Customer Reviews

Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(117)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(65)

 

 

I got the product based on the PC Mag review which said it was great. It's quite simply an incredible product when you consider what previous versions were like and what you get for less than $100. It's not perfect but it comes close. Here's some pros and cons. On the pro side, it basically has everything you need for anything to do with music, burning, video, photo and DVD. Everything looks and works the same way (it might the nicest looking software on the PC - actually it looks like Apple made it!) All the tools work well together. The burning is really fast. There's a nice data back up feature with password protection. It has this very cool feature where you can create slide shows of pictures that move, which is an amazing effect. The whole slide show app is pretty clever. It's actually a video app (which might seem scary at first) but it's so easy to use you never realize it. You can use it for both pictures and video. The disc label app is pretty extensive(I didn't think people actually use these) it's a full featured graphic app just for disc labels and it works while you burn CDs. The photo app seems no different in features than Adobe Elements but is much easier to use (more about that below). The DVD application is very full - you can move and resize buttons and text, you can animate buttons and menus, it even has Dolby audio. You can edit DVDs. You can even create a full DVD with just one click with a digital camera. There's a tool that comes up when you plug in digital cameras to bring your photos or videos in. I've never seen such a tool (usually every digital camera has it's own software). You can record audio from LPs or tapes and the software finds the different songs automatically. The help system is pretty good - there's like 1000 pdf pages for everything and even video tutorials. On the con side, I would say the photo app is a bit too wizardy for my taste. Napster is kinda connected but not like the other applications -and there's no free trial or free downloads which would have been nice. There's no printed manual like the previous version but the online help is extensive. The launcher is kinda big - it can be made smaller but there's a big graphic of the product name they should lose.

On the whole though, I think it's a great product at an amazing price. I highly recommend it.

I recently bought a new PC and then also bought Roxio Easy Media Creator 7. I'm a knowledgable PC shopper and asked everyone if this software came bundled on a PC and the answer was no everywhere I turned. Those "in the know" told me the only Roxio bundled software was older versions, not EMC7. So, I don't know what our previous reviewer is talking about?

This product is amazing! Before I purchased EMC7 I did a thorough search for the best digital media software for my budget (under $100) and Roxio was the clear winner. Here are just a few examples I discovered:
>> Basic Burning: EMC7 supports desktop drag and drop with automatic handling of file types, Nero does not.
>> Photo Editing: EMC7 allows you to add pan and zoom to slideshows, not Nero. EMC7 offers advanced photo editing (cloning, masking, stitching, etc) and paint tools, Nero doesn't
>> Video and Slideshows: Nero does not allow you to mix photo and video with transitions, where EMC7 does. EMC7 allows 7 track audio support, while Nero allows 3 tracks for video and only 1 track for photo slideshows. EMC7 offers over 150 transitions, Nero only has about 40.
>> DVD Authoring: EMC7 allows multiple storyboards in a single window, Nero doesn't. EMC7 allows you to drag and drop photos and videos between storyboards, not Nero.
>> CD/DVD Copying: EMC7 CD and DVD copy module uses same component with same or similar workflow, not Nero

This is just my extensive research on talking to other users, reading press coverage, product literature and searching the web, to making sure I spent my money wisely and bought the best software for the job. I suggest you also read the reviews done by the professionals, such as CNET, EMEDIALIVE and PC Magazine to name a few that I used.

I hope this helps. I think this software is amazing and recommend it over Nero or other products in this class.

I decided to upgrade my ageing version of Easy CD Creator 5 last week, and picked up Easy Media Creator 7 on Saturday. My main interests are managing and archiving all the photos on my system and getting more into digital video and DVD - which I've found hard to understand in the past.

I really like the application launcher that starts up when you first run Easy Media Creator, it immediately gave me a bunch of great options across Photo, Video, Music, Data and DVD. Having the type of tasks I'd want to complete right there rather than just a list of applications is very cool.

The first thing I tried was video editing .. I have a Sony Digicam but I've just been collecting DV tapes and not attempting to edit them. I selected 'Capture Video' from the task list and Capture popped up showing my Sony DV camera in a list of possible things I could capture. I then used SmartScan - this is cool, rather than copy everything onto my hard drive it tells me what I've captured on my DV tape and let's me select what to capture. I did that and then left it for a few minutes to capture only the scenes I wanted. Kind of freaky hearing the DV camera fast forward, stop, play for a while, fast forward ... nice automation!

