Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: Roxio Easy Media Creator 10
Roxio's venerable Easy Media Creator suite has made it to double digits with version 10 which stops just short of the kitchen sink.
| Product | Easy Media Creator 10 |
|---|---|
| Company | Roxio |
| Web | www.roxio.co.uk |
| Price | £60 |
| We like | Huge range of tools, Vista features, generally easy to use |
| We don't like | a bit bland, overkill for some |
| Rating | 7/10 |
| Requirements | Windows XP/Vista |
Originally starting off as a humble set of CD burning tools with a few bells and whistles, Easy CD Creator morphed into Easy Media Creator and with version 10 now has pretty much every base covered and then some.
Most importantly, it now fully supports Vista, indeed it now only supports XP and Vista so users of earlier versions of Windows must look elsewhere. The installation deposits an astonishing 1.5Gb of files on your hard disk but went smoothly enough on an admittedly fairly clean Vista machine although it did require a reboot to finish the job. Minimum requirements are a 1.6 GHz PC with at least 512Mb of RAM and at least 9Gb of free space after install to allow for copying dual layer DVDs.
On firing it up you are presented with a slightly dull looking launch screen that offers access to the multiplicity of applications and utilities as well as access to up to date news, tips and other online resources. Our initial impression was of a somewhat cluttered and confusing interface - there is just too much there! You can view by application name or task type although with so many applications, you need to scroll to see them all until you have a high resolution of 1280x1024 or above.
Easy Media Creator really packs in the functionality though. As the name implies, there are applications for working with audio, data, backing up, video, photos and all variations therein. For instance, under audio you can make audio CDs and DVDs in various formats, rip audio from multiple drives simultaneously, convert LPs and tapes, batch convert files, edit song data and even create automatically generated play lists. Photos offer similar options with panorama stitching, editing, repairing, printing, greetings card making and so on.
New Features
If you've got an earlier version, you'll want to know about what's new. As noted, Vista is now fully supported including integration with Vista's own metadata facilities and the addition of a couple of Vista sidebar gadgets including a handy audio stream recorder allowing you to capture Internet radio broadcasts amongst others. DVD-HD and DVD-DL is supported although you'd be hard pushed to find a drive to make use of that feature currently. iTunes play lists are directly supported and interestingly, support for VST effects opening up a whole world of audio processing and tweaking with your audio files and MP3s. YouTube support is also present and pretty much every other aspect from copying DVDs to working with various mobile phone features such as ring tones and pictures has been beefed up.
In Use
With so many features, it's impossible to test everything exhaustively but we had no problems burning data and audio CDs and DVDs and the photo editing tools worked well although the undo seemed a tad aggressive, often undoing far more than the last operation.. We particularly liked the panorama stitching tool though which produced good results. We were a little less impressed with the video editing tools. They work well enough but are eclipsed by dedicated offerings from elsewhere although at last the editor now includes SmartSound which allows you to create a fine sounding musical backing in the style and exact duration you specify - a boon for adding background music to your video productions.
One area that we did find frustrating, particularly with the DVD video tools is the hand holding often leaves you wondering what it will do. For instance, If you try to copy a single layer DVD to another single layer, thee dialog box tells you it is compressing the film - it would be nice to either have a clear "just copy it" tick box or more informative messages. Having used a few DVD menu editors, we found the one here confusing and difficult to work with - simplicity getting in the way of intended results perhaps. We would say this was a great package for people who don't understand much about DVD and CD formats and options but just want to get the job done whereas something like Nero is better for those who want more control at the risk of exposing a confusing number of options.
One nice feature we did like is the ability to read and catalogue all your existing disks allowing you to keep track of where all your different files are - assuming you remembered where the original disks were. If used properly, this is a great time saver.
Vista compatability seems fine with no problems experienced at all during testing and the program works quite happily when other similar tools are installed on the same machine.
We also spent some time with the video importer reading DV tapes off a camcorder to both DV and MPEG2 formats (14Gb and 4Gb respectively for a 90min tape). We found the MPEG2 results were virtually indistinguishable from the raw DV and it didn't seem to use too much CPU overhead to handle the MPEG2 conversion on the fly. Burning the resulting file to a DVD with a basic menu was very straightforward although you may want to disable the slightly over the top default background music for the menus. This is the sort of task the Easy Media Creator 10 excels at though - simple task based duties with minimal options, just do the job with no fuss or confusing options.
Another feature we liked was the beefed up audio import tool which can now rip from multiple CD or DVD drives simultaneously - great for loading a large CD collection onto your PC prior to copying to your MP3 player.
Conclusion
Roxio Media Creator 10 packs a huge amount of software into a single package. The chances are anything you are likely to want to do with a shiny disk or a media file will be catered for. However, many of the tools whilst easy to use could not be classed as best of breed so if you have advanced needs in a particular area you may need to look elsewhere. For the rest of us though, Roxio have managed to put everything you need in a single purchase along with up to date support for all the latest hardware and software standards.
