Reprinted from a Roxio press release:
Roxio, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROXI) , defines a new software category with the unveiling of Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 at the world’s premier launch pad for emerging technology, DEMO 2004, taking place in Scottsdale, Arizona. Easy Media Creator 7 represents the realization of Roxio’s long term vision to bring together its complete line of next generation, full-featured photo, video, music, burning, and authoring applications to deliver the first and only comprehensive, integrated digital media suite for the PC.
Dozens of new features, refinements, and an enhanced burning engine make Easy Media Creator 7 an exciting upgrade for Roxio’s existing customer base of over 100 million. However, by seamlessly combining the improved burning suite of Easy CD & DVD Creator, with its best-of-breed PhotoSuite 7 Platinum, VideoWave 7 Professional, and online music service Napster, Roxio extends the appeal of Easy Media Creator 7 to include any consumer looking to take complete control of their digital lives. These sentiments were echoed in PC Magazine’s review entitled Roxio Gets it Right in which the reviewer asserts “Roxio has finally pulled all the parts together from its in-house and acquired media creation utilities, and Creator 7 now sets the standard.”
“For consumers, maintaining their digital lives on the PC today is a cumbersome task that forces them to manage and learn multiple applications that don’t work together,” said Tom Shea, President of Roxio. “Easy Media Creator 7 addresses this problem by allowing consumers to effortlessly organize, edit, protect, and share a lifetime of photos, music, video files, and data within a single, elegant environment.”
Key Benefits of an Integrated Suite:
A common user interface design and workflow model that delivers complete consistency and reduces the learning curve regardless of the type of digital media being used or the task being accomplished
A set of shared utilities for common media tasks such as copying discs, importing photos, capturing video, making labels as well as a central utility for easily organizing, finding, and accessing files
The ability to seamlessly pass and share media files and file information between components
While workflow consistency, design elegance, and ease of use were the primary objectives of the development effort, Easy Media Creator 7 also delivers the feature depth and power consumers expect. In fact, each component of Easy Media Creator 7 is competitive with any stand-alone consumer application on the market today.
“Since the advent of Microsoft Office it has been clear that technology buyers favor the cost benefit of the suite approach that Roxio is using for Easy Media Creator 7,” said Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group. “Roxio was one of the first to recognize this in the emerging digital media segment and Easy Media Creator 7 should be preferred by an increasingly experienced buying audience because of this relatively strong benefit”.
Easy Media Creator 7 will be widely available shortly at major U.S. resellers for a suggested retail price of $99.95, and is available today at www.roxio.com. Although Easy Media Creator 7 includes the complete feature set of VideoWave 7 Professional and PhotoSuite 7 Platinum, both products will also be available separately in spring 2004 for a suggested retail price of $79.95 and $49.95, respectively.
Feature Highlights
Powerful Components:
All new Media Manager that provides a single location for organizing, viewing, and finding all media files including photo, video, and Easy Media Creator project files
All new Capture utility that saves time and reduces complexity by delivering a consistent workflow regardless of the media type being imported or captured or the digital device being used, including CD, DVD, scanner, video and photo cameras
All new StoryBoard, a powerful component that provides both a simplified Storyline view, as well as a powerful Timeline view for creating engaging, one-of-a-kind slide shows with favorite photos and video clips that include transitions, narration, background music, and special effects. Also included is the Motion Pictures feature, which brings still images to life by adding pan, zoom and a motion path to still photos.
Improved Label Creator with an extraordinary range of creative control for creating disc labels and inserts in addition to an “Instant” Label Creator mode for creating disc artwork using only a couple of clicks. Label Creator also supports the ability to print directly on discs using supported printers.
Burning:
Backup project mode for scheduling regular data backups
128 bit encryption for password protecting discs
Automatically archive large data files or projects across multiple CDs or DVDs
DVD-Video copy for easily copying non-encrypted DVD-Video
Speed and performance gains of 10%* (*based on internal tests against Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 and other burning applications)
Authoring:
Next-generation DVD Builder 2.0, a full-featured authoring component for creating professional-looking DVDs, VCDs, or SVCDs with control over menus, buttons, chapters and backgrounds
Edit DVD Disc for customizing DVD menus and adding or removing titles from completed DVDs
Plug & Burn for easily creating a high-quality DVD disc from the entire contents of a DV-camcorder using two clicks, complete with Dolby Digital audio
Music:
Integration of Napster, providing a seamless connection to the largest catalog of online music and offering unlimited streaming for $10 per month and individual track purchases for $0.99 or less (where available)
Sound Editor for capturing and enhancing analog audio from LPs and cassette tapes
Improved audio quality and speed during conversion of tracks from Audio CDs
Photo:
PhotoSuite 7 Platinum offering full-featured photo editing with the perfect mix of automated editing and hands-on creative controls
Hundreds of professionally designed, customizable photo project templates
PhotoStitch for creating dynamic panoramas
Multi-photo enhance for editing a group of photos simultaneously
Video:
VideoWave 7 Professional, offering full-featured, hands-on video editing as well as intuitive, automated video creation
Timeline editor for professional-level fine-tune timing control and the ability to manipulate up to 14 individual tracks
Powerful text engine with complete control over font, style, motion, path, and even lighting texture
Enhanced file support including DivX and Dolby Digital audio that enable users to maintain high quality video and audio
CineMagic automated editing that produces a completed movie based on a raw video file and a music track, complete with transition effects, tempo adjustments, and beat matching