Customer Reviews

Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite 9 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(27)
1 star:		(150)

 

 

Before buying I downloaded some demos and liked the roxio program. Here's why.

I'm just okay at troubleshooting pcs so I feel that this program was made for someone like me. I don't want to degenerate other programs cause I don't know them so well. But I found them to be very technical and I didn't understand all the terms. Roxio is easy to understand and I could do things very quickly. I will admit that my husband takes care of the technical parts like installation and the XP fixes. I can't say anything about those things but the program has worked without trouble for me.

I wanted to learn how to fix photos and make slide shows, especially since we have a big family reunion coming up. I'm not doing special effects but I am cropping and fixing a lot of the red eyes. I also have some 5x7 and 4x 6 photos. I wanted to put them all in the same size and there is a menu item that will change a lot of photos at once. I didn't have to go to each photo and make the size change. The slide shows are incredibly easy to make. Instead of one long show I've opted to make several, categorized by decade. That way I could add different music to each show. I also like the way the program pans and scans. You can really see the photo instead of it just whizzing by.

Of course I need copies to give to everyone. I used the disc copy to make several discs. Many of the older people don't use computers much but they all have dvd players. The program makes such dvds. My husband said that the slide show is really a video so I can send it to my ipod. I plugged in the ipod and chose the video file. It did move to the ipod and I didn't have to do much. And since we will be making videos of the reunion, I will start learning how to use the video editing programs.

I have been reading reviews and was hesitant to buy this product.

I had only patched my Roxio 7.0 product to date and not upgraded to the Easy Media Creator 8.0 when it came out.

I can not address a download copy, but I bought the boxed CD version from Amazon and loaded it. I did choose to remove Easy Media Creator 7.0 at the time of the load, to try and avoid any conflicts that leaving it on this computer might create. There was a problem after the load with my Computer not recognizing DAO.msi and that is probably related to the ATI card and software I am using for video. There is a very helpful fix for this problem at the roxio support forums which involved unregistering and registering DAO.msi.

Having said all that, this has otherwise been a great product. I am thrilled that I took the time to upgrade/buy this product. It solves many of the previous problems and offers numerous new features that are worth the cost. After installation I have not had problems. Several comments were made about videowave, I have not had those problems, and I think the rendering is better and faster then previous products. I have used Nero which also a good product. I find this interface much more intuitive and usable.

As an aside, I have never been happy with their support, but Roxios user forums have been very helpful, and to be honest I did not call them for support on this issue, so I can not tell you if that has changed.

I think this is worth the price and I am glad I took the plunge. If it had loaded without a hitch I would have given it 5 stars, since it does everything I was hoping it would do.

I've been using this software since something like version 4 when it was just called Easy Creator and it just gets better and better. It's now the closest thing a PC user would want in something like Apple's iLife, but it does way more. You got programs for working with your photos and music and video, and they all work together, so you can put your pictures or vacation video on DVDs. I'm no expert at this stuff but the DVDs I've made have impressed my wife and the grandparents, so I'm happy.

I'm a big fan of the audio programs and am part way through converting a bunch of my old LPs so I can finally get them onto my iPod. There's this wizard thing that walks you through the whole process - from setting up your phono, to bringing in the music, to fixing the audio up and then putting it onto the hard drive. When your done you can bang them onto audio CDs to listen in your car or on a DVD or onto your iPod. Now my AC/DC can rock again.

The previous version seemed to get bogged down sometimes when I was working in video stuff, but eventually a patch came out that seemed to fix things. I have no doubt that if there's any problems with this one, they'll be resolved.

You definitely can't beat this product for the amount of things it does - you'll never run out of uses for it. You may not feel like you have the need for all the uses today, but like me I'm sure you'll discover that you get more out of it as time goes on and you get more into digital photos or video. I've found that the user forums are a great way to learn about new features and to talk to other ordinary users like myself. Plus, it comes with a 200 page user guide - which I think it great. I can't remember the last time I got software with a printed manual!

