Customer Reviews

Roxio PhotoSuite 5 Platinum

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I've been using the newest version of Photosuite (v 5.0 Platinum) for a couple of weeks now, and here are my impressions.

This is not Adobe Photoshop. On the other hand, the average user doesn't need all the power of Photoshop, and Photosuite offers all of the digital editing and correction tools that you really need. If you don't have much experience with sophisticated image editing, never fear, because, thanks to a wizard-style interface, the learning curve is pretty shallow with Photosuite. Pros will probably argue that the wizard interface is tedious, but amateurs and hobbyists may appreciate it.

The sharing utilities are great. You can easily organize and burn a VideoCD slideshow that will readily play on most DVD players. I haven't tried many of the other sharing features, but the VideoCD feature is alone is worth the price.

The thumbnail generation and preview screens are much faster in v. 5.0 compared to v. 4.0 and earlier. In fact, virtually all of the utilities are faster in the current version. I should note, however, that earlier versions were notoriously slow (owing perhaps to inefficient programming of basic image manipulation algorithms?), and so it's easy for this one to seem zippy by comparison.

I have only one complaint. The current version allows you to view photos in (essentially) two modes: "album" mode and "edit" mode, but you cannot leap over to "edit" mode to correct a picture that you are currently viewing in "album" mode and then switch back again, or at least I haven't figured out how to do that easily! I prefer the connected "edit" and "album" modes of the previous versions.

I really like MGI Photosuite 4 for managing my photos. I really liked the 'share' features that automatically sized all the photos I had selected for emailing and I really liked being able to just drag my photos into photo album pages. Photosuite 4 had a very nice selection of album pages and other projects. But it didn't do a very good job making web page photo albums (took forever and hard to change things). Anyway since I liked Photosuite 4 so much I decided to upgrade to version 5. BIG MISTAKE! The projects which I liked so much with version 4 are barely there - there's only 3 different types of photo album pages compared to the dozens in ver 4. The autofix has yet to make any of my photos look better - it over compensates on everything and looks terrible so you have to go thru and adjust everything yourself or use PhotoShop. I also don't like the 'new' layout and find 4 much easier to use and to switch between features. So far I don't know why they made a new version of this, 4 is much better than 5 and I'm back to using the older version. What a waste of money and a huge disappointment.

I purchased this product after reading about "enhancements" to Photosuite4 Platinum (developed by MGI) which is a wonderful program. Upon installing on my computer, I noticed that some of my favorite tools from the previous version were no longer part of the program while many of the "new and improved" features did not function properly at all - the "auto-fix" function consistently ruins any photo it is applied to and there are frequent program freezes and randon crashes.
I assumed that ROXIO would release an update patch (as most companies do when bugs are discovered in their software) but none were ever released. Customer support offers NO support only a $35 charge to your credit card.
As the last nail in this program's coffin, I just noticed that ROXIO is now marketing a "NEW" version of the program (version 7 platinum). This is rather interesting considering that the previous version NEVER FUNCTIONED correctly and there was absolutely no effort on ROXIO's part to support my $50 investment in their defective product.
Do yourself a favor and RUN from this program by ROXIO.
Even with Roxio's marketing efforts, this program was ABANDONED by them in under 1 year!
p.s. what makes you think that the next product they try to sell you will actually work?

All the slick advertising led me to purchase version 5 and I still have not been able to use it. It would not function at all after the download so I emailed the technical support staff. They responded with instructions to manually register four different files, uninstall the program then reinstall it. The results were that now the program opens but none of its features function. Their email stated "If the information provided does not resolve your issue simply reply to this email." How long will this email interchange go on and when will this program start working? I expected, for the money, a program that would function at first try as every other program that I have ever downloaded has.

...and not nearly as easy to use as previous reviews have said. Give me the old Microsoft Photo Editor any day instead.

I am very impressed with how easy this program is and how much it does for the money. You barely need the book that comes with it because all the instructions are right there, helping you along. I have downloaded from my camera with ease although it is not TWAIN compliant. I have scanned old photos into it and put together a VCD with no trouble. I am not a young techno-geek so this wonderful. I'm going to make a VCD of each of my kid's pictures and give it to them. My favorite features are the clone for repairing parts of pictures, and the facial flaw correction feature. It removed the terrible acne on one face so easily and beautifully I was totally amazed. I would definitely recommend this to any ordinary person looking to organize, touch-up, and share pictures.

It is an excellent program for an average user who finds Adobe a bit too complicated.
Although, i do have a degree in the computer graphic design, i still often use the Photosuite for a fast job.
It is very logical, clear in commands, simply organized, effective, takes little memory while working with it.
I would recommend it to anyone with begginer or even intermediate skills to touch up photos, to do projects or just to have some fun that might lead to a more advanced Adobe version.

When I upgraded my computer I wanted to maintain the same program I had been using for photos and properties identified this. While 95% of the things work the way they did previously there are a few things I noticed right away that are not working and not allowing me to change.
Great for traditional cropping and very easy one button enhancements.....great for those that don't want to be photoshop qualified.

1) I have owned three prior versions of this starting with the original MGI version, which is easier and allows you to do more. As another reviewer said, even version 4 is better...
2) Strangely, it does not work well with other ROXIO software. Presently, on a NEW dell computer, I have to unistall Roxio videowave to use photosuite, and uninstall photosuite to use videowave. Techsupport, while helpful, were NOT able to resolve this, plus they take 3 days to reply to each email, making problem resolution a v.e.r.y. l.o.n.g. p.r.o.c.e.s.s! (you try one of their suggestions, then wait 3 DAYS for them to reply to any question..) Apparently, the shared Roxio CD Creator engine is the problem. We will never know, I gave up, and reinstalled MGI photosuite. Great features, works 100%, even has a lot of things they decided to drop from version 5.

Stick with PhotoSuite 4 Platinum. All of the features that I use most are gone. The touch-up brushes, edge finder cut-out tool and interactive warp are all gone. Roxio made a big mistake!