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1. Introduction

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Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum - Page 1

by Costas Sgantzos

Introduction:
is the name behind a very well known company to the CD-Recording industry... Those of you who know what kind of SCSI-cards the High-end Systems are using, then you probably already know too, what Adaptec and Roxio have to do together... for the rest of us, you may understand Adaptec as the hardware, and Roxio as the software part of the same 'machine'... Which machine? Probably yours... ;-)

- Living in a box...

"What a package!" Those were exactly the words we said when we saw the new Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum box. We were given the aspect we were opening some kind of a jewellery package ...but where are the jewels? Read on. You may find them, inside a... smaller box! Yeap, there is a smaller box which 'hides' 5 things:

1. a 300 page Users Manual,
2. a 20 page 'Getting Started' guide,
3. two stickers with the reg-numbers on them
4. a leaflet with a copyright warning in 4(!) languages

...and...

5. a CD-Rom including:

• Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum
• SoundStream 2
• DirectCD 5.0
• Take Two
• CD Spin Doctor
• CD Copier
• Videolmpression
• PhotoReiay (includes Photo Album and Video Postcard features)
• Video CD Creator
• CD Label Creator
• Sound Editor
• Session Selector
• Comprehensive User's Guide
• Getting Started Guide
• Web-CheckUp

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2. Installation

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Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum - Page 2

Installation

Before installing the CD-Rom, it should be wise of you to visit Roxio's homepage. ESPECIALLY if you have Windows 2000 Professional installed and want to use the package with this OS. There is a fix that solves certain issues presented with this version of Windows. The problem we were reported in our forum is that, whenever you try to burn a file the program will respond "Error Reported by Output Device" and ejects the CD. We did have an installed Win2k Professional Edition in our Labs and we confirmed this problem.

Here what Roxio proposes as the minimum system requirements for using Easy CD Creator:

· IBM PC or compatible 200 MHz or faster
· Windows 95/98/NT4/2000/ME
· 32 MB RAM
· 205 MB free hard disk space (at least 140 MB of this space must reside on the system boot drive)
· CD-Recordable or CD-ReWritable drive
· CD-ROM drive that supports digital audio extraction (for making a music CD from other music CDs)
· Blank CD-R or CD-RW discs
· 800x600 display, 256 colors minimum, 16-bit color recommended
· Windows compatible sound card (16-bit or better).
· Internet access to take advantage of Internet features

When inserting the Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum CD-Rom into the cdrom drive, you will get this message:

After pressing 'Yes' you will be presented another screen from which you may select the Full or Custom installation of the product. We chose 'Custom' and here are the 'jewels' we were talking about:

We recommend that you install only the components you need, once the package itself requires more than 90 Mbs for a full install of all the components. You can also install everything and then decide what you really need and what you don't (that's what we did)...;-)

The goodies: Make a Music CD
Options of Soundstream

Once installed, you will be asked to reboot. After that, you will presented to a new rounded-edge (Mac-OS' like) window which Roxio names: 'Roxio Project Selector'. Imagine this as your starting point to everything the package offers. Starting from the very top, you have Sound Stream.

This application is the perfect way to Record your music CDs from almost anything... Mp3s, Audio CDs, even your soundcard's audio input. You can also encode to Mp3 or WMA, or even copy to the Hardisk an uncompressed Wave file, from all possible audio sources... Plus, it has cleaning filters which will may turn some professional audio programs you were using so far, simply useless...

One other remarkable point is that Soundstream, when we selected as an input an (original) audio CD, (this was Essential from Yello), it *automatically* recognized the titles WITHOUT requiring an internet connection (which means no CD-DB database login and retrieving)...!

This didn't happen though with the other Audio CD we inserted (Soul II Soul - Time for change) which required the CD-DB assistance for filling in the titles... One thing we have to mention here is that the default Mp3 encoding rate is fixed (160kbps) which is a pretty good one for home use, but not essential for studio archiving (in which rates >192kbps are advised). You can change this from the top left corner once you have added the songs to the playlist to be encoded.

We noticed in the printed manual that the MP3 encoding engine is from Fraunhofer IIS and THOMPSON (a.k.a.:one of the best engines around). In this properties window, there is an option about the rate of Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. The supported rates are up to 128kbps. This is a remarkable difference that gives Soundstream some extra points against the competition (a.k.a.: NeroMix) which supports WMA encoding only up to 96kbps... (We advise you to read our article about NeroMix and make your own judgement about these two programs).

Continued in the next page...

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3. Make a Music CD

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Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum - Page 3

-Make a Music CD-
Other options of Soundstream

- Adding Albums from the Music Library

The Music Library is a feature in SoundStream that allows you to store CDs on your hard disk in a compressed format that takes up much less space than a regular CD.