Sure you could get other products that do similar things - but none of them do as much or as well in my opinion. Plus, you'll end up spending three or four times what this product costs by buying the pieces individually.

Don't get bogged down by the trolls on these reviews - this product has been around for a long time and they've got a good track record.
I've recommended it to a half dozen friends and family - so I'm confident when I recommend it to YOU!

I can't say my start was the best. I had some critical problems when I installed easy media 9. The slide show creator and video editors would not show the video properly. My screen was just filled with abstract art. I thought the problem was in the software so I sent an email to customer support. In spite of the complaints I've heard, the response came quickly. There is a general problem with some older laptops and it requires a monitor driver update. Roxio Customer service led me to my laptop's site, Lenovo. I installed the monitor driver and that solved everything. It didn't occur to me that a laptop would need an update since the monitor is built in. This was such a simple fix but it had caused a major problem with the software usage. I would give roxio a chance since they were so good at pinpointing my problem and then getting back to me in a day.

Now that I have the program running flawlessly I can review some features. I created a slide show and apparently it is made into a video file. A great thing is that you can do some photo editing after you've chosen the photos for the sllde show. Most programs require that you fix that photos first, or else you have to go back and use the photo editor and start the process over. I had noticed that some photos were too dark and I adjusted the contrast to make the details sharper. After that I added a song. After my first attempt I noticed that the photos were timed to the song length. Since the song was too long I tried another song which was more suitable.

So now I can also use the video editors. There are 2 in the package. I think it's easier to start with Cinemagic since it is a simpler program to master. I was impressed that you there is an auto chapter separation from the start. I could tweak the chapters in several ways. Of course you can rearrange them, merge them, and edit them. This is a good method to quickly handle home video.

I like the versatility of this suite. After I edited the home video I sent it to my mobile phone. It was as easy as plugging in the phone and selecting the video file. I noticed that you can send music and photos too. So then I tried sending photos. That was a success too. I'm sure I'll find other ways to use this program.

I'm among the many whom this software is working just fine. Since Vista isn't in a state that I would care to deal with now I was hoping that EMC9 would run on XP just as well. Lo and behold it does. First I have to commend Roxio for having a fine website where I could find answers to installation questions. Like all programs there are some funny quirks that must be dealt with. The first hurdle is clearing out all remants of EMC8. The drag n drop icon wasn't uninstalled with the Windows unistall utility. It is separate item and has to uninstalled separately, at least on my pc. The first time I installed the program didn't work quite right and wanted constant updates. Once I figured out the problem the program started to work.

If you're familiar with roxio's interface it is more or less the same here. That is a positive as I think it is the most efficient one. What's new are a few programs and some new features. The main new programs seem to be the portable device programs which includes ringtones. It now resizes photos for cellphones and the video ipod. IT will transfer photos from the device to the pc with cable or bluetooth. I was using a cable but I got a bluetooth plug in. That way I don't have to worry about getting new cables if I change my portable device.

There are tons of editing features too. I can do just about anything I want with media. I have no complaints about the performance nor the features

I was a user of Media Creator 7 which is a great product. I passed on 7.5 and 8 and have moved to 9. I'm not sure in which version they added all the new features but many of them are quite impressive. The launcher is completely new and much more useful than the old one. Everything is really easy to find and descriptions are in plain English. I find I use it quite a bit for most of the burning projects like creating audio CDs and just backing up files to CDs because even though it's a launcher it also includes the program built right in for all the basic stuff.

There are many advanced programs included. The audio and video programs are really as good or better than most stand alone programs. One of the best things about Media Creator 9 is how they have both wizards (which are called assistants) and regular programs for many of the most complicated projects. So for example, I like to convert my audio cassette albums into digital files so I can move them to my ipod. There's a wizard that does just this and it includes the ability to automatically add the music track info like artist album etc right into the file. This is quite amazing and I haven't seen it in any other product.

