I'm not one to go on the Internet to rant or flame someone, a company, or a product, but I really must say something here.
First impression, the install: I selected custom install so that I could see in advance what exactly was going to be installed and to make sure it would all install where I wanted to to go. When I clicked each item the disk requirements were displayed, but I couldn't tell what the option/program did. Nearly every other program that offers this type of install option does this. I guess Roxio assumed I'd just know all about their product in advance, or that since it was obvious to them it would be obvious to me. (Probably the latter, and seems to be a mindset that permeates this product.) Anyway, I'd be able to get past this if the product worked well, but now I was having my doubts.
Second first impression: after installing the software I rebooted, as required, but now my system (Windows XP Pro) reboots were taking a long long time. Could it be the Roxio software? Turns out it most likely was. I had to uninstall it because at about that same time my system developed a problem talking to my camcorder (firewire). Turns out it wasn't the Roxio software's fault, but I did notice that after uninstalling it the boot-times were quicker again. After reinstalling the Roxio software again today, boot times got really long again. It must be having a hard time doing something. Scanning all drives, maybe. Later I'd discover just how slow this software could be when doing some really basic things.
Third first impression: The software launched OK, but the first thing I noticed was how cramped the user interface was, and the second and most irritating thing I noticed was near the center of the application's form was an advertisement for more Roxio products. Tacky, to say the least. Definitely in poor taste. I'm was thinking sleazy. Sorry, but I really was. I'm really not that quick to get upset, but this really bugged me. A lot. Should I bill Roxio for the advertising space they use on my computer? It won't be cheap.
First and last project: I had just completed 4 videos and wanted to put them on a DVD that has a menu so that my colleagues (Well, not colleagues really, more like track buddies.) could select which ever one they wanted to watch. It wasn't difficult figuring out how to put together a simple project, main menu only with only four selections. I browsed the templates and didn't like any of them, but the DVD software did take me to a web site where I could purchase more. No thanks. I didn't like what I had seen already and so I was expecting the new ones to be any better, just more of the same. I was able to replace the background image and change the fonts and such for the menu items and menu title, but I was disappointed that that was all there was. I was expecting to find some buttons or similar controls, for example, a semi-transparent button that would help make the button text easier to see over the background. Oh, well. On to the preview and the burn.
The preview worked well and it only took me a minute or two to convince myself that the project looked OK, considering. The burn also went well, but only after I went in to Tools and changed the locations of the temp files, etc. They had been installed on my C: drive, but I prefer to keep my disk-intensive projects on drives that have lots of space and will never interfere with the OS and other critical resources. So after closing the program twice, starting it up twice, I was able to burn the DVD. It started out slowly, but considering I was burning 4.4 GB of video (avi files), it finished within a reasonable time.
Now to see it on TV. The video quality was excellent, although I still have to deal with the TV-safe zone problem, or else purchase a new TV. However, and this is a big problem, the audio sync was off by about 3 seconds! 3 whole seconds!!! Maybe more. I checked all four of them and the audio sync was off in every one of them. Now, I had watched them a dozen times, tweaking, and admiring, them. I know for a fact that the audio sync in the original avi files was fine. I even uploaded them to www.streetfire.net (Search for m610) and they looked and sounded OK there. I've exported video like these from Adobe Premiere and that method always worked great.
Other Problems: I didn't mention this in the section above, for continuity reasons, but the DVD module crashed on me several times. Lucky for me I had learned all about "frequent saves" years ago. Anyway, once it crashed when I clicked on the change background image option. It just vanished. The other time was when I clicked on the option to view the main menu's audio options. That crash was followed by lots of error messages saying something about a wave-something file. Worse though, was that practically every time I selected an option, including the "browse" buttons in the "Tools" dialog, it took seemingly forever for whatever was supposed to happen next happen. Considering how many times one selects these options, it soon became very aggravating. Imagine putting out a product where every time your customer used a basic feature they get put on hold! Does anyone remember that "paperclip" that was there to help users of Microsoft Office?
Personal gripe: I still use the Windows "Classic Style" because I really don't like the current style which to me looks like a sun-bleached blue cheap plastic CrackerJack toy that is accompanied with goofy and cartoonish (childish) icons and other various graphics. I wish Roxio had offered a user interface option so that their software would be aesthetically compatible with the user interface its customers were using. On my system, Roxio's program has that same cheap faded blue plastic look. I wonder what it looks like on people's systems that use the latest styles but don't use the standard Windows colors (blue and gray).
