Roxio continues to rock in its role as a digital media software industry leader. Building on the already impressive Easy Media Creator 9 Suite, Roxio Creator 2010 adds some welcome enhancements.
Ready to Rumble
Roxio Creator 2010 almost overwhelms with the plethora of tasks one can perform from the application’s Home Page. You will find short cuts to specific tasks in the main portion of the page, while the left margin provides categorized links to pages listing additional options. Frequently-accessed tasks are found across the top of each page, with a complete listing of available tasks below.
Media Unleashed
Among the choices are the familiar burn, backup, copy and label options. Ripping, burning, converting and transferring sound like scenes from a bad horror movie but actually make up the Music and Audio offerings. The user can accomplish all sorts of photo related tasks including the creation of panoramas and slide shows. A great new feature is the Learning Center containing a number of video tutorials as well as step-by-step PDF files on how to get the most out of the Creator 2010 application.
Among its new features are a handy-dandy drag, drop and burn widget that lets you easily burn and copy files right on your desktop. This latest version also offers improved capabilities that allow you to convert video files to play on your mobile phone, iPod or other portable device. Like its predecessor, Roxio Creator 2010 lets you record to either single-layer or dual-layer Blu-ray Discs. You can even burn large projects across multiple discs and protect the content using disc encryption.
Saving time is always a good thing, and now you can capture an entire camera worth of HD video directly to DVD or Blu-ray Disc without first having to save it to your computer’s hard drive. Also new is a smart encoding feature that re-encodes only the parts of your video that you have changed. The result is a much faster encoding process.
The suite sports a versatile set of video editing tools. The CineMagic Movie Wizard takes your raw video and song selection and automatically generates a very acceptable production complete with video intro and transitions cut to the beat of the music. For the more ambitious movie editors among us, Creator 2010 sports a 32-track timeline editor with plenty of options for adding background audio, video, text and overlay effects, plus a host of transitions and transition themes.
Once you have edited your masterpiece and are ready to share it with the world, you have a rather healthy DVD authoring program at your disposal. With the ability to change menu and button styles, menu backgrounds and audio, and even add submenus, you can create very impressive DVDs to share with your family and friends. Creator 2010 also gives you advanced authoring features such as motion menus, menu-to-menu transitions, and animated buttons.
That’s a Wrap
True to its goal of reaching the consumer video market, Roxio Creator 2010 has succeeded in providing its users with a comprehensive media management and manipulation tool. This digital media suite is impressive to be sure, and offers more than enough options to satisfy the creative output of all but the most serious professionals.
Tech Specs
OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista™ (32- or 64-bit), SP1 is required, Windows® XP SP3 (32- or 64-bit), Windows® 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate (32-or 64-bit)
Minimum CPU/RAM: For data burning and copy, audio capture and editing: Intel® 1.6 GHz Pentium 4 processor or AMD equivalent, 512 MB RAM for Windows XP and 1GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7. For video editing and conversion and DVD playback: Intel Pentium 4 2GHz processor or AMD equivalent and 1GB RAM. Multi-core processor with at least 2GB RAM recommended.
Minimum Display Card: 1024×768 DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card
Video capture: OHCI compliant IEEE 1394 FireWire card (for use with DV camera) or Roxio Video Capture USB (for analog sources).
Video Input Formats: AVI, DV, HDV, DV-AVI, MPEG-1/2/4, MPEG2-HD, DVD-Video, IFO/VOB, XviD, DVR-MS, TiVo, ASF, MOV, WMV, QuickTime, 3GP, MPEG2 Transport Stream, AVC (H.264), AVCHD
ideo Output Formats: AVI, DV-AVI, HDV, MPEG-1/2/4, MPEG2-HD, , WMV, WMV HD, AVC (H.264), MP4, 3GP
Recordable Formats: CD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL, DVD-RAM, BD-R/RE, BD-R/RE DL
Batch Capture: No
Editing Interface: 32 track timeline editor
Music Creation Software Included: Yes – “SmartSound”
DVD Authoring Software Included: Yes – “MyDVD”
Strengths
- Faster video encoding
- Drag and drop file burning widget
- Support for portable devices
- Capture HDV directly to DVD or Blu-ray
- Many supported formats
Weaknesses
- Interface a bit clunky with some applications integrated and others separated
Mark Holder is a video producer and trainer.
Roxio, Inc.
455 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95050
www.roxio.com
$100 ($130 with Blu-ray Disc authoring)