The video application has wizards as well for creating DVDs. My favorite one, called plug and burn, which I use all the time to back up my DV tapes, allows me to plug in my camcorder into my PC and it automatically rewinds the tape, imports the video and creates a DVD that I can play in my DVD player. What's amazing is how fast it is. And the DVD styles are quite nice. I use standard miniDV 60 min tapes and the whole process takes about 65 minutes, which I'm told is amazing since most programs take a several hours or more just to convert the video.

The photo application and media manager is also much improved over version 7. The complicated parts like projects are now wizards and at the end of the wizard like the other assistants you can choose to edit more in the full application. There are also lots of things I have heard of but have not used yet that are supported like high definition video, support for moving files to mobile phones or ipod, support for the new 25GB blue discs that are just coming out, there's a ringtone maker, tivo support also. What I like is that even though I don't use these yet, if ever I want to they are supported.

I look at some of these negative posts and have to question who writes them. I have used tech support several times and I have never been charged. I don't find this product crashes any more than Windows or Outlook or any other product I use. This is the 9th version of this industry standard product - are any of those posts believable? This is really a remarkable product especially given it's price.

This product was recommended to me by a friend helping me prepare for an important awards presentation. It was all we needed and more, but was still quick to learn and easy to use.

I got this software and the Plextor converter to work together and they do. Opted for this instead of installing the software that came with the converter simply because I first heard about the software and then found the box. En joying learning how to do different things and have plans to put together a DVD set of home movies for my family this Christmas.

I've had very good luck so far. Everything I've converted has come out better than expected. The only problem I have is the software freezes sometimes when I'm trimming. I think it's a time out problem. I've worked it out by saving after each trim so I don't lose my work. Hope to have more time soon and be able to figure this out. Other than that it is working very well for a novice like me.

I used Roxio back when it was called Adaptec and then migrated to Nero software. I've run through all of the Nero versions and, prior to Roxio 9, used Nero 7 Ultra Enhanced. I got frustrated with Nero because it would never finish creating a video project without crashing. I got tired of wasting discs so I thought I'd give Roxio 9 a try. Burning a DVD with Roxio takes forever but I haven't wasted a disc yet. The accuracy and quality of the finished burned product is astounding. I'd rather sacrifice a little speed to gain a better finished product any day. And the interface is more user friendly than Nero 7.

II've found a few programs which I use frequently, and a few that I use once in awhile. Maybe it's not the best ever back up utility, but considering there's a lot of other programs it is more than sufficient. The option to choose the backup frequency works though it's nothing new. However I like the way you can choose the categories of file types. My HP pc came with a recovery disk, but now I have another choice since there are recovery tools in emc9 too. Like others I'm going through my tape collection and making them digital. It takes hours so I try to do some each day. The music is a bit easier because I only have to convert the files. Of course the automatic tagging is a unique and welcome tool. The videos though take more work since I want to cut out parts. It's still a work in progress, but I've got the hang of VideoWave and can make the precision cuts I'm after. I use the drag and drop icon so that I can quickly archive the new media. It's also a good way to make sure that the disks are well organized. I also use it to transfer music to my iPod. Since something bad could happen to it, I feel better having the music backed up on dvds.

I hadn't heard much about the audio recorder before getting it, but now I see what an advantage having it is. Although more places have downloadable podcasts, some shows, interviews, are still just streaming. I don't need to add to my already bloated collection, so I use the recorder to make an mp3 file and then listen to it on the iPod. Then I can delete it. It gives me more choices to listen to an internet show since I can't connect to the internet everywhere. I know there are more devices trying to give that option, but it still isn't a reality. This program fills in some of the gaps.

My priority is dealing with tapes so for now I'm mostly using emc9 to organize photos and import them from my camera. I do a few fixes but I havent' done anything elaborate yet. There seems to be the tools available to do a lot and I'm sure I'll get to them.