Final decision: The DVD module messed up my video by introducing a 3 or so second delay in the audio. It is really slow doing routine things, and it kept crashing. I can't use this software. Apparently no updates are available, so I will simply uninstall it and ask for my money back. I had downloaded the software and ordered a disk. I'll return the disk unopened. Return-to-sender.
Some history: I've been using this product since Adaptec had it, although I haven't been purchasing every new release. The earliest version did their jobs well, but starting with version 6 I began to loose faith in this product. There were so many problems with that release, problems that I personally was having, not just everything people would complain about. My particular problem rendered the product unusable for me. Updates and fixes were coming out frequently (One for each module, no update for the whole product. Very laborious for us users.) None had fixed my problem, which after several evenings installing and reinstalling the product (version 6), I happened to notice something that led me to do about three hours testing, then writing up the problem for these forums. The problem turned out to be that the CD writer program (Or was it the DVD module? It's been a while.) choked on systems that had more than one CD-R or DVD-R drive. Duh! What kind of testing do these folks do? It told me that they're loosing sight of the bigger picture and are just rushing to stuff features into their programs that marketing could brag about. They';re not looking at things from the end-user's perspective. Anyway, after posting the report on my particular problem it was fixed quickly (in the next downloaded update), which was nice, but that was still after I spent two evenings trying to get the program to work and another couple of hours verifying and documenting the problem once I figured it out. I bill out at $175/hour. I had never forgiven Roxio for that waste of time and effort, and now that its happening again I'm inclined to send them a bill. As it is, I am asking for a refund, and I'll never use their products again. Too superficial.
Last note on version 6: the DVD authoring module looked promising, but after working with it for a while I decided it was not so much a tool as it was a toy and I never used it again. From that date on I only used version 6 to create data CD's and DVDs. When I bought this upgrade (version 9), I was hoping things had gotten better. Well, the program has lots more features, but it hasn't gotten any better.
I am going to uninstall version 9 now, which will take a while because of how Roxio installs all of its programs. There is no one uninstall routine, reminiscent of how they provided updates for version 6. I'll reinstall version 6, will get the updates, and will use it for data CDs and DVDs and that is it.
Can anyone recommend some good DVD authoring software?
Question
m610
I'm not one to go on the Internet to rant or flame someone, a company, or a product, but I really must say something here.
First impression, the install: I selected custom install so that I could see in advance what exactly was going to be installed and to make sure it would all install where I wanted to to go. When I clicked each item the disk requirements were displayed, but I couldn't tell what the option/program did. Nearly every other program that offers this type of install option does this. I guess Roxio assumed I'd just know all about their product in advance, or that since it was obvious to them it would be obvious to me. (Probably the latter, and seems to be a mindset that permeates this product.) Anyway, I'd be able to get past this if the product worked well, but now I was having my doubts.
Second first impression: after installing the software I rebooted, as required, but now my system (Windows XP Pro) reboots were taking a long long time. Could it be the Roxio software? Turns out it most likely was. I had to uninstall it because at about that same time my system developed a problem talking to my camcorder (firewire). Turns out it wasn't the Roxio software's fault, but I did notice that after uninstalling it the boot-times were quicker again. After reinstalling the Roxio software again today, boot times got really long again. It must be having a hard time doing something. Scanning all drives, maybe. Later I'd discover just how slow this software could be when doing some really basic things.
Third first impression: The software launched OK, but the first thing I noticed was how cramped the user interface was, and the second and most irritating thing I noticed was near the center of the application's form was an advertisement for more Roxio products. Tacky, to say the least. Definitely in poor taste. I'm was thinking sleazy. Sorry, but I really was. I'm really not that quick to get upset, but this really bugged me. A lot. Should I bill Roxio for the advertising space they use on my computer? It won't be cheap.
First and last project: I had just completed 4 videos and wanted to put them on a DVD that has a menu so that my colleagues (Well, not colleagues really, more like track buddies.) could select which ever one they wanted to watch. It wasn't difficult figuring out how to put together a simple project, main menu only with only four selections. I browsed the templates and didn't like any of them, but the DVD software did take me to a web site where I could purchase more. No thanks. I didn't like what I had seen already and so I was expecting the new ones to be any better, just more of the same. I was able to replace the background image and change the fonts and such for the menu items and menu title, but I was disappointed that that was all there was. I was expecting to find some buttons or similar controls, for example, a semi-transparent button that would help make the button text easier to see over the background. Oh, well. On to the preview and the burn.
