Review: Roxio Creator 2009 media-editing software

Because most new computers come with only basic tools, many users are left at a loss after buying their PCs, having to then go out and get more software.

One good choice would be Creator 2009 (it used to be called Easy Media Creator but has been renamed and has a new look for this version), which features all the tools to work with almost all kinds of media, including pictures, music and video. It may not be as advanced as the various separate products that can do those jobs but it's certainly more than enough for everyday use by most home users.

The benefit of using a collection of applications rather than buying them separately is that the look and feel are both consistent throughout, and also what Roxio calls the Product Launcher. Rather than users having to decide which program is best for each job, the Launcher allows users to pick the task they want to do and it will automatically load the right program.

Probably the most common things people want to edit are digital photos, and Creator has all the tools for this in one place. Particularly noteworthy is the tool that resizes images so they can be easily emailed, and a batch processing utility, so users can perform repeated tasks easily. There's an Autofix for quickly touching up pictures with problems, although we were disappointed that the photo import utility couldn't remember whether we'd already copied in a batch of photos, so we ended up with duplicates.

The photo slideshow creator is powerful and doesn’t require much work to create a professional project. The Smartsound feature generates tracks in a variety of styles to fit your photos. It's also easier to share photos online with the Roxio Online sharing service, and videos can also be uploaded directly to Youtube.

Creator can be used to copy audio CDs to your computer, or copy music from tapes or vinyl records (you'll need to plug in your own player in that case). Tracks can be saved in all the major formats, although there is no separate player for listening to the songs. The program can attempt to automatically identify the tracks you save, so you don't have to type in the artist names and titles.

The beat-matching feature can help create a mix of music that fades seamlessly with consistent tempo, to keep the mood going, and it didn't take too long to process in our tests. Mixes can then be burned to a CD.

Video editing is the most complex and most difficult area of media editing but Creator's automatic editor can detect scene changes in imported video, and the comprehensive options are well ordered.

Creator 2009 is comprehensive for home users and contains more than most will ever need for editing music, photo and video.