Roxio, Inc. (from Adaptec), 461 South Milpitas Blvd., Milpitas, CA 95035 1-866-280-ROXI

Minimum system requirements: Win 95/98/NT4/2000/ME, 200mhz or faster, 32MB RAM (64MB recommended), 204MB hard disk space with at least 140MB on system boot drive, CD-Recorder, CD-ROM drive that supports digital audio extraction, blank CD-R or CD-RW discs, 800x600 display, 256 colors, 16 bit color, Windows compatible sound card (16 bit or better), Internet access to use Internet features. 

Optional  requirements: Analog source attached to a stereo receiver with line-out capability and connecting cable, scanner, digital camera, or video camcorder and video capture device to import video from video camera. 

Support: free ninety days support by phone or email: 1-408-934-7283, fee-based support after 90 days.

http://www.roxio.com

Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum

By Bart Koslow, Los Angeles Computer Society

CD-Recorders or CD-Rewritable drives (also known as CD-R/RW drives) are rapidly becoming a common computer accessory, as prices drop below the $100 mark. Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum is an expanded and enhanced update of the earlier Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4 Deluxe. This program will create music CDs, save and backup files to a CD, copy CDs, create video CDs viewable on most DVD players, make photo collections, slide shows and video presentations, and make CD labels and jewel case inserts. The program box includes a 19-page Getting Started Guide, a complete manual, a program CD, and another CD with numerous sound, graphics, video clips, and some promotional materials. 

I had to uninstall my earlier version of CD Creator before installing version 5. When I started the program, the new “Select a Project” screen appeared. On it were four large buttons (make a music CD, make a data CD, make a photo or video CD, and CD copier), and three smaller ones (Web checkup, CD label creator and Help). Rolling my mouse pointer over a button brought up a number of selections, each with an explanation of the application. I found the new “Select A Project” screen to be a big improvement in usability and integration over the prior version.

Selecting “CD copier”, I made a backup copy of Easy CD Creator from my source CD-ROM drive to my target CD-R/RW drive. The program instantly recognized my CD drives, since Windows had previously installed them. Selecting test and copy, everything went smoothly. You may use the CD-R/RW drive as both the source and target drive by having the program copy your CD to your hard disk first. I usually test the copy before making it to protect against wasted blank CDs, but this step may be skipped. There is also a provision to make multiple copies of the same CD. After a CD has been burned, a screen option to create a CD label appears. “CD Label Creator” added and displayed the CD title and track names from the source CD. If you have a music CD, you may go to the Internet and use the Online Music Database to place the title and track information directly into the label on the screen. Label Creator is a complete, text and graphics, editing program, with control of all properties including backgrounds, fonts, colors, appearance, arrangement of text and graphics, and more. Printing the CD label and jewel case inserts went smoothly. 

Let’s make a data CD. Selecting “DirectCD” I formatted a CD-RW disc, which permitted me to use it like a floppy or hard drive. I used it to backup my sensitive data files. You can copy files to the formatted disk, erase files, etc. You can also format a DVD-RAM disc. I prefer using CD-R/RW for backups instead of Zip drives or tape drives, as discs are inexpensive and safely hold large amounts of data. “Take Two”, another selection under make a data CD, will create an image of your hard drive (all of your files including program, system, data, and registry files), or of individual partitions, onto one or more CDs. You may restore individual files or folders or your entire hard drive. The last make a data CD selection is Easy CD Creator, which will make data CDs for archiving data and for permanent storage of files on a CD-R. You may also create a CD that combines data, video and sound.

Under “Make A Music CD” let’s select “SoundStream”. Choose one or more music sources, which may be a CD, a folder on your hard drive or the “Music Library” (see below) on your hard drive. Add the individual tracks you want to record to a play list. After selecting the destination, you click the record button. I found this to be a simple, easy to use process. There is a lot more that can be done using “SoundStream”. You may record tracks in WAV, MP3 or WMA format to either WAV, MP3 or WMA format; copy tracks from multiple CDs, and from the Internet, and combine them when recording; save CDs or tracks to your hard disk in a compressed format to create a “Music Library”; record songs from LPs, cassettes or other analog sources; remove pops and clicks, add special sound effects or otherwise edit the sound of songs; automatically add track names to your play list, and create labels. “Easy CD Creator” is another application for creating music CDs that gives you greater control over the process. It has all the features of “SoundStream”, and more.  Some of these are: the ability to create a CD using only your CD recorder by swapping discs in the CD recorder drive, convert file formats between MP3, WAV and WMA, merge or split tracks, and more easily compile and record tracks from different sources. If you use MP3 music files, select “MP3Project”. This application will convert tracks from a music CD to MP3 format on your hard drive, add them to the play list and record the play list to a CD-R in MP3 format.

 Would you like to “make a photo or video CD”?  You may use “Photo Relay” to make video postcards, slide shows and photo albums, and add sound and music tracks. Or select the newly added ArcSoft’s “Video Impression” program to make desktop video presentations. Using this program you may turn photos and videos into movies, place video and image files into a photo album, directly acquire images from any twain device like scanners and video cameras, make slideshows from video clips and other images, create video email, add sound, and save your images in AVI, MPEG, VIF, EXE and other formats. The MPEG1 video encoder allows you to compress and store your video clips in the standard format for this media. Once you have video clips in MPEG format you can use “Video CD Creator” to create play sequences of clips, even to create an entire movie. 

I found this latest version of Easy CD Creator to be a big improvement, not only in the additional programs and features, but in the new integrated menus and accompanying descriptions, which provide a more intuitive interface. Web updates may now be done from within the program. The manuals are clear, easy to follow, and the online help is extensive. The manual does omit describing how to use Photo Relay and Video Impression. Instead, it refers you to the online help file. In particular, a description of how to add audio to a video clip would be helpful. These are deficiencies that require correction. I would like to see more video capabilities added in the future. This is a large program that covers just about everything you would want or need in creating CDs. I would highly recommend it.