The preview worked well and it only took me a minute or two to convince myself that the project looked OK, considering. The burn also went well, but only after I went in to Tools and changed the locations of the temp files, etc. They had been installed on my C: drive, but I prefer to keep my disk-intensive projects on drives that have lots of space and will never interfere with the OS and other critical resources. So after closing the program twice, starting it up twice, I was able to burn the DVD. It started out slowly, but considering I was burning 4.4 GB of video (avi files), it finished within a reasonable time.
Now to see it on TV. The video quality was excellent, although I still have to deal with the TV-safe zone problem, or else purchase a new TV. However, and this is a big problem, the audio sync was off by about 3 seconds! 3 whole seconds!!! Maybe more. I checked all four of them and the audio sync was off in every one of them. Now, I had watched them a dozen times, tweaking, and admiring, them. I know for a fact that the audio sync in the original avi files was fine. I even uploaded them to www.streetfire.net (Search for m610) and they looked and sounded OK there. I've exported video like these from Adobe Premiere and that method always worked great.
Other Problems: I didn't mention this in the section above, for continuity reasons, but the DVD module crashed on me several times. Lucky for me I had learned all about "frequent saves" years ago. Anyway, once it crashed when I clicked on the change background image option. It just vanished. The other time was when I clicked on the option to view the main menu's audio options. That crash was followed by lots of error messages saying something about a wave-something file. Worse though, was that practically every time I selected an option, including the "browse" buttons in the "Tools" dialog, it took seemingly forever for whatever was supposed to happen next happen. Considering how many times one selects these options, it soon became very aggravating. Imagine putting out a product where every time your customer used a basic feature they get put on hold! Does anyone remember that "paperclip" that was there to help users of Microsoft Office?
Personal gripe: I still use the Windows "Classic Style" because I really don't like the current style which to me looks like a sun-bleached blue cheap plastic CrackerJack toy that is accompanied with goofy and cartoonish (childish) icons and other various graphics. I wish Roxio had offered a user interface option so that their software would be aesthetically compatible with the user interface its customers were using. On my system, Roxio's program has that same cheap faded blue plastic look. I wonder what it looks like on people's systems that use the latest styles but don't use the standard Windows colors (blue and gray).
Final decision: The DVD module messed up my video by introducing a 3 or so second delay in the audio. It is really slow doing routine things, and it kept crashing. I can't use this software. Apparently no updates are available, so I will simply uninstall it and ask for my money back. I had downloaded the software and ordered a disk. I'll return the disk unopened. Return-to-sender.
Some history: I've been using this product since Adaptec had it, although I haven't been purchasing every new release. The earliest version did their jobs well, but starting with version 6 I began to loose faith in this product. There were so many problems with that release, problems that I personally was having, not just everything people would complain about. My particular problem rendered the product unusable for me. Updates and fixes were coming out frequently (One for each module, no update for the whole product. Very laborious for us users.) None had fixed my problem, which after several evenings installing and reinstalling the product (version 6), I happened to notice something that led me to do about three hours testing, then writing up the problem for these forums. The problem turned out to be that the CD writer program (Or was it the DVD module? It's been a while.) choked on systems that had more than one CD-R or DVD-R drive. Duh! What kind of testing do these folks do? It told me that they're loosing sight of the bigger picture and are just rushing to stuff features into their programs that marketing could brag about. They';re not looking at things from the end-user's perspective. Anyway, after posting the report on my particular problem it was fixed quickly (in the next downloaded update), which was nice, but that was still after I spent two evenings trying to get the program to work and another couple of hours verifying and documenting the problem once I figured it out. I bill out at $175/hour. I had never forgiven Roxio for that waste of time and effort, and now that its happening again I'm inclined to send them a bill. As it is, I am asking for a refund, and I'll never use their products again. Too superficial.
Last note on version 6: the DVD authoring module looked promising, but after working with it for a while I decided it was not so much a tool as it was a toy and I never used it again. From that date on I only used version 6 to create data CD's and DVDs. When I bought this upgrade (version 9), I was hoping things had gotten better. Well, the program has lots more features, but it hasn't gotten any better.
I am going to uninstall version 9 now, which will take a while because of how Roxio installs all of its programs. There is no one uninstall routine, reminiscent of how they provided updates for version 6. I'll reinstall version 6, will get the updates, and will use it for data CDs and DVDs and that is it.
Can anyone recommend some good DVD authoring software?
Mike
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