Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite 10

List Price: $99.95 Discount Price: $48.00

Features:

• Easily produce impressive multi-media projects that combine photos, video and music; share and enjoy on CD, DVD, the web or on popular portable players and cell phones
• Includes step-by-step video tutorials that lead users through the process of completing a wide range of personal digital-media projects
• Backup non-encrypted DVD-Videos or convert video files into preferred formats for use on an iPod, PSP, Windows Media portable device or mobile phone
• Powerful 32 track video editor with HD support and studio quality tools, effects, and transitions; edit and enhance photos, creating delightful photo projects and gifts
• New features and capabilities that are specifically designed to naturally extend the digital-media functionality of Vista

Customer Reviews:

So Far No Problems [Posted on 2008-07-14]
I was hesitant to buy this software after reading the mixed reviews but I bought it anyway because I needed the software to burn programs to DVD that I had streamed to my computer from my TiVo. I followed all the advise of doing the installation on a fresh restart and turning off all other programs, especially the Norton virus protection and firewall. The install did take some time but went off without any problems. As stated in other reviews this program is definitely a resource hog and it does take some time to load the various components of the software but so far everything has worked well. One other reviewer mentioned a program that runs in the background and while he didn't say what that program was (go figure!) he said when turned off it helped performance. I think it is the Media Manager program that continually scans all your folders for new content. I turned that off as well but am not really sure if it made the program load faster. CD ripping is a breeze with lots of options and the basic DVD burning so far works well although it takes a long time to encode and then burn video material. I did have some initial trouble burning the .Tivo files to DVD but I finally got it to work and the burned DVD's play in my stand alone DVD player. I really think that all the negative comments about this program are individual computer system related problems. I mean think of all the variables that would cause problems. Luckily I have not yet experienced any of the catstrophic problems that some other users have had. The manual is very basic and just touches the surface of what each component of this program can do. Each component of the program has its own HELP information in the menu with more detailed information. This program definitely has something for everybody from the novice to the advanced user. Hopefully you will have good luck with it too.

Give me an alternative - PLEASE! [Posted on 2008-07-14]
XP WMC SP2
3G
Version 9.? (can't tell you right now it is frozen up)

I am using the nine version (well, I have installed it for the third time now, getting some use out of it is,...another story) and really want to find something that works. I need something that will produce a combo of slide show and video to DVD and allows the creation of menus. Oh yeah, and something that doesn't throw my system into Apocalypse mode. That would be nice. Please, I realise the people who come here have mostly been had by Roxio already (as have I) but some of you will have suggestions as to a stable alternative. After reading these reviews for 10 I can easily guess that "upgrading" would be sheer folly on my part only comparable to my installing this version 9? yet one more time.

Also looking for recommendations on how to eliminate this from my system so I can stop hard rebooting as I have to since I installed. Plus it would be nice to get my Office Suite to run again. Help!

I'm very sure that I will never knowingly buy another Roxio product after the circus that has taken place on my desktop...

Now for the next hard reboot...

Organizer, Editor, converter, Backup [Posted on 2008-07-16]
Talk about doing it all. The more I use it the more I find something to use. Organizing, I'm ok but tend to put everything in myphotos, myvideos, and so on. Of course the folders are full and it's hard ot find everything. I've made a lot of projects and have made subject folders. I can still see everthing with the media manager and by setting it on media type. It also monitors new media and adds it to the manager.
For editing the programs are adequate, maybe a bit more. The photo editor has the essentials plus panaroma. It melds several photos together which is something I tend to do for landscapes and large objects like statues.
Photsuite is not a professional level program but a quick editor. If you can use very advanced programs more power to you, but this is the right level for me. I've been able to make slideshows and albums. I tried one standalone generic album program but it didn't work well and saved in a weird format. It's easy to make the shows workable on pcs, macs and even the internet. I haven't done much in video editing but I do use roxio for video viewing. It replaced several small format specific players. I don't edit music files much but I do like the music creator program. I just select music type and a few other options and presto, custom music. Again, it's not a pro level program but an easy quick way to make simple tunes. I think the average user can pick this up and start using it immediately. It doesn't seem made for complex music making nor photo alteration. It does fix and convert media files easily.

Good functionality, a bit clunky [Posted on 2008-07-17]
I received this shortly after upgrading to a Vista-capable laptop. I've had no problems with the software. It burns DVDs and CDs well, but not necessarily better than the software that was resident on my laptop in the first place. So, I give it credit for that, but can't necessarily recommend it just for that.

The video and audio clean-up features are interesting -- I have a Flip video camera, and this has enabled me to produce a few more polished productions that might have been possible before.

I really like the DVD Music Album feature -- perhaps there are other software packages out there and perhaps I am behind the times, but I wasn't aware of this kind of feature before using Creator 10. I have been able to put all of the work of particular artists onto one disc for handy use; for example, all of the Tallis Scholars work (which spans dozens of disks) or all of the Depeche Mode or Pet Shop Boys works (yes, I am a child of the 80's!) on one disc is very convenient and useful.

Roxio was already the software I was used to, so there was not a significant lead time toward understanding the navigation or features from a functional level -- things operated fairly intuitively.

I am happy with this software. I look forward as the need arises to explore the other functions.

Roxio has regressed [Posted on 2008-07-19]

The Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 is not user friendly and cannot be used as easily as the EMC 7. The software geeks ruined a good program when the upgraded to this. I would not recommend it, Roxio will lose the support of their past patrons with this program.

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