msconfig/services on my PC. Not only was PhotoSuite software not working, but my PC had become inundated with supporting Roxio's many services to maintain and update their many programs in my PC.

Adding to this, other software features, once activated, began usurping resources from my other program (making my new PC much slower). Confused after several days of troubleshooting the software issues I was unknowlingly hosting, I began getting restless. The Creator Suite had become an unwelcomed visitor on my PC. So I decided to remove it.

To my surprise, my PC was back to full speed after removing Roxio. I still had its icon on my screen that didn't remove during the removal process, but that was an easy fix.

I suggest anyone who is considering purchasing this software to consider doing some research. Type `Roxio Creator problems' on your favorite search engine and see what issues you may be facing if you decided to take the Roxio plunge. Personally, I use Picasa from Google (it's free and much simpler to use than Roxio Creator 8) for your photo editing needs. It works well and doesn't take massive amount of hard disk space (and resources) to operate as did Roxio Creator 8.

Other features within Roxio Creator are available from other vendors for free or at reduced prices. I would suggest looking into them before buying an `All-in-One' media suite. While the temptation is there for getting additional programs in these multimedia suites, the compatibility issues are rarely made public until you yourself are facing them.

Ease of use, compatibility, size, and support are serious issues Roxio must address before attempting to advertise newer versions of their Creator suite.

I would not recommend Roxio Creator 8 for the average PC user with multimedia needs. There are simply much better products available with fewer inherent issues and with better support.

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