In this article we provide a short review of Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 dvd
authoring tool. The Roxio Easy Media Creator software suite is one of the
bestselling software programs for authoring DVDs.
This version, an upgrade from Roxio Easy Media
Creator 7.5, is certainly no exception. It boasts a host of new features and
improvements that make it an even more powerful tool than its predecessor.
This version has an improved interface and
impressive photo and video modules that offer plenty of creative potential for
anyone editing video and burning to DVD.
Many powerful programs lack well-organized and intuitive user
interfaces, but not so with the Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 program. You will
notice that in this version of Roxio Easy Media Creator everything is arranged
in a logical order and there’s plenty of onscreen help to guide you along the
way.
For example, tasks are grouped together in a manner that is easy
to access. There are plenty of tooltips, shortcuts, easy-to-find navigation
menus and all around clear cut explanations for everything that you can do in
the program. Many times you can stay in the same screen and perform another task
on the side.
Powerful Video
Editor
The video editor in the Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 program is very
well-organized and offers a number of powerful features. For example, Roxio Easy
Media Creator contains two video tracks instead of one. Thus you can combine
video clips to do things like chroma key, picture in picture, and adding
watermarks to your videos.
A new feature is the ability to create 'virtual clips' using timelines within
timelines, or internal tracks. This is useful for complex projects. The title
editor is good, with 2D, 3D font design control and overlay effects that make
text more readable.
Photo Suite Bundle
The Photo Suite bundle in Roxio
Easy Media Creator 8 is a surprisingly powerful feature of this product. It has
an 'Autofix' feature that corrects color, brightness and red eye anomalies in
your slide show pictures.
As you build your slide show Photo
Suite lets you zoom, pan, and add transitions and music as well. All the
standard tools for working with your images are conveniently arranged in tabbed
panels in the Photo Suite module of Roxio Easy Media Creator. Most powerful,
however, is its use of layers, letting you composite images one on top of each
other, to produce amazing effects.
Other Features
Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 comes
with even more features in this integrated set of components. The Sound Editor,
while it doesn’t come with all of the audio effects capabilities as some
standalone products, is useful for most personal applications.
Roxio Easy Media Creator also
comes with a Medium Manager application that lets you view and organize all your
videos and images. Additionally, you can create Photo Albums to share with your
friends and relatives. For video editing, an addition we liked in the Roxio
bundle was its VideoWave CineMagic software, which allows you to create
music-like videos with a few clicks.
Shortcomings
As much as it has come a long way
from Roxio Easy Media Creator 7.5, Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 does have its
shortcomings. While we were impressed with its photo capabilities, Photo Suite
lacks a real color-correction filter, which is a must for optimal results.
Also you are limited to the number
of effects that you can apply to a video clip, to no more than two at any one
time. You’ll have to do with the best you can with that restriction. And if
you’re into the MPEG-4 video format, you’ll be disappointed - this version of
the product cannot encode in MPEG-4.
Conclusion
Nonetheless, Roxio Easy Media
Creator 8 is still a very impressive suite of features bundled into one package.
It is, we think, one of the most organized tools out there if you want to burn
DVDs. It has a clean, useful interface, with tools and functions normally found
in only expensive standalone products.
We realize it can’t compete with
everything that a standalone product can do for things like image and sound
editing, but you may be pleasantly surprised. Once you’ve used Roxio Easy Media
Creator, it will probably be the only media software you’ll need for most of
your presentations.
Create
Great-Looking Digital Videos
Roxio VideoWave Professional is a video editing
program that could be the answer to your video editing headaches. If you have
trouble creating good-looking home videos, VideoWave makes
it easy for you. You can edit and produce Hollywood-style videos with a few
mouse clicks. You can also add music, transitions, special effects and text
credits to achieve professional results.
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