Suhit Gupta
12-06-2005, 04:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1886702,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530' target='_blank'>http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1886702,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 is a major upgrade especially strong in disc authoring, photo management, and video editing. Roxio has been acquired by Sonic Solutions, whose expertise in the video realm is now showing up in the suite. Moreover, Roxio 8 boasts the most intuitive, user-friendly interface we've seen in a digital-media suite. Despite lingering weakness in areas like sound-file editing and system backup, we believe that it offers the best all-around selection of the features that mainstream users want. The first thing you notice about Roxio 8 is its new animated program launcher, which is a far cry from the relatively static front end used in earlier versions. Tasks are grouped and stacked logically; every important menu option is clearly explained by onscreen legends."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/easymediacreator8.jpg" /><br /><br />Hmm, didn't Easy Media Creator 7 just come out? But what is truly sad is that Roxio 8 doesn't record or play Blu-ray discs and can't encode video in the proprietary Nero Digital MPEG-4 format. But it does support the DivX flavor of MPEG-4 at HD resolutions, a format that is in much wider use today than Blu-ray and Nero Digital combined. It appears from the article that the biggest complaint was the instability of the program, something that plagued Roxio back in versions 5 and 6. Still, PCMagazine feels that Roxio 8's superior video and photo capabilities and wonderfully intuitive interface outweigh any of their reservations.