The default format is the WMA, but you can change that (to mp3 or even WAV) in the properties tab. You can also store multiple CDs on your hard disk and sort them by artist, album, or genre for easy access. You can also play your Music Library CDs from SoundStream and record songs from the Music Library CDs onto CD-R discs. Another point that Soundstream is infront of NeroMix is the CPU usage during playback. Soundstream when reproducing music is occupying the CPU only up to 4-6% while the NeroMix may eat up to 35-50% of your CPU usage.

- Adding Songs from your Hard Disk: To add audio files (MP3, WAV, or WMA files) from your hard disk that you want to record. This is very convenient for people like me, who have a lot of mp3/wma files in their Hard disk and want to listen to them in their car CD-Player. (Cd text is supported if your CD-Recorder supports it too).

- Adding Songs from Multiple Sources: You can make a single CD that contains songs from multiple sources, including:
· LPs, cassette tapes, or other analog sources
· Existing music CDs
· Songs from the Music Library
· WAV, WMA, or MP3 files stored on your hard disk

...and of course the two options you may probably will use more:

- Adding Songs from a CD: To add songs from an existing music CD that you want to record, and

- Adding Songs to Record: To select the music you want to record, then Select Source. Pressing the 1st button (CD-like) it displays songs from a music CD that is in your CD-Recordable or CD-ROM drive. If you have more than one drive with a CD inserted, SoundStream lists all of the songs from all of the CDs. The Source list displays each CD with the drive letter indicating which drive the CD is inserted in, followed by the list of songs on that CD. The second button Displays songs from the Music Library stored on your hard disk, and the third button adds songs from your existing mp3/wma files you already have into a directory of your hard disk. That's (almost all) from the Soundstream menu option...

-Make a Music CD-
Creating a Music Cd Project:

After the Soundstream, which is the first option, you will have two more options that will try to fit your burning needs... The one is called 'Music CD project', the other one is called 'MP3 CD Project'.

- Creating a Music CD Project...

This will bring you infront of a pretty familiar screen. This is an enchanced mask of the 'audio cd creation' we met in the Easy CD Creator<> 4 and previous versions. If you ever used Easy CD Creator before, you will probably feel comfortable with this screen. It's nothing more than a simple way to create a music CD- Pretty straightforward: drag'n'drop and then burn. That's all.

- Creating an MP3 CD Project:

This option will create an MP3 CD for you from your Harddisk's MP3<> files. But, that's not all. It will also create an .m3u playlist file for use with the most common mp3 players for your computer (Winamp, Sonique, etc). That means you only have to drag-n-drop the files and the program will create for you the playlist file (in REALTIME)...

How convenient really... So, next time you insert the MP3 cd into the cdrom drive, you only have to double click onto the playlist.m3u file to listen to all it's contents! ;-)

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4. Make a Data CD

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Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum - Page 4

-Make a Data CD-

Direct CD

This sure feels familiar to those who use packet writing. The Direct CD option will format any blank CDR/CDRW media, so that you can drag'n'drop files to it from the explorer. Many people find it convenient, we will not disagree...

-Make a Data CD-
Data CD Project

This looks a little more complex; but it isn't... Working with Files and Folders in the Data CD Project is simple. You will be able to:

· Create a New Folder
· Remove/Add Files and Folders
· Rename Files and Folders
· Find Files
· Save and Load a CD Project

Pretty much like the classic Easy CD Creator. We tried several burns with this program and we can say that it's pretty stable...

Nevertheless, when you do NOT have a CD-Recorder with BURN-Proof / JustLink / etc support, you should be cautious. This is because the program requires a serious amount of CPU power and Memory to function. (The Roxio project selector is always active in the background too...). A long story short, when you 'push' the system too hard with other CPU intensive applications, you will get (guess...?) yet another coaster :-(

-Make a Data CD-
Take two

This is supposed to be the program to help you backup the Hard disk(s) of yours on CD(s). The idea is simple and it's been around for more than a decade (MS Backup - Norton / Symantec Ghost etc). Sadly, when we opened the program it came up with the following message:

As you can see neither the Plexwriter 12/10/32S, nor the Yamaha 16/10/40-Firewire we had installed in our test-machine, were recognized by the 'Take two' sub-program. We could understand the fact this program not to function with the Yamaha model (once it's new and under the FireWire protocol) but, we couldn't forgive the fact not to co-operate with the Plexwriter model, since it's not new (...but rather popular).

