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Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 Review |
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Written by Don Lee
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Monday, 23 October 2006 |
 Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 is the latest release in this
award-winning product line. While Creator 9 still features the same
high-quality disc management and production functionality, Roxio has
also added a number of great, new features. I was anxious to give Creator 9 a try because I haven’t used a version
of this software in years and there appeared to be a lot to be excited
about. Here is what I discovered about Roxio Easy Media Creator 9.
Let’s Start Creating with Creator
Roxio Creator 9 covers the music, video, photo, backup and mobile content markets. That sounds pretty ambitious so let’s take a closer look. Upon launching the program, you will be greeted by the program interface where you can make the appropriate selection for your next project. Some of the menu items available to choose from include audio, backup, copy, data, My Media, photo, video and tools.
Now you can still do the usual CD and DVD disc burning with Creator 9, but there’s so much more to do. Some of these elements may look familiar to you if you are a returning user of Creator, but here’s a quick overview of the features of each menu item.
Under audio, you are given the opportunity to select to create the following projects such as an audio CD, jukebox disc, convert CD to audio files, create a music DVD, convert LPs and tapes (remember those), capture audio via sound card, music disc creator, create ringtones, edit audio files, edit song information and rename audio files. The audio options also include some very nice editing capabilities as well.
The feature that caught my attention was the ringtone maker. I’m tired of the default ringtone on my cell phone but this solution made the process of making and sending a ringtone a breeze. I was surprised that they supported my very old V220 Motorola phone but after inputting my information, I was then shown a easy to understand window where I could select a song from my hard drive and simply choose the portion of the song I wanted to use. Once I was satisfied with the results, just stop the playback and you will notice the Send button becoming accessible. Just click on Send and you should have your new ringtone available at your phone. Very simple and easy, which is exactly the way I like it.
The next menu item is for backing up your data. The easy archive and the system backup provide the two options. The easy archive provides the typical backup of your important files on your hard drive. The system backup provides a full backup of everything you specify. I also discovered that you can back up your Windows operating system and associated files but don’t expect to use this as a replacement for the Windows CD. You will still need the Windows operating system as well as Easy Media Creator 9 installed first before you can do any kind of restoration and success may still be limited. It’s still a nice feature to have regardless though.
The Copy menu item offers the ability to create disc copies, create disc images that you can burn a duplicate copy from, copy DVD movies (must be unprotected as Creator 9 will not circumvent any copyright protection), and compile content for playback on DVD players. The compilation feature is very interesting in that you can choose various formatted video files and transfer them to disc or to portable devices such as an iPod or a PSP. Again, this process is very easy as just selecting a few items from the presets available to you. You can custom configure some of the output features if you choose as well. Now I’m always transferring content to my PSP since I have more than enough space on my 4GB SanDisk memory stick pro duo. You can even preview the files from within Creator 9 as you add them to your list just to make sure you have the files you want. Once I selected my file, I choose PSP from the format pulldown menu and selected Portable Device/Media as the output. I then pressed the Copy button at the top of the window and the content began to encode (in the PSP’s MPEG4 format) and then transferred directly to the PSP. It included the necessary THM information file as well for the PSP to recognize it. Remember that you can output your video content as DVD, DivX, Windows Media Video (HD too), MPEG 2 & 4, 3GP, H264, PSP and iPod.
The Data Disc menu item offer disc copying, data disc creation and the classic Creator functionality. Disc copying allows you to make duplicates of any disc as long as there is no copy protection. Data disc is a CD containing your important files for safekeeping.
The My Media menu item offers you the opportunity to watch DVDs via Creator 9, browse through your collection of multimedia files on your computer as well as manage your files using the program Open Media Manager application.
The next menu item is the Photo section. The import photos feature allows users to transfer files from their digital camera down to their computer. The Fix and Enhance Photos feature which is a very basic but useful set of image editing tools such as a crop tool, brightness and contrast, red eye, straighten, paint brush, touchup, cloning, special effects and more. The Slideshow feature allows you to create a photo slideshow that can be burned to a DVD. Now I was interested in this because I wanted to create a DVD for the birth of my brother’s son. He sent lots of digital photos and I was able to put together a nice slideshow for him. The process is easy as you just need to select the photos you want in your project, then click next to select the theme of your slideshow. Once you choose a theme, click next to continue to your output format. You can select to save the project, output it to disc or export it as a video file. The last remaining Photo section features include Photo Projects (which is where you can select to create greeting cards, collages, posters and more), Print Photos (create layouts for photo printouts) and a photo e-mailing feature.
The next to last menu item is a Video section. Here is where you will find the Blu-ray disc authoring functionality. Put your files together and burn them to a Blu-ray compatible disc. You will also find the Create a DVD with MyDVD option where you can author your own DVD. Select a theme and incorporate your personal files and video clips into a DVD disc that you can play back on any consumer DVD player. The next option is the Plug & Burn, which was designed to give users the ability to send content directly to disc. The last few options available include the Capture Video mode, creating DivX DVDs, converting video to portable devices, editing video using VideoWave and auto-edit video with CineMagic.
The last menu item contains all of the Tools to handle the finishing touches to your projects. Erasing disc content, finalizing (or closing) a disc to prevent additional material from being added, label making functions for your discs are some of the utilities available for your projects.
The Final Word
Overall, I found Roxio Creator 9 to be an excellent release. While it does include the usual disc creating and file management features that you would expect from a program such as this, there is a tremendous amount of features available that you would need several individual applications to accomplish and that’s where the true value of Creator 9 is.
Once you have gone through the menu of options, you will find that Creator 9 is a solid multi-function product that can handle most of your multimedia and utility needs. I was really impressed with the audio and video editing capabilities. The image editing tools may seem a little light to some but they will help you clean up any photo you can find.
To be able to do video editing, DVD authoring and slideshows from within Creator 9 was also a wonderful experience. The available themes and templates help speed up the production process and adds a nice professional looks to your media. Making Creator 9 compatible with mobile formats was a welcomed sight as well. I usually use a variety of applications to create PSP compatible content as well as to transfer the content to the device. With Creator 9, I have the power to handle all of the work from within one location.
Since Creator 9 has branched out to be a multimedia solution, I would like to see this product offer some form of basic web publishing similar to Apple’s iWeb. Something along the lines of the DVD and slideshow features where you are given a template that you can place your photos, videos and even audio files that you’ve brought into the program and publish it to your web host. Just about every broadband customer is given web space to publish a personal website but most people never utilize it because it’s too much effort to build a nice website. Maybe that’s an area this program can explore in the future.
 Creator 9 combines the qualities of a variety of individual programs and technologies and brings it all under one roof. Surprisingly, Roxio was able to blend multiple functions across the entire program. Some may be initially put off by the price tag but when you consider the costs of purchasing individual products to handle these features, you will see that Creator 9 is a real bargain.
Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 earns 4.5 stars out of 5. Highly recommended.
System Requirements
* Windows XP Home/Pro/MCE (Service Pack 2), Windows XP Pro x64 Edition, Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4 or later)*
* For burning music and data discs: 500 MHz Intel Pentium III or equivalent; 128 MB RAM
* For DVD, slideshow or video authoring: 1.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent; 256 MB RAM
* For real-time MPEG-2 capture and burning:1.6 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent; 256 MB RAM
* For viewing DivX HD or H.264 video files in full screen mode: 2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent; 512 MB RAM
* 7200 RPM hard disk drive recommended for video projects
* 1 GB of free hard disk space for typical installation of all components
* 1 GB of free hard disk space for every 5 minutes of video for video capture
* Up to 9 GB of free hard disk space for copying DVD-Video discs
* 1024x768, 16-bit color graphics card; 24-bit or 32-bit true color recommended
* DirectX 9 or higher compatible sound card and graphics card
* QuickTime 7 or greater for burning of M4A files
* Windows Media Player 9 or higher for Windows 2000 systems; Windows Media Player 10 or higher for Windows XP and Vista systems
* Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher
* CD-ROM drive to install the software
* Internet connection required for registration, activation, product updates, and some features including photo sharing and Gracenote® MusicID support (to retrieve artist, album and track information). Any Internet charges are the user's responsibility.
About Easy Media Creator 9
Easy Media Creator 9 lets you create, manage and enjoy your multimedia on a variety of platforms such as mobile and handheld devices. With improved features and now Blu-ray compatibility, you will find plenty of uses for it. http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/creator/suite/
About Roxio
Roxio, a division of Sonic Solutions, is the world's leading provider of consumer digital media creation applications and produces innovative, easy-to-use products and media services that empower people to create, manage and share their digital media. Visit them online at http://www.roxio.com.
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