When I came back tried out VideoWave, the video editing application in the suite. I've only ever tried using the editor that came with my camera, but it was so bad I gave up right away. I had been meaning to buy a full-on editor for a while, but I'm glad I waited. VideoWave is much more than I expected, it's a complete video editor with hundreds of effects and transitions. I spent ages just playing with all the effects before I got into serious editing. I did have to check with the manual a few times to understand Timeline, but I'm blown away. I would have spent the hundred bucks just to get this never mind this plus photo, data, music etc.

Next I checked out DVD Builder. I don't know what Roxio are smoking but I like it. This is a fully fledged DVD authoring application with again dozens of themes to create your DVDs. It also had something called DVD on CD which I didn't understand, but the control this thing gived you to create amazing menu designs and buttons of any size. I dragged a couple of my movies onto the menu, changed the theme, typed some text and hit burn. It took about 30 minutes to burn a DVD, but it played back no problem in my Panasonic DVD player and it looked perfect!

That's as far as I've got with Easy Media Creator to date, but I find very little to criticise and plenty to recommend. I don't think this suite is missing anything! My only suggestion to Roxio is to maybe put a more meaty getting started guide in there as this is a huge suite and I wasn't sure where to start. Overall though it's so easy to use I don't really need a manual all the time. I'll post another review once I've had more time to get into more of the other applications in here.

I am a thorough and thrifty shopper. I read all the professional online and magazine product reviews and then make my decision. Media Creator 7 was the clear choice by all editors. I purchased it and can tell you that after using it the last 2 1/2 months I made the right choice. If you want to capture, edit and create videos or slide shows of your digital pictures or movies and then burn them to CD or DVD, this is the product to use.

Installed fine on my XP system, although it was a slow process. Nice interface and the tutorials and help files made it easy to learn. Use Creator classic, Photosuite Videowave and DVDbuilder all the time and everything has worked flawlessly. Haven't used all the other features yet, but its nice to know they're there when needed. What a deal - all these features for the low cost.

After doing my homework, I chose this product because it offers many video and slideshow, capture, creation and editing capabilities not found in some of the competing products. Some of these unique capabilities include -- The Storyboard which allows me to mix photos and videos with transitions and audio; Applying Pan and Zoom Effects to videos and photos; and SmartVideo Capture where I can preview video scenes on my PC and only import selected scenes directly from my video camera without having to copy everything to HD first. Creator 7 has not let me down, it works great under XP, I'm glad I bought it. If you own a digital camera or digital video camera, this is a must have product.

Creator 7 has so many great features and capabilities that I suggest you do as I did and read the many pro reviews that thoroughly put the program through its paces. For me, my favorite and most frequently used component is storyboard, which enabled me to combine digital photos, video clips, and songs into a slideshow. It has creative features that include the ability to add transitions, titles, and a narration track. Then using the DVDbuilder component, I can create VCDs or DVDs to master my slideshow creation to disc. Overall, this is a great product for anyone dabbling or serious about working with digital media.

I just used this product to make a video yesterday. While it took me the better part of the day to develop, the software is great. Once you get in and start using it, it's super user friendly. Great help manuals, etc. I highly recommend using this. I've tried other products for cd creation & movies but this is by far the best one so far. Easy for people just starting out and also great for the more experienced user.

Easy Media Creator 7 integrates several full-featured applications together to create a software suite with a consistent user experience. In no time, I was using it and creating projects with it. I use Creator Classic all the time to burn data and music to CD and DVD and appreciate the automated backup feature. Even though I use those features all the time, I really bought Media Creator 7 for all the great digital media creation tools.

Photosuite is a wonderful photo-editing product. Since I am a casual point and shoot digital photographer, I use the autofix option all the time to clean up my pictures, plus of course the red eye removal tool and the clone tool (to remove the date/time stamp I forgot to turn off in some of my pictures). I use VideoWave to transfer/capture my video to my PC, and then edit it down to remove unwanted video clips. I also use it to add text using different fonts, styles and effects, plus add transitions between clips, and background sound tracks. When complete, I then send the output to DVDBuilder for authoring to DVD.

I could go on and on how I use it, but the bottom line, this product is outstanding. It is loaded with excellent features and is a must have product for transforming your digital content to marvelous DVD movies or slide shows.

I chose Easy Creator 7 because it offers many capture, creation and editing capabilities not found in some of the competing products. This includes Storyboard, which enables you to mix photos and videos with audio and transitions to create awesome multi-media slide shows. Two other unique features are the ability to apply Pan and Zoom effects to videos and photos, and SmartVideo Capture where you can preview video scenes from your video camera directly on your PC and only import selected scenes (rather than downloading everything to your hard drive first). Easy Creator 7 works great on XP and the Help Center & Tutorials are very useful in helping to understand concepts, by watching the tutorial video guides. If you own a digital video camera or digital camera, this is a "1 - Must Have" product on your "Wish List"