After that, we tried the program to another computer in our labs with the RICOH 7090a CD-Recorder installed. Yet again, the same window... At this particular moment we visited Roxio's page on the Web. There was an update available, which we downloaded and installed it. We then, were forced to reboot... and after that we re-tried... and this is what we got:

As you can see... no change. At this point we gave up and continued with the other options of the Easy Cd Creator 5 Platinum Package... :-(

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5. Make a Photo or Video CD

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This is one of the best ways to archive and then review your digital or digitized photographs. It's very easy to use and fun to operate.

The subprogram is called Photorelay and it can co-operate with your digital camera or scanner (to import pictures from), or you can simply add the pictures you already have stored in your hard disk.

You then can :

1. Save the album you created as a *.phb file,
2. Print an entire album to your printer,
3. Sort an album in a specified order,
4. Create a slideshow using an album (you can add audio too!!),
5. Create an HTML (WebAlbum) catalog using an album,

6. Create a Video Postcard using an album (slideshow-like but with backgrounds)
7. Send an album to a friend via email
8. Share pictures with other people (members of PhotoIsland)

Creating a Video Postcard is easy as pie. You pick up the theme you like, you fill up the details on the back of the (virtual) postcard, then you pickup your favorite video and you burn a selfbootable CD. You then can share it with your friends. The idea is almost the same as creating a slide show, only this time you are doing it using videos. (How about a fine Video Postcard from Crete, Greece, this year to make all your friends ungry that you bought Easy Cd Creator ® 5 Platinum this Summer?) ;-)

-Make a Photo or Video CD-
Video Impression

Okay, you have recorded your vacation video from Crete this year, but you'll have to edit it a bit. What will you do? Worry not! Video Impression is here. Easy and fast as 1-2-3! :-)

Yes, you read it right. First make a new album, then load-up the videos you want, either by harddisk, or acquire from your digital camera, or even capture the introduction of the video, live, now! - Then edit them, preview it, save it and email it or either burn it! An extraordinary tool!

-Make a Photo or Video CD-
Video CD

This is a very easy, and common option for most of us nowadays. The Easy Cd Creator ® 5 Platinum offers a pretty professional tool which will help you create your VideoCDs.

There is a wizard when you open the subprogram which will guide you from the very beginning to the burn process pretty easily. You will need an .mpg file (or more) and the rest is a couple of clicks on the mouse! It's burned and ready! Ssssh! it's starting...

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6. Other features

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Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum - Page 6

CD Copier

We tested the program with several original CDs. Some of them were copied perfectly, some others didn't... Let's make things straight. This utility will not backup an SD2-protected original cd for you, nor even a Laserlocked one. It's nothing that came to replace your beloved Diskjuggler or even CloneCD program. It's a typical utility that it's own purpose is to make copies of UNPROTECTED CDs. If this is not the case, you MUST have to turn your eyes elsewhere...

Web-Checkup

This is the online support utility of Roxio. It will head you right where the latest updates are available on the Roxio's webpage.

CD Label Creator

This is the well known, to most of the old Easy CD Creator users, Cd label Creator. We think that nothing much is changed from the previous version (4.0) of Easy CD Creator.

The same well-known layout, the same convenience. It's one of the best out there for what it has to offer in our opinion and it's very welcomed.

Help

This is the last option you can pickup from the Roxio Project Selector. All the help that you need - or you don't need. Info, show-how, Frequently Asked Questions, are all here, ready for you to explore. A very useful and easy-to-use utility which will solve (almost) all your problems.

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7. Conclusion

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Conclusion

Positive (+)	Negative (-)
- Easy to use - perfect for new users - Very well packed and distributed - Too many embedded utilities - Relatively stable - Great help book/files - Not requiring a lot of CPU power - Supports ALL possible CDR-formats - Built-in audio MP3/WMA compression - Perfect VCD authoring tool - One of the best CD Labeling Software around	- Take Two is not working properly and with wrong installation will cause problems - Requires a lot of space on the HD - CD-Copier copies only unprotected CDs - Expensive when compared to the competition - Doens't support OverBurning (and no 90/99 minutes)

Roxio managed to get an extraordinary package full of 'jewels' in the market. We could refer to Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum as one of the best CD-Recording suites. We loved every piece of it - with an exception for the TakeTwo part :-(. It's very well built, pretty stable and never crashed on us under any circumstances.

On the other hand, the competition is pretty hard; and it comes from many places. Ahead's Nero 5.x is a complete suite too - not as perfect as the Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum, but it costs only $49 (for the serial number) instead of the $79 that Roxio demands for the CD (after rebate - normal price 99$).

Will we buy it? Well, I'd say yes. It has a lot to offer. Besides, if you're a new to computers it's the perfect program to work with for a start, but again, the choice is yours and yours only...