Roxio Easy Media Creator 9

Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 is so filled with features and abilities that merely listing all of them would take four paragraphs, so I’ll just say that it does everything Nero does, plus more. (Check out Roxio’s and Nero’s Web sites for a full list of features of each product.) However, even on a reasonably fast computer, Media Creator seems to respond to every click with an almost imperceptible hesitation. Perhaps the five services and three startup applications it installed on my PC (along the .NET Framework 1.1) were to blame.

Roxio’s main program launcher, called the Home window, is actually much more than it appears. The Home windows looks like a pastel version of the iTunes store. It lists categories of applications on the left of the window (such as Audio, Video, Data, etc.), and hypertext links that actually launch applications are on the right along with app descriptions, up-to-theminute tips, and links to Roxio’s Web site. Some of the applications replace the rightside hypertext links directly, giving a more cohesive feeling to the whole package.

The “classic” Creator program is still available, dressed in spring pastels to match the Vista-hued themes of the other applications, but surprisingly, many apps act very differently. Many components, such as the Slideshow Assistant, are essentially comprehensive wizards, guiding you through complex tasks step by step. Other components appear as standalone applications, so you’re basically on your own. The look is unified, but the feel certainly is not.

DVD authoring and video and audioediting tools rival standalone products, possibly because Roxio integrated versions of its standalone products such as My-DVD, VideoWave, and CineMagic into Media Creator. Though more complex, these products offer greater control, more options, and generally feel more substantial than Nero’s counterparts.

Like Nero, Media Creator can capture, convert, and “LAN-cast” videos to other Windows devices, in addition to creating DVDs. Interestingly, Media Creator’s DVD played back more smoothly for me with only occasionally visible pixels. In contrast, Nero’s DVD had sharper picture quality, but there were visible “stutters” during panning scenes. (I burned both DVDs with the same sample videos at “highest” quality.) Unlike Nero, Media Creator consumes virtually 100% of the CPU during intensive rendering, making the PC otherwise unusable.

Media Creator’s backup program is a version of Sonic’s BackUp MyPC, as it feels comprehensive and substantial. Wellsuited to backing up data files to DVDs, external media, and network resources, it’s probably best to think twice before using BackUp MyPC to back up your Windows drive because restoring it requires reinstalling Windows, then Media Creator, and then restoring your backup. Additionally, it requires backing up and restoring Windows from within Windows, which is usually problematic, but amazingly, it worked fine for all of my test machine.

[tags]Roxio, DVD Burning